Remove ads

Magical (A Quest of Vacations, or Starsigns, or Something Else)

Reader mode
[X] Go by the front entrance. You aren't sure how often people pass by there, but at least you'll be able to see where you're going.
-[X] Stop by the meditation room for candles.
 
[X] Go by the front entrance. You aren't sure how often people pass by there, but at least you'll be able to see where you're going.
-[X] Stop by the meditation room for candles.
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by SeekerofDreams on Jul 23, 2020 at 6:01 AM, finished with 2 posts and 2 votes.
  • [X] Go by the front entrance. You aren't sure how often people pass by there, but at least you'll be able to see where you're going.
    -[X] Stop by the meditation room for candles.
Click to expand...
 
...All right, fine.


-Vote Closed!-​


A bit more risk, but it might be better than wandering around in the dark? Maybe? Less chance of tripping over something, at least.
 
Remove ads
Detour
  • Threadmarks
    • The hallways of the school are laid out simply enough, for the most part, but if you get separated from Caramel and Bel in the parts of the school you've yet to really visit, you'll either have to turn back, or wander around lost until you get caught, depending on where it happens. "If we pass by the meditation room, though, we could stop for candles," You point out. Sure, if anyone thinks to ask the spirits about you, you don't have any way to convince them not to tell, but you don't want to end up tripping on the basement steps due to a lack of light.

    "...It would be nice to be able to see where we're going," Bel admitted. "Also, if Caramel's looking for anything in particular, I don't want to have to come back later."

    "If I go back later, it'll be with Nutmeg and Raspberry." Caramel sounds very unimpressed by the whole thing. "...But, yeah, candles would be nice." And with that, you set out back the way you came, stolen frogs stuffed into your pockets.

    If the rest of the school is unnerving to see at night, when it's quiet, the meditation room is still as peaceful as ever. The Magic Dolls are slumped over in the corner, unmoving.

    "Careful not to disturb them," Bel hisses. "I don't know if they're programmed to act differently at night, but..."

    Caramel crosses his arms. "Has anyone ever told you you're a bit paranoid?"

    "Nutmeg, right before she refuses to budge from something really dangerous. Earth wizards..." You feel almost like you should be offended on Nutmeg's behalf.

    "I-I wouldn't want to bother the dolls, either, though," You admit. "If they were somehow programmed to attack us, I don't think that's a fight we could win." They've been trained against generations of students, after all.

    Caramel sighs. "Fine. But they're right by the supplies of fresh candles, so the alternative is taking the ones from by the door. And if we take those, we'll probably have to come back to return them." You suppose people would notice if the place where candles are meant to be displayed doesn't actually have candles. "We can't just throw them away in the basement and forget about them."


    [ ] One of you should try and sneak past the dolls.
    -[ ] You.
    -[ ] Caramel.
    -[ ] Bel.

    [ ] You'll just take the ones from by the door.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Inserted tally
    Adhoc vote count started by SeekerofDreams on Jul 28, 2020 at 5:57 AM, finished with 2 posts and 2 votes.
    • [X] One of you should try and sneak past the dolls.
      -[X] You.
      [X] You'll just take the ones from by the door.
    Click to expand...
     
    ...Hey, now that one of my other quests has spontaneously revived itself, anyone wanna give a go at posting here? Please? I still remember the plot I had in mind and everything. I can work with four quests, I promise!

    ...Please come back...
     
    give me a hot minute to read up on what's going on here, but as a cursory vote...

    [x] You'll just take the ones from by the door.
     
    Hot damn, I have no idea why I didn't actually stick with this when it first started. I may not have had a rat's ass of an idea what's going on past what I learned from Wikipedia, but this is still a really cool quest! It was easy to pick things up as I went, too. Now, let's see if anyone else vot... Ah.

    [X] One of you should try and sneak past the dolls.
    -[X] You.

    i came here to break a tie. not extend it.
     
    An Attempt At Stealth
  • Threadmarks
    • You aren't... massively thrilled by the idea of slipping past the dolls, but... it can't be worse than coming back here later at night when you're all exhausted from exploring.

    "...Then I'll try and get past them." You aren't sure how well it'll work, being sneaky is something you've never had to be before this year, but... "Just, if there's a problem..."

    "I'll back you up," Caramel promises, his orange eyes almost flashing despite how none of the candles are lit. "And so will Bel. Right, Bel?"

    Bel flicks his tail. "It feels a bit late to be backing out now." He sounds more annoyed by this than anything. "Just... don't let there be trouble."

    "I'll try not to." You can't really make any better promises than that, but you can still make an attempt at stealth, and maybe it'll even work out.

    You step into the room. All is still. All is silent. There's not even any crackles of firelight, because the candles have long been extinguished for the evening.

    If you listen closely, you think there might be some muffled snoring coming from the pond, but this really isn't the time to check that. So maybe spirits snore. That's not the most important thing about this situation.

    The floor of the meditation room is creaky, but you don't worry about that too much. Trees creak in the wind, doors creak when they open. You're used to the sound, and there's nothing about it that means you are inherently forced to blow your cover. Not when there's no one around.

    ...Besides, no one would be paranoid enough to program their dolls like that.

    You manage to make it across the room. Scoop up a small bag of candles that you'll probably hand over to a wizard who uses Fire Magic at some point. Toss it across the room, to where Bel catches it. Try and hurry back.

    Trip over Tang's outstretched arm and tumble to the floor.

    The doll you tripped over starts to stir. None of the others do.

    ...This doesn't seem like the best situation to be in.


    [ ] ...The dolls are supposed to respond to student commands, right? Order Tang to deactivate.

    [ ] There's three of you and one of it. You should be able to fight back.

    [ ] Run. It can't chase you forever!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [x] ...The dolls are supposed to respond to student commands, right? Order Tang to deactivate.

    Dunno why we didn't expect this to happen. However, I gotta say that I think that getting into a Fight will just get unnecessary attention, and failing that, will just waste our time.
     
    [x] ...The dolls are supposed to respond to student commands, right? Order Tang to deactivate.
     
    ...Holy heck. I remember playing Magical Starsign as a kid. Hadn't even known it was a sequel until about a year ago, though unfortunately I wasn't able to sit through the entirety of Magical Vacation (trying to max out every spirit made things a bit of a slog). My knowledge of the series is hella rusty, but... wish I had noticed this quest earlier. Definitely going to take a few hours to read through everything... 23 pages shouldn't take too long.

    Edit:
    [x] ...The dolls are supposed to respond to student commands, right? Order Tang to deactivate.

    Yeeeeeah, fighting's not such a good idea when we're barely trained, up against an opponent whose magic style is relatively obscure, and who has an elemental advantage against us besides. Especially when our buddies aren't advantageous against the doll to compensate. Running... it probably could chase us indefinitely, and would attract a lotta attention besides. Wouldn't be surprised if it could track us using Beast magic. I don't think it'd actually threaten us if we ran, just 'is awaiting orders', but even the best case scenario of getting it lost would be far more high-profile than a few gummies taken from the cafeteria (which could be passed off as a late night snack. I'm sure the school's had to deal with that kinda thing often enough for it to not be a big deal.)

    Edit 2:
    Out of pure, stupid curiosity, since i'm starting a new (emulated, for better or worse) playthrough of Starsign, is there any way to make Amigo Mode and Tag Mode work? Seems there's some pretty good equipment you can get out of that, and i can't say i've ever had the opportunity to use the Egg Characters...
     
    Last edited:
    Ryumancer said:
    Out of pure, stupid curiosity, since i'm starting a new (emulated, for better or worse) playthrough of Starsign, is there any way to make Amigo Mode and Tag Mode work? Seems there's some pretty good equipment you can get out of that, and i can't say i've ever had the opportunity to use the Egg Characters...
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Some emulators have it where, if you're running multiple instances of a game at once, you can use multiplayer between them, but if you didn't like the grind of Vacation (Even my brother, who has played Starsign fighting only bosses, has not attempted a 100% run of that game to the point that is possible with a single cartridge) I would not recommend attempting Egg Characters. Among other things, they seem to require constantly connecting with multiple individual game cards... So maybe don't. Anyway...


    -Vote Closed!-​


    Fun fact: Every doll in the pile except Kalamari was an optional party member in Vacation. Tang was the last one you'd get because it's at the very bottom of one of the postgame dungeons, and unlike the other dolls, it actually has natural MP regeneration. I can only assume they thought giving you up to three full-power characters of a single element during the main game would be unfair.
     
    This May Never Be Expanded Upon
  • Threadmarks
    • For a moment, you freeze up. Tang pushes itself up to a standing position, which should not be as intimidating as it is for such a small doll. It looks at you, and as your mind races, it seizes upon an idea.

    You aren't sure to what extent the dolls are supposed to respond to student commands, but there's one thing you're sure should work every time. "Tang, deactivate."

    The doll stares at you. You wonder if it's programmed to respond to different words. "Um... stand down? Turn off? Power down?" It tilts its head to the side and crosses its arms. "...Go back to sleep?"

    Tang nods and flops over on top of the other dolls, directly in a beam of moonlight. You can't see the magic brimming behind its eyes anymore, but given your order, to have to assume that it has, in fact, entered sleep mode or something.

    Whether it has or not, you don't intend on sticking around long enough to find out. "We should-"

    "We should hurry," Caramel agrees. "...Bel? You staying with us?"

    "At this point, I kind of feel like I have to." He doesn't sound very happy about this, though. "Let's... not make any more stops on the way. We'll get caught."

    Caramel opens his mouth, you think to protest, but then seemingly thinks better of it and closes it, mutely nodding, his eyes flickering over to the pile of dolls as he does so.

    You guess you're not going to go look for anything else.

    "Go back to sleep..." Bel mutters to himself. You glance at him.

    "What did you say?"

    "When you asked that doll to stand down. What worked was telling it to go back to sleep. That's... not the command phrase the others use."

    Caramel absently plucks at the strings of his lyre. Not with enough power to make a sound, but enough that you notice he's doing it. "Maybe it was programmed by someone different. It's... not exactly the same model as the others."

    None of the dolls are the same model as each other. They're all built in different ways, each of them specialized in a certain way. But there's definitely something different about Tang's construction in comparison to the others, though you aren't sure what it is. You don't know a lot about dolls. Coming to this school is your first time seeing any in person. They get even less out of visiting hot springs than robots.

    ...You decide that it doesn't matter, and that if you ever think it does, you can always look through the library for information on magic dolls.

    "But who'd program a doll to only respond to 'go to sleep?'" Bel keeps quietly complaining. "Is anyone really that lonely?"

    You don't think you could ever have a good answer to that.

    The door to the basement is unlocked. It swings open without even a creak, and leads down into such deep darkness you can barely make out any shapes.

    Suddenly, you're really, really glad that you got some candles. Caramel fumbles with them for a bit, as well as a matchbox. You aren't sure where he got it from, but you suppose it's better than having candles and no way to light them.

    "Okay, we're going down, and then I should be able to find what I need to complete my piece." ...You'd almost forgotten that the whole reason you're doing this is so that Caramel can write some music. Still, you peer down into the depths of the school basement, and decide that you will enter it...


    [ ] At the head of the group.

    [ ] At the back of the group.

    [ ] Between Caramel and Bel.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top