Murasa Quest Continues 3 - A Z-Machine Adventure

[It's Purvis!]

Well that's concerning.

> "From there, I did manage to overcome, uh, myself somehow, but I ended up getting lost in the process of her chasing me. I wandered around semi-blindly, before eventually...hearing something through the water. Hearing, and eventually feeling, tasting, and pretty much every other sensation you can think of. My guess at this point is that I was swimming through memories everyone had of where that other me came from. It got more and more oppressive as I pushed on, eventually feeling like I was in someone else's body, even, someone a little bit shorter. Then...I'm pretty sure the Formless One latched onto me, and took over mentally."

>"Oh, so you saw that outside world place?" she says. "What was it like?"
>Then you elaborate on what followed, and she just frowns.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I did kind of see some things? They flitted in and out randomly in all senses."
> Describe some of the things we saw and heard before getting taken over.

[It's Purvis!]

> "I did kind of see some things? They flitted in and out randomly in all senses."
> Describe some of the things we saw and heard before getting taken over.

>Tojiko listens and purses her lips thoughtfully.
>"Do dirt roads and such things really sound like the outside world?" she says. "My understanding is that everything was stone and metal, and nature was unwelcome."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Shrug.
> "I guess? For however reliable these memories are. Maybe it's mostly stone and metal but still has a few pockets of nature here and there."
> Smile a tiny bit.
> "In thinking about it, that's kinda what we are here, isn't it? I wouldn't be too surprised if there were small collections of humans that weren't so interested in the general progression of humanity."

[Branneg Xy]

> "...Feel...funny..."
> Gasp.
> "Uh! Keep...Yukari away...for her safety!"
> Try moving just a little bit.
> Open our eyes, if we can.

// I wonder if the "Great Pieces of Ripped Curtain " we took back there have been "rsally carried over or have...vanished//

> Make a mental.note that we have to.go back to Patchouli..at zhe Mansion Library to share. our "latest discovery and experience",she did help us out with her own knowledge and resources after all.

> Move & float around a bit ,while at the same time also taking notice about how we are "regaining ourselves""while explaining to Tojiko is to rid of the" after-effects of being within and  joined somehow with The Formless One"...

>Oh!Also ask to Tojiko how "Stargazer"is faring,if shs still being  accompained by Yukari,if she is instead on her way to meet up eith Utsuho around he Kappa University...

>...about,Yukari and maybe Sakuya,also ask Tojiko if they did mention something particular to us or about us when we come back in Gensokyo after "our most recent trial".

[It's Purvis!]

> Shrug.
> "I guess? For however reliable these memories are. Maybe it's mostly stone and metal but still has a few pockets of nature here and there."
> Smile a tiny bit.
> "In thinking about it, that's kinda what we are here, isn't it? I wouldn't be too surprised if there were small collections of humans that weren't so interested in the general progression of humanity."

>"Suzunaan stays in business for a reason, I suppose," says Tojiko.

// I wonder if the "Great Pieces of Ripped Curtain " we took back there have been "rsally carried over or have...vanished//

> Make a mental.note that we have to.go back to Patchouli..at zhe Mansion Library to share. our "latest discovery and experience",she did help us out with her own knowledge and resources after all.

> Move & float around a bit ,while at the same time also taking notice about how we are "regaining ourselves""while explaining to Tojiko is to rid of the" after-effects of being within and  joined somehow with The Formless One"...

>Oh!Also ask to Tojiko how "Stargazer"is faring,if shs still being  accompained by Yukari,if she is instead on her way to meet up eith Utsuho around he Kappa University...

>...about,Yukari and maybe Sakuya,also ask Tojiko if they did mention something particular to us or about us when we come back in Gensokyo after "our most recent trial".

>Patchouli would probably love to hear about this, and would probably never admit it.
>It feels like a bad time to be moving right now.
>"Oh, I think Yukari left her off with Meiling," Tojiko says. "Once she called us all back, we met briefly at the Scarlet Devil Mansion to rest up and figure out what we could. Then she said you were probably back, but only had a general idea where to find you. I grabbed that coat out of a closet there, I thought maybe you'd be cold? We were all kind of chilly when we came woke up."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "It is appreciated, to be sure. Thank you."
> "But yeah, this Formless One, or whatever...all it desired was to flow to the low places, or something. It seemed disturbed by its own sentience, really. It was all I could think about, if one could even consider it 'me' thinking at that point."

[It's Purvis!]

> "It is appreciated, to be sure. Thank you."
> "But yeah, this Formless One, or whatever...all it desired was to flow to the low places, or something. It seemed disturbed by its own sentience, really. It was all I could think about, if one could even consider it 'me' thinking at that point."

>"So what was it?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Do we still feel different?
> "I can't be 100% sure on this, but...near as I can tell, it was the memories of the part of the ocean that got moved to where Gensokyo was, when Gensokyo moved to the Outside World for a bit. And that loose collection of memories of people from when Gensokyo moved to the Outside World kind of irritated into some kind of sentience."

[It's Purvis!]

> Do we still feel different?
> "I can't be 100% sure on this, but...near as I can tell, it was the memories of the part of the ocean that got moved to where Gensokyo was, when Gensokyo moved to the Outside World for a bit. And that loose collection of memories of people from when Gensokyo moved to the Outside World kind of irritated into some kind of sentience."

>You do. But...not in a bad way, you think?
>"...The ocean itself, huh?" she says. "I guess, if it came from the outside to here, something might happen to something to venerable."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I definitely want to ask people more knowledgeable than me on the subject about it. Yukari would be great, but I don't know if that thing is still attached to me somehow or not, and I don't know what precautions she'd need to take if it were. I definitely also want someone to check if that thing is still attached to me somehow, but again, same problem."
> Inhale and exhale while looking up at the sky.
> "It was...certainly an experience being a mass of water. I wish there had been a way to tell just how large I was. Found myself wondering just how much water is out there beyond Japan's shores, too."
> Look back to Tojiko.
> "Um, I don't think the details of the rest of what happened are all that meaningful. I just kinda gradually reclaimed myself with more and more frequency and had fewer mental takeover interruptions from that thing. Figured out it wanted to flow 'outward', which felt to me like the direction Gensokyo was in, and I knew that flooding Gensokyo with myself was out of the question, as weird as that may be coming from me of all people. So I flowed myself 'inward' instead, and gradually regained more and more of a normal-body-like feeling before I woke up here."

[It's Purvis!]

> "I definitely want to ask people more knowledgeable than me on the subject about it. Yukari would be great, but I don't know if that thing is still attached to me somehow or not, and I don't know what precautions she'd need to take if it were. I definitely also want someone to check if that thing is still attached to me somehow, but again, same problem."
> Inhale and exhale while looking up at the sky.
> "It was...certainly an experience being a mass of water. I wish there had been a way to tell just how large I was. Found myself wondering just how much water is out there beyond Japan's shores, too."
> Look back to Tojiko.
> "Um, I don't think the details of the rest of what happened are all that meaningful. I just kinda gradually reclaimed myself with more and more frequency and had fewer mental takeover interruptions from that thing. Figured out it wanted to flow 'outward', which felt to me like the direction Gensokyo was in, and I knew that flooding Gensokyo with myself was out of the question, as weird as that may be coming from me of all people. So I flowed myself 'inward' instead, and gradually regained more and more of a normal-body-like feeling before I woke up here."

>Tojiko nods. "Honestly...I'd have every reason to believe it's still there, the way you're taking. Do you feel okay?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "A little different in a way I can't articulate. It doesn't feel bad, just different. Which would make sense, I never got a sense of malevolence from it, despite nightmare versions of ourselves appearing before us."

[It's Purvis!]

> "A little different in a way I can't articulate. It doesn't feel bad, just different. Which would make sense, I never got a sense of malevolence from it, despite nightmare versions of ourselves appearing before us."

>"If it didn't make those," she says, "maybe we did?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I've been wondering that as a possibility myself."
> Go silent for a moment or two, then sport a small smile.
> "Water conducts electricity real good, doesn't it? Maybe you could just zap it out of me."

[It's Purvis!]

> "I've been wondering that as a possibility myself."
> Go silent for a moment or two, then sport a small smile.
> "Water conducts electricity real good, doesn't it? Maybe you could just zap it out of me."

>"Not worth the effort," Tojiko says, chuckling.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Chuckle a bit ourselves.
> "Ah well."
> Look back down at the coat. Lift up one of the sleeves and examine it.
> "...This is a pretty snazzy piece, especially for an emergency grab. ...I wonder how long they'll let me hold onto it."

[It's Purvis!]

> Chuckle a bit ourselves.
> "Ah well."
> Look back down at the coat. Lift up one of the sleeves and examine it.
> "...This is a pretty snazzy piece, especially for an emergency grab. ...I wonder how long they'll let me hold onto it."

>"I dunno. It was just sitting in a closet," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I can ask later. Either they know you took it and already have an idea, or they don't know you took it and I don't want them thinking either of us are thieves."
> Try standing up.
> Try flowing (not walking or crawling or whatever normal humanoid motor skillsing) toward Tojiko, just to see if we can.

[It's Purvis!]

> "I can ask later. Either they know you took it and already have an idea, or they don't know you took it and I don't want them thinking either of us are thieves."
> Try standing up.
> Try flowing (not walking or crawling or whatever normal humanoid motor skillsing) toward Tojiko, just to see if we can.

>"Oh no, I got Sakuya's blessing to grab something," says Tojiko.
>You stand up. It is kind of a slow process, you're pretty used to having legs and such now, but not so used to the balance and position you need to stand. It takes you a few moments before you don't need to lean on the tree, but you think you have it.
>This doesn't result in much of anything. You don't feel anything happen at all.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Ah, that's good. In that case..."
> Try putting the coat on.
> "I think I'm ready to try going somewhere."

[It's Purvis!]

> "Ah, that's good. In that case..."
> Try putting the coat on.
> "I think I'm ready to try going somewhere."

>You slip on the coat. It is warm and fits you well.
>You obtain: Mariner's Coat
>"Right," Tojiko says, having floated up to a standing position.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Which way sounds best to you? Uh, other than north, if possible. You know how it can be..."

[It's Purvis!]

> "Which way sounds best to you? Uh, other than north, if possible. You know how it can be..."

>You mention north, and something hits you. Which way is north? You don't know. You always feel which way is north! You've been so distracted you haven't thought about it at all.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Look suddenly panicked.
> "...Wait."
> Look around frantically.
> "...Which way is north?!"

[It's Purvis!]

> Look suddenly panicked.
> "...Wait."
> Look around frantically.
> "...Which way is north?!"

>"That way, I think," she says, pointing in the direction that you were facing beforehand, while resting against the tree. ...You never noticed. It didn't bother you in the slightest...

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "..."
> Stare confused in that direction.
> "...huh..."
> Hold our head in a bit of a daze.
> "...that...didn't bother me at all. ...Why...?"

[It's Purvis!]

> "..."
> Stare confused in that direction.
> "...huh..."
> Hold our head in a bit of a daze.
> "...that...didn't bother me at all. ...Why...?"

>"You sure?" she says after a moment. "You sound pretty bothered. Are you okay?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "...It's...I don't know. No and yes?"
> Inhale and exhale deeply.
> "Okay, so...I don't know if you feel this too, but I...just don't really do north. That's where Higan and the Netherworld are, and no thank you, I am not ready. Moving north is generally bad. Going further north than our Temple is completely out. Even just sitting facing it is bad. Gives me the willies, as today's human kids say. I always, always know where it is, so I know to avoid it."
> Gesture back at the tree.
> "But sitting there just now...I was facing north. And it didn't bother me a bit. I didn't even know it was north...I think I simply don't have that automatic knowledge in my head anymore."

[Kilgamayan]

>You remember...at one point, there was suddenly land within you. And where the land was, part of you appeared. It was then that it began. It was only a short time, then that land went back, and you back to where you belong. But...you also fell somewhere...

>You feel as though you rejoined with the rest of yourself, but...also you have not. Something is not as it should be.

>Looking through them, the strange part is that there's a kind of gap. It became aware while it and Gensokyo switched places, in a sense. Then it switched back...or...hm, no. No, now you're starting to get it. You think that this entity was separated from the water when it was switched back, the same way peoples' memories of the event were. And then there was a gap, it wasn't aware at all, dormant. You don't understand what happened there, but then something occurred, and it ended up here.

Reposting these to remind myself to mention them (especially the bold) to a party more knowledgeable than either currently-present ghost mook.