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

[Entropy Judge]

[X] Leave a note
-[X] "I'm gonna go make friends! And on an adventure! Bye bye!"

[X] M - There are lots of tall buildings practically made of glass! It looks like it's going to start raining, though ....


You decide to leave a note before heading through the doorways, hoping that it will shorten any lectures you get when you come back ... but you decide to leave it as short and uninformative as possible, because you don't want them coming after you too quickly. You search through Patchouli's piles of paper - she's so disorganized, isn't that what Sakuya's for? - and soon find a nearly-blank sheet of paper on top of one of the desks. It probably has something to do with spellcards, since there aren't any words, only letters and a couple numbers: MGLN, PMMM, NGE, ES5, 40K, DOOM,' but since there isn't anything else, you just rip the bottom part of the sheet away and grab a pen.

"I'm gonna go make friends! And on an adventure! Bye bye!" ... Why would I write something like that?

You don't bother to sign it - anyone who sees it will know it's from you - and drop it back on top of the desk. Patchouli will find it when she comes back to do ... whatever it is she was doing down here. You turn back to the doorways and look through them once again, but nothing changed. On a whim, you dart through the one marked 'M' - besides, it looks like it will rain soon, and no one would expect you to go where it would be raining. You don't like rain, after all. Or spears. But it's not actually raining, so you're fine!

You step through the portal and land on something solid, level with the floor of the library. You look around, realizing that you're on a building, you hear a weird cackling laugh. There's a river behind you, and floating above it is a giant ... thing wearing a dress ... upside down ... with gears where its legs should be. Taking a good look at it, though, you also realize that it's very powerful, and then several of the great glass buildings are ripped from the ground and begin floating in the air. Your excitement mounts, and then something in the distance catches your eye, an explosion of light as another beacon of power erupts into being. You're so giddy you start clapping your hands! Two powerful enemies right away? You're going to have so much fun here!

Then it all goes wrong. The portal behind you sends a burst of heat, and you turn around to make sure no one is coming to bring you back ... and the world changes. The portal shreds, and you're no long standing in an overcast world. The sun is high and shining, and neither of the power sources are there anymore. You feel ... cheated. What? NO! No, no, NO! That's not fair! I'm gonna find whoever did that and wear their skull for a hat!

Rage overtakes you, and you stomp your feet in frustration. You want to break something. You want to break a lot of somethings, and you charge through the door on top of the building. Without bothering to open it first. You tear apart the top level, ripping apart walls, throwing furniture, and generally causing property damage. Then you kneel down, and punch straight through the floor. Dropping to the level beneath, you rampage through a few more rooms before finding a tall metal box. It looks rather like a coffin, but when you open it you only find food. Feeling even more betrayed, you yank the box away from the wall, sending it flying through the wall across from it ... then an idea pops into your head, and a grin crosses your face.

You grab the box and carry it above you as you fly straight up, tearing another hole in the floor above you. You drop it - nearly making a third hole - and rip through the roof with you hands. It's not a living thing, but ripping something apart like that feels good. Once the hole is big enough, you pull the box through with you and stand at the edge of the roof. Your guess was correct! There are, in fact, quite a few ships in the river. You pick one that has a bunch of huge colored boxes and take careful aim, imitating Remilia when she uses her spear. You hurl the box, and it strikes the ship a little above the waterline in the middle. The ship begins to list, and you turn away, sighing in satisfaction. It's nowhere near as good a feeling as tearing apart something alive, but it's stress relief anyway.

Your skin starts to tingle, and you remember that the sun is up now. You'll be fine for now, but you should probably get under cover sometime soon. The sun isn't good for you, after all. There are a couple bridges nearby, if you want to cross the river, or you can stay on this side.


Where do you want to go, and how?

[ ] Leave Immediately
or
[ ] Hide somewhere until it's dark
- [ ] Where?

[ ] Stay on this side.
- [ ] Go anywhere specific?

[ ] Cross the river.
- [ ] Go anywhere specific?

Attitude?
[ ] Arrogant and aggressive
[ ] Sneaky
[ ] "Lost and afraid"
[ ] Write-in


You are currently on the left/west side, at the corner nearest the "Highway Overpass" (across from the "Windmills"). Keep in mind line of sight and OOC knowledge - Flandre can't see all these places, and she doesn't know anything about where she is (yet), so either use cardinal directions or landmarks she can see.

No additions to the Kill Count, but I wonder if I shouldn't add a property damage total :3

 

[Entropy Judge]

[X] Leave Immediately
-[X] Be careful to often rest in shadowed areas/travel in them as much as possible. (Under bridges, shadow of buildings...)

[X] Stay on this side.
- [X] Go along the river. (To the right when facing it).

[X] "Lost and afraid"
-[X] And cute, in a way so that naive victimscitizens may want to help you.


You decide to leave the area, as during the day you are weaker than at night, and if there is something in the area capable of fighting a vampire, you might get hurt before you kill it, and that would be annoying. Taking a good look around, you decide to head south along the river, moving toward the largest bridge while staying on this side. You stand on the edge of the roof, then drop down, landing gently on the walk below. You briefly consider trying to be sneaky, but decide that it isn't worth the bother. Besides, you can get more practice being cute if someone meets you! Meiling always said you were cute, and you remember enough stories about lost little girls that you can pretend to be lost and afraid. Remilia never wanted me to be cute, though. She wanted me to be 'elegant' and 'proper!'

You keep to the buildings as you move through the city, eyes open for any potential sources of information, but it seems strangely empty for a city in the middle of the day. Surely there should be more people around? Looking across the river, it seems almost like a different city - instead of glass and steel, a lot of the buildings there are shorter, and made of brick or something similar, and there's a lot of smoke coming out of one area in particular. Maybe they're burning something?

As you near the large bridge, two things start to change. First, you notice the occasional large metal carriage travelling through the streets, including several that have flashing red-and-blue lights. Those initially cause you some concern - they are be travelling much faster than the other carriages, and seem to be heading back to where you had your little rampage. You consider going back to talk to someone, but the second thing that catches your eyes is much more interesting - it's a small youkai, not even as big as you! Quickly scanning the area for any humans who might see or hear you, dash into the alley where the youkai is perched, eager to test your cuteness.

"Hello, Mr. Youkai!" you say in Japanese, once you're reasonably sure it has noticed you. Only 'reasonably,' because you can't see any eyes - or any organs at all, really. It looks rather like someone took two headless human torsos and fused them together at the base of the rib cage. It's perched on the side of a building, all four claws latched firmly to the wall, and the only reason you think it noticed your arrival is because it turned to face you. Kind of. Ugly little thing. You should die.

It fails to answer, simply 'staring' at you. "Er, can you help me? I'm lost and alone right now. Do you know where I am?" It still just stares at you, and you repeat your questions in English, German, French, and Italian before the youkai turns to scuttle along the building. You frown, wondering if you made a mistake, but it turns back to face you before it reaches the corner. It must want you to follow it! You plaster the cutest, happiest smile you can think of on your face as you run after it. It leads you through several turns along the buildings before it stops at a rift in one of them. Pausing at it, it 'looks' back at you, then jumps through. Sighing, you follow. Being lost and afraid is hard work.

The world past the rift is strange, not at all like any place you've been before. Everything is soft and sort of squishy, and a pinkish-red color. You kneel down to poke it; it reminds you of Patchouli or Sakuya's stomach. The little youkai waits for you to stand up before hurrying off, and you trot after it. It leads you through rooms small and large, and along fleshy 'bridges' that seem to exist apart from anything else, since they only exist to connect doors between rooms, and there isn't anything above, below, or to the sides. Not even other bridges, even though they should exist if the rooms lined up like they should.

More than ten minutes from entering the rift, your journey comes to a temporary end. You reach a much larger door with strange markings on it. The little youkai seems to want you to open the door, so you push it open - this one feels more like Meiling - and step through. You're in a much larger room than any of the others, with strange markings on the ground and hoops and nets of all kinds along the walls. Most of your attention, however, is taken up by the fight between the other two creatures in the room.

The first is tall, with many long limbs - arms or legs, you can't tell - and no noticeable body. The limbs just sort of connected in the middle, seeming to form a net rather than a joint or torso. Some of them - usually ones that went up, but some that went down or across - seemed to have eyes or mouths on them instead of four-fingered claws. You decide that it's even uglier than the smaller youkai.

The other combatant seems to be a red-dressed human girl, with long red hair and a long spear. She's dancing between the youkai's swipes and punches, spear lashing out to strike ragged gashes in the great limbs, but she doesn't seem to be doing much damage. She looks like she's having a difficult time of it ....

Rustling behind you catches your attention, and you turn to see dozens of the lesser youkai. They don't seem like they're going to attack, you, though, since they're lining up to charge into the arena below.

What do you do?

[ ] Sit and watch.

[ ] Attack
- [ ] the Human.
- [ ] the Youkai.

[ ] Leave.

[ ] Write-in?

 

[Entropy Judge]

[X] Attack
-[x] Youkai. He's ugly.
-[x] Four of a Kind, rip and tear.


You scowl at the ugly youkai. It's obviously too weak to deal with a single human on its own, so it brought you here hoping that you would deal with her for it! You tremble, head lowered, and a slight giggle escapes as a grin spreads across your face. How should you deal with this disgusting weakling? Burn it? Break it? Hound it, destroying the lesser youkai one at a time until you've cornered it and then take it apart piece by piece? The human girl leaps back and calls up a cage of some kind to block a swarm of punches from the youkai, and you make your choice. You don't even need to bring out Laevateinn for this, and you don't want to dirty that precious gift by using it against such a grotesque, debased creature.

You step forward, and three shadows step out from behind you, solidifying into identical copies of you. The lesser youkai step onto the edge of the arena, and as the tiers warp and shift, seemingly growing more youkai as you watch, you give a single command to your clones - Do not harm the human. Then you and your clones charge into and through the mass of youkai. Well, three of you do; you drive straight forward, claws extended, and tear your way through the press of bodies, shredding them and sending them flying. Two of your copies repeat your strategy, but angle off to the sides, and you know that they will crisscross the fleshy mass, carving up the youkai while you press on to the big one. The fourth clone, meanwhile, leapt into the air, and you're barely a quarter of the way down the arena when you see a line of green orbs stitch into the mass. Not the light and flash of danmaku bullets, these are precise and controlled bursts of lethal energy, and each orb strikes several of the weakling youkai. You're laughing now, excitement and joy ringing out from four voices. A small part of you is unhappy, unsatisfied with the lack of blood, but really, would you want to drink the blood of such an ugly, weak youkai?

Too late, the youkai realizes that you are a threat, that you are coming for it, and it tries to marshal a defense against you - the weakling legions around you try to swarm you, drag you under, but you simply overpower them, grab a pair and use them as tools to sweep their fellows from your presence. You're almost there, and two more lesser youkai rise up from the ground. They're much larger than the others, but copy their form, and you simply barrel into, and through, the center of one, ripping and tearing it to shreds. The other warps, disintegrating into dark shadows as your fourth clone fires her bullets into it. Now there's nothing between you and the youkai, and you hurl yourself toward it. A shadow of a shadow drifts across your vision - one of your clones sees the human move away - and then you're into the waiting limbs of the giant youkai, ripping, tearing, bouncing from arm to arm too quickly to be struck.

Then your fourth clone is above the youkai, firing single shots into the few remaining weaklings, and your other two clones are at its sides, pulling it in conflicting directions, keeping it from moving away from you. You leap back, hovering, and study the youkai. Now you do almost wish the youkai had bled, because you would look much more intimidating if you were coated in blood, but you're sure your grin is terrifying enough for a final sight. You charge, rushing forward into the nexus of limbs, and you're surrounded by the pressing weight of darkness. It's almost enough to slow you down, but you start shredding the youkai's insides, and finally you start hearing screams. Cries of pain, fear, hate, you don't care - it's finally making noise, and that drives you into the final frenzy. Your wings and claws scythe out, then you draw back before plunging your arm into what you're sure is the youkai's center of being.

The darkness dissolves, your clones lose their grasp on the fading limbs, and the fleshy world wavers and disappears like a mirage, leaving you hovering near the ceiling of a once-clean room. You drop to the floor, aware of the human's approach through your clones' eyes, but your attention is caught by a clear tinkling noise - a large black pin drops to the ground in front of you. You pick it up - it has some sort of emblem on top, like a trophy, and on the bulbous body it looks like a stylized foot. One of your clones tenses, and you spin to face the glaring human girl. The point of her spear is bare centimeters from your eyes.

"Not bad, for a kill-stealing, trespassing brat," she growls. "Now gimme the Grief Seed and go back home, or I'm gonna have to kick your ass."

Well. You begin to wonder whether you should have killed her, too.

What do you do?

[ ] Kill her.

[ ] Threaten her.

[ ] Intimidate her.

[ ] Flee.

[ ] Try going back to "Lost and afraid."

[ ] Other?

 

[Entropy Judge]

[X] "Ugh of course a youkai as ugly as this would drop something equally ugly."
-[X] "You can have it." *Chuck her the thing*
--[X] "You know where a giant monster thing is to fight. I want to do something fun."


You stare at the red-headed girl for a moment. She actually looks like she's willing to attack you! Kill you ... probably not; she seems to think you're even younger than she is. You consider your options as your gaze swivels to the strange pin you picked up - the 'Grief Seed,' you guess. You could try to intimidate her, just grab the spear and ram it through your eye. That's usually good for a scare, especially if you laugh and taunt immediately afterward. You could duck under the spear, grab her, and start crying. All four of you crying your eyes out, "I'm sorry, Onee-san!" "I'm lost and alone, Onee-san!" would probably get you a pretty funny result. But really ... the Grief Seed isn't that impressive. It's almost kind of ugly. Remilia would probably be interested in it, and put it up some place to look at if she got bored, and Patchouli would be interested in how you got it, but would probably dismiss it as a minor souvenir. For you ... all it is for you is a badge of your victory over the youkai. And that wasn't what you consider a hard fight. Sakuya could probably have killed it. So you flip your hand a bit and throw the thing at the human point-first.

Her back hand darts out and catches it before it can hit her. "Of course an ugly youkai would drop an ugly rock," you say. "You can have it." She blinks a bit, then takes a few steps back. She looks about to say something, but an idea strikes you and you beat her to the punch. "Hey, you're a witch, right? Do you know where any other youkai are? I mean, really strong ones, like the one that disappeared earlier when it was going to rain! That one was too weak. I wan-"

"I'm not a Witch," she snarls at you. You cock your head, slightly puzzled.

"You're a human who uses magic, right? I mean, yeah most witches and magicians use shooty and blasty spells instead of augmenting themselves with magic, but you're still a witch. And you were fighting that youkai earlier, so you must know how to find them! I just want to fight them." Now she's the confused one, her mouth working for several seconds before she puts a hand to her head and takes several deep breaths.

"Look, didn't Kyubey tell you anything?" You stare blankly at her. "Kyubey? Fluffy little white critter? Offered you a Wish? Magical girls, Witches, Grief Seeds ...." You slowly shake your head, and the girl scrunches her eyes, mouth working silently again. "Okay, I just need ... a moment ...." She mutters to herself, and there's a small flash of red as her dressy outfit disappears, leaving her in a green top and blue shorts. Very short ones; you frown as you notice that they're barely longer than that the shirt she's wearing. There are such things as standards ... and then your attention is caught by the strange egg she pulls out of nowhere. It's an ugly, muddy red with a lot of black in it - until she touches it to the Grief Seed. Then the blackness is drawn out, and all that's left is shining, sparkling red. A beautiful color. Such a pretty gem ... you guess that it's her magical focus, like Marisa's mini-hakkero, and wonder if Remilia would like it. You used to have pretty gems like that in your room, but they broke too easily whenever you threw tantrums, even if Patchouli reinforced them. You don't want to break that one, though - it's much too pretty.

The girl takes another deep breath and puts the gem and Grief Seed away ... somewhere. She looks at you for a moment. "Okay ... look, kid, I need to do something for a few minutes, so don't bother me, and don't run off anywhere, okay?" You nod, smiling, and she moves away to lean against a wall. She concentrates for a moment, glances at you, then closes her eyes. You watch her for a minute, then dispel your clones and move to what you think used to be a closet. It's where most of the clothes in the room seem to have been, anyway. You dig around for a bit, then pull out what you were hoping to find - a parasol! Of some sort, anyway - it's made of a strange fabric. It'll keep the sun off you, at any rate, and that's what's important. You fiddle with it for a moment, then figure out the catch and spring it - opened, it's definitely wide enough to protect you from the sun, and if you fold your wings, you can even keep them covered! A shame it's black, though.

The girl's still not done, but she looks really unhappy. You look out the windows; it seems you travelled quite a distance in the youkai's world, since you're now in the fork of the river. You're not quite to the rail bridge, but you're closer now than you were before you entered the rift. Immediate curiosity satisfied, you pick a comfortable spot in the rubble of the room and wait for the girl to finish whatever it is she's doing. She does, looking rather embarrassed. She frowns at the parasol you're now carrying, but shrugs after a moment.

"Alright, then. My name's Kyouko. What's yours?" You giggle a bit.

"Flandre!" She repeats it a few times to get the pronunciation right.

"Okay, Flan, how about you come with me for a bit? There's someone I know who wants to talk to you." You pout a little, then look at her hand.

"Hmm ... maybe. Hey, what was that pretty gem you had?" You bring one of your wings forward and point at one of the crystals. "Like this, but shaped like an egg and a really pretty red color? Can I have it? It's really pretty!" She blinks, then pulls the egg out of nowhere again.

"This? No, you can't have it; it's what I use to use magic. Now, you coming?"


What do you do?

[ ] Don't go with her.
- [ ] What do you do instead?

[ ] Go with her.
- [ ] What attitude do you take with her and her friend?
- [ ] How much (reliable) information are you willing to share?

 

[Entropy Judge]

[X] Go with her.
- [X] Curious, taking notes about new magic to give to Patchouli will probably distract Patchouli from you using the gate things. Hopefully.
- [X] You're a vampire, not a magical girl, who's looking for a tough monster to slay while on vacation. Because you don't get good monster fights around your mansion normally.


You think to yourself for a moment, then decide you might as well go with her. She's not a bad sort, for an uncouth magician, and she's still your best bet for finding powerful youkai to fight, since searching has never really been something you're good at. You grin and nod your head vigorously, and Kyouko sighs before looking around the room a bit. She shakes her head, then turns and walks out the shattered door and into a very clean hallway. She's walking a bit fast, so you fly along behind her until you get to a large, vertically-split door. Kyouko presses a button and the doors slide into the walls; the two of you get in, she presses another button, and the doors close and the small room starts to move down. You drop your flight in order to avoid being pressed against the ceiling, and Kyouko glances at you.

"Never been in an elevator before?" You shrug and shake your head, and she sighs. "Well, whatever, don't do that flying crap when we're outside. Most people aren't around this time of day, but it wouldn't be good for anyone to see you just floating along. You've got legs; use 'em." A few moments later, the downward motion stops, and the two of you leave the elevator. You have to trot a little to keep up with Kyouko, but it's not too much effort - it just makes you grumpy.

You step outside, and the first thing you do is open your parasol and sling it behind you, handle thrust forward. The sun is still up, and you're pretty sure it'll be hours before dusk sets in. It's a little hard keeping up with Kyouko now that you have a parasol, but it's doable, and you're much more comfortable. You keep an eye out for anything strange or interesting, but it's all just buildings, tall with lots of glass, the occasional carriage or person on the street giving you an odd glance they think you don't notice. Eventually the two of you stop at one building, and Kyouko stares nervously at one of the upper floors. You glance at her, then the building, then back at her.

"Which room is she meeting us in?" Kyouko blinks and looks down at you.

"Huh? She's only got one apartment," she says. You frown; that the building is home to many individuals would explain why there are so many doors and windows leading outside, but it seems strange for a magician to live in the company of so many humans. In any case, Kyouko sighs again and begins walking up the stairs; without anything better to do, you simply follow her, and it's not long before you're standing in front of one door - a small plaque says 'Mami Tomoe,' so you suppose that's the name of the resident. Kyouko hesitantly starts to knock, then simply opens the door and walks in. She kicks off her shoes, and you take off your own and lean your parasol in the corner as you enter. "Mami?"

"Come in, Sakura-san," you hear. So - Kyouko Sakura; you file that name away for future reference. Maybe Remilia or Patchouli can do something to learn more about her when you get back. The two of you walk a bit further into the room, and you see two other people - a slightly older blonde girl, and a blue-haired girl. There's a strange white creature, vaguely catlike, sitting on the blue-haired girl's lap, and it locks eyes with you for several seconds before turning away. Kyouko steps away from you to lean against a wall, and the blonde girl stares at you for several seconds, smiling pleasantly.

"Good afternoon, Flandre-chan," she says, and you smile and curtsey in response.

"Good afternoon, Mami-chan." That seems to take them all back a bit, but Mami recovers quickly.

"Well, I suppose we should get down to business, then. How long have you been a Magical Girl, Flandre-chan? You are obviously very powerful, but you don't seem to understand much, and Kyubey-san doesn't recognize you at all." She tilts her head, frowning. "In addition, you are in your transformed state even when not fighting, and you seem to have many different Soul Gems. It is very strange." The white creature sits up, cocking its head and looking at you, then looks at Mami and curls up again. You frown; why would they think you're a magician?

"Well, I'm not a witch, I'm a vampire," you begin. You see everyone tense with your first statement, but you're already tilting your head to look at Kyouko. "Didn't I tell you? I'm just looking for some fun, because I'm not allowed to go out and have real fights at home." Her mouth works for a moment, then she shakes her head.

"Wait, a vampire? Like, sleeps in a coffin, drinks blood, can't stand garlic or crosses, can't enter a house without permission ... that kind of vampire?" She seems a bit nervous, and you shrug your shoulders.

"Pretty much, yeah. Is something wrong?" You turn back to Mami and the as-yet-unintroduced blue-haired girl. Mami has a yellow egg like Kyouko's out, and your eyes lock onto it. Maybe if you can figure out something, Patchouli won't be upset if you accidentally messed up some experiment of hers!

"A ... vampire .... Very powerful ... but child-like ...." She looks up at you, then picks up a short, flat thing with some buttons on it, and points it at a wall. "Flandre-chan, would you happen to know anything about this?" She presses one of the buttons, and part of the wall comes alive, showing pictures of a ruined building along the river. You instantly recognize it as the place you had a tantrum, and you break into a grin.

"Ah! That's where I first showed up! There was a really powerful thing that I felt, and I wanted to fight it, and then there was another powerful thing, and then everything changed - it wasn't rainy, the sun was up, and the two things were gone! I was so mad, I just had to break something."

"And if there had been people inside those apartments when you had that tantrum, would that have changed anything?" Mami's voice is soft now, and you look back at her.

"Of course not," you say. "Why should it? They're only humans." The room is deathly silent for a moment, then you squeal in surprise. Yellow ribbons shoot out from the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, tying up your arms and legs, even your wings! You decide that you're definitely going to have to get one of those magic eggs for Patchouli - being able to cast magic without a chant would be great for her - and then there's a flash of yellow light, and Mami is standing before you, a gun pointed at your chest.

"You will swear, right now, that you will not harm a single human in Mitakihara."

Well. That is ... unacceptable.

What do you do?

[ ] Write-in

Also, I'll need one d100 Roll. Call it "Intervention."

Spoiler: Observations

On the whole, telling people you're a blood-drinking monster doesn't go over too well. You have a few options here, but as the last line indicates, Flandre is utterly unwilling to go along with any idea that curtails her rights and freedoms as she views them. I'll try to notify any potentially problematic votes as soon as I can.

If you want to bargain, you'll need to list concessions you're willing to make, as well as items that are a no-deal. If you want to flee, I'll need an escape route and general thought process, or else you're putting yourself into my hands If you want to fight, keep in mind that it's daylight out - this is actually a dangerous place for Flan to fight.

 

[LightMage]

So we rolled two 3's and Kotohime appears in the third of the 'old' touhou games (PC-98 era)

Obviously I must now write a Kotohime Interrupt Omake.

Kotohime Interrupt
​

You began to reply to that girl when...
*SMASH*

The door goes flying off its hinges and you hear a familiar voice yell out "HALT KIDNAPPING CRIMINALS". The yellow haired girls spins around shock on her face as she instinctively points at the loud noise before freezing at Kotohime's words. Followed by her shortly losing the musket as Kotohime confiscates it.

"You'll never catch me coppers!" the red headed girl shouts over her shoulders before jumping out the window.

You freeze up when Kotohime cuts the ribbon off with some odd pair of scissors before putting something shiny on your chest?

"Flandre, I'm deputizing you to go chase after that criminal mastermind! I'll deal with her flunky and catch up to you in a moment. Oh yeah here are some cuffs! Almost forgot." Kotohime says before pushing you towards the window.

You chuckle before diving out after the other girl as you hear Kotohime say shocked "Oh, I only had one pair of cuffs. I mean uhh I'll need a SPECIAL PAIR to deal with this magician."

 

[Entropy Judge]

Votes locked!

[X] "Tell me where the giant monsters are, and I won't have a reason to kill any humans. No promises, but I'd at least try to not kill any humans... that don't bother me first."
-[X] "Besides, I've already seen how red here fights and even if you're twice as strong as her it still wouldn't be enough to hurt me... but it would make me mad. I'd have to break more things in repayment~"
-[X] "And even if you somehow do manage to hurt me... Well my sister would not take it kindly, and she is someone even i would think twice before crossing."
--[x] Ready the clone magic in case a fight starts, and avoid damaging anything that'd let more sunlight in. A quick slaughter is the goal.


You stare at Mami for a moment, considering your options. Then you giggle, just a little bitnottoomuch. Mami's eyes tighten just the barest fraction, and you grin down at her. "Hehe, sorry. I just thought it was funny because I don't care about humans. They're weak and small and frail, and they're not any fun at all because they break so quickly. I can't play with them, so I don't care about them. I'm not here for them, anyway, I'm here to have fun! So if you tell me where more youkai are, youkai like the one I saved little Kyouko over there from, then apart from feeding I don't have any need for humans at all, so I won't bother them - at least, not unless they try to bother me first, and if they bother me, then they're obviously not the sort of person who cares about others, are they?" You gaze hungrily down at her, wondering if the foolstupidgirl will accept your gracious offer.

"Mami-san, I think -" Kyouko begins to say something, but a sharp glare from Mami cuts her off.

"Sakura-san, you should understand better than any that I won't tolerate the presence of those who would willingly harm humans in Mitakihara," she says before turning her soft golden eyes back to your burning redcrimsonSCARLET ones. "And it's obvious that you certainly understand what you're doing, so I will tell you again - that is not acceptable. This is your only chance." She holds your stare for several seconds as you think things through.

"Hehehe. No." Your excitement rises as you see two more flashes of color, first a gloriousprettyred and then a gleaming blue. You test the ribbons, stressing them to get a feel for when they'll break. "And don't think your petty posturing means anything to me. I watched little Kyouko there move and fight, and she's good for a human, but barely worth mentioning back home - our maid could have handled that thing better than she did! You'd have to be more than twice as good as her just to hurt me, and even then you'd better not be holding back, or I'll get really mad." You grin madly, but even as you stall the magicians, you're preparing your clones MEMEMETOO for a fight. Just because you're walking right into an ambush doesn't mean you have to be stupid about it!

"And even if you did manage to do something to me, that would just sign your death warrants. My sister loves me, and she's someone I'd never have a chance of beating. She could destroy your world if she felt like it!" But even as you speak, you know the fire in your eyes is dying down - you love Remilia, and you know she loves you, but she's so distant now, and has been for a while. Where once she killed cities for you she killed two cities for me! now she's so tired, content to live quietly in Gensokyo. You're just happy to be with her, since it's all because you NONONONO - she notices your hesitation.

"You're bluffing," Mami says, and she fires her gun at you. The bullet hits your chest, drills to your heart, penetrates and explodes, but that's barely even a minor inconvenience to you. Even looking down at your chest, you see the sword-girl's horrified expression, watch Mami's arm start to fall ... hear Kyouko rustling. Laevateinn appears in your hand in a burst of flame, and your clones spawn behind you - following your previous instructions, the three fall on Kyouko. She's the dangerous one saw you fight saw you weak who might possibly let them hurt you, so she dies first; even so, you notice with satisfaction that one clone has to run itself down her spear, so she was certainly expecting something like this. But not the other two.

You don't even bother breaking the ribbons conventionally, you just fly straight forward and thrust your arm forward as you land in front of the stunned blonde. Then you whip it to the side, and finallyfinally blood sprays across your face as Laevateinn tears through her torso and rips her arm off, and then you finish it with a chop, going through the collarbone and embedding your sister's gift in the girl's sternum - until you yank it back out, anyway, gifting you with another brilliant spray of blood. You can tell when a body is dead. But the sword-girl is moving already despite her shock, and you chop into her skull, breaking the swords she tries to block with, sending teeth flying ... but she's somehow still alive, trying to speak, step into range, and attack you!

Then you see the magic trying to swirl around her ruined head, and you grin. You chop, you hack, crush - and less then a minute later, there's not much left of her upper body except mush and splintered bone, and a lot of damage to the floor as well. But they're dead now. Focusing intently, you can still sense some of Mami's magic, but it seems to be fading. One of your clones presents you with the red gem that Kyouko had worn on her chest - and pieces of her rib cage, prompting you to glance at the ruin of the armless corpse - and then the gem transforms into the egg you had hoped it would be! You grin, and your clones hug each other joyfully - then you all search the bodies for more Grief Seeds or magic focuses, but don't find anything. You do find it amusing that they seem to have dropped their 'transformations' on death, leaving undamaged clothing over ruined corpses. something's wrong, something's missing, worryworry

Then you notice that the white creature is still in the room ... still staring at you, tail swishing back and forth. Just sitting there wrongwrong killit. You decide it must be a familiar, and your clones swarm it, ripping it to pieces. You return Laevateinn to its hiding place, and gently make a space for the magic gem beside it. You'll look at it later, maybe, or just give it to Remilia when you get back something's wrong, something's wrong. You find a sink and hover high enough to use it, then clean yourself off. One of your clones got a taste of Kyouko's blood, and it tasted ... old. Blood like that shouldn't be in a human being or a youkai, and when you licked your lips you found that Mami's blood had been the same. After drying your face, you head over to the door and put your shoes on. Picking up your parasol, you turn back to the carnage. "I'm leaving now! Take care!"

As you walk down the stairs, you can't help but feel there's another presence, one that was watching the whole time but not interfering, but you can't find anything. Eventually the feeling goes away - you're certain someone was spying on you, which means you might have more fun soon! Or that everyone will leave you alone, which would be a bit less fun. Anyway, you yawn as you put the parasol up. Time to find a place to sleep!



Three days later; Flandre has done some looking for youkai at night, but hasn't found any yet, and hasn't paid much attention to humans apart from where they seem to hang out in large numbers. She is currently at the [Train Station], and knows that the area to the north of the tracks seems to have a constant but low-key human presence at night; as you head south, humans are outside less, except at the [Downtown] area, which maintains a relatively high human presence; the [Park] area seems to have very few humans. She has not crossed the river at all. She has not fed recently.

[ ] Write-in

 

[Entropy Judge]

Spoiler: Reality

Madoka Kaname walked to the front door and pulled it open, flinching as yet another thunder-and-lightning combination flashed across the sky. The visitor, bedraggled and blank-faced, didn't seem to notice her appearance, only taking her finger off the doorbell when Madoka spoke.

"Mrs. Miki? What's wrong? Are you okay?" The seemingly-drowned woman finally noticed the open door, and her head lolled to the side, eyes not quite focusing on the pink-haired girl.

"... Ma ... Madoka? Did she ... did she tell you anything? Did you know ...?" She fell to her knees and latched onto Madoka, unable to choose between a grieving hug and a maddened vice, and they fell into the house together, the older woman trembling with shock. "Did ... did ...?"

"Madoka? Who is ...!" Junko Kaname leaned into the front hall, then ran toward her daughter to help. "Hey, what -" she broke off when she saw the despair on the other woman's face, and her voice softened in compassion. "Let's get you cleaned up, okay? Madoka, can you get this cleaned up and then help your father with Tatsuya?" The girl nodded solemnly, and Junko helped the other woman to stand and led her toward the bedrooms.

---

"Sayaka-chan ...." Madoka murmured. With Tatsuya finally asleep, everyone else was sitting at the dining table. Mrs. Miki looked more presentable, more alive, thanks to the shower and what seemed to have been her first decent meal in over a day, and was staring into the pouring rain through which she had so recently staggered.

"I got ... they ...." Mrs. Miki swallowed audibly and took a sip of the tea in front of her, hands shaking. "The police called me last night. There had been complaints of a leak coming from an apartment. They said they found ... they found ...." She paled again, shivering, and withdrew into herself, reliving the moments. Then her blue eyes, bright and alive no more, opened and she continued, just a little bit more clearly. "There were three girls there. Had been. That they found. They could identify two of them, but .... I got there, and they gave me her things. I knew it was Sayaka. They didn't want me to see her body, let me hold her one more time. I ...."

"It's okay, you don't need to push yourself. Ma-" Junko was cut off as Mrs. Miki giggled incongruously.

"I did it anyway. They didn't want me to, but I gave my baby one last hug goodbye ...." She twitched, and began stroking the silver ring she wore on a silver chain, muttering softly.

"Um, Mrs. Miki? The other girls? Was one of them blonde?" The woman froze, then her trembling head slowly turned toward Madoka, almost creaking, and her haunted eyes seemed to blaze. Only the broken expression on the girl's face seemed to keep her from launching herself across the table at her. "Mami-senpai was an upperclassmen at our school. Sayaka went somewhere with her after school, but told me it was something secret. That ... that I shouldn't get involved, but that she'd tell me about it later." Madoka seemed to shrink in on herself, and the adults slumped back in their chairs.

"And ... the police didn't say anything about a suspect or motive?"

Mrs. Miki shook her head. "No," she said softly, barely audibly, "no motive, nothing apparently missing. Just ... random, senseless violence for no purpose. Someone just ... walked in, killed them, cleaned himself up, and walked out."

---

Madoka stumbled jerkily down the stairs, nearly tripping over herself several times. Her parents were both sitting at the table, her mother just finishing breakfast. They both seemed completely surprised to see her, especially ready for school.

"Madoka, are you sure you want to go today? You don't have to, I can call ...." Junko trailed off as her daughter numbly shook her head and stumbled to the counter.

"I ... I have to go. If I don't, will I start again? I have to go ... for Sayaka-chan ..." she mumbled, as much to herself as to her parents. They exchanged a worried glance.

"Alright, but I'm driving you there," her mother said firmly.

"Hitomi-chan -"

"We'll pick her up too. Get something to eat, Madoka," she said warmly. "If you don't, you won't be able to pick yourself up when you fall down ...."

You know how people are supposed to have an angel on shoulder and a devil on the other? When I write, I have an editor and a critic. They're both laughing at me already.

 

[Entropy Judge]

[X] Go find a meal Downtown.
-[X] Make sure that you don't attract other people during your feeding.
-[X] You can totally eat tidily, unlike Big Sister who gets it all over her clothes!


You stretch a little, wings jingling a little as you quickly vibrate them. You've just been looking around the past few days, hunting unsuccessfully for more youkai, but now you're getting hungry. You haven't seen any indications that one youkai or another actually owns this territory, so you're pretty sure you aren't going to be poaching anyone's humans. Not that you would consider it a problem if some youkai tried to stop you - you might actually get a decent fight out of it! But you've kept a weather eye out for where humans tend to congregate, and you decide to go hunting a bit to the east of your current lair, where humans seem to be a fairly constant sight, especially this early in the night. A grin crosses your face as you realize that this will be the first time you've actually hunted on your own! To commemorate that fact, you're going to be nice and clean while you eat - no blood all over the walls, no smashed bodies, and definitely no blood all over your clothes. You're not Remilia, after all!

To that end, you swiftly and quietly fly to the east, where the light never dies. As you pick a relatively secluded alley, you wonder once again why your stomach never growls like Sakuya or Meiling's. Somehow you think your sister's "Because we're elegant and proper vampires" isn't the whole story. Oh well. You find a spot behind a big green box and sit down to wait. And wait. ... Boring. This whole 'not getting spotted' business is really - oh! One human, male, alone. Perfect! You scoot back against the brick, the metal box to your right, and begin to cry. Not too loudly, of course, and not the annoying kind of crying that makes Remilia irritated, with all the screaming. No, it's a soft sort of crying, meant to coerce someone into coming to see what's the matter. And it works! After a few moments, you hear the man stepping along the box, but you make sure to keep up the crying. No changes, that could throw off the tasty prey! He pokes his head around ....

"Hey, are you -" And you strike! Like a whirlwind, you uncurl and lunge forward, your claws punching into his collarbone, and then you twirl to slam him into the wall behind you, and -

... Right. You don't want the body ruined, and you don't want to alert the people behind the wall. Unfortunately, both of those happened. Fortunately, you don't have any blood on you! You scramble out of the alley, deciding to try your luck elsewhere before people see you.

You decide to try again, this time making sure no one's in the building you're taking cover near, which eats up some time but should make things safer in the long run ... once someone comes by, anyway. ... Ah, someone! You start crying again, and the woman comes by to investigate. As she walks in front of the bags, you leap forward, grabbing her shoulders and spinning, sending yourself slamming into the wall this time! ... Except you're holding a pair of arms, the woman is on the ground screaming, and now someone's sending a beam of light down the alley and saying something about ... backup? Grumbling to yourself in frustration, you drop the arms and fly straight up. Third time's the charm, right?

...

You're in another alley, on the far side of the area, just in case anyone's spreading the word about what's happening. There have been a few people, but not too many are on your side of the avenue, and most of them haven't been alone. Finally, though, one woman who looks suitable starts walking toward your alley, and you creep to the back. She jerks nervously when you start crying, her right hand coming up in a smooth motion, then she stops and looks into the alley for a moment. You're crouched invisibly in the corner, waiting for her to come near enough for you to strike without being seen, and then you realize that she's carrying a gun in her hand. It even looks small enough that you could hold it comfortably, and you consider taking it with you.

Then, when she's almost within range, her body seems to fall apart just before bullets - a lot of bullets slam into the wall next to you. Then you hear a lot of gunfire, from everywhere. You shriek in frustration, breaking your invisibility and slamming your fist into the wall next to you. A stream of bullets rips into the stone beside your head, and you take off through the opposite wall, going through as many houses as you need to to get away from the crazy humans.

...

After three failures in a row, you decided that the problem wasn't the strategy, but the tactics! This city is obviously too full of people for you to just ambush some unwitting victim and not be caught, so you decided to go on the offensive! Which is why you're now here, in this below-ground establishment with its own door guard - no one will hear you, no one will interfere. Perfect! Except that they're playing some kind of pulsing sound that's driving you crazy, the women are wearing clothes that would get them thrown in jail, and everyone's performing actions that you're sure would send your sister into a screaming fit. Though, maybe you could teach them to Patchouli or Meiling, as some kind of stretching exercise? ... Yeah, no, you're pretty sure you can't pull some of that stuff off, and Patchouli would just tell Remilia and then you really would get locked up in the basement like everyone believes.

"Heh, that's an interesting costume, young lady, but I'm afraid Halloween is quite a ways off. Now, why don't we head over to the bar, get you a glass of milk, and see about calling your parents, hm?" You look up at the well-dressed young man, short blond hair and bright green eyes, and smile. You don't detect a hint of alcohol on him - whether that means people do that kind of thing sober, or it's just because he's not participating, you're not sure. Regardless, you're not sure whether to be thankful to your older sister for protecting you from the bizarre behavior of humans, or upset that she hasn't done more to curb their more excessive acts of stupidity. Then you reach up and throw the man across the room.

Killing everyone doesn't take more than a handful of seconds, and you don't even get that much blood on you. That annoying noise even stopped! You pick up a few of the more intact bodies and fly them over to one of the tables so you can eat neatly. You're even successful! ... Mostly. Kind of. Well, your clothes aren't covered in blood, anyway, and that's important in surpassing your sister. Full, and feeling that sort of unsatisfied satisfaction, you go find a sink to wash up.

...

You waited a half hour, then plowed through the door, killing the guard, and flying over the silly humans before they can react. Now you're in a more abandoned area, but more importantly, there's another rift! That means a youkai is here, and you step through. It's very different than the other one - you're floating, without doing anything, and there are a lot of weird boxes around. Rather, there were; they're broken and ruined, except a few, some smashed and others looking almost carved. That probably means another magician came through here ....


What do you do?

[ ] Treat Magicians ...
- Hostile?
- Diplomatic?
- Ignore?
- Observe?

[ ] Treat Youkai ...
- Hostile?
- Observe?
- Diplomatic?

[ ] Write-in?

Please detail your goals for each interaction - if hostile, do you want to kill? Play? Send a message? If diplomatic, what result are you going for? If observing, will you cease observation at a particular point and take another action, or just avoid all interaction? Please be clear.

 

[Entropy Judge]

[x] Treat Magicians...
-[x] Ignore, until they interact with you. No magician so far has put up enough of a fight to be fun, and you aren't hungry right now. No point in trying to hunt and attack them now.
--[x] If they do interact with you, react appropriately. Some might be hostile, some might be nice. You made friends with Marisa, after all!
---[x] If they do seem exceptionally "interesting", then Observe
---[x] If they do attack or get aggressive, Hostile. Even though they don't put up much of a fight, they can still sting if they do attack, unlike normal humans. Better take them out quick if they start looking like they will attack you
[x] Treat Humans...
-[x] Ignore, until they interact with you.
--[x] If they do interact with you, react appropriately. Some might be hostile, some might be nice. You made friends with Marisa, after all!
---[x] If they do attack or get aggressive, Hostile or Avoid. Depends on your mood and current goals whether to be hostile or just avoid, and whether to be quick or to "play" with them. Unlike magicians, mere humans aren't a big enough risk such that you can't afford to leave them alive.
[x] Treat Youkai ...
-[x] Hostile: They are ugly. What other reason do you need?
--[x] If they drop ugly stone/pointy thing, might as well take it, so long as no one else wants it. No point in fighting over an ugly thing. Also, they did seem a bit magical. Maybe, if you do keep it, show Patchouli along with pretty shiny egg-shaped stone?

Click to shrink...

You look around the strange rift-world and decide what you want to do. Obviously, since you're here you're going to find the youkai living here and beat it up - you're not sure why Grief Seeds clean magic focuses, but you'd really like to keep the one you've got nice and bright so you can show it to Remilia when you get home. You don't need that many, though, just enough to keep it clean - and once you get back to the mansion, Patchouli can figure out how it works and you can send the one you're going to take back! It's like borrowing ... and maybe there'll be two youkai! Then you can have two Grief Seeds. That they're ugly is just another reason to kill them.

Of course, you also know that there could be witches here. Just because you haven't seen any since you killed Kyouko, Mami, and ... you never learned the sword-girl's name, did you? You shrug; they're dead, no sense worrying about it. But if they're the norm for witches in the area, you don't need to worry at all. They're not a threat to a vampire like you, even if they get in the first shot. You don't even spare a thought for humans; why think about food when you aren't hungry? You see several other stacks of boxes in other directions, but one that's above you and farther out looks like it's been ruined, too, so you push off towards it. It's weird in this world, not like flying or swimming, but with aspects of both - the air doesn't resist your motion, but you don't fall. Of course, there aren't any objects in most of the space, so if you couldn't fly you'd just end up drifting until you hit something ....

When you reach the pile, you examine the boxes more closely. One side is made of glass, the others of some kind of hard material. On the few boxes that aren't broken, you can see images on the glass, pictures of different events. Nothing interesting, though - no witches, no youkai, all boring human stuff. Looking around, you find another stack of damaged boxes. You fly toward it, and when you reach it you look around for the next one - it's like a game, following the clues! Except the clues are really simple and boring; you're pretty sure even the maids couldn't get lost here. After a few more piles of boxes, you notice a carousel below you, and you nearly squeal in delight - you used to have a carousel in the basement! You broke it, of course, and Remilia never got around to replacing it. You nearly speed down toward it before you realize that there's something near it - a large human-looking figure, bound from head to toes in ribbons.

Yellow ribbons.

You hold still, mind racing. Normally, witches as weak as Mami was aren't a danger to you ... but she might have figured out why you killed Kyouko first, and if she decides to hunt you, and finds you during the day, she could potentially do you a lot of harm before you killed her. Not likely, of course - she would need an awful lot of guns like the one she used before to actually inconvenience you, and you didn't exactly show off your whole bag of tricks back then! Still, you know you killed her. That was a dead body ... and if she came back anyway, she might have more tricks, as well. But it's not even necessarily her, though - you're probably just overreacting. Still, the three witches you've met so far have all been different colors, so why would a brand new witch use the same color? After a few more rounds of thought, you decide that being cautious isn't going to hurt and turn yourself invisible, then fly down to the bound figure.

You're only halfway down when your caution is justified - two figures, one blue and one yellow, zip to the side. The blue girl begins hurling swords, just like Sakuya and her knives, while the yellow one, who you can now see is Mami, dodges or deflects them with practiced ease. You keep flying down to the figure, which you're almost certain is a youkai, then hide behind it before becoming visible again. It doesn't take long for you to figure out that the two girls are sparring, and that the blue girl is far below Mami in terms of skill.

You don't realize just how large the gap is, though, until you hear her clear her voice behind you.

"Flandre-chan, I don't suppose you'd be willing to speak with us?" Your head jerks back and forth between the Mami with you and the Mami with the sword-girl several times before you calm down - you can't hear a heartbeat and she doesn't smell like a human, whereas they did before. You aren't sure how she managed to sneak a clone behind you, but you're certain that's what she did, and you grin as you fly off to the real girls.

"Of course I'm willing to speak with you - I'm not some unmannered child who murders people for no reason," you say as you arrive. The blue girl glares at you, but Mami raises her hand.

"Yes, it was ... pointed out to me by another that my actions were, at the least, inappropriate, and I would like to apologize." She bows her head slightly, but then her eyes harden. "However, my position has not changed. I will not allow you to remain in this city if you are unwilling to curb your appetite." You match her gaze, then deliberately look around.

"Hey, where's little Kyouko?" She was a rude girl, you admit, but at least she was properly fearful of you; these two are simply annoyed. Well ... downright upset, now.

"She's dead, and you probably should have killed us as well, because I am not in a mood to play games with you. You surprised us before, but now we know how you fight and we don't need to worry about collateral damage." You glance at Mami, and you're pretty sure she's serious. Blue girl is all but trembling ... and you're not sure why these two came back but Kyouko didn't. There was only one thing you did differently ....

"Aw, that's too bad. She had this pretty red gem that I wanted to ask her about! She said I couldn't have it, because she used it to make magic, but it was really pretty, so I wanted to see if she knew where to get more ...." You gave information away for free last time, maybe you can trick them into giving you something!

"A red gem? Like this?" Mami turns her hand over, quickly flashing a yellow egg-shaped gem, and you nod.

"Yeah! Except a pretty red, not dumpy yellow or ugly blue," you say, and the other girl snarls.

"Yeah, that's really convincing coming from a psychotic little monster who -!" She gasps in shock, mainly because she didn't notice you moved until your fist was wrapped around her shoulder, grinding the bones to powder, blood rushing out of the wound to stream down your arm and hers. You pull her closer to you as you feel her body try to repair itself beneath your grip, and your eyes flare so brilliantly that she winces.

"Hm, what was that? I bet you were going to say something about my wings, weren't you?" You grin viciously even as you sense Mami moving, probably getting ready to attack you. "Well, that's too bad, little girl, because that won't get you anywhere. Yes, my wings lack red, but guess what doesn't - my eyes. My eyes, my tongue, my blood, my self. I am Flandre Scarlet, and red is part of me. You can tear away my wings, and red will still be part of me; rip out my eyes, my tongue, completely exsanguinate me, and ever shall I be dyed Scarlet. Do not think to judge me, mortal girl, in any way." You toss her away, nearly separating her arm from the rest of her, then spin around with a smile on your face. "Yeah, like that! But a pretty red." It doesn't escape your notice that the gun-wielding Mami in front of you has no pulse or scent, or that the youkai is getting restless.

"... That would be a Soul Gem," she finally says, and your smile freezes. You don't remember much from your sister's lessons on magic, but you do know that if something is named that, there's probably a very good reason for it. "You would have to go through Kyubey to get one, and he said you don't have the potential to form a contract. In any case," she glances behind you toward the presumably-recovering girl, "we still need to come to a decision - are you willing to come to a compromise regarding your presence here, or will there be more trouble?"


How do you respond?

[ ] Diplomacy
- [ ] Write-in

[ ] Attack

[ ] Leave
- [ ] Go where?

[ ] Any other actions?