(…or am I just handing it to you on a silver platter?)

“YOU WHO HAS EARS, LET YOUSRSELF HEAR.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You vision clears, and your mind returns to the dull red hallway of the mansion, the same as it was before you used the card. How much time has passed? Any at all? You wish you had your watch back.

No. That’s not important right now. You have much more important things to do. Fates to unravel, and fates to understand; futures to fulfill, and futures to save. The Wish card no longer rests in your hands, but its words still remain burned into your mind.

Now all you have to do is comprehend them…and act.

[ ] Write-in only.

========================================

I apologize for my minor delay; Mystia gave me permission to tell you all that he’s stalling more stories than his own these days. I was also sore and tired from playing sports, and couldn’t bother to update last night. I might be spreading myself too thin with my free time.

The next update won’t take place until Thursday afternoon at the earliest, but after that I have a four-day weekend due to a nice midwinter break my college gives us. Hopefully I can spend more time writing then, but considering the annoying little problem of all my professors giving me weekend homework, I doubt there will be much change in update speed, for better or for worse.

Also, dang was there a lot of impressive discussion after the last thread hit autosage! I apologize once again for the inconvenience. I’m too tired to comment on any of it right now.

>“IF YOU SEEK FOR THE PATH OF SLOTH, THEN YOU SHALL HAVE IT. AND WITH SLOTH SHALL COME APATHY, AND WITH APATHY, DESPAIR. AND IN YOUR DESPAIR YOU SHALL LANGUISH FOR AN ETERNITY, ALWAYS WISHING TO RETURN TO THE SLOTH YOU ONCE COVETED, BUT NEVER TO FIND IT AGAIN.

Doing nothing and hiding will solve nothing.

>“IF YOU SEEK FOR THE PATH OF COMPASSION, THEN YOU SHALL HAVE IT. AND WITH COMPASSION SHALL COME CONFUSION, AND WITH CONFUSION, CHAOS. AND ONCE THE CHAOS CONSUMES ALL AROUND YOU, YOU ALSO WILL BE CONSUMED BY IT, A SLAVE FOREVER CURSING HIS BODY AND SOUL, HEART AND MIND.

descent into absolute servitude under Remilia

>“BUT IF YOU SEEK FOR THE PATH OF TRUTH AND SADNESS, THE HIGH ROAD WHICH MANY FALL OFF OF AND MANY MORE TURN BACK UPON…LISTEN WELL.

This sounds like the right option to taken now, but which of them

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE THE ONE WHOM YOU LOVE, YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS, THE HEART OF STONE AND STEEL. YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO YOUR PAST AND FIND THAT WHICH YOU SOOK TO DISCLOSE, BUT FEARED TO ATTEMPT. YOU WILL FEEL EMPATHY, AND YOU WILL FEEL SORROW. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, AND YOU WILL CHOOSE YOUR HEART OVER YOUR MIND.

Cirno

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE THE ONE WHOM YOU FEAR, YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE MIND OF DARKNESS, THE MIND OF GAMES AND MADNESS. YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO ANOTHER WORLD AND HEAR THAT WHICH YOU ONCE HEARD AS BUT A WHISPER, BUT THEN WILL RESOUND IN COMPLETION. YOU WILL FEEL FEAR, AND YOU WILL FEEL UNCERTAINTY. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, AND YOU WILL CHOOSE CHAOS OVER ORDER.

Flandre

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE THE ONE WHOM YOU SERVE, YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE SOUL OF DARKNESS, THE SOUL OF FANTASY AND DREAMS. YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO A STRONGER LIFE, AND BE SILENT WHEN ALL AROUND YOU SHALL SPEAK, SEEING WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE BLIND. YOU WILL FEEL TURMOIL, AND YOU WILL FEEL CONTENTEDNESS. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, AND YOU WILL CHOOSE PEACE OVER WAR.

Remilia

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE THE ONE WHOM YOU DISTRUST, YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE BODY OF DARKNESS, THE BODY OF LIFE AND DEATH. YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO HELL AND BRING THOSE ONCE THOUGHT CONDEMNED INTO THE LIGHT WHICH SHINES NOT UPON THEIR FACES. YOU WILL FEEL PERIL, AND YOU WILL FEEL HORROR. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, AND YOU WILL CHOOSE FREEDOM OVER SLAVERY.

Nathaniel

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE ALL, THEN YOU WILL SAVE NONE. IN FATE, AS IN LIFE, A PATH DOES NOT TWINE UPON ALL, BUT UPON ONLY FEW. THOSE WHO SEEK ALL WILL GAIN NONE. THOSE WHO SEEK NONE WILL GAIN NONE. BUT THOSE WHO SEEK ONE MAY GAIN ALL, THOUGH THEY LOSE SOME.

I have no idea how to do this and who the ONE is. If we go for this path some people will die.

So now we have to decide what path to take. Cirno, Nathaniel, Remilia or Flandre. Or we try to save more at once and lose some in the progress.

[x] This is the only path
[x] Find Cirno
[x] Go to the Basement

The heart of stone and steel. Sounds like the basement, but i could be wrong. And i don't think that Sakuya has anything to do with Cirno's situation.

It's not that I expected the card to be useful, but that the card was much less useful than I expected.
So in order we have options for:
>1) Do nothing
>2) Do nothing, just be more bitter about it?
>3) Unclear but it sounds like saving [someone] and saving ourselves can only be mutually exclusive
>4) ... it just doesn't sound good, okay?
>5) Cirno - no guarantees except for a lot of things we probably won't like
>6) Flandre - madness end
>7) Remilia - vampire end
>8) Nathaniel - A MAN CHOOSES, A SLAVE--uhm, cathartic end?
Two interpretations: Nathaniel accomplishes what he wants, or Nathaniel discovers what he assumed is not what he set out against; no guarantees for us, of course
>9) Attempt everything and languish everything that can not be done - the default choice of all Anonymous whether they want to or not

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE ALL, THEN YOU WILL SAVE NONE. IN FATE, AS IN LIFE, A PATH DOES NOT TWINE UPON ALL, BUT UPON ONLY FEW. THOSE WHO SEEK ALL WILL GAIN NONE. THOSE WHO SEEK NONE WILL GAIN NONE. BUT THOSE WHO SEEK ONE MAY GAIN ALL, THOUGH THEY LOSE SOME.

>>I have no idea how to do this and who the ONE is. If we go for this path some people will die.

Don't misunderstand, the purpose of that passage most likely isn't to lay out another path in addition to the others (which, I might add, I think you've otherwise hit the nail on the head about who is who) but a warning about trying to tackle more than one of them, or even all of them, instead of focusing on just one. In other words, depending on who we choose to save, we might also save more than just that person as a result, even if others are consequently lost. But, if we set out with the objective being to save everyone (which this is the second time we've been told we cannot) then everyone is pretty much screwed.

If you want to save just one person, without any regard for anyone else's fate, then making a choice should be simple. Just pick whoever you want to save the most. If you care about saving more than that one person though, and want to save as many as possible, then you must also consider who would bring the greatest benefits to everyone else for being saved?

Oh, and as for someone dying, I would assume the worst and expect that someone will croak no matter who we go after. The only difference is who, and how.

Let's take Cirno, for example. If we want to save her, we can do so directly, but it will likely be at the expense of someone and/or something else. If we try to save someone else, there's a chance Cirno could die, but there's also a chance she might also be saved, depending on who we're helping and how. Perhaps if we save Remilia, whatever effect she's having on Cirno's mortality will be released. She'd still have to be collected from wherever she is, but I would think her regaining her regeneration would be far more beneficial to her in the long-run, as opposed to just getting her out of the mansion but remaining mortal.

Personally, I'm for helping Remilia. Whatever problem she has, it's clearly at the center of virtually everything else in this mansion, and if it can be fixed then more than just her will likely benefit from it. Plus, it would basically accomplish what Nathaniel wants to do, but in a way that doesn't entail reducing people's heads into bloody stumps. Save the hostess, save the mansion as a result, AND gain something to hang over Nathaniel's over-zealous head should we succeed? What's not to like?

>>21387
>“But who is she? Who do I have to save?!” Your voice is full of passion. This could be it! This could be the answer you’ve been waiting for!
>“Th-th-Thithter. Y-you have to…thave Big Thithter.”
>Big Sister? You’re almost there…just one more push to the truth. “Big Sister” is good, a lot clearer than you’ve gotten before, but you need a name…a concrete name to base your ideas on; otherwise you’ll just slip back into the unconfirmed speculation that you’ve been in for hours. Just one more question…one more…
>“Little one…who is your big sister?”
>It’s voice has grown increasingly quiet, and you have to inch closer into the room to make out what it’s trying to say. And then you hear it. A name.
>“Thcarlet. Big Thithter Thcerlet.”

I guess saving Remilia has the most benefits. She controls everybody's fate in the mansion, so there is a chance we can at least save Cirno and Sakuya with her. Don't know about the rest, but I'm pretty sure Nathaniel will die.

However, if Glish meant Flandre, then we definetly can save Cirno and him. Flandre liked Cirno, did she not? Adam/Glish is her brother, and because of that, maybe we can also save Nathaniel. Saving Flandre can also help Remilia, but I'm not sure if it will 'save' her. But if Flandre became sane, that alone would make Remilia so happy that maybe we could ask for something in return. But what if Flandre won't become sane after being saved?

>>26063
I long ago accepted the fact that we cannot save everyone and whatever path we will choose people WILL die.
I am not foolish enough to think that it is Farmer's Power to just solve all problems for everyone and it will end with a smile and everyone saying they love each other and hugs and kisses.

That is why i see options that the Wish showed us as paths. Each leading to a different outcome and end. There seem to be 9 Endings with some bad ends normal etc etc.

>If you want to save just one person, without any regard for anyone else's fate, then making a choice should be simple.

I want to save Cirno

>Personally, I'm for helping Remilia.

Then vote for it and convice people to vote for it too. I really want to save her too but we brought Cirno into the Mansion, the game and her current situation. I just can't abandon her.

You know what? I think, after this is over, we should run a scientific experiment : Instead of Nathaniel, the paranoid tinkerer guy, we have Natalie, the paranoid tinkerer loli. See if any of our responses turn out... different.

>>26068
In that case I'd be voting to just ignore the annoying melodramatic child genius. I'm not sure if that's better or worse compared to how we feel towards regular Nathaniel. She'd certainly have a smaller part in the story than he's had.

>>26063
I agree on Remilia for the reason you pointed out: she is at the center of everything. Cirno is dying because her. Nathaniel is waging battle because of her. Sakuya is enslaved because of her. Flandre is miserable and weeps for her.

She's also the 'soul' this darkness. Cirno, Flandre, and Nathaniel are the heart, mind, and body of this darkness, respectively. They're the emotions, thoughts, and experiences of this whole ordeal. But, they all originate from a single person, the catalyst for all of it; just like the heart, mind, and body are linked by some ephemeral sense of 'self' or your 'soul'.

She's the center of everything, and we know all about the things she has done, but how much do we know about her? She's somewhat polite, a reasonably gracious hostess, rather selfish, and childish to a fault. That's just about it. Her unguarded personality, her motivations, her logic, etc., is a mystery. We have, at the least, some notion of the same for Cirno, Flandre, and Nathaniel. We know who they are, why they do things, what they think (well, maybe not Flandre as much, but at least we know we don't fully understand her mental processes), and so on. Remilia is the last great mystery of this mansion, and we'd be remiss if we didn't see that through to the end. Our dream was to discover the truth and be ourselves and she's the final hurdle for both of those.

I also like the write-up for what she entails:
>IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE THE ONE WHOM YOU SERVE, YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE SOUL OF DARKNESS, THE SOUL OF FANTASY AND DREAMS. YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO A STRONGER LIFE, AND BE SILENT WHEN ALL AROUND YOU SHALL SPEAK, SEEING WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE BLIND. YOU WILL FEEL TURMOIL, AND YOU WILL FEEL CONTENTEDNESS. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, AND YOU WILL CHOOSE PEACE OVER WAR.
A stronger life? Listening and understanding everything while everyone else is merely speaking? Isn't the versitility of our sight one of our greatest assets? This is what we've aspired towards for a while now. It calls to me.

Probable course of action? Well, if time wasn't a factor I'd say swing by the kitchen for something to eat to make up for our blood loss, but time is a factor. Seeing as Remilia is going to wreck Nathaniel's shit in short order, we need to seek her out and lay all our cards on the table: why don't you see Flandre anymore?, do you know she took a dragon name Glish as a brother and named him Adam?, why do you play this game of fate manipulation?, what did you do to Sakuya to turn her into a slave?, what would have done to Gensokyo with Nathaniel's help if he hadn't now turned against you?, why are you killing Cirno?, and why do you hide behind the facade of a child to shirk the responsibilities your abilities entail? Last one is a big one and a long shot: she has thoroughly embraced the concept of vampirism giving her a free pass to never develop. On the one hand, yeah, I'm not expecting a burst of maturity like we saw in Cirno. But even a child knows there are things you can and can't do and she's hiding from that.

The real challenge, though, is that our last card is potentially moot if we confront her. Can't use it on her since she gave us the card. Nathaniel's warning gives some indication we can't use it on ourselves. However, I think that was in the context of using it on ourselves to escape. If we use it to temporarily remove her effects on us long enough to confront her without interference, I think it may work.

Anyway:
[X] Pursue Remilia

Screw the mysterious deus ex machina. It's not the voice of God; it's a construct made by Remilia's magic. According to the "game theory" this is just another cog in the machine. Just vague enough to be true, without providing new information or referring to anything topical; it's something created to galvanize the game pieces into action, and even admits itself that the actual future may have nothing to do with the prediction:

>With each waking step away from your future sight your fate changes and ripples, becoming a shadow of what once it was.

As I see it, not much has changed, except that we have a clearer view as to the genesis of Nathaniel's and Sakuya's paranoia, people who were once powerful, intelligent, driven, and at least in Nathaniel's case, with a strong moral backbone. Like the two of them who have used their cards, it even predicts our own end when we act upon the information it provides:

>”The future is dangerous, as the past is dangerous, and as the present is also. Knowledge of the beyond itself remains neutral, but to those who act upon it, doom is ever at their doorstep.

It's a ruse. A ploy to get you to destroy your own integrity by acting out of desperation, so that when the hammer falls, Remilia can say "I told you so," and, "This was your fault."

Fuck that noise. Refuse to play Remilia's game, just like you should have refused to play Flandre's before.

[x] Scry everybody.
[x] If Patchouli is conscious and in an obvious location, head there posthaste.

We don't know where anybody is. Patchouli is probably the safest to be around and the most likely to give frank answers about Remilia's "game", but we don't know what happened to her when Nathaniel and Sakuya awoke. She could be in the kitchen still, or back in the library.

[x] Find Cirno

Well, the sloth bit might make people realize we can’t just sit out of the way and wait for this to be over. Beyond that though, this vague and cryptic nonsense doesn’t seem to have told us much. The wording of the ‘save the one you love’ section is obviously Cirno, and could be associated with the basement, but the wording is such that we can’t really be certain.

Even we assume Cirno is the basement, that place is a huge fucking maze, we still might not be able to find her in time. We’re tired, bleeding out, and we have no weaponry to fight off the rabid fairies down there. It pains me to say this because I really want to get to her as soon as possible, but we need help, plain and simple.

I think we should ask Patchouli. She’s been rather helpful every time we’ve asked. Maybe she can do some kind of magical trace to find out where the person we’re scrying is located or something, and if she’s willing to come down to the basement that’d be really helpful too. Also, she’d been pretty nice to us all things considered, I’d hate to come across her a bit later with one of Nate’s bullets in her head. I’m guessing she wouldn’t recover quite as well as Remilia.

If she can’t or won’t help us, then I guess we’ll just have to grab a knife from the kitchen and head back down alone.

[x] Scry Patchouli. Go ask if she'll help save Cirno.

I can't think of anything to add, but I favor the 'saving Remilia' path, so:
[x] Pursue Remilia

If we go save Cirno, we can get her out of here, but the fact remains she's turning mortal somehow. Nothing we can do to fix that. The only person that has the power to change that is Remilia.

Considering she's off to go kick Nat's ass and we are to choose "Peace over War" We probably need to stop them somehow. Looks like this is the self-sacrifice path.

No regrets.

[x]Pursue Remilia

What Nathaniel's told us about the fate of the present card suggests it could restore Cirno's regeneration if we use it on her. Maybe. I think.

Honestly, It’s all so vague that I don't know what the fuck.

>Nothing we can do to fix that. The only person that has the power to change that is Remilia.

We don't know that; we haven't even looked into the cause. It could be Sakuya doing it for all we know.

>What Nathaniel's told us about the fate of the present card suggests it could restore Cirno's regeneration if we use it on her. Maybe. I think.

Which begs the question: How does he know what it does if he's never used it himself?

>>26090
I suppose he could have learned it somehow during those three months that he erased with his past card. Though, you're right, he could be just as clueless and mistaken as we are about it.

>>26078
Distrusting of others, questioning and second-guessing even your own actions, and believing even things intended to help you are just another part of the game meant to work against you somehow?

For all your concern about us turning out like Nathaniel, with that kind of thinking you're well on your way to becoming him.

>>26090
>>26091

Oh, that's simple.
>>They completely remove the influence of fate she has on a person; she managed to let that slip before I used my Past card.

If Cirno's lack of regeneration is the result of Remilia's manipulating her fate to make her die, and the card removes Remi's influence on the target's fate, then it's easy to guess what sort of effect it would have on Cirno's mortality. There's no way to be completely certain without actually doing it, of course, but it seems like the most likely outcome.

>>26092
>For all your concern about us turning out like Nathaniel, with that kind of thinking you're well on your way to becoming him.

No we aren't. Nathaniel is one who is driven to extreme acts by his perceived jailer. The Farmer in the same situation merely abides. Why do you think Nathaniel has become boring and the Farmer so interesting to Remilia?

>>26092
>If Cirno's lack of regeneration is the result of Remilia's manipulating her fate to make her die, and the card removes Remi's influence on the target's fate, then it's easy to guess what sort of effect it would have on Cirno's mortality. There's no way to be completely certain without actually doing it, of course, but it seems like the most likely outcome.

But if it's something other than Remilia that is the cause (time manipulation, external influence, karmic progression), we lose our best, and possibly only, chance of restoring said immortality.

After all, the protagonist just revealed that the fairy is what is keeping him here; she's no longer the irritant she once was, is she?

Where's the save Meiling option?

>>26097

She is not important enough.

>>26097

bitch is a hoe

>>26095
>But if it's something other than Remilia that is the cause (time manipulation, external influence, karmic progression), we lose our best, and possibly only, chance of restoring said immortality.

Wait, what? I think you’re contradicting yourself here. We can’t lose the method of restoring her immortality if it never was the way to restore her immortality.

>Wait, what? I think you’re contradicting yourself here. We can’t lose the method of restoring her immortality if it never was the way to restore her immortality.

No, no. It's like this: If something else is the cause of Cirno's degeneration, even something that would otherwise be irreversible, Remilia can fix it, by changing her fate. But if we use the fate card on Cirno, Remilia wouldn't be able to alter the destiny that was meant for for her, in this case death, dooming her.

>>26100
I think he might perhaps mean that if using the card doesn't help Cirno if used on her directly it, it might have been able to somehow help her indirectly by using it on someone else.

Of course, that kinda ignores the fact that by the time we've gone to the lengths necessary to save Cirno, we'll be too far away from being able to save anyone else if whatever we do doesn't work anyway.

>>26097
She's not a part of this insanity.

[x] Find Cirno

as someone was saying before: just cause the main result of our actions are A, it doesn't mean they're not also B

Butler with everlasting fairy love end

>She is not important enough.

It is rather funny how all the early threads discussed Meiling routes a bit, while after we sent her off the most we interact with her is that she's a spectacularly unhelpful scrying target.

[x] Scry everybody.
[x] If Patchouli is conscious and in an obvious location, head there posthaste.

Seems the most sensible option right now. As to go save Remilia or Cirno, as seems like the heart of the discussion, we don't have to decide now. Let's see what Patchouli has to say before we decide something and march off blindly.

>>26107
If we had bothered to talk to her after our danmaku duel like we should have, we might have been able to find out how she fits into all this, or at least made her an ally. That was pretty much the last time she was right there and we weren't busy trying to do anything.

>>26110
>we don't have to decide now.
>[x] Scry everybody.

Isn't this exactly what got Cirno killed?

>>26118

At a time where Cirno was in clear danger, yes. However, we don't know that she is in any more dangerous a place than being in the halls with us when the shit goes down. To Sakuya, she was a liability, since she could blow the lid off that delirium bullshit she fed us, so she wouldn't be careless enough to put her within easy reach of the other residents.

You've driven Anon to this, U.N. Owen. A hypothetical dialectic with Nathaniel and Farmer, expressing some theories as to characters' motivations.

Nathaniel: "I've experienced more hardship in this place than you can imagine, I've been the target of endless attempts on my life, I've seen the face of horror. Your opinion on anything concerning the mansion, or it's residents, frankly, it's dirt. Dirt in comparison to mine."

Farmer: "But that's exactly why you need my opinion. I'm fresh. I'm new. I'm worth consideration, for a number of reasons: I've been here long enough to prove I can survive this place, but so not so long as to have become trapped in certain way of thinking. I might not have all the information that you have, but that doesn't mean anything if your way of considering is fundamentally flawed.

Nathaniel: "And why might I assume your way of thinking is any more reliable than my own? Are you going to regale me with the tale of how you and the homestead held out against the mighty potato pestilence of aught-four?"

Farmer: "Ignoring that snarky afterword, you said it yourself when I took you down to the basement. You're not a people person. No, you're insane, which is why you were able to get along with Flandre so swimmingly while I floundered."

Nathaniel: "If you understand that much in retrospect, that I saved your life when I could have done otherwise, through my supposed 'insanity', why in God's green earth are you doubting me now?"

Farmer: "Because the enemy here is not insane. Evil? Possibly. But not insane."

Nathaniel: "Maybe this is just the 'insanity' dulling my comprehension, Farmer, but with what yardstick are you measuring sanity here? Well-adjusted people are hard to come by in this place."

Farmer: "It's like said in the basement. When you call someone insane, it means you never know what's going on in their head. I call Flandre insane because I have no idea how she'll react toward anything. By this measure, you are less insane than she, because I can at least hold this conversation with you, but you're insane enough that you were able to respond appropriately to Flandre's outburst, palliating her, and probably saving my life."

Nathaniel: "Okay, but what about Remilia's character? You've spent, what, a few hours tops chatting with her? I know you don't trust my experiences with that monster, Farmer, but you're certainly not a relevant authority on the matter yourself."

Farmer: "But my lack of experience is what unmasks my ability; in only a few days she's become fonder of me than of you in months. Furthermore, she's told me outright she doesn't like talking to you--only responding with philosophical bullshit, to paraphrase."

Nathaniel: "Okay, backing up and getting away from the loaded terms, according to you, I share something in common with Flandre that you lack, and you share something in common with Remilia that I lack?"

Farmer: "Yes, and I guess it doesn't really matter what we call it, or even what it is, the presence of the difference is all that is important."

Nathaniel: "So you and Remilia are two peas in pod; that just makes me want to kill you, Farmer, not listen to you."

Farmer: "That's just your insanity acting up again."

Nathaniel: "My insanity has a hair trigger. Get to the point."

Farmer: "Ah, right. Keeping in mind the anecdote of the basement, in the way that I needed the help of the benevolently insane to save me from the malevolently insane, you need now the help of the benevolently sane to save you from the malevolently sane. It's why you brought me here, is it not?"

Nathaniel: "Yes, and you fulfilled this duty well beyond my expectations, but then... then you had the audacity to tell me to step away from my fight, my cause, like it was ever yours!"

Farmer: "That was a failure to communicate. I didn't understand the full scope of your intentions for this place and its inhabitants, and I guess I still really don't."

Nathaniel: "Your sanity and my insanity again?"

Farmer: "It's the unfortunate truth. You and I could never in a million years become friends; we're far too different. But that doesn't mean I can't still save your life."

Nathaniel: "I appreciate the sentiment, Farmer, but you're the one in need of saving. I am too far deep in the muck."

Farmer: "That's exactly why I can save you. You didn't bring me here to fetch your sword; you brought me here to save you. I never heard your screaming and crying, I never heard your prayers to God or the Devil, but I came nonetheless. Everything has a purpose, I think you've said before, so that includes the weak, the cowardly, the stupi--"

Nathaniel: "All of which fit you quite well, of course, but how do you know your role isn't over? How do you know the game is not already lost?"

Farmer: "I don't. I'm just a chess piece. But until the King falls, the Pawn will march on regardless, and it looks like you're running out of other chess pieces."

Nathaniel: "Alright, getting away from this metaphor before we break it, how do you suggest I 'use' you, Farmer? Human shield? Maybe get you equipped with another wooden chair?"

Farmer: "No, no, it's even stupider than that. I'm just going to barter for your life with Remilia."

Nathaniel: "Well, that is stupider. You're not the only who can play E-Card, Farmer. I won too."

Farmer: "Yes, but you're no fun to play with. Remilia enjoyed her game with me, and as a person only looking for a cure for their boredom, that's as good a reason for her to agree as any."

Nathaniel: "She'll never agree to it. I tried to kill her. I tried to escape her control. I tried turning her servants against her."

Farmer: "Remilia doesn't hate you for doing any of that. She hates you because you've become boring. And like all the toys before you that became boring, she's now going to break you."

Nathaniel: "That's very heartening to hear."

Farmer: "Your problem I think is that you're been using the wrong metaphor. It was vanity on your part to think you were ever considered her opponent. No, it's not so much she's playing a game, as it is she's watching theater. Sometimes a particularly interesting character comes around, or an actor who plays a stale character particularly well, but most will become boring after a time, and will consequently be hooked off the stage."

Nathaniel: "Well, that's just... just more depressing. Just when I think the world couldn't be any more absurd, you tell me this."

Farmer: "It's just a metaphor. The only thing to take to heart is Remilia's lack of emotional investment in you as an enemy."

Nathaniel: "But it changes nothing, Farmer. I... we are still doomed utterly, if not more so."

Farmer: "Not so. There are ways for one to retire from the set gracefully, and not every character needs to die on-stage. You're just going to pass the baton to me."

Nathaniel: "Yeah, that's a great idea; I'll just put everything in your hands, and I'm sure everything will be fine! Didn't I tell you that I'm not backing away from this?"

Farmer: "It's not like that. Remember, it's not a fight or a game, it's a stage, and the scene calls for more than just one actor. You're still a key and necessary player."

Nathaniel: "So, what do you want from me then? My gun? My watch? My sword?"

Farmer: "No, I want the one thing that isn't yours. Or at least is only your as in as much as these clothes are mine. That Fate Card."

Nathaniel: "...What can you do with it that I cannot? Why do you think you can win where I can't?"

Farmer: "It's rather simple, actually: She wants me to win."

Nathaniel: "You're insane. No, wait, you're not insane. I'm insane for going along with this, and you... you're just stupid."

Farmer: "No, that's actually one trait I think we both share, Nathaniel, because if either of us ever had any brains, we wouldn't be in this place to being with."

Process of elimination.
- Sakuya is out. Definitely. She's already going to be of no help, even if we tell her that her mistress already spilled the beans about knowing she is lying to us and WE know that too anyway. The only reason we would wake her up is if we were going to support Remilia, and even then we should just let sleeping dogs lie.
- Patchouli's help would be useful, yet she would be useless to us. What would we do with her/ask her to do for us? I doubt she could locate Cirno any better than we could and she probably wouldn't see the need to support either Remilia or Nathaniel. We don't have magical (write-in) words in our vocabulary to deal with her.
- Flandre is out of the questions. We plead the insanity defense, your honor.
- Adam/Glish is out for similar reasons, though the chance of him being sane would be useful only if we were going to support Nathaniel against--actually I'm not sure. He "killed" Remilia, knowing fully-well that she would regenerate, and ran off without taking any further precautions. He may be looking for Glish's room, but there may also be something else he's planning to engage.
- Nathaniel isn't our enemy if we don't directly support Remilia, but he isn't our ally anymore if we try to support him. Following him would, at most, yield argumentative or expository dialog.
- Following Remilia would probably lead us to Nathaniel anyway, then it's the matter of whether we support her against him or him against her or we just stick to observing (unless Revelation ...).
- Meiling is like Patchouli - we don't know the magic words to her to help us directly. We might be able to get her to leave her post if we say that Remilia is fighting and Sakuya is out cold; we have less a chance if we say that "neighbor-san" is in trouble, though that might get a reaction.
- We don't know where Cirno is, so if we're going to try and find her, we should also include an uncomplicated methodology as our write-in. Not knowing where she is will also mean we may have to travel to some very dangerous places again or talk to some very dangerous people who may not be able to hgelp us anyway. Resulting in a dangerous waste of time.

I feel naked running around SDM without some kind of weapon, especially if we are going to go anywhere that is not a nondescript hallway. (Any suits of armor around? Grab a weapon off that; otherwise, let's check back at our room.)

We have two different choices:
Do: nothing, our own thing, run away, support Nathaniel, support Remilia.
Use Fate of the Present on: Adam, Cirno, Flandre, Nathaniel, nobody, Sakuya.

If we're going to scry anyone, we should only scry two people: if and whoever we're going to pursue and Sakuya, who will be a great threat to us if she wakes up. And we need to do it quickly.

>- Patchouli's help would be useful, yet she would be useless to us. What would we do with her/ask her to do for us? I doubt she could locate Cirno any better than we could and she probably wouldn't see the need to support either Remilia or Nathaniel. We don't have magical (write-in) words in our vocabulary to deal with her.

I was was thinking more along the lines of asking her about the Game or the Fate Cards or Sakuya's plotting or Remilia's desires... or the thousand other questions we have.

You know what?

At this point, I'm all for turning a blind eye to the mysteries of this mansion, grabbing Cirno, and hightailing it out of here.

"The Darkness was Left Behind" ending. C+ ending. Or something.

>>26125

As are most of us, I think, but the situation hasn't changed much from what we told Nathaniel earlier: We have yet to resolve Cirno's regeneration issue.

>>26126

The only reason I want to pursue Remilia is to get Cirno's regeneration issue resolved.

>>26127

She promised to extract her whereabouts from Sakuya. After that will be the best opportunity to bring it up with her. If we accuse her of being the cause of the degeneration before we actually get her back, she might so offended that she decides not to tell you where she is. Remilia is quite busy rampaging about the mansion and you're not going to earn any favors from her by spoiling her fun because you acted against her wishes. However, we're not totally impotent: We can knock out our secondary hypotheses of the cause by talking to Patchouli and (more dangerously) Sakuya. And we can scry, which is something that we should be doing at every moment, since the information provided may very well change how we chose to spend our time right now.

I say we follow Remilia, grab Nathaniel's card from his exploded corpse (hopefully it'll have survived) and then use the card on Flandre rather than Glish.

It'll probably save him at the same time anyways...if it saves Flandre anyhow. Once again, hopefully it'll save her from her fate of just being another vampire and bring about a new path for her that will allow her to grow up mentally.

If the part with him being explody doesn't happen, we can always try to convince...yeah that's not gonna happen, it's "kyuuu!" time Remi!!

[x]Pursue Remilia

By the way, scrying everyone sounds kind of like the Path of Sloth that the Future Card told us about...I'm not saying it is but it certainly sounds like Mr.Farmer's version of sloth.

>>26132
Right, because taking the time to figure out where the players are and gain a tactical advantage is laziness.

>>26133
You mean like that time we were stuck in that chair in the basement, and Flandre was all "You're going to poke your eye out, kid," and we were all like "NO WAY" and so despite already knowing our friends were likely in equally bad situations we spent time confirming they were in bad situations and that the rest of the mansion was basically twiddling their thumbs and not coming to help, followed by wasting even more time futilely attempting to free ourselves with pretty danmaku lights when the whole time we should have just taken the most obvious course of action staring us right in the eye and gotten it over with, and as a result were rewarded with our dear fairy friend torn to shreds and dying in our arms?

That was great.

There is a time for caution and planning, and there is a time for decisive action. We know Sakuya probably knows where Cirno is. We know Nathaniel was probably heading for Sakuya. We know Remilia was almost certainly heading for Nathaniel. And, we know that unless something happens to stop them, then shortly after they all meet things are going to get very, very messy. Unless you have some idea of discovering Cirno's location without questioning someone who would know, I would think the best course of action would be to get to wherever Remilia is going before all hell breaks loose and it becomes all we can do to not get killed in the crossfire.

>>26125
I am more for the

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE THE ONE WHOM YOU LOVE, YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS, THE HEART OF STONE AND STEEL. YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO YOUR PAST AND FIND THAT WHICH YOU SOOK TO DISCLOSE, BUT FEARED TO ATTEMPT. YOU WILL FEEL EMPATHY, AND YOU WILL FEEL SORROW. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, AND YOU WILL CHOOSE YOUR HEART OVER YOUR MIND.

or the

>“IF YOU SEEK TO SAVE THE ONE WHOM YOU SERVE, YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE SOUL OF DARKNESS, THE SOUL OF FANTASY AND DREAMS. YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO A STRONGER LIFE, AND BE SILENT WHEN ALL AROUND YOU SHALL SPEAK, SEEING WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE BLIND. YOU WILL FEEL TURMOIL, AND YOU WILL FEEL CONTENTEDNESS. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, AND YOU WILL CHOOSE PEACE OVER WAR.

ending. Cirno or Remilia. Either one doesn't sound that bad. Simple grabbing Cirno and running doesn't solve anything in the long run, if Farmer is really under the effect of the Fate Hacks then it doesn't matter how far or long he runs he will always get back to square one.
Either save Remilia, win the game and have her eleminate it or go along with whatever the saving Cirno path has to offer.

I can agree with most of what >>26071 said. If i wouldn't have already voted for Find Cirno i would go with [ ] Pursue Remilia

>>26125
I'd be for this as well, but I want to tell Patchy and Meiling to get the hell out of Dodge, first.

This is why I love SDM.

[x]Pursue Remilia

>A Scarlet-Stained Memoir U. N. Owen!MqTkhp80TA 08/09/01(Mon)17:45

Already 5 months.

[x]Pursue Remilia
Doesn't matter who we're planning to help or kill, this is probably our best bet.

[12:37] <UNOwen> Have you read some of their comments?
[12:37] <Giddy> There is no sad part. It's just retarded.
[12:37] <UNOwen> "Oh, being Remilia's butler and replacing Sakuya wouldn't be so bad."
[12:37] <Terminal> That's the minorithy
[12:37] <Terminal> minority*
[12:37] <Giddy> thy~
[12:37] <Terminal> Damn you H key
[12:37] <UNOwen> "So what if we're under her fate hax for eternity?"
[12:37] <UNOwen> "At least we'll still have Cirno."
[12:38] <UNOwen> Yeah. If they actually believe that I'll let them keep Cirno if they try that...
[12:38] <UNOwen> That's not a spoiler, by the way. Everyone should know it by now.
[12:38] <Giddy> Oho.
[12:38] <UNOwen> Owen preys upon Anon's weakness for lolis.
[12:39] <UNOwen> And yet, people still don't seem to realize it.
[12:39] <UNOwen> After it's been said like four times.
[12:39] <UNOwen> If they want to focus everything they have left on saving every loli they can...
[12:39] <UNOwen> ...heaven help them, because I won't.

Stop voting Remilia you faggots.

>>26143

I'm voting for Remilia for a chance to straighten shit out. I couldn't give a fuck less about what happens to her. Cirno is who I'm worried about.

[x] Find Cirno

>>26143
I have no excuse, and I am sorry. I did indeed say this on IRC, despite promising that I wouldn't say such things. I got carried away with my emotions. Make of it what you will, but be wary of misconstruing words. They may not be what you think they are.

No update until later tonight, I'm afraid. [Pursue Remilia] hit five votes, so the polls are closed, but I'll need some planning time before I can start writing, and I've got work this afternoon.

>>26143
Personally, I'd rather see Cirno carved up into tiny pieces and fed to Meiling. I'm much more interested in Remilia.

>>26153
Please do not think this man represents anyone but himself. The majority of us do not want a sad end.

>>26143
>[12:37] <Giddy> There is no sad part. It's just retarded.
sage for IRC faggotry
>[12:37] <UNOwen> "Oh, being Remilia's butler and replacing Sakuya wouldn't be so bad."

I thought it would be a funny ending, but never going for it.

>[12:39] <UNOwen> If they want to focus everything they have left on saving every loli they can...

You made that clear in the last thread.

I wouldn't mind a little railroading if it kept us from getting a terrible end. I'm not expecting an ending full of sunshine and rainbows at this point, but ending on a bad note could kill the experience.

Is it snowing?

>>26158
>I wouldn't mind a little railroading if it kept us from getting a terrible end.

Unfortunately, it seems that if the author will be fudging any dice, it won't be in our favor.

>>26157
Sage for kneejerk "IRC faggotry" faggotry.

Some of the discussions are confusing me: are we choosing Remilia because we want to save Remilia, or are we choosing Remilia to save Cirno? One train of thought makes sense to me, the other is destined for failure. If you wanted to save Cirno, you'd have chosen to save Cirno. Doing so would let Nathaniel and Remilia have a go at each other and leave Flandre in the same situation as before, but Cirno could be saved. "Pursuing Remilia," to me, is essentially our decision to "travel to the sould of darkness." By doing so, we accept that the purpose of doing so is to "save the one you serve," Remilia, and no others. I think there may be a few more chances to change target(/lure anon into throwing himself bodily between the nearest DFC and any perceived threat to hilarious effect), but right now Remilia is our choice. Is that a reasonable assumption? If not, I think we're in for a world of trouble and death.

Wandering off for Cirno, Nathaniel, or Flandre would all present their own unique challenges, I don't doubt, but I think the thrust of most of them would be understanding how to use our intellect and the Third Wish to save them. By doing so, we ostensibly save the target from Remilia's fate manipulation for the sole purpose of, or perhaps in pursuit of, their salvation. But circumventing the fate manipulation acknowledges that Remilia, the source of the fate change, is basically the one we're saving them from.

How does that apply to Remilia? What does Remilia need to be saved from? Nathaniel? Sakuya? Farmer? All things considered, she probably needs to be saved from herself. All this manipulating, enslaving, killing, and destroying isn't going to end well for her at all. It certainly didn't for "grandfather" Tepes, whom she is emulating and admiring on a deeply disturbing level. At least Vlad was... "vigorously" protecting Christianity to justify his acts, and there are stories where he was genuinely benelovent to honest and decent people. What justifications Remilia has should be enlightening, assuming we can discover them, because it'll put her actions into context.

Regardless of that, the priority should be saving Remilia from whatever it is that endangers her, and we should be doing so because we genuinely want to help her. Aside from bending the rules in her little games, being rather selfish, and leaving us a few quarts low, there's not a lot that would give us any reason to hate her. We have observed/been informed of the deleterious effect she apparently has on the people around her, and that needs to be addressed because it may be symptomatic of something that is a dangerous to her. "Discovering the truth" is our mantra, and learning what could threaten the threat to everyone else may be the last great mystery of the SDM.

I say all this because we'll doom ourselves for failure if we try to save anyone vicariously by dealing with Remilia. Remi isn't a means to an end; she is the end inb4 "Literally" In reality, between now and getting to confront Remilia, our target may change. But even still, following through on our choice should remain priority one.That's the responsibility of choosing to save someone. This would apply to any of the four choices: pick one person and stay on target. I doubt we'd try to save Flandre by saving Cirno (although I don't doubt there'd be a thorough discussion as to why not try). I won't lie, I think saving Remilia has the best chance of saving (some of) the others, but that doesn't change the fact that to do so means we actually save Remilia.

Assuming Remi stays the choice: what will be the price of the peace we choose?

I get the feeling that It's impossible to save both Remilia and Cirno. We have to pick one, and if you people pick Remilia I will be very very sad.

>>26173
Personally, I'm leaning towards helping Remilia simply because her problem seems like it will be the most interesting one to get to the bottom of.

Everyone else has a problem that seems rather clear and cut, with the only real uncertainty being how to fix it. Cirno needs her immortality back, Nathaniel needs to complete his mission and get out of the game alive, and Flandre likely needs something done about her insanity stemming from her fragmented soul.

But Remilia? We know she has some sort of dream, or goal, but not sure exactly what it is. We know she might be testing her powers, and using this "game" to do it, which might somehow figure into this goal. Lastly, we know she is apparently very much fixated on her "grandfather" so much that she keeps statues and paintings of his likeness around. Almost, dare I say, an obsession at the expense of all else that should matter to her.

Aside from sibling neglect, however, there is something more to this.
>>You never visit! You never talk! You’ve never heard me play! You don’t even know I have a brother, do you?! You don’t care about him! You don’t care about me! All you’ve ever cared about is Grandpa, and he doesn’t even exist!

Remilia doesn't claim to be the descendant of Tepes to just sound important, she honestly believes it. In other words, she's delusional.

>>YOU WILL TRAVEL INTO THE SOUL OF DARKNESS, THE SOUL OF FANTASY AND DREAMS.

Basically, saving Remilia will possibly entail delving into the core of this fantasy, this delusion of hers, where it came from, and where it seems to be taking her.

Wouldn't it be interesting of the most pleasant, civil, seemingly rational person in the mansion turns out the be, in her own way, the craziest one of the bunch?

>>26173

You, sir, have both my axe and monocle. My biggest fear with this course of action though is falling onto the path of compassion by doing this bloodlessly and giving us the butler end. The bad one where we lose the other eye and become Voldo.
>Assuming Remi stays the choice: what will be the price of the peace we choose?
I swear... its gonna be Old Yeller with a vampire loli instead of a rabid dog and we are gonna refuse to pull the trigger.

>Regardless of that, the priority should be saving Remilia from whatever it is that endangers her, and we should be doing so because we genuinely want to help her.

I agree

I'd say it's more of a save Remilia because she needs saving, and MAYBE we'll get other people.

All the other choices are feel like damn all to save one, this seems to be the only damn some, save one, maybe more.

I'm sure Owen is getting a kick out of all this discussion over a red herring. God damn.

>>26178
It's too bad Cirno is not likely to be included in those other people. I doubt she's safe right now, while we're off getting psychological with Remilia she's going to get killed, and Owen isn't going to be nice enough to bring her back a second time.

Still, you might be right; a few more people might survive this way. It's the pragmatic solution. I just thought we would have a bit more loyalty towards our only real friend in this hellhole. She’d save you.

>>26179

Yeah, despite taking the time to write this awesome story...he secretly(well, probably not secretly) wants to put us in the deepest parts of despair...

I wonder if there even is a good end somewhere in this story. Oh well, I'll find out first hand anyhow regardless.

>>26181

I am rolling my eyes so hard it hurts.

>>26182

We killed her the moment we made her stay in the mansion to be our maid. She died because of it once already.

>>26185

No, we killed her the minute we decided to get impaled by her ice shards.

>>26178
Exactly: you can't talk about a problem here without bringing up Remilia, we've had a distressingly small amount of genuine communication with her, and we have yet to enjoy any kind of unambiguous expressions from her. I mean, as brief as it was, we got to hear Sakuya's petulent side when she deprived us of our completed pair of glasses. It's quite possible the most interesting/pathetic case has been under our nose the entire time and we've been too occupied with more immediately pressing matters (Nat is a jerk/do want Cirno End/Patchouli End where?Seriously, where? ;_;). Time to rectify that.

>>26175
Wow, that didn't even figure into my consideration, but that's a stellar observation on the Tepes/fantasy aspect. The story of Vlad Tepes is one that can easily be reviled and relegated to one of the actions of a fanatic by those of a sound mind. But for a child cursed with vampirism yet blessed with a fathomless power, the tale of a person in a similar situation (burdened by their situation, but empowered by their cause and responsibility), it could very well be intoxicating to the point of escapism. Grandfather did it, and so can I. Attrocious acts committed for some greater good. What that "greater good" is for Remilia should be... something.

>>26176
>I swear... its gonna be Old Yeller with a vampire loli instead of a rabid dog and we are gonna refuse to pull the trigger.
Yeah, brainwaved me on that. Didn't wanna say anything because U.N. Owen loves to mess with our expectations.
That said: ha ha! Now you must find an even more audacious way to screw with us, honored writer! Have at you!

>>26180
Loved the file name. Maybe the Cirno camp can answer this one for me, since I'm way too entrenched in figuring out WTF is wrong with Remilia: what happens after we use the Third Wish to save Cirno from Remilia's "fate of death?" My read has been thus:
Best case scenario, Cirno and Farmer escape unscathed, Nathaniel escapes somehow and leaves Gensokyo with Sakuya/Glish, Cirno meets Isaac, becomes absurdly strong, defeats all of SDM, and eternal peace is established under our snow fairy empress.
Worst case scenario, Cirno is enslaved by Remilia and slowly tortures Farmer to death, after which she is tortured to death herself while Remilia dominates Gensokyo/the world.
Considering this is a story of paranoia, fear, horror, despair, and truth... which side of either end going to tend towards? Would love to be proven wrong, since I don't handle soul-crushing despair too well, but I'm going to err on the side of absolute truth over possible/partial truth until proven otherwise.

>>26183
No Good End.
No Bad End.
No Sad End.
Only True End.
Final Destination.
Please?

Finally... fuck yeah, genuine discussion! It has been lacking for too long. Arguing never felt so good.

[x] Scry Everyone
[x] Save Cirno

I know its too late, but god damn, didn't expect all of you to pull a 180 on our maid.

Also, I am very confused about how this is going to go. This choice seems completely different than any we've made. This seems to be a path selection or something, or at least that's what the comments of most concerned are making it seem... yet every other choice we've made was through our actions. We don't know where Cirno is right now. Chasing after Remilia makes us just as likely to find out what we need to know as anything else.

Also, we have yet to scry anyone that would actually let us know whats going on, how about we go ahead and do that now before walking in on our own death? Alright?

There you have it, Mr. Farmer: The ITALICIZED CAPITAL WORDS. The words that sent the last three years of Sakuya's life into a graveyard spiral about the mansion. The words that whipped a brilliant inventor into vengeance-obsessed madness. Words seeming so prescient and portentous, but upon closer inspection are hollow of meaning, like chipped gold leaf coating a bar of lead. Wholly impotent, they require you carry out all the legwork in order to make their 'predictions' reality.

[x] Laugh. Laugh at the absurdity. For when you weep, you weep alone, but when you laugh, the world laughs with you.
[x] Scry everybody. Scry your family, back on the homestead. Scry yourself!

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

I'm impressed. Fate of the Future told us absolutely nothing beyond "pick someone or lose anyone or everyone" and we're acting as if we've just been handed solutions. WE HAVEN'T LEARNED ANYTHING. We haven't learned anything new about the inter-activity between participants in the mansion. We haven't learned anything about how to find/restore/save Cirno. We haven't learned anything about how to evacuate/save Nathaniel. We haven't learned anything about Sakuya's true role and motivation in this. We haven't learned what Remilia wants or whether she is responsible for anything. We're still just reaching through nonsense.

SO. Vote. No lengthy explanations, no BS, just state your pick.
>[1] Who you trust, if anyone.
>[2] What you want to do now, if anything.
>[3] Who you want to use the card on, if anyone.
>[4] If the card is used, what do you hope to accomplish with that person, if anything (suggest to them).

[x] Remilia.
[x] Scry Cirno, scry Sakuya, then try to find Cirno.
[x] Cirno (only use on Sakuya if she corners us first).
[x] Play by ear.

[x] The least-overall-worst option that also has Cirno being saved.

I don't know what to vote for except this, Owen.

Just put my vote towards whatever would do this best.

[x] Save the cheerleader.

In all seriousness though, all of this serious business is going right over my head.

I spent a lot of last night talking to Mystia about my story, and he brought up some awesome, if a little prying, points that I really need to think about now. I’m kind of halfway between despair and inspiration right now, so I need to take a small break from writing until I can get this sorted out. I’m so sorry for leaving you hanging like this—I know I’d hate it to keep getting promised product, and then keep getting delayed—but if I’m not happy with writing, I shouldn’t write until I am. This shouldn’t take more than a day or so for me to get my thoughts in order.

>>26200

Take all the time you need.

>>26203
Agreed, A Scarlet-Stained Memoir is your creation, U.N.Owen. Do not let its existence fall short of your vision.

>>26200
Good luck, you wonderful bastard you.

[Pursue Remilia]

There’s got to be boatloads of deep meanings in the message you’ve just been given, but unfortunately time is against you. The “loudness” will be starting any minute now, and if you have any hope of quelling it before it begins, or at the very least avoiding it altogether, you’ve got to analyze this quickly, yet correctly. It’s doesn’t seem that complex, but since you don’t have enough time…

“Brink of oblivion”…okay, so that just means you’re a step away from death if you act stupid. You could have figured that out yourself. “Clinging to victory” must mean you’ve still got a chance to come out of this all right, but what does “victory” mean?

Path of sloth…so that must mean if you sit back and do nothing, you won’t like it in the long run.

Hate…So, wait, if you want to hate people, it’s okay, but you just won’t get any answers? Or is it saying that you won’t like the answers you get? This one confuses you a bit.

Love leads to loss and heartbreak…this one’s gotta be related to Cirno somehow; there’s no one else who’d even come close to being someone you “love”, and you don’t really love her in either a brotherly or a romantic sense…and least you think you don’t. But does this mean, that if you love her too much, you’ll lose her and die of despair or something?

You don’t really know what “compassion leads to chaos” means, but…You’ve just got this feeling that something’s not right about it. Which is odd, considering that compassion should always be a good thing, right? When would compassion ever cause actual chaos and problems? Is it because you’d be compassionate to the wrong people? You seem to be going nowhere fast with your analysis, but you’re loath to choose a different pace for lack of time. Must keep remembering…

“If you seek to save the one whom you love…” Must be Cirno again. You think it might have told you where she was. Stone and steel…that sounds like the basement to you, but where in the basement? Sook to disclose and feared to attempt? Too confusing.

Flandre must be “the one you fear”, because she’d certainly be at the top of people that creep you out right about now. But as for how to seek her…Hmm, hear a whisper that is now complete, choose chaos over order…What could it mean?

Gah, the only thing that makes any sense to you is that last little bit. Save all, and you will save none; save one, and you may save all. Those words cut you to the quick: you can’t try to save everyone, if this “fate” is to be believed, and you’re still not 100% sure you should. But if you save one…but who to save? Flandre, Cirno, Nathaniel, Remilia; those are the four this card probably talks about. Who should you save? You’ve made up your mind a long time ago so save Cirno no matter what, but…would directly saving her be the best way? She’s still mortal and dying, and you haven’t yet solved that problem; you never got a chance to tell Remilia, even though you were going to. Flandre…you don’t even have the first idea on how to save her, if she’s even savable. A portion of your brain says that maybe, just maybe, saving Nathaniel would mean saving the mansion as well, but at the expense of Remilia’s life, and whoever else gets caught up in the crossfire?

The vampire’s the only real choice, then. Whether she’s manipulating everyone’s fate to her own purposes, or just a glorified child having a little fun, she’s at the heart and soul of all this confusion and chaos. It’s her mansion; she has to know what’s going on. And if she knows everything, then maybe saving her will fix everything she knows about, as well. You still can’t hope to understand everything, but you don’t have any more time to try. You’ve made up your mind: you’re going to pursue Remilia wherever she just went, in an attempt to stop this madness before it escalates out of control.

Though it hurts to stand back up from your seat on the floor, you manage without any real difficultly. Let’s see…if Remilia was going to go “teach Nathaniel a lesson”, Nathaniel was going to go “save” Sakuya, and Sakuya was unconscious in the kitchen, makes sense all of them would be there, or someplace close. Fastest way to there is through the mansion’s main foyer, if you’ve got your bearings correct. Taking a deep breath and focusing on the current goal at hand, you take off on a half-jog, half-walking limp down the hallways.

A fairy maid or two sees you in passing, but they either run away skittishly or try to pretend like they don’t actually notice that you’re grabbing a bloody shoulder and walking more than a little like a drunk man. You don’t really care at the moment; ever since you’ve gotten to this mansion, those fairies have been nothing more than moving scenery to you. They never seem to speak or make much of noise at all, never seem to pay attention to their surroundings except when they have a particular job. You wonder if they even can speak, for that matter. Your footsteps thud heavily down a switchback stairwell, wishing that you could take the incline three or four steps as a time, but fearing you’ll fall if you try.

You wrack your mind as you progress, trying to think of a way that this won’t all end in tears. Remilia hates Cirno, and seems to despise Nathaniel just as much, now. Nathaniel likewise hates Remilia. Flandre…does Flandre hate Remilia, or not? Her words were marred by rage and insanity, but she said them and seemed to really feel them nonetheless. Sakuya, if Nathaniel is to be believed (ha!) hates Remilia as well, or must as least feel uncomfortable around her. How can you possibly deal with so much hate and anger? If you were a stronger man, you might try to force them all to a table together and make them talk everything over, but you can’t: no time, no time and no strength. Would they listen to reason? Would they listen to threats? Would they listen to pleas? Would they listen to—

You enter the mansion spacious, open foyer just in time to see a sight you thought you’d never actually see. It’s an event that a more sadistic part of your mind has envisioned before on occasion, and in several different versions too. You won’t lie to yourself when you say that you wanted this to happen, but you also can’t lie to yourself because you don’t really want to happen either.

Nathaniel’s body comes flying down a perpendicular hallway, hurled by some amazing unseen force. He slams onto the ground hard and flops around in a few circles before sliding against the wall furthest from you; his gold watch spinning out of his hands in the process, Equitas clutched tight in the other. Not a split second passes after he collides with the wall than a red-white blur speedily follows his trajectory, stopping in front of him as Remilia Scarlet. With lightning reflexes and a fury far greater than should be needed she raises her right leg and drives her heel downwards onto Revelation’s face, shattering the watch into a pile of gilded scraps and broken glass. Nathaniel has only a half-second to look at his life’s work being destroyed in front of him before Remilia gives his face the back of her hand with such force that it slumps his body onto the ground and leaves a trail of four bleeding nail marks on his cheek.

(The sun is red this morning…)

(…You will know death.)

And suddenly the scene freezes.

“I think I should probably apologize to you first…I guess,” Sakuya’s voice says to you as you feel a hand rest onto your shoulder. “So…I’m sorry. Like, really sorry.”

You turn your head to see a much-changed Sakuya standing next to you, looking at Remilia’s frozen strike upon Nathaniel, a few blood drops held motionless in the air. She’s…wow, she looks absolutely nothing like the last time you saw her; any time you saw her, for that matter. A black leather jacket that seems to shine a little in the lamplight rests on her shoulders, and instead of her normal maid skirt, she wears a pair of ragged…dang it, what are those things called again? Was it…Levis? Jeans? Denims? You think one of those might be right. But by whatever name, her pair is blue and faded, torn off halfway up her calf, and are ripped and patched in numerous places. For shoes she has a broken-in pair of dark brown hiking boots, splashed with mud and other dark stains. Underneath the open jacket is an old grey shirt with black and faded words on it, reading: “I’m out of bed. What more do you want out of me?” On her head rests a black hat that looks to you like one of those silly cowboy hats, but the brim is smaller and more pointed, and the crown is purposely folded down the center; it looks much more stylish than you would have expected. Her ears are pierced with multiple silver earrings that don’t even match, and likewise her wrists are ringed with a mishmash of bracelets made of either metal, leather with metal spikes, string, or some other substance you can’t identify. To complete this chaotic ensemble, her fingernails are painted bright pink, and a tight cloth band chokes around her neck, a small grey cross dangling from the center.

You look at her, extremely confused. Why is she bloody dressed like that? She looks like some kind of vagabond you’d find wandering around in the wilderness, and a foreign vagabond at that. While you admit there’s a certain sort of rebellious charm to her apparel, you can’t help but wonder what she’s expecting to accomplish. Granted, her old maid uniform got slashed up by Nathaniel, but why change into this?

“Uhh…I, forgive you?” you half respond, half ask bewilderedly. “Also, what’s with the clothes?”

She stuffs her hands into her pockets and shrugs. “Remelia never lets me wear clothes like this, not in a hundred years. I’m wearing ‘em because it pisses her off, and I want to piss her off right now.”

“Well, okay, but…wait, ‘piss her off’? Since when do you say stuff like that? You’re just joking, right?”

She shakes her head. “Not anymore. Nate fixed that problem. Y’all got those fate cards, right? Well, Nate used his on me. I, I never would have excepted him to, but, well…” She wipes a tear from her eye and sighs. “I didn’t think it would have actually worked, myself. Most people from before, they try to, you know, do stupid stuff like try to wish themselves out of the mansion with ‘em. Always made that brat Remi laugh when she saw that no one knew how to use those dang cards. But I never would have expected them to actually work on me…Thought Remi’d stop it or something, but, like, I don’ really know, she doesn’t tell me a whole lot these days.”

“So, wait, wait. Nate’s been telling me all along that everyone’s under Remilia’s mind-fate something or other control. You’re telling me that he’s telling the truth?”

She either doesn’t seem to understand the question, or doesn’t understand why you’d ask it. In either case, she starts walking towards where the two “combatants” are in suspended animation. “Well, yeah, he is. ‘Cause that Present card wouldn’t work if we weren’t. Under Remilia’s control, I mean. Well, ehh, I guess it’s not really ‘we’ anymore since I’m…but, you get the point, right?”

This is a rather interesting departure from normality, or at least the normality you know. Sakuya’s intelligence seems to have dropped about twenty or thirty percent since the last time you talked to her. She’s speaking even more casually than you are, she’s faltering on her explanations, she’s not really even comprehending the flow of the conversation for that matter! Combining this with her change of clothes and Nathaniel’s vaguely-implied notion that he was going to use 「Fate of the Present」 on Sakuya, you’d normally believe that everything’s happening just like it appears to be: Remilia manipulates Sakuya’s fate to complete servitude, and now that Nathaniel’s last card took that fate away, Sakuya’s supposedly “back to her old self”, if you can even call it that. But if you’ve learned anything at all in this mansion—and you’ve learned quite a bit—it’s to never take anything at face value.

“No, actually,” you answer, folding your arms in front of you. “What proof do I have that this isn’t just some trick, by Nathaniel, or Remilia, or you? You could say anything you want to me right now, because frankly, I don’t bloody know anything that’s going on in this mansion! None of you have really won any points with me, you know. You’re all a bunch of liars from what I can see. I don’t really care what you say about these sinister plots or what-have-you; Remilia’s given me more reason to trust her then you and Nathaniel combined. At least I can get a straight answers from her; with you two it’s all, “Oh, you wouldn’t understand,” or, “I don’t think I should say that right now.” I mean hey, I’m trying to be nice here, but I can’t help you if you don’t help me!”

Sakuya rolls her eyes at you and shakes her head, looking away. “Wow…guess Nate was right. You really don’t trust anyone, do you? Mmm, though…proof.” She pulls a knife out from a hole in her pants and points at Remilia with it playfully. “Would it help if I killed her?” she asks, only half-joking.

“Umm, no. Not really, no.”

“Why not?”

“Well, because killing people is wrong!” you say bluntly, wonder why she asked such an obvious question. “Killing people won’t solve anything in the long run.”

She sighs again and fiddles with the spiky bracelets on her wrists. “She’s evil, you know. She wants to take over the world or somethin’. She wants to fate everyone to live in peace with her as the queen. She’s gonna create a world without free will, where we all got to do whatever she wants, ‘cause that’ll be out fate. She said she wants to pick up where her Grandpa left off, or something. You wanna live in a world like that? ‘Cause I don’t. But the only way to stop her is to kill her. It’s what Nate’s been trying to do for like ever since he got here. And now…” she trails off, looking at Nathaniel as he remains fixed in his falling trajectory, obviously already unconscious, and then looks at the useless twinkling fragments that used to be Revelation, alive and complete for only a few hours. You almost would find it ironic if the situation wasn’t so morbid. Sakuya finishes her sentence.

“…And now I’m gonna help him, ‘cause that little witch gonna die for what she did to me.”

[ ] Questions. Ask them. Now. (time is stopped, so there’s no limit)
[ ] Statements. Make them. Now. (time is stopped, so there’s no limit)
[ ] Actions. Perform them. Now. (time is stopped, so there’s no limit)
[ ] Apathy. Do nothing. Now.
[ ] Write-in. Be awesome. Now.

82. Eighty-two. Eighty-two comments on a single update. What is this I don’t even.

Well, I think I’ve gotten my mind back in order for the moment, and the despair is more or less gone, so I’ll keep going now. Sorry about that little speed bump, but no one really plans for these things to happen, and you’ve just got to take life as it comes to you. Mystia, I don’t know whether to thank you or strangle you for your input.

Also, Sakuya is wearing a black fedora right now, but since the word wasn’t invented until 1882, and wouldn’t have become popular in England by 1887, Farmer can’t call the hat by it’s proper name. Why I pay attention to useless detail like this I swear I don’t know.

>>26068
>>26069
Making Natalie a loli would just ruin the character. If she were an older woman (early twenties like Nathaniel is anyways), I think the experiment would work better, since sexual tension might actually be feasible, and the intelligence/paranoia would make more sense. Of course, the presence of Cirno might make “Nat’s” gender irrelevant anyways. Or maybe not, and suddenly you’ve got a vicious love triangle. But yes, it’d be extremely interesting to see what would happen.

I mean, umm…no! No, how dare you! Why would you think things like that? How dare you create hypotheticals, etc., etc.

>>26078
ROW ROW, FIGHT DA POWA!

>>26092
>For all your concern about us turning out like Nathaniel, with that kind of thinking you're well on your way to becoming him.
Oho! I’ve said it jokingly before, and I’ll say it again: you hate Nathaniel because he reminds you of yourself.
And others have said it before, too: Farmer = Shirou, Nathaniel = Archer. Of course, this is all complete and utter lies, but it’s fun to think about.

>>26094
>The Farmer in the same situation merely abides. Why do you think Nathaniel has become boring and the Farmer so interesting to Remilia?
Because A MAN CHOOSES, A SLAVE OBEYS!

…I apologize for that.

>>26097
>>26098
>>26099
>>26105
>>26107
>>26116
It’s not my fault Meiling isn’t included here; it’s yours. The votes never decided to focus on Meiling, though I gave you a fair about of chances to do so. If she’s not plot-relevant and you don’t interact with her, then of course she won’t be “a part of this insanity”.

That you know of.

>>26122
Gah! This! What is this?! This is both awesome and frightening! It’s also amusing how incorrect your assessment of Nathaniel’s personality is. He’s not that bitter, nor is he that caustic or sarcastic. Plus there’s a glaring flaw in Farmer’s reasoning, but I’m not going to tell you what it is, because that would be cheating.

This is still pretty cool, though. Good job. I laughed.

>>26137
I shed a tear on the inside, because I can’t cry on the outside anymore.

>>26139
I’m not sure if this is a good thing because It’s gone for so long, or a bad thing because it should have been over a month ago. Either way, five months isn’t bad.

>>26143
Already addressed that issue. Not gonna bring it up again.

>>26158
Have no little fear; I’ll only give you a horrible end if you really manage to start acting like idiots, which I doubt will happen. As I’ve said before, your ability to think smart amazes me, and I’ve been subconsciously rewarding you because of it. I might not mind a bit of railroading either, but I’m only going to show you the path. The walking is up to you.

I am not the next Kira.

>>26176
>I swear... its gonna be Old Yeller with a vampire loli instead of a rabid dog and we are gonna refuse to pull the trigger.
I’d suggest avoiding this scenario. It will only end in tears, no matter what happens.

>>26179
>I'm sure Owen is getting a kick out of all this discussion over a red herring. God damn.
Yes. Yes I am. But it’s a double-edged sword. If you keep latching on to red herrings—as amusing as it is to watch you—the plot will never conclude, or if it does, it won’t in your favor.

>>26183
>Yeah, despite taking the time to write this awesome story...he secretly(well, probably not secretly) wants to put us in the deepest parts of despair...
That’s the point. Create emotions through writing. If you really feel crushed with despair after reading my story, then it means I’m writing it correctly. But remember: the bitter oft comes before the sweet.

>I wonder if there even is a good end somewhere in this story. Oh well, I'll find out first hand anyhow regardless.
There is, but for the life of me I don’t know where it’s hiding. It would take some epic, Gurren-Lagann-level awesome write-ins to wrap up everything in a nice, happy bow, and even I don’t know what those write-ins would have to be to make it happen.

>>26187
>Yeah, brainwaved me on that. Didn't wanna say anything because U.N. Owen loves to mess with our expectations.
> That said: ha ha! Now you must find an even more audacious way to screw with us, honored writer! Have at you!

What if I replace the gun with Schrödinger's Gun, which may or may not even exist, and may or may not kill you in the process if you shoot it? Would that work?

>Finally... fuck yeah, genuine discussion! It has been lacking for too long. Arguing never felt so good.
This discussion has made up for the previous lack. Dang is this a long debate.

>>26203
>>26207
>>26210
Thanks for your support. It’s always nice to know I’m not on a deadline. Truthfully, I’m amazed at how little “Back to work nigger!” there has been in this story, despite the fact that I’m not the fastest writer on the site.

In before, “That’s nice, now pick up the pace, nigger!”

OH GOD WHAT JUST HAPPENED
FFFFFF OWEN

>Gurren-Lagann-level awesome write-ins to wrap up everything in a nice, happy bow

Right, Hobo End. DO NOT WANT

>I’m not sure if this is a good thing because It’s gone for so long, or a bad thing because it should have been over a month ago. Either way, five months isn’t bad.

It is a very good thing. After HY finished his story and Teruy's story went down the drain and YAF was fagging around i didn't read a thing and did not really pay much attention to any new stories. I decided to give it a shot and to read the first 4 Threads and i couldn't stop and i was amazed at how amazing this is.
Since then i am checking daily for updates.
Just noticed the other day that 5 months already went by.
I just respect writers who bring stories to us over a long period of time like HY, YAF and Teruyo.

>I’m amazed at how little “Back to work nigger!” there has been in this story, despite the fact that I’m not the fastest writer on the site.


You have your own life and do everything possible to fit in enough time to write. And when you write you write WALLS.

Good work, keep it up!

I’m just going to assume Sakuya is being truthful. Call it a gut feeling, or maybe I’m just too tired to keep over analyzing everything.

>time is stopped, so there’s no limit
Ah, excellent

[x] Treat your wounds.
[x] Ask where Cirno is, and ask if Cirnos’ lack of regeneration is her doing or Remilia’s.
[x] Go get her, bring her into the time stop.
[x] If Sakuya denies being the cause of Cirno’s Regeneration problems, then ask her if the fate card will work while time is stopped.
-[x] If it will: use「Fate of the Present」on Cirno.
-[x] If it will not: make a note to use it the second time resumes.
[x] Ask Sakuya to tell you everything she knows about Flandre and her relationship with Remilia.

I do not believe that Farmer has any words that could possibly convince Remilia to abandon her quest for conquest. Sakuya doesn’t seem to believe it possible either. I can only think of one thing that might have the emotional impact necessary to deter her. I think it may be time for a Family reunion between the two Scarlet sisters. How exactly we should approach this requires more consideration and information. We should also get Sakuya’s input on the idea before proceeding. We know Sakuya can move people while time is stopped because she did it to us, so that should make getting the two together much easier.

[x]No. Just no.
[x]Get in between Remilia and Sakuya.
[x]"Killing her won't solve anything. She's done wrong, but she doesn't realize it. If Nathaniel was ever honest about his integrity and heroism, Now's the time. Help me help her."
[x]Ask if it's possible to get more people into the timestop. (Get Nat and Cirno if possible.)

Peace over war.

>She’s gonna create a world without free will, where we all got to do whatever she wants, ‘cause that’ll be out fate. She said she wants to pick up where her Grandpa left off

Good idea, wrong execution. Time to help her get back on track and do it right.

[x]No. Just no.
[x]Get in between Remilia and Sakuya.
[x]"Killing her won't solve anything. She's done wrong, but she doesn't realize it. If Nathaniel was ever honest about his integrity and heroism, Now's the time. Help me help her."
[x]Ask if it's possible to get more people into the timestop. (Get Nat and Cirno if possible.)

[x] Get Flandre, use [Fate of the Present] on her

I still think that Flandre's current mental predicament is all Remilia's doing in a childish attempt to keep her sister with her and because getting Cirno's immortality won't really help us out all that much and the cards did say that too much love for her would screw us over (ex: using the present card on Cirno) I'd rather not use it on the fairy.

The only other targets for our cards would be Patchouli or Nathaniel (since Nathaniel mentionned that it wouldn't work on Remilia, which isn't all that surprising considering her power over fate). Using on Patchouli sounds rather pointless since we have not an inkling of wether or not that may be benificial much like Cirno's immortality and using on Nathaniel seems pretty pointless too at the moment.

[x] "Where is my fairy? Why did she lose her regeneration?"
[x] "What happened to the librarian?"
[x] "Who's going to take care of Flandre when Remilia is gone? Who's going to make sure she doesn't blow up the world?"
[x] "I'll say this about Remilia: You have no right to judge her. You have a right to kill her--you have a right to do that, yes--but you have no right to call her evil. Good and evil require the informed mind of an adult as well as a choice to act and carry out intention, but that is a petulant child cursed with a power that makes every errant, ill-wanted wish a reality, without involving volition or action. You don't feel much guilt for all the actions you committed under coercion, do you? I won't stop you, if you think it's the only way to prevent more harm from befalling others, but I can't allow you to do so under phony pretenses, either."

Everyone wanted her to do it. Remilia most of all. It felt like she was up there, just waiting for her maid to take the pain away. She just wanted to go out like a noble, standing up--not like some cornered, wasted, ragged-ass animal. Even the Mansion wanted her dead, and that's who she really took her orders from anyway.

[x] Treat your wounds.
[x] Ask where Cirno is, and ask if Cirnos’ lack of regeneration is her doing or Remilia’s.
[x] Go get her, bring her into the time stop.
[x] If Sakuya denies being the cause of Cirno’s Regeneration problems, then ask her if the fate card will work while time is stopped.
-[x] If it will: use「Fate of the Present」on Cirno.
-[x] If it will not: make a note to use it the second time resumes.
[x] Ask Sakuya to tell you everything she knows about Flandre and her relationship with Remilia.


also

[x] Move Nate out of the way of Remi's wrath, just in case

[x] "Where is my fairy? Why did she lose her regeneration?"
[x] "What happened to the librarian?"
[x] "Who's going to take care of Flandre when Remilia is gone? Who's going to make sure she doesn't blow up the world?"
[x] "I'll say this about Remilia: You have no right to judge her. You have a right to kill her--you have a right to do that, yes--but you have no right to call her evil. Good and evil require the informed mind of an adult as well as a choice to act and carry out intention, but that is a petulant child cursed with a power that makes every errant, ill-wanted wish a reality, without involving volition or action. You don't feel much guilt for all the actions you committed under coercion, do you? I won't stop you, if you think it's the only way to prevent more harm from befalling others, but I can't allow you to do so under phony pretenses, either."

>She’s evil, you know. She wants to take over the world or somethin’. She wants to fate everyone to live in peace with her as the queen. She’s gonna create a world without free will, where we all got to do whatever she wants, ‘cause that’ll be out fate. She said she wants to pick up where her Grandpa left off, or something. You wanna live in a world like that?

If this is true, then I am highly disappointed in her lack of vision.

[x] "Where is my fairy? Why did she lose her regeneration?"
[x] "What happened to the librarian?"
[x] "Who's going to take care of Flandre when Remilia is gone? Who's going to make sure she doesn't blow up the world?"
[x] "I'll say this about Remilia: You have no right to judge her. You have a right to kill her--you have a right to do that, yes--but you have no right to call her evil. Good and evil require the informed mind of an adult as well as a choice to act and carry out intention, but that is a petulant child cursed with a power that makes every errant, ill-wanted wish a reality, without involving volition or action. You don't feel much guilt for all the actions you committed under coercion, do you? I won't stop you, if you think it's the only way to prevent more harm from befalling others, but I can't allow you to do so under phony pretenses, either."

Farmer needs more awesome moralfaggotry and SEIGI NO MIKATA-ness.

Hmm.... I also think that using Fate of the Present on Flandre would turn out to be interesting. (Or actually, asking Sakuya about where she put the glasses might do the job as well. Supposing Remilia is somehow doing something to keep Flandre insane, there's at least a weak explanation as to why the glasses might have helped her - it allows for more time for the mind to counteract a certain amount of fate screwing over a bit. Or something like that. In that case, simply being in a time stop would work as well, and I think Sakuya would've noticed by now. Nevermind then.) If there's anybody here that can somehow completely stop Remilia and her game, it would be someone that can also at least try to destroy "vamprism". (Makes me think about the barbarian thing again.)

Mind, for some reason the outcome I see happening of this is both Flandre and Remilia dying while the SDM is completely destroyed for good. They might make up with each other though.

>She’s evil, you know. She wants to take over the world or somethin’. She wants to fate everyone to live in peace with her as the queen. She’s gonna create a world without free will, where we all got to do whatever she wants, ‘cause that’ll be out fate.

>>She said she wants to pick up where her Grandpa left off, or something.

Except that the "Grandpa" she is trying to take after, who she idolizes and is seemingly acting in a way that would have impressed him, doesn't exist.

Remilia wants to take over Gensokyo because of a delusion. Flandre has been neglected by the sister she loves because of a delusion. Nathaniel and Sakuya want to KILL her because of a delusion.

Unfortunately, that little bit Flandre said about how "Grandpa" doesn't exist happened on a Bad End, so we don't have any way to really know that here.

With Nathaniel unconscious and out of the fight for the moment, any attack against Remilia now will have to come from Sakuya.

It's stalling time!


[X] Questions. Ask them. Now.
- [x] How much does Sakuya know/remember from while she was controlled?
- [x] Cirno. Where is she? Can Sakuya help us get her?
- [x] Patchoulli. What happened to her?

[X] Statements. Make them. Now.
- [x] Remilia isn't evil. Sure she's selfish, maybe even cruel, but how does that make her any different from any other child? Sure, there's the vampirism and fate power stuff, but she can't help that any more than Flandre can help being insane and possessing a power that lets her destroy things at will.
- [x] Her desire for revenge is understandable, but that's not the way to go. You yourself have a reason to want revenge on someone, but you certainly aren't going to go off killing some child, however insane and dangerous she may be, because of it. If you take an eye for an eye, sooner or later everyone will be blind.

[X]No. Just no.
[X]Get in between Remilia and Sakuya.
[X] "Who's going to take care of Flandre when Remilia is gone? Who's going to make sure she doesn't blow up the world?"
[X] "I'll say this about Remilia: You have no right to judge her. You have a right to kill her--you have a right to do that, yes--but you have no right to call her evil. Good and evil require the informed mind of an adult as well as a choice to act and carry out intention, but that is a petulant child cursed with a power that makes every errant, ill-wanted wish a reality, without involving volition or action. You don't feel much guilt for all the actions you committed under coercion, do you? I won't stop you, if you think it's the only way to prevent more harm from befalling others, but I can't allow you to do so under phony pretenses, either. But even still..."
[X]"Killing her won't solve anything. She's done wrong, but she doesn't realize it. If Nathaniel was ever honest about his integrity and heroism, Now's the time. Help me help her."

[X] Treat your wounds.
[X]Ask if it's possible to get more people into the timestop.
[X] Ask where Cirno is, and ask if Cirno's lack of regeneration is her doing or Remilia’s.
[X] Go get her, bring her into the time stop.
[X] Ask her if the fate card will work while time is stopped.
[X] Ask Sakuya to tell you everything she knows about Flandre and her relationship with Remilia.
[X] Ask Sakuya to tell you everything she knows about what else Remilia may have been doing with her fate manipulation, who else may be under its oppression.
[X] Move Nate out of the way of Remi's wrath, just in case.

[X] More voting like this for our time in stoptime; do not let infinity go to waste.

My, it seems that with this i very well may be the greediest reader on these boards, at least from what i have seen. Sorry, but i have little regret. While i do not want to overstrain our dear writer, i am going to see that we can do *everything* that we can, while we have this chance. Sakuya's patience may not be infinite, however, so still we must choose as well as we can.

Note also that i have withheld who with to cast our 「Fate of the Present」 card. While indeed we want to save Cirno, if we use this on Flandre we may save many more than one (I know it said we can't save all, but simultaneously, fate is changeable, and can be broken by the human will). If we even have a sliver of saving more than one, it is worth pursuing. At the least, we shall save one other from this madness. At the best, we shall save several, or, if indeed we can break the projection of future fate, all.

>“Well, because killing people is wrong!”

...I just want to note that I serious FFFFFFFFFFFFFed at this part. So the guy doesn't trust anyone, which points to a personality closer to cynicism. But he's still idealistic? What the bleeping frigger-fragger.

>>26242

Farmer is not a cynic. Distrustful in a situation that fosters distrust, yes, but he's not a cynic.

>>26242
It's not the distrust he's shown that makes that statement so odd to me. It's the kill-crazy mode he went into fighting off those vampire fairies that Cirno had to snap him out of, not to mention the willingness to stand back and let Nathaniel and Rumia fight to the death.

>>26242
Farmer is the Character that we created. The things that he says the things that he thinks he does it because we voted him to be that way. We could have voted him into a blood thirsty monster too who would take a knife and stab Remilia without remorse.
His distrust of Nathaniel, his love for Cirno, his trust in Remilia and the willingness to help and save her.... we created him to be that way.
Owen read all our posts and every bit of discussion that was going on to put our thoughts into Farmer.

>>26244
>It's the kill-crazy mode he went into fighting off those vampire fairies that Cirno had to snap him out of, not to mention the willingness to stand back and let Nathaniel and Rumia fight to the death.

I think you're in the minority if you consider Farmer's actions in either of those situations as inconsistencies or moral failings.

>[X]"Killing her won't solve anything. She's done wrong, but she doesn't realize it. If Nathaniel was ever honest about his integrity and heroism, Now's the time. Help me help her."

This is what I think is wrong with the prevailing theory on Remilia. We have no reason to assume that she really believes she's the descendant of Dracula any more than she does in the canon, where it is only a pretension for the purposes of bluster and intimidation. The notion that she is somehow under the effect of her own power is a bit ridiculous considering what Nathaniel said about using the Present Card "against" her, and if the Fate Card is cannot reverse the delusion, it's hard to see what might do so.

Second is that it shows I think an unwillingness to assign blame where blame is due. We know Remilia is very keen on matters of character and integrity; if the ultimate intention is to reform the girl, an attitude of unconditional acceptance and credulity could prove fatal. We know it was in her sister's case (i.e., "[x] Hug Flandre").

>>We have no reason to assume that she really believes she's the descendant of Dracula any more than she does in the canon, where it is only a pretension for the purposes of bluster and intimidation.

Granted, but isn't that sort of the point of the crossroads we're currently at? Do we accept what we see at face value and act from there, or do we try to uncover the truth behind all of this? Follow Nathaniel and Sakuya's example and judge Remilia by what she does, or dig deeper and find out the WHY of what she does?

>>26248
>Granted, but isn't that sort of the point of the crossroads we're currently at? Do we accept what we see at face value and act from there, or do we try to uncover the truth behind all of this? Follow Nathaniel and Sakuya's example and judge Remilia by what she does, or dig deeper and find out the WHY of what she does?

Well, we could always try asking her.

Yeah, hahaha! It sounds crazy to me too.

This might be a bit too simple, but perhaps Remilia keeps some kind of diary? It might do us some good to look around her room.

>>26249
Oh, I think it actually is quite a good idea.
The problem isn't just in getting her to talk, though. It's getting certain people to set aside their intention to kill her long enough to do it.

Neither Sakuya nor Nathaniel are likely to want to give her any quarter, or any chance to reassert whatever control she may have had. If there were something to change their minds on that matter, though, it would be helpful.

>>26251

I'm not exactly sure it'll be Remilia who will needing intercession here. If she chumped Nathaniel this easily, I can't see Sakuya having all that much more luck.

The comment on Flandre implies that for the safety of the world, someone is going to have to stay behind. Sakuya doesn't seem as vengeance-obsessed as Nathaniel, so maybe if we give her the chance to pass the buck, might we get her to just take Nathaniel and skedaddle?

>>26220
>She’s evil, you know. She wants to take over the world or somethin’. She wants to fate everyone to live in peace with her as the queen. She’s gonna create a world without free will, where we all got to do whatever she wants, ‘cause that’ll be out fate. She said she wants to pick up where her Grandpa left off, or something.

Hmmm... she doesn't know the first thing about grandpa Vlad. Yeah, he was as vicious an asshole as you could find, but world domination wasn't his goal. He was a 'righteous' Crusader who committed some wicked shit in the defense eastern Europe from the Turkish empire. In the time he was plunking down people on 8 foot wooden spikes to prove a point, he ordered the creation of five monastaries and donated generously to the church. I guess I can see the parallels: grievous actions in pursuit of what will ultimately be for the greater good. Still, subjugation is a pretty radical course of action to acheive such a high minded goal, let alone the fact that you're simply begging for insurection when you attempt to remove free will from the affected population.

Tepes III and Remilia do share plenty in common, so I can appreciate why she'd idolize him so. Still, why the hell would she want to pacify the world under her to achieve peace? What the hell has she lived through that the next logical course of action (for a child) would be "enslave everyone under me to ensure total peace with me as queen"? Killing Remilia may be the true course of action, but seriously, the why of it needs to be answered before we move forward.

I think the most damning thing toward this whole "conquer the world" plot angle just looking at the record: She wants to control the world? She can't even control her own household. She's so out of touch with her sister that she doesn't know she'd adopted a brother. Her maid has been plotting behind her back for years. It's all she can do to keep on top of a single farm boy and his fairy maid. Whatever the hell Remilia's plot is, it's bound to fail if only through sheer incompetence, even without our interdiction.

>>26261

Tell that to the child who controls fate on the tips of her fingers.

Kids are exactly ones to bow down to the logic of adults now are they?

>>26266
>Tell that to the child who controls fate on the tips of her fingers.

We may yet will. The absurdities would have been pointed out already had Nathaniel not interrupted our conversation.

And we haven't heard verification on this "world conquest" plot from the source yet. It's entirely possible that it's yet another red herring on her part, like the Fate Cards, something designed to stir up conflict. If there's anything Remilia said that I want to believe in, it's that she doesn't know her dreams are, but hopes to discover them through the Farmer (and presumably every past guest of the mansion).

>>26267
>>It's entirely possible that it's yet another red herring on her part, like the Fate Cards, something designed to stir up conflict.

But the cards aren't red herrings. We've now seen the effect each of them has, and as far as anyone can tell they've worked exactly as advertised. We used Fate of the Past to save Cirno, and it let us do just that. We used Fate of the Future to see where we go from here, and it showed us the paths we can take, albeit cryptically, as prophecies and such tend to be. And Fate of the Present? Unless we hit Sakuya on the head a lot harder than we thought, that card is the only other explanation for Sakuya's drastic shift in personality.

In a way, Remilia's game isn't too different from Flandre's Jigsaw-style traps. You're put into a situation that you have to escape, you're given basically all the tools or keys you need to do it, and your success or failure depends purely on how you use them. They have as much power to trap you as they do to release you, it just a matter of seeing past the most obvious use for them.

It's like Nathaniel and his game with the locked door, dynamite, and three things to drink, basically. The most obvious solution would have been to use that dynamite on the door, and drink one of the things Flandre left him. The catch is if he did, he'd have been physically freed from the room, but at the expense of his humanity, his freedom (if he drank the blood), and going through the unpleasant experience of getting blown up. However, by using what he had in a less obvious way, such as he did with smaller amounts of dynamite on the door hinges, he managed to successfully free himself with minimal harm.

The cards, I think, are much like that. The obvious uses for them, to use them on yourself, basically squanders your chances at escape and further traps yourself. Nathaniel used the Past card on himself, it sent him back to before he came to the mansion, and yet he still wound up back in it. Had we used our Past card to save ourselves from that chair rather than to prevent Cirno's death, I suspect we would have had a similar fate, winding back up in the same situation we had tried to escape.

The Present card is probably no different. Nat used it on Sakuya, and the effect is quite apparent. If we used our Present card on ourselves, though, the change most certainly would not be as drastic, and we'd probably still be stuck where we are, just less one more means of escape.

If they were truly red herrings, they wouldn't do anything of benefit to us. It would be like gouging our eye out, pulling that switch, and finding ourselves still stuck in the chair, but with a bleeding, gaping hole where our eye used to be.

Caution and distrust can be good, but if you take them so far as to question even the keys to your prison, you're only going to doom yourself to remaining locked up.

>>26286
Agreed on all accounts, and the potency of the cards is difficult to question. It raises some interesting questions and prospects. I'm just as surprised as Sakuya that Nat's Third Wish would work on her. Remilia put a lot of work into making Sakuya who she is (was?), so to allow it to undo all of that work makes me wonder how potent the cards are. The big joke on Remilia's end is forcing people to try and use the card on themselves, which probably doesn't work for the reason Nat observed already:
>You and I, we’ve been under her spell for mere days; nothing would change, nothing that we could tell, and nothing that would help us right now.
Minus Nat, Cirno, and farmer (people only here for a few days) there are a small handful of people that the card would have any meaningful effect: the SDM residents. I can't imagine it being useful on Meiling or Patchu as they've had a fairly minimal influence on the game. Adam is probably out, because if she doesn't know he's there, he can't be manipulated. Sakuya has been taken care of by Nat already. That leaves us with Remilia and Flandre. Flandre seems so low on Remi's priority list that I don't even know how her fate hax work on her. Maybe it's the only thing keeping her in the basement and from running wild? Don't know what that would accomplish in the greater sense, but it would certainly be choosing chaos over order. So... Remilia?

Nat chided over thinking the cards she gave us would work against her, and common sense dictates that she wouldn't let the trump cards be used against her. But, we really don't have any better targets and it's pretty surprising that they actually worked on Sakuya. That last bit gives us just a hint that maybe we have a shot at using it on her.

Can we do something Remilia can't with our card? Is she a victim of her own power, someone that needs to be snapped out of fate manipulation like Sakuya? Would that be in keeping with helping her find her dreams?

I think that's pretty on point for what Fate of the Future told us. I don't know when we've ever been silent on anything compared to others except in our condemnation of Remilia (that's more than a bit of a stretch, yeah). But to see that the most likely victim is Remilia while everyone is blind to the prospect isn't too hard to imagine. She has concocted some fantasy where she is continuing the work of her grandfather Tepes for some reason. What dream (or trauma) would merrit such a vicious approach?

>>26220
[X] Stop Sakuya
[X] Gesture to Nathaniel: "Do you think you should leave him like that?"
[X] Ask if she'd join you for something to eat: you're about to pass out from blood loss and you have questions to ask before she gets to killing.
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Cirno
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes and why Remilia wants to take over the world for him
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?
[X] Apologize about the chair thing.

A little open-ended, because I want to choose a course of action after we learn what we learn. Also, spaced out Sakuya is fun, do want more conversation. Also (part deux): consideration vote. I like the attitude of the prevailing write-in, that killing Remilia is an ill-informed decision, but it makes a few too many presumptions (the effects of Remi's powers, her motivations, how concious she is of her behavior, etc.) for my liking. It also seems like we're passing judgment ("she deserves to live!") with even less evidence than Sakuya and Nat have to the contrary.

Looking forward to the inevitable: "Why do you trust her more than me or Nate?"
"Same reason I trust Cirno, babe: she's a little girl and you're not."

>>26287
>Minus Nat, Cirno, and farmer (people only here for a few days)
That’s assuming Remilia’s fate abilities are limited to people within the mansion. Remilia has known about Cirno for a long time, it might just be that her fate abilities didn’t kick in till recently.

>She’s evil, you know. She wants to take over the world or somethin’. She wants to fate everyone to live in peace with her as the queen. She’s gonna create a world without free will, where we all got to do whatever she wants, ‘cause that’ll be out fate. She said she wants to pick up where her Grandpa left off, or something.

Why are we accepting this as truth and talking about how to change her mind? Remilia wants peace? She wants to rule over a bunch of fate-controlled zombies? That's boring! That doesn't fit at all with what we've seen of her so far. She likes playing games with people, almost like Flandre's games, setting them up in situations and seeing what they do, hoping to see something interesting or insightful. If simple world domination was her goal, she would've started at home. She's been manipulating the mansion's residents, of course, but she isn't totally controlling them or ruling over them like a queen.

>>26292

Yeah, I'm sticking with my initial theory that all this "evil" business is just her way of entertaining her guest(s) fancy at playing the hero.

>>26292
What if Owen wants to fool us all and she really is a 08/15 Villain
Hard to believe, but possible.

>>26295
>a 08/15 Villain

what?

>a 08/15 Villain

Yeah I'm curious too.

>>26295
>08/15
NEVAR FORGET!

Actually, weird ass bit of slang, I think:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=08%2F15
>German slang for something very simple, poor and "not special"
Translation: what if Remilia is a generic brand villain without any deep motivation or purpose, and it really is as simple as "she's evil lol"?

>>26299

Many thanks anon.

I tend to forget, if google/wiki doesn't know, urban dictionary probably does.

>>Is she a victim of her own power, someone that needs to be snapped out of fate manipulation like Sakuya?

That raises a rather interesting question. What WOULD happen if Remilia's power was somehow turned on herself? While the results would certainly not be as obvious and dramatic as what happened when Flandre went kyu to herself, I can't help but think it still wouldn't be good.

Not really liking this version of events from Sakuya. Remilia's had God knows how many years to go on this supposed quest for world-domination, and instead she's sitting around playing games with guests in her mansion? And the fate card just happened to work on Sakuya, something you'd think Remilia would've taken precautions against? Nah, I agree with >>26292 almost entirely.

[x] Suggest everyone just talks over their problems over a cup of tea.

Kidding of course. I really need to think this one over before I really settle on a vote or write-in. This is just one messed up situation, though not completely unexpected. The following are my thoughts on the situation. It is my hope that together we can create a write-in that will get us through this.

---

I think we can assume that if Remilia wanted to do what Sakuya and Nathaniel are accusing her of, she would have succeeded by now and would not be providing her test subjects with what basically amount to a get out of jail free card if used properly. Why would you give people a way to stop you unless you had another motive? So for the sake of debate, assume Remilia isn't evil... or at least as evil as she is being made out to be.

First, we need to get Nathaniel out of danger. If Remila kills him, then that's just one more mark against her, and one less person we can use to piece this puzzle together with. We cannot afford to lose any leads right now (assuming he survives what has already happened to him). If we can convince her to help, have Sakuya move him somewhere safe where Remilia can't find him. Same for our fairy maid, so she can't be used as a bargaining chip against us. Then we need to find out EVERYTHING Sakuya knows. What the list was about, how she got to the mansion in the first place, why she didn't rebel until now, and why she was seemingly working against us. If you aren't sure if you've asked too much yet, then it means that you have not asked enough yet. There seems to be a big gaping hole in this that we haven't noticed yet, and the only way we're going to do so is to pry as much as possible. Besides, this Sakuya seems much more open to listening to us than before. We need to use her to our advantage as much as possible while we still have the opportunity.

Then we need to confront Remilia about all of this. About what she's been accused of, and everything really. She also needs to know everything that we do. About Adam, about Cirno, about what her maid has been doing. About everything. The more we grill her, the more chance we have of getting a reaction we can use.

Maybe have Sakuya on standby to pull our ass out of trouble with her time hax and go with her plan of getting rid of Remilia if it all blows up in our face and it turns out that Nat and Sakuya are right.

Seeing Sakuya "freed" and dressed in such a way might get enough of a reaction for us to work with. We need answers, and people give the most honest responses when they are flustered. We need to make Remilia uncomfortable, but not piss her off to the point where she reduces us to mist.

Remilia is obviously the center of the problems here, but probably not for the reasons being given to us. We need to fucking DRILL her for reasons. With Sakuya as backup, maybe we can grow a spine and rail her without as much fear of being reduced to paste. It doesn't matter whether or not Sakuya can save us or will... farmer just needs to take the risk. The first question we should have asked Remilia last time was "where the hell is our maid?" and the second should have been "Are you manipulating us all in an evil game of fate?". Our indirectness has been working against us because, since we are never ballsy enough to be direct, we never get a direct answer. Lets fix that now, 'kay?

If we can swing it, we might want to consider having Sakuya gather each of the mansion's inhabitants at different points, using her time hax (Flandre either last, or just left out for fear of her vaporizing everyone else). Think of this as the scene present in most murder mystery stories where the detective gathers everyone and confronts them in front of eachother in order to get a reaction and learn something. Except in this case we'd be bringing up all the messed up shit in the mansion to Remilia. Meiling's unfair treatment, Sakuya's apparent enslavement, and whatever else we can dig up. This assumes we can get Sakuya to help us, but think about it. Sakuya just "half jokingly" offered to KILL REMILIA for us, just to appease us. I'm sure that with some smooth talking we can convince her of a batter plan.

Despite the warning the card gave us, I am inclined to say that the only way I will be satisfied is if we save everyone and wrap this entire thing up with a neat little bow. However, I say we do it as the card hinted at: by saving one person. From herself. I think it is time Remilia had an intervention.

And hell, if we're wrong and just make a jackass out of ourselves, it will at least be entertaining for her. Her maid is ready to kill her over this. Nothing *we* could do is going to piss her off more.

We have done some great write-ins so far this story, but most of our blunders have come from being too meek. We are assuming we are going to fail and not attempting things that could help. Don't settle for anything but the best. Go for the good end. You all know you won't be satisfied otherwise. Give Owen the write-in that even he can't think of, and the write-in this story deserves.

>>Why would you give people a way to stop you unless you had another motive?

Well, it can hardly be called a "game" if there wasn't some chance that she could lose, can it?

As we've already seen, Remilia seems quite fond of games where the challenges aren't physical, but more cerebral, a battle of the mind rather than of the body. E-card, for example, or that "test" involving Meiling. If you consider that to be Remilia's general M.O. then making a game of manipulating the players fates and having them fight against them doesn't seem too far-fetched for her, does it?

Still, that wouldn't explain how she would make the jump from such a game to domination of all of Gensokyo.

<i>Everyday, somewhere in France, a young man connect his cellphone to internet, looking for the last updates of his favourite story.</i>

Good evening U.N.Owen, or is it good morning?
Anyways, after months of lurking these threads without posting a single reply, I wanted to express my gratitude toward you for writing such a great CYOA.
I discovered Touhou thanks to Flandre in August, and a month later you started A Scarlet-Stained Memoir, which I started to read quite since its begining.
I remember, how you started with few knowledge of Gensokyo and how you managed to make it suits to both your story and the canon universe.
Since then, you made me experiment sadness, joy, despair and PASSION. You introduced new characters in my imagination, such as Nat, Adam (I promise, I will draw him one day), Cirno maid, or now that new Sakuya (Brando?).
I wish I were Felis Ovum so I could make a comic from this story.
I wish I were a native english speaker so I could write with as much style as you.
Now, we came to the final day of our anon's adventure. I doubt it will last a long time before the final ending, so I will try to become more active on the board and to post some write-ins suggestions.
On the other hand, quite every Touhou game has an extra stage, can we hope for an extra day which takes place in 2009?
Once I finish my exams, I will try to translate it in for our frenchy touhoufags.
I impatiently await your next updates.
Have a nice day (^-^)/

Oh! and also:

[X] Stop Sakuya: Tell her you've got some questions first.
[X] Then, apologize about the chair thing.

[X] Ask if she'd join you for something to eat: you're about to pass out from blood loss and you have questions to ask before she gets to killing.
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Cirno
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes and why Remilia wants to take over the world for him
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?
[X] And last: Gesture to Nathaniel: "Do you think you should leave him like that?" If you can move him while time is stopped, then carry him next to where Cirno is (if you have figured where she is). The furthest he is from Remilia, the best it is for all of us.

in that order if possible.

[X] Stop Sakuya: Tell her you've got some questions first.
[X] Then, apologize about the chair thing.

[X] Ask if she'd join you for something to eat: you're about to pass out from blood loss and you have questions to ask before she gets to killing.
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Cirno
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes and why Remilia wants to take over the world for him
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?
[X] And last: Gesture to Nathaniel: "Do you think you should leave him like that?" If you can move him while time is stopped, then carry him next to where Cirno is (if you have figured where she is). The furthest he is from Remilia, the best it is for all of us.

I don't see why not.

>>26302
Remilia's had God knows how many years to go on this supposed quest for world-domination, and instead she's sitting around playing games with guests in her mansion?
Stop and think about it for a second, since therein lies the genius of Remilia's plan, if it is true. The best Chessmaster shouldn't have to actively do anything themselves or seem to take an interest in the outcome, in any way that implicates them; it's a perfect method of blame dissociation. Just wanting something to happen to make it happen is powerful enough.

Run at it like this: Remilia makes a big campaign about it that she wants to conquer the world/Gensokyo. What happens? Many factions and independents interested in assuring that her plan doesn't succeed, and perhaps wanting to ensure she can not ever attempt this plan again, suddenly show-up on her doorstep - the Hakurei shrine maiden would have probably been the first. Lots of fighting, lots of conflict, marred images, probably lots of casualties, wasted time, and so forth. Remi may not even survive this part; there'd be only so much she could guarantee. Interesting but not ideal, and prone to disasters that scuttle the over-all plan.

To paraphase Yukari from Aya's interview: "With a more definite method of victory on hand, what need is there to choose a hazardous one?"

Of course, if we're going to follow that line of thought, fabricating a fairytale around a vampire princess with an exploitable form of control power so that she is implicated instead of another is one step up from it looking like no one's fault at all. Prop up someone as a plausible distraction, have someone else defeat that distraction, and no one will ever realize that the original plan still marches onward because it was transparent to begin with. Just "momentarily obvious," but now "there's no one left [who could do that]."

Sounds like an interesting role for Sakuya to have been playing.

>>And the fate card just happened to work on Sakuya, something you'd think Remilia would've taken precautions against? Nah, I agree with >26292 almost entirely.
>>Why are we accepting this as truth and talking about how to change her mind? Remilia wants peace? She wants to rule over a bunch of fate-controlled zombies? That's boring.
This, if you haven't received the memo, is a common problem to many antagonists' plans - they're only good as active affairs. No matter how long they live to plot or conspire, any villain whose plan involves mass enslavement or world domination is only thinking actively and not passively as they never seem to have well-thought-out what the outcome would like. The "thereafter world," you could say.

A simple example: from Reboot, when the chaotic Hexadecimal released a virus that froze everything in its place, except herself and our hero, she took joy in watching the struggles of thwarting the virus's progress, and it's obvious that she hasn't considered what the world after her virus infected it would look like. The hero just has to paint this obvious during their confrontation and her former plan gets discarded as a whimsical fancy. "What was a person who lives on chaos expecting of a world frozen in place?" The thought never occurred to her to think about that, oh my.

Let's be straightforward: this is not a farce, and we do not have the luxury of assuming that this is a farce by one of the mansion's residents. People really die, whether or not other people care.
There are three players before us: only two of them could have been working together at a time (all three? I trust U.N.Owen would never drop that kind of "it was just a game" ending on us).

[No. Just no. Stop Sakuya.]
["I'll say this about Remilia: You have no right to judge her. You have a right to kill her--you have a right to do that, yes--but you have no right to call her evil. Good and evil require the informed mind of an adult as well as a choice to act and carry out intention, but that is a petulant child cursed with a power that makes every errant, ill-wanted wish a reality, without involving volition or action. You don't feel much guilt for all the actions you committed under coercion, do you? I won't stop you, if you think it's the only way to prevent more harm from befalling others, but I can't allow you to do so under phony pretenses, either. But even still..."]
["Killing her won't solve anything. She's done wrong, but she doesn't realize it. If Nathaniel was ever honest about his integrity and heroism, Now's the time. Help me help her."]
[Ask about Cirno (Where is she, how did she become mortal, can Sakuya help)]
[Ask about Patchouli (Where is she, “what happened to her”)]
[Ask if you can get more people into the timestop (Get Nat and Cirno if possible)]
[Ask if the fate card works during timestop]
[“Who’s going to take care of Flandre when Remilia is gone?” Segue into the sister’s relationship.]

As happy as you are that Sakuya is “free” of Remilia’s “taint”, your problems don’t seemed to have changed much. For one, you still haven’t gotten any answers about what in all buggery is going on in this mansion (though hopefully Sakuya could help there), and for two, Sakuya now seems to have become a second Nathaniel in terms of violent problem solving, though at least she’s caring enough to say she’s sorry. Not wanting anything to get too out of hand, and realizing that you’ve got an infinite amount of time to work this out, you step forwards and look at the ex-head maid.

“No. Just, no. Don’t kill her, Sakuya, not—“

“Don’t call me that name anymore,” she hisses venomously, clenching her knife in anger. “It was a stupid name, a pet name the devil gave to me after she beat me. I hate it. I’ve always hated it.”

“What am I supposed to call you, then?” you ask, getting rather sick of everyone having fake names these days.

“Just…” she stutters and hides her eyes under the brim of her hat. “I don’t know, just don’t call me that anymore.”

You shrug your shoulders in annoyance. “Fine, whatever. But we can’t kill Remilia yet, if we even kill her at all. It won’t solve anything.”

“No, it’ll solve everything,” she responds, folding her arms defiantly. “All the crap in this mansion is her fault. All the mystery, all the edginess, all the paranoia, it’s all because she’s playing that cursed fate game of hers, and it’s out of control. Oh sure, yeah, invite people over and mess with their lives to test the limits of your powers, fine, fine! But it’s past that, now. She’s obsessed with controlling people, every last little bit of them. She calls it a game, and even tries to make it ‘fair’ with those little cards she gives people. But she never loses. She won’t let herself lose. If she thinks she’s gonna lose, she’ll just kill you, or worse, give you to her sister. Don’t ask me what goes through that demon’s head; I don’t know, and I don’t wanna. All I know is that she’s screwed me over for longer than even your dad’s been alive, and it’s time I return the favor.”

You hold out your hands and inch between her and Remilia, trying to prevent her from indiscriminately launching knives at her ex-master. This could be harder than you thought.

“Okay, look, look, let’s just, let’s not jump to hasty actions, okay? We’ve got all the time in the world to think this through, right? Let’s just talk about things first.”

She throws up her hands and walks away to drag over a chair from the wall, the object seemingly levitating in her hands as she drops it down next to Remilia, Nathaniel, and yourself. “Gah, talk talk talk! Don’t you have a spine? Don’t you want to, y’know, actually do something? If you just keep waiting and whining, then Remi’ll have you right where she wants you inside of a week. But, fine, whatever, talk.”

You make every effort to not visibly clench your teeth at the remark, but state you case nonetheless. “Fine, I’ll say this about Remilia first: you have no right to judge her. I don’t doubt you’ve probably got a right to kill her—I’ll give you that much—but you don’t have the right to call her evil. “Evil” and “Good” imply that the person in question knows what they’re doing. They have to be conscious and aware of the situation, and aware of the choice they have to make. But Remilia…She’s a petulant child cursed with a power that makes every errant wish of hers a reality, without any volition or anything like that. She…It’s like, umm…Well, how about you? You don’t feel guilty for all the things you did when you were under her fate, do you? It’s not your fault that you did them, so who can blame you for it? Remilia’s got the same problem: she’s done wrong, but she doesn’t realize it.

“Now, if you want to kill her, I won’t stop you. If you honestly think that there’s no other way, that she has to die in order to prevent more harm from befalling others, then go ahead. But I won’t allow you to kill her under false pretenses, and I won’t let you kill her if there’s still another option left. Nate kept talking about his integrity and being a hero. Well, if he was ever honest about that, now’s the time to exercise that kind of thinking. Do the right thing. Help me help her.”

As you talk, she keeps stabbing her knife into the arm of the chair, gouging out flecks of painted wood without respect or care. She definitely seems annoyed at your words, and her response shows it.

“Y’know, it’s a good thing Nate was the one helping you around this mess and not me,” she says. “If I was him, I would’a ditched you days ago. Why do you always try to find the good in people? Some people are good, yeah, and some people are both. But it’s a little hard to find the good in someone who doesn’t have any in her. You talk like you’ve known the vamp’ for years or something! What, you’ve been here like, uhh, three days? Four days? You don’t know jack crap about Remi…and you trust her more than me or Nate?”

“Well, for one thing, she doesn’t threaten me with pointy objects,” you retort. “And maybe you two could try talking with some civility and politeness for a change? Or not acting like two different people all the time? This house is bloody confusing, and it’s nice to be able to talk to someone who gives straight conversation for a change.”

She buries her face in her palm. “Are you really that think? Think about it; if you’d never seen me before in your life, and I was all smiles and caring and stuff, and then I offered you a drink, would you even possibly consider the possibility that it was poisoned? Of course you wouldn’t! That’s her trick. Some guy once said, uhh…’You catch more flies with honey than with acid,’ or something like that. She’s polite to everyone because it works, idiot! And you fell for it! Why am I even helping you if you’ve already joined her team, huh? Huh?!”

(I’d put words in your mouth…)

(…but that would be railroading.)

You don’t really know what to say to that, and thus say nothing. She remains frumpily enraged for a few more seconds, then sighs and drags the chair back to the wall. “I don’t even know why I asked you that question, really; I already know the answer.” Her tone is much calmer now, though quite a bit more regretful. “I’m helping you because I want to pay Nate back for saving me, and he still sees the potential in you. I’m helping you because you’ve still got a card left, and if Nate’s worked on me, yours can work on someone, too. Nate told me you were a complete ass in reasoning—and he was right—but you’re probably gonna be the complete ass that saves the day anyways. Gah, my head hurts.” She rubs her eyebrows and paces around your general area.

“Just so we’re clear, I think Nate’s an ass, too,” you respond.

“Meh, well, at least we’re clear on that then. So, like, I guess I’m supposed to help you do things or something? Answer questions n’ stuff?”

Well, since she’s offering… “Cirno. Where’d you take Cirno to after you dragged me away from Flandre? And why is her regeneration broken?”

She shoves the brim of her hat over her eyes. “Oh, umm…that, yeah. That was stupid now that I think about it. She’s downstairs; come on, you prolly want to talk with her or somethin’, right?”

You point your thumb over your shoulder at Nathaniel. “D’ya really think we should leave him like that?”

She waves a hand over her head. “Oh, he’s fine, we can fix that later. We’ve got time. Come on.”

Casting one last glance at the freeze-frame of Nathaniel getting smacked, you follow Sakuya down the mansion hallways, even more silent now then they usually are. It’s a little disconcerting, walking around a house frozen like this, but considering how you’ve walked halfway across the mansion and never seen a single soul on occasions before, this really isn’t that bad.

“So, do you know why Cirno is losing her regeneration and becoming mortal now?” you inquire.

“Remi,” the ex-maid responds. “Screwing with her fate, I think; it’s what she does. Supposedly fairies can die of natural causes if you wait long enough; or maybe it’s random chance or something. I dunno, all I know is that fairies aren’t a hundred percent immortal, so Remi tried to use fate to speed up the process a bit. Guess it worked. You could ask ‘er about it, but she’d probably just make some crap up, I’d think.”

The explanation mirrors Nathaniel’s for the most part, though this was a little bit more helpful (you think). You were hoping for an answer that didn’t involve Remilia, but from a quick judgment of the new (is is it old?) Sakuya’s personality, you’ve got the feeling she’ll be pinning just as much on Remilia as Nathaniel does.

You segue your question into a semi-related one that’s been bothering you for a little while. “So, once we get to Cirno, can you help her? I mean, can you bring her into this time-stop world with us? Or can you bring other people in, too?”

“Help her? I guess I don’t really know what you mean by that. I can unlock the door, at least. But if you want her to get help, that last card you’ve got is probably the only way to really help her right now, since, ehhh, since you’re not all for killin’ people. As for retiming people, ummm…yes and no? I mean, I can do it, like I did with you, but, like…it gets harder each time I bring another person in. I don’t think I could bring in more than one or two without losing control somehow.” She rubs her forehead again and sighs. “Controlling time is a lot harder than I thought it’d be without that brat in the back of my head. Kinda funny how being imperfect is harder than begin perfect, mmm?”

“Maybe,” you reply, not exactly understand the statement. “But can you at least bring in one?”

She nods. “Yeah, I can do one. Two’s pushing it, but I’m fine with one. Cirno, right?”

You nod back, but you try to steer the conversation back on course. “You didn’t really answer my question, though. Where is Cirno? And what’d you do with her?”

The two of you are walking down the long stairway to the basement now, and despite the rather compromising explanation, Sakuya doesn’t seem that reluctant to give it to you. “Remilia’s been waiting for a chance to get Cirno away from you ever since she became your maid. Since a good chance never really came up, she got impatient and told me to take her from you anyways. I put her down in the holding cells for the time being, until you two were done talking and Remi could go pester her. You wouldn’t have been there before; it’s pretty hard if you don’t know where to look. Don’t blame me, by the way; just following orders.”

“Wasn’t gonna,” you reply, rubbing your arms together to keep the chill of the basement off of you. She stops in front of that heavy iron door you once saw and starts counting the rivets in it. After a few botched counts and some thinking she pushes on four of them, which oddly enough sink into the door and spring it open into a pitch black stairwell leading downwards. Reaching for a lamp hanging on the wall, you realize that the flame is completely immobile before she touches it, but flickers to life once it’s in her hands. Weird.

“This…uhh, this doesn’t look right,” she says as she takes a few steps down the mystery stair. “It’s too shiny, too…cold. Way too cold. Maybe this-sssaaaah!”

Her foot slips on the stairs and she suddenly starts sliding down them into the abyss. You dash forwards and try to pull her back, managing to grab a hold of her hand, but her momentum combined with the extreme slickness of the stairs just pulls you down with her. The fall is a bumpy one, but not exactly painful. You both tumble down for quite a few seconds before she slides into a wall at the base of the incline, your face slamming into her undercover breastplate in a very painful collision. You think your nose might be bleeding, but since the lantern got smashed, it’s hard to tell.

(Once more…)

(…into the darkness.)

“Ow, ow ow ow,” the woman moans, struggling to get to her feet, or at least off of her back. “Not fun. And cold. Too cold. What the heck?”

You’ll have to agree with her on that. A basement might not have good heating systems, but it’s freezing down here, worse than winter even. You rub your nose and likewise try to stand up. Yup; you feel something liquid-like on your fingers, probably blood. You can’t help but make a jab at Sakuya’s choice of apparel.

“You know, if you would just wear a normal bra like every other girl, this might not have hurt so much.”

She gives you a slight “pssh!” and sounds like she’s dusting herself off. “And if I wore a normal bra like every other girl, Nate would have killed me back then. Maid’s aren’t supposed to be sexy or stuff like that; they’re supposed to do their job. And my job, on occasion, was protecting Remilia from the bad guys. Stupid job, but that’s history, so whatever.”

This pitch-blackness is really starting to annoy you, so you manifest up some danmaku for light. Sakuya’s hat fell off somewhere, it seems. Oh, there it is, by your feet. You stand up and hand it back to her.

“Thanks,” she replies, looking at the danmaku. “Cool. Danmaku for light. Never thought of that. Guess it works, though, right? This door, though…ngggh, heck this thing is cold! I can’t, gaahh, crap, I can’t, get it open. It’s like it’s frozen shut or something.”

Frozen? Cirno. You’ve got no idea what’s going on with her—probably scared stiff right now—but if she’s behind that door, it only makes sense that this freezing atmosphere is her fault. Unfortunately, she appears to have sealed the door shut in her panic as well, which doesn’t look good for any rescue attempts.

[ ] Try to force the door open with brute strength/mechanical leverage
[ ] Heat the door up to try and thaw the ice
[ ] Find some of that dynamite and blow the door up
[ ] Cirno could probably remove the ice, right? (Embellish this idea)
[ ] Don’t worry about the door; go somewhere else (specify where)
[ ] A write-in is fine too.

Also…
[ ] Ask more questions/converse more with Sakuya (specify topics)

[Ask about Patchouli (Where is she, “what happened to her”)]
[Ask if the fate card works during timestop]
[“Who’s going to take care of Flandre when Remilia is gone?” Segue into the sister’s relationship.]
These three questions are locked in, and will be asked at the earliest convenience.

========================================

Remember, remember, the ⑨th day defender…

Kind of an awkward place to end the segment, I know, but I didn’t want to leave you guys hanging for too long. Apologies to those of you who voted late, but I had already started writing. I should really announce when I decide to close the polls, but I don’t really think it’d do much good.

>>26222
Take it easy.

>>26223
Ahh, yes, I see. I respect your respect, and thank you for your understanding.

>>26236
Hmmm……

>>26246
This post is a good post. All y’alls would be wise to remember it.

>>26287
>Looking forward to the inevitable: "Why do you trust her more than me or Nate?" "Same reason I trust Cirno, babe: she's…
That’s a fast and easy way to get yourself knifed. In your other eye.

>>26295
>>26299
Thank you very much, second poster, for giving me the definition. As for you, Mr. >>26295 …anything I say can and will be used against me in a board of chaos. I have the right to remain silent.

>>26304
>We have done some great write-ins so far this story, but most of our blunders have come from being too meek. We are assuming we are going to fail and not attempting things that could help. Don't settle for anything but the best. Go for the good end. You all know you won't be satisfied otherwise. Give Owen the write-in that even he can't think of, and the write-in this story deserves.
WRITE THE UNWRITABLE!
VOTE THE UNVOTABLE!
ROW ROW, FIGHT DA POWAH!

>>26306
It’s morning over here; my time zone is three hours later than server time, and five hours earlier than Greenwich Mean. And I’m glad that I inspire you this much; art would be awesome and very appreciated. I look forward to seeing your participation in the near future.

Oh, and to format text on this board, you use brackets (these guys: [ ]), not those other < > things.

>>26309
>(all three? I trust U.N.Owen would never drop that kind of "it was just a game" ending on us)
That would be a horrible troll end I couldn’t even bear to think about. It would be even worse than “Yukari is fooling around again”. No, this is real.

Then again, if a game is being played when not a single player knows it’s a game, does that make the game real?

Man, I hate having conflicting thoughts on this. As much as I'd like to talk to Remi for her side of the story (and we all know Farmer loves talk before action), I can't help but shake the feeling that we won't be able to. There's no way we can talk after what's happened now. And that leaves us with only Nate/Ex-Sakuya's take on the story. Are we willing to take action with just that? I think we must. And as much as I'd hate it, I'm thinking we should side with them against Remi. If only for the fact that I couldn't stand it if we kept vying for Remi's innocence only to find out she is in fact evil, and have Nate/Ex-Sakuya turn to us and say gratingly, I told you so!

I can't think of what to do about the door right now, but...
[X] "Say you manage to kill Remilia. Would that fix all the fate manipulation she's done? I mean... will it give Cirno's regeneration back?"

No need using 「Present」card if killing Remi has the same result.

[x] Ask: "Is there any other way into that room?"
[x] Heat the door up to try and thaw the ice

Depending on how ex-Sakuya's time stop works, she may be the only person who can force the door to move in any temporary way. I'll side with heat. Dynamite is just going to work oddly in a stopped environment; besides, I'm not going back down there to get it from Nat's cell.

>This post is a good post. All y’alls would be wise to remember it.

>Thank you very much, second poster, for giving me the definition. As for you, Mr. >>26295 …anything I say can and will be used against me in a board of chaos. I have the right to remain silent.

Seems that i got pretty close to the truth.

Maybe Remilia is just plain evil with a plan for world conquest and to rule over all people. Plain and simple. We learned to love her thanks to HY. Plus we never really liked Sakuya for what she did to Belmonymous. Owen knows this all and is not afraid to use it against us.

What if she really is just a mid boss or something and not the real enemy getting controlled without knowing by someone else. Things are going way too smooth and getting explained too easily. This is not like Owen at all, this feels like a trap.
And due that he doesn't mind creating new characters i wouldn't be surprised if a new one would pop up.

I just can't imagine a Remilia is evil let's kill her the end. Sakuya doesn't look like the most trustworthy too, no one does.
Just grab Cirno and get the fuck out of there.

>Ice

In before something completely unexpected.

Why hello Isaac.

>Seems that i got pretty close to the truth.

That's the same response Owen has given toward other plotmind posts, some which are mutually exclusive to the "lol evil" hypothesis. It doesn't mean anything except that he may be use the idea for misdirection.

>Plus we never really liked Sakuya for what she did to Belmonymous.

And yet the second run was heading in her direction, despite all the earlier affirmations that it would be Koakuma or Meiling. Anyway, HY's Sakuya != Owen's Sakuya, and the same goes for Remilia.

>Just grab Cirno and get the fuck out of there.

I want to agree. However, Sakuya obviously wants us to use the card on Nathaniel, and I don't think she'll let us go unless we do.

>>26312
>All the mystery, all the edginess, all the paranoia, it’s all because she’s playing that cursed fate game of hers, and it’s out of control. Oh sure, yeah, invite people over and mess with their lives to test the limits of your powers, fine, fine! But it’s past that, now. She’s obsessed with controlling people, every last little bit of them.
Looks like one conspiracy theory has some more ammunition now.

>Don’t ask me what goes through that demon’s head; I don’t know, and I don’t wanna.
Yeeeeeaaaaah, no. That's not a good enough explanation. If she wants to run away from the root of the problem and kill her with Nat, fine. To me, that conclusion is insufficient.

>“Y’know, it’s a good thing Nate was the one helping you around this mess and not me,”
>Nate was the one helping you
>Nate
>helping
I lol'd. Oh Nat, you and your charming methods of helping people~

>Some guy once said, uhh…’You catch more flies with honey than with acid,’ or something like that. She’s polite to everyone because it works, idiot!
"Oh Snap!" moment: "Apparently gaining time manipulation power kills off the part of the brain that lets people exercise the same logic." You always think of a come-back too late sometimes.

>I’m helping you because I want to pay Nate back for saving me, and he still sees the potential in you.
Why won't he leave us alone?!
Kidding, but seriously: I thought we did a pretty good job pissing him off to the point that we'd just steer clear of each other. No later than he told us he just didn't care, he comes back and starts mucking in our affairs. The dude is fucking tenacious

>Why am I even helping you if you’ve already joined her team, huh? Huh?!
I wonder too. I think our intent of finding answers is starting to get tainted with our loli obsession. Let's stop that for now.

Remilia is shaping up to be a royal pain in the ass to deal with in any way other than to use our card to help Nat and Dio kill Remilia: "she's evil," "she'll kill you if she's too close to losing," "she's got you right where she wants you," "just a little more and your hers," blah blah blah. Whatever. To me, the biggest problem is "if you help her we'll cut you; you know we will." Convincing Nat and Dio to leave us alone long enough to let us talk talk to Remilia and get everything off our chest is going to be an awful pain. That's really what I want to do, though, because it's the only way to get some answers, even if it means approaching certain death. I have half a mind to pull the same line of logic Nat used on us to justify his actions: it's the right thing to do, and while doing the right thing really sucks sometimes, that doesn't change the fact that it has to be done by someone with a shred of integrity. That'd be an odd role reversal.

Winning and losing, though. Dio's throwing the term around pretty lightly, so it's kinda hard to know what she's actually talking about. So, what if Nat's right and for us to win (and Remilia to lose) we'd have to escape alive? Apparently Remilia kills people before she can lose/let someone escape alive, so winning is tough for us. It comes back to changing the way the game is played. Nat thinks he can change the game by turning it into: "who can kill who first?" What will pursuing the path of hate accomplish? Apparently retribution and peace, which is nice, but we will never know the truth of our retribution. No thank you. When has that been an acceptable outcome for us?

Escaping, killing, surviving, manipulating... no good comes of this. Remove them, ignore them; they cause nothing but pain and misery. We've no reason to leave yet Remilia, you won't lose your game. But, why are you playing this game, Remilia? Why manipulate fate and kill people? Why enslave Sakuya, Meiling, and Patchouli? What does that accomplish? Continuing the work of your Grandfather? Flandre says he doesn't exist. Flandre is insane, but she hasn't lied to me. You have. Why don't you see your little sister anymore Remilia? Why do you pretend to have a grandfather when you don't even know you have a little brother? Why do you use your power like this when you could use it to help your little sister? Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere Remilia. Take your time and explain it clearly for me; I'm just a farmer, you see. Third Wish...「Fate of the Present」 Please, be honest.

Voting recycling games:
[X] Ask Sakuya "Can she hear us, or is she time stopped like everyone else?"
-[x] If she's not stopped, bang on the door, tell it's us, ask her how much ice is on her side, and try to start removing it ("Can you make the cold go away? Try drilling on it!"). If she is stopped or Sakuya doesn't know, see if she can un-stop her. If that can't be done, proceed.
[X] Try to force the door open with brute force and mechanical leverage: Sakuya chisels out the edges with a knife and tries to pry it open, farmer will push/pull with all his might.
[X] Ask more questions/converse more with Sakuya (specify topics)
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?

Fact check U.N. Owen: door swing into the room or into the hallway? Best way to undo a frozen door from way too much winter driving is to have someone push it open rather than trying to pull it. Cirno might need to put her little shoulders into it.

>>"Oh Snap!" moment: "Apparently gaining time manipulation power kills off the part of the brain that lets people exercise the same logic." You always think of a come-back too late sometimes.
I think she may be suffering from withdrawal. By her words, it has been a while since her thought processes has been entirely her own.
Or she really is this dim and Remi just liked the whole "za warudo" thing.

>>26319

This is a good post and you should feel good for writing it.

[X] Ask Sakuya "Can she hear us, or is she time stopped like everyone else?"
-[x] If she's not stopped, bang on the door, tell it's us, ask her how much ice is on her side, and try to start removing it ("Can you make the cold go away? Try drilling on it!"). If she is stopped or Sakuya doesn't know, see if she can un-stop her. If that can't be done, proceed.
[X] Try to force the door open with brute force and mechanical leverage: Sakuya chisels out the edges with a knife and tries to pry it open, farmer will push/pull with all his might.
[X] Ask more questions/converse more with Sakuya (specify topics)
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?

Using the card on Sakuya made her as dumb as a box of hammers. If we use it on Nathaniel, is he going to experience the same degeneration? If we use it on Cirno, would she lose the spark of patience, caring, and intelligence that she has shown of late, turning her back into the callous and unambitious fairy that could be best friends with Rumia? If we used it on ourselves, we would probably lose our scrying, but what else?

>>26322
Agreed, about >>26319 .
But on the note of the Fate of the Present cards reducing intelligence: i find this a little hard to get behind, as i do not see Remilia adding that sort of side effect to the card's usage, or any side-effects simply attaching themselves to the card's activation. It is still worth thought, though.

[X] Ask Sakuya "Can she hear us, or is she time stopped like everyone else?"
-[x] If she's not stopped, bang on the door, tell it's us, ask her how much ice is on her side, and try to start removing it ("Can you make the cold go away? Try drilling on it!"). If she is stopped or Sakuya doesn't know, see if she can un-stop her. If that can't be done, proceed.
[X] Try to force the door open with brute force and mechanical leverage: Sakuya chisels out the edges with a knife and tries to pry it open, farmer will push/pull with all his might.
[X] Ask more questions/converse more with Sakuya (specify topics)
-[X] Ask her what her story is
-[X] Ask about Grandpa Tepes
-[X] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[X] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?

>But on the note of the Fate of the Present cards reducing intelligence: i find this a little hard to get behind, as i do not see Remilia adding that sort of side effect to the card's usage, or any side-effects simply attaching themselves to the card's activation. It is still worth thought, though.

It wouldn't be a side-effect: This is how Sakuya really is without Remilia's Fate manipulation affecting her. Similarly, if what Sakuya said about Remi messing with Cirno is true (essentially being fast-forwarded karmically), then the character development we've seen may be dependent on this as well.

Having her regress to that state she was previous to our interaction in return for "saving" her by giving her back her regeneration is exactly the kind of bitter-sweet ending that Owen would enjoy.

>>26319 here.
I fail at joke.
Was responding to her "acid and honey" comment about us trusting Remi because she's nice. Would we trust Nat and Sakuya more if they were nicer? Maybe. But they act like jerks, so now we don't trust them.
What do Nat and Sakuya have in common?
>Apparently gaining time manipulation power kills off the part of the brain that lets people exercise the same logic.

I suck. Self sage.

>>26328

Thanks, but we already got it.

>>26319
I agree with you

[X] Ask Sakuya "Can she hear us, or is she time stopped like everyone else?"
-[x] If she's not stopped, bang on the door, tell it's us, ask her how much ice is on her side, and try to start removing it ("Can you make the cold go away? Try drilling on it!"). If she is stopped or Sakuya doesn't know, see if she can un-stop her. If that can't be done, proceed.
[X] Try to force the door open with brute force and mechanical leverage: Sakuya chisels out the edges with a knife and tries to pry it open, farmer will push/pull with all his might.
[X] Ask more questions/converse more with Sakuya (specify topics)
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?

Too many unsolved things that demand answers. I am not for blindly trusting Sakuya and Nathaniel

Just want to throw this out here for consideration:

[X] Ask Sakuya about those keys you had been given.

Might now be as good a time as any to finally clear up just who the hell gave us those keys that allowed us to meet Adam, Flandre, find Equitas, and started the ball rolling on much of what has happened to us up to now?

I’ve been writing for so long…I forgot what I was writing.

I’ve fooled so many people…I’ve even fooled myself.

Given so many red herrings…even I believed that it was true.

But it’s not.

When the truth is but a lie, and the lies lie where they are…how can any truth be found?

But know I know the truth…I remember the truth that I forgot…

…And the truth will set me free.

>No Good End.
>No Bad End.
>No Sad End.
>Only True End.
>Final Destination.

Amidst the joy and the despair, the life and the death I went. Against time and against fate I traveled at long last to that final chapter, where the cicadas cry, and found what I did not seek for, and what they did not want me to find…what I did not want myself to find. Within the darkness I found the light…and though the light was clear and pure, it was as black as the night around it. I shed tears of the soul for those I could never save, and shed more when they saved me instead.


…


The door opens away from you, into the room.

>>26337
eh wot

>The door opens away from you, into the room.


[x] Get ye flask

>>26337
I suppose this is a good thing..."

>>26337
You're not the real Owen, are you? Either that or you need more sleep -_-

[X] Ask Sakuya "Can she hear us, or is she time stopped like everyone else?"
-[x] If she's not stopped, bang on the door, tell it's us, ask her how much ice is on her side, and try to start removing it ("Can you make the cold go away? Try drilling on it!"). If she is stopped or Sakuya doesn't know, see if she can un-stop her. If that can't be done, proceed.
[X] Try to heat the door with danmaku.
[X] Try to force the door open with brute force and mechanical leverage: Sakuya chisels out the edges with a knife and tries to pry it open, farmer will push/pull with all his might.
[X] Ask more questions/converse more with Sakuya (specify topics)
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes
(in that order)

[X]If you manage to free Cirno, then go finding Adam, if you tell him that "john" is in danger, it may knock him back to Glish.
[X]If you meet Flandre, tell her that you need her for reasoning her sister.
([X]If you meet Ex-Rumia, then RUN AWAY while stopping time)

>>26337
...Wow, did I actually post this?

This is what I get for watching the last arc of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni at 10 P.M., in the dark, with headphones and the volume turned all the way up, while writing a suspense novel for five months without stopping, and having an over-active imagination.

I apologize for being paranoid. And yes, I probably do need to get more sleep.

Next update most likely won't be until late this evening. If my homework decides to start really sucking, then no update until tomorrow afternoon-ish. Gah, why is it that when I want to start writing faster, I start writing slower?

>>26350

Well, you have great taste so I can't really blame you for your Rika-ish post about fate, truth and whatever, so yeah.

[X]What would happen if the card is used on Remilia?

Here's hoping she will lose her fate powers.

>-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
[x]Ask about the note Sakuya was writiing when we scried her

[X] Ask Sakuya "Can she hear us, or is she time stopped like everyone else?"
-[x] If she's not stopped, bang on the door, tell it's us, ask her how much ice is on her side, and try to start removing it ("Can you make the cold go away? Try drilling on it!"). If she is stopped or Sakuya doesn't know, see if she can un-stop her. If that can't be done, proceed.
[X] Try to force the door open with brute force and mechanical leverage: Sakuya chisels out the edges with a knife and tries to pry it open, farmer will push/pull with all his might.
[X] Ask Sakuya more questions:
-[x] Ask her what her story is
-[x] Ask about Grandpa Tepes
-[x] Ask why Remilia doesn't know anything about Flandre and Adam
-[x] Ask about Remilia's game and the cards; if she had your card, who would she use it on?
-[x] Ask about Patchouli
-[x] Ask if the fate cards work during timestop
-[x] “Who’s going to take care of Flandre when Remilia is gone?” Segue in to the sisters’ relationship.

You wipe the blood from your nose and observe the door. It’s a big, heavy, grey block of metal, closed by several thick rods from the looks of it. It’s frosted near white with cold, and crusty white ice seeps through the edge cracks like water through a poorly-caulked boat. Out of curiosity you touch a hand to the metal, and instantly reel back at how blisteringly frigid it is. The walls nearby are barely any warmer, so you forego leaning against them for the time being.

“Cirno’s in there, right?” you ask, even though the question is fairly redundant.

Sakuya nods. “Yeah, ‘s-where I put her, anyways. And unless you know of someone else in this mansion that can control ice, I’d say she’s still in there, too.”

“Can see hear us?”

“Wha? Duh, no, of course she can’t! The only ones that can hear us right now are us. It’s how stopping time works, you know.”

“Well, can you bring her into the stop or something, then? Because I don’t really feel like melting all this ice by hand or trying to pry this door open if we could just ask Cirno to stop freezing everything on her side.”

The woman grumbles under her breath, “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve spent days doing things by hand,” but doesn’t seem to dwell on it very much. She closes her eyes and thinks about the proposition for a while, then nods to herself. “Yeah, I can bring her in. Just don’t ask me to bring someone else in too; I don’t know how well I’ll be able to deal with three as it is.”

After a few seconds, you hear a loud, metallic thump slam against the door from the other side. There’s silence again for maybe five or ten seconds more, then another thump, rattling the frost and splintering the ice in the cracks. Getting as close as you can to the door, you pound on it during one of the silent lulls and yell into the iron.

“Cirno! Cirno, can you hear me?! It’s Mr. Stupid, come to rescue you!”

At first there’s no change in the consistent thumping, and you try again. Though it takes four tries in total for something to happen, making your fist tingle with freezing pain, that barely audible response after that fourth try makes it all worth it.

“…Stupid? Ih…eally…oo? …ere have…oo…nn?”

You don’t worry about taking the time to decipher Cirno’s words, and answer back immediately. “Look, I’m out here with Miss Sa…I’m here with the head…I’m just out here, okay? I’m trying to get the door open, but it’s frozen shut! Can you help out from that side any?”

“…eah, I…oh, jus…ee a sec…ink.”

You think that the frost on your side lessens a bit gradually, though it might just be the imperfect light of the danmaku. After a few minutes Cirno knocks on the door, her voice much clearer now.

“Okay, I moved it all away. Can you open it now?”

Sakuya steps forwards and first heats up her hands with her breath. Rubbing them together vigorously, she grabs a hold of each locking rod in turn and yanks it back, pausing between them to warms her hands again. You don’t blame her; the part of your fist you beat on the door with is red and raw, and you think small patches of skin may have gotten ripped off by the cold. After all the restraints are loose, she shoves the door inwards with her shoulder, revealing a rather interesting scene.

The first thing you notice, of course, is a snow-covered Cirno leaping up into your arms and knocking you over unintentionally. Broken iron manacles on her wrists and ankles, deathly cold, bite into your clothes, and you try to shift around a little to avoid the majority of the chill. Past her hugging form you see Sakuya walking into a low-ceilinged hallway with unfriendly doors lining either side, like a prison. Every square meter that you can see within the room is completely covered in white frost and hard-packed snow, reflecting the danmaku light until it looks like an arctic ice cavern. Two large chunks of ice rest on the ground, one looking roughly door-shaped and very cracked, the other more like a gigantic battering ram.

For now you just revel in the joyous reunion of Cirno and yourself, your mind far away from the biting cold or the horrible paranoia of the looming fear of death. You lost her, and got her back. You lost her again, and finally got her back again. And you won’t let go this time. If you have to hold on to her hand until yours gets cut off at the wrist, you won’t let go.

“I was scared,” Cirno whispers into your shoulder, hugging you tight. “I thought everyone had forgotten about me…I thought I was in a bad dream I couldn’t wake up from.”

“I was scared too,” you reply softly, stroking her hair more for your benefit than for hers. “I guess I’m still scared. But…It’s better, now. Things are going to get better. We’ve got each other back, right?”

“Mhmm. But I think…I think I don’t like this house much anymore. I want to go back outside. Can we leave now?”

You bite your lip. Can you? With time on your side, you could just stroll out of the mansion doors unimpeded, run far away from this island with Cirno. And then…then she’ll die. Maybe by accident, maybe because it’ll “just be her time to go”, but she’ll die. You can’t end it yet. Not yet. You want to, but there’s more to this nightmare you want to solve before you can wake up. You have to solve it. For yourself, for Cirno, for everyone.

“Almost,” you answer, sliding her off your shoulders and standing back up, hand gripped firmly to hers. “There’s just a few more things I think I should do before we can leave. Sak…guh, you, in the jacket,” you falter, pointing to the maid formerly known as Sakuya Izayoi. “Answers. I need answers. Lots of them. How many are you willing to give me?”

She steps back out into the small landing of the stairs and shrugs. “I’m willing enough, I guess. I know a lot, or at least I think I do; don’t know how much you’ll ask, though, so I guess we’ll see. If you expect to give me some kind of Spanish Inquisition, though, can we do it upstairs? It’s like cold as Hell down here.”

Hardly a second after the words have left her mouth, there’s a sudden trampling of footsteps down the stairs. All three of you instinctually step backwards into the prison area, completely unaware of who—or what—could possibly be moving around like this while Sakuya still holds the reigns of time.

A blaring trumpet chord screeches into your ears out of the abyss, causing them to all but bleed.

Cherry red robes blind your eyes with color so loud your ears must be bleeding now.

Three men, their faces grim and their statures hard, glare directly at you, the sign of the Christian cross hanging from their necks.

“NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!”

(Wait, no. No, that’s wrong. Umm…)

(…never mind. Ignore that last part completely.)

Cirno scratches her head, causing the white powder within it to scatter onto her shoulders. “Umm, but…Hell’s that, that burning place, right? Burning isn’t cold at all, stupid!”

The ex-maid glares at the fairy indignantly, but actually manages a civil response. “It’s a figure of speech, girl. It means it’s really, really cold, no thanks to you.”

She sticks her tongue out at the woman and crosses her arms. “S’not my fault, someone just put me there like magic! I was, like, really scared! I can’t do anything ‘cept freeze stuff, so I froze stuff, ‘cause I was scared and stuff! I broke those chain things on my hands, and I was gonna break the door, too!”

You affectionately nudge Cirno to quiet her down. “It’s fine, Cirno, don’t get all angry at her. That was pretty smart, though; freezing off the metal until the chains snapped like that. D’ya come up with that by yourself?”

“Cold!” Sakuya shouts, wrapping her arms around her torso. “You can talk while we walk!”

It seems there’s no dissuading the woman, and the three of you single-file your way up the dark stairs and into the basement hallways. As you travel, you continue your interrupted conversation.

“So did you?” you ask.

“Well, umm…” she looks downwards, embarrassed. “Not, not really, no. I was just so scared that I was gonna, like…die, or somethin’, so I, uhh, panicked, that’s a word, right? I just started freezin’ everything I could; I didn’t know any better. It was just a mistake.”

You rub her hair playfully. “Well, it was a pretty good mistake, then.”

She bounces up and down a few times. “Ooo! But I thoughted up breaking the door down all by myself! I would’a done it, too! That stupid ol’ door didn’t stand a chance!”

Childish even within the depths of darkness, and yet still of a stronger will than you could ever hope to have. Thus is the little fairy called Cirno whom you have befriended, and whom has befriended you. At least if you die at the end of all this, you’ll die with a friend like that, perhaps the only person in the world anymore whom you trust.

You and Cirno make idle chit-chat about irrelevant things to keep both of your minds off of the more pressing matters at hand, which last you up until Sakuya finally closes the door to the basement. Stuffing her hands into her pockets unconcernedly, she starts walking towards the foyer, and you inquire as to why.

“Might as well deal with Nate now before we forget, right?” she responds. “Wouldn’t want ‘im stuck like that forever, I’d expect. Won’t take long, in either case.” You nod and follow behind her. She seems to stagger just a little bit, and every now and then has to support herself with a hand against the wall. Perhaps all these time stops and additions of people are finally taking a toll on her?

Not wanting to waste time, however, you pipe up an inquiry about the information she holds.

“Don’t want to be a bother, but like you said before, we can talk while we walk, right? Are you warm enough to start answering a few questions.”

She shrugs. “Ehh, yes and no. I could do with more warmth, that’s for sure. But, y’know, now that I think about it, I don’t really feel like talking right now.”

“Huh? How come?”

“Well, for one, you’ll probably start talking my ears off with about fifty different questions that I won’t answer good enough for you, which’ll make you ask fifty more clarifying them, and a hundred more clarifying them, and before you know it three days have passed in the blink of an eye and you’re still not happy. Not exactly my favorite way to give people info, not really. And for two…”

Her voice suddenly changes. No longer is it the casual, air-headed speech of a rebellious young woman free from the slavery of decades. It is cold. It is professional. It is complacent. It’s exactly the same tone she’s always had, every hour of every day you’ve been here.

“…You’ll be dead in ten minutes anyways.”

(…)

(…die.)

The foyer comes into view. There rests Remilia, arms and wings folded behind her back, a new hat upon her head, completely mobile and looking upwards as she paces back and forth. There rests Nathaniel, crucified on the wall above, sharp wooden stakes thrust through his hands and feet. And there, suddenly, rests Sakuya, standing by Remilia’s side, once again in her navy blue maid uniform as if nothing had ever changed. The vampire turns around, sees you and Cirno standing there, and smiles.

“How nice of you to join us this morning,” she croons.

You’re speechless. You’re motionless. No. No, this, this…no, just…no. Cirno grips your hand tightly and huddles close to your leg, but says nothing. How did…but Nathaniel, he…it was all…but she…and she said…except what if…but to do that…and he would…but then why…and why not...

Who?!

What?!

Where?!

When?!

Why?!

How?!

“Don’t just stand there in awe of my hospitality,” Remilia continues. “Come here. I’d like to see your faces.” You don’t move for a few seconds, and she frowns. “Mmm, you’re not listening to me, are you? I said: Come. Here.”

How can words that are the opposite of yelling be the most demanding, life-threatening screams you’ve ever heard? You can’t help but fear for your life and walk forwards into the midst of this chaos.

Remilia takes to the air and begins floating around aimlessly, speaking in words coated and dripping with poisoned ambrosia. “I think our game should come to an end, now. It’s grown much too muddled and complicated for it to be any fun for anybody any more. Besides, you all need to know your scores.” She floats down right next to you and situates herself so she might as well be laying on the ground, if the ground were two meters higher.

“Little farmboy, you get six out of ten. A completely lack-luster showing from you, I’m afraid; nothing I haven’t seen at least a dozen times before. Compassion, mercy, idealism, excessive questioning, all so very boring and predictable. Without little Nathaniel helping you I doubt I’d have even given you four, but I must say you won some points by adding our little fairy princess into the mix, no? If you play again in the afterlife, I’d suggest being a little more outgoing; growing a spine might help, too. Perhaps the dead play by different rules, though? I wouldn’t know; I’ve never been there.”

She then swivels around and smiles at Cirno sweetly. “I’m afraid late entries result in a disqualification, tiny fool. You never had a chance of winning, anyways. Perhaps you can at least have some happiness in knowing that I will enjoy watching you die. Very much so.”

Focusing on Nathaniel last, she lifts his head up and looks into his sunken eyes. His breathing is labored, and with each breath more blood runs down his hands and feet. She would be whispering to him normally from the tone of her voice, but increases the volume for the listeners’ benefit.

“Ahh, you sad, sad wandering man. Why so serious? Be happy: I give you nine out of ten. There’ve been others, several others, who’ve gotten as far as you, but none I think have been as enjoyable as you to play against. As least, none that I remember; I’ve played far too many times to keep track. Your gentlemanly façade was entertaining, though futile; I trust you knew this? I did not expect the watch, I must say; for a moment I was almost afraid! But, ahhh, you disappointed me so very much when you played your last card. I would have expected a smart man like you to know that I would never allow such a loophole like that to exist in my game. A shame you had to realize your mistake instantly; I would have enjoyed watching my Sakuya string you along for a while like she strung the farmer. But, well, life isn’t perfect. At least, not yet, anyways.”

He says something as a drop of blood runs from his lips that you are unable to hear. Remilia smirks at the unheard statement.

“Cheat?” she replies, giggling. “No, no, I don’t cheat at all! I win.”

With a most un-elegant abandon the vampire grasps Nathaniel by the torso and rips him off the wall, the wooded stakes remaining affixed to the plaster behind him, then lets his weak form topple carelessly the long three meters to the ground. He crashes in between you and Sakuya, Equitas and its sheath clattering noisily against the cold marble. He screams in agony for a few seconds, but bites his anguish and tries to reduce it to a pained groan, which for the most part fails.

Licking a few drops of blood off her hands, she looks at all three of you, the maid standing directly underneath her.

“Now since you have all been at, shall we say a slight…’disadvantage’, I think I can find it within my heart to allow for some extra credit points. You might call this your ‘final exam’, class. One last chance to impress me. Don’t dally now; I’m in no mood for my time to be wasted any more, you see.”

This…makes…no...sense. What, what just happened? Sakuya was…lying? Pretending? Fate of the Present is useless? Remilia’s been toying with you the whole time? She’s just going to kill you all because she’s bored…?

She’s going to kill you. She. Is going. To kill you.

[ ] One last chance. Impress her.

========================================

What I have written, I have written. It is not the writing this story needs; it is the writing this story deserves. For this story to survive, I must first be willing to let this story die. I have no regrets. Fear, I have too much of. Insanity, perhaps just as much. But no regrets.

Post #150.

>>26317
>Why hello Isaac.
Isaac cannot save you now.

>>26342
>>26343
>>26344
>>26347
All of our souls are broken, just like Flandre’s. This is but a piece of mine: once hidden, now revealed.

>>26357
Your rage cannot touch me now. I no longer write for you to feel happiness. I no longer write for you to feel sadness. I write so that you may have the truth, and have it to the full.

And the truth is…sometimes you will never be able to know the whole truth.

If you resent me for it, you know where to find me. I will wait under the moonlight, weapon in hand, ready to believe you…or to destroy you.

Amadare wa chi no shizuku to natte hoho wo tsutaiochiru
Mou doko ni mo kaeru basho ga nai nara

Kono yubi tomare watashi no yubi ni
Sono yubi goto tsuretette ageru
Higurashi ga naku akazu no mori e
Ato modori wa mou dekinai

I'm sorry, but you have completely and utterly lost me.

What.

>>26350

Is Higurashi no naku koro ni kai next in line?
Also, I'll wait for a while until anon can come up with the write-in to end all write-ins.

We're boned. We indeed need Gurren-Lagann-type write-ins to get through this.

Impress her? I only have one idea on how to do so. She grows bored of the predictable reactions: we need to do something outrageous if we're going to get out of this alive. But what exactly, I don't know.

Wow. It's almost as if all that stuff about the game and Remilia being evil that someone had been telling us about had turned out to be true after all, and not simply the crazed paranoia-fueled ramblings of a lunatic. Fancy that. I imagine, were he a more petty man, he'd say something to the effect of "I TOLD YOU SO" right about now. If he wasn't, you know, laying on the floor in agony and probably bleeding to death.

I seem to recall someone once telling us something. Something we should have done, but chose not to. What ever could it have been, I wonder? I wonder?

>[ ] One last chance. Impress her.

[x] Pull out the Present Card.
[x] "Do you want this card?"
[x] Crush it into a ball. Look down your nose at her and flare your nostrils.

My game is not a game, and I don't play by any rules.

Well, at least THAT CHAIR got what was coming to it. Maniacal laughter would be great right now, we lived as few men dared to dream. No regrets.

Bah, if all else fails we could scream for Yukari at the top of our lungs and pray she hears us. Or not

Impress eh? This will be difficult to pull off.... what in the world could we to that would impress Remilia?

>>26370
Well, Remilia seems impressed by things she doesn't expect, such as Nathaniel's watch. So, if you want to impress her, you could try to do something to surprise her.

It just so happens I can think of something that she, nor anyone else, would expect us to do. However, I don't think anyone here would like what it is...

>>26371
Yes, killing Cirno would probably get us out alive. No, that does not make it a good idea.

[X] Everything must come to an end I suppose. Here I am, a simple farmer boy that wandered into a house of devils and monsters,
only to have the ride of my life. I made one of the best friends I could ever hope for,
I learned how to manipulate the mana inside of me, I learned how look through the eyes of others, and I learned more about myself than I ever could back in that
old village. Bravo, you are the ultimate chess master pulling off the perfect plan(Xanatos gambit). I never truly suspected you once, even when Nathaniel told me of your evil ways.
Truth stared me in the face until I blinked and turned away from it, holding on to my own delusions and ideals.

[X] Ruffle Cirno's hair. Thank you, my dear Cirno for staying by my side and being there as the one constant I could always count on. I'm sorry I have to leave you like this.

[X] Use your final card: Fate of the Present on her.

[X] Turn to Remilia. Even now, at the end of things I do not regret anything at all, I lived as few men dared to dream. I am who I am because of the choices I made.
I win, Remilia Scarlet, I will die a happy man, content with the knowledge that I played through and true to my own heart. Come, do your worst and be done with this game.

[X] Genuflect.


This was born from the depths of my mind as I procrastinate at 1:40 am. Take what you will and leave what you wish, this is my final vote for this amazingly superb story.

>Your rage cannot touch me now. I no longer write for you to feel happiness. I no longer write for you to feel sadness. I write so that you may have the truth, and have it to the full.

>And the truth is…sometimes you will never be able to know the whole truth.

>If you resent me for it, you know where to find me. I will wait under the moonlight, weapon in hand, ready to believe you…or to destroy you.

>Amadare wa chi no shizuku to natte hoho wo tsutaiochiru
>Mou doko ni mo kaeru basho ga nai nara

>Kono yubi tomare watashi no yubi ni
>Sono yubi goto tsuretette ageru
>Higurashi ga naku akazu no mori e
>Ato modori wa mou dekinai

...are you high?

>>26374
>This was born from the depths of my mind as I procrastinate at 1:40 am. Take what you will and leave what you wish, this is my final vote for this amazingly superb story.

Holy sheisse. These exact thoughts have been going through my head, to the letter. I was thinking about this while laying in bed, got up, turned on the computer to post, and found you. Kudos, good sir, for we are one of the same mind. Farmer has seen and done more than most have done in a lifetime; this would probably be the best way to die. Whether it would impress Remilia or bore her, Farmer won't know nor care.

[X] Everything must come to an end I suppose. Here I am, a simple farmer boy that wandered into a house of devils and monsters,
only to have the ride of my life. I made one of the best friends I could ever hope for,
I learned how to manipulate the mana inside of me, I learned how look through the eyes of others, and I learned more about myself than I ever could back in that
old village. Bravo, you are the ultimate chess master pulling off the perfect plan(Xanatos gambit). I never truly suspected you once, even when Nathaniel told me of your evil ways.
Truth stared me in the face until I blinked and turned away from it, holding on to my own delusions and ideals.

[X] Ruffle Cirno's hair. Thank you, my dear Cirno for staying by my side and being there as the one constant I could always count on. I'm sorry I have to leave you like this.

[X] Use your final card: Fate of the Present on her.

[X] Turn to Remilia. Even now, at the end of things I do not regret anything at all, I lived as few men dared to dream. I am who I am because of the choices I made.
I win, Remilia Scarlet, I will die a happy man, content with the knowledge that I played through and true to my own heart. Come, do your worst and be done with this game.

[X] Genuflect.

I wonder if Remilia would have fun with torturing an immortal Cirno.

[x] So you really are evil? You really are a villain?
[x] ...how uninteresting. Honestly, I’m very disappointed. It’s the obvious conclusion any idiot could draw from the moment they walk in the door. I thought you more exciting than that, Remilia. I thought there was more to you.
[x] Since we seem to be rating one another, I give you a three out of ten. It was a fun ride, but the truth is so mediocre it brings the whole thing down.

She thinks we should grow a spine? Fuck her. We fought rabid fairies, we removed our own eye, we went into hell to get an ungrateful bastard his useless sword, we struck up a conversation with a girl we knew to be sadistic and in possession of godlike powers, we did a lot of ballsy fucking shit. It we aren’t impressive, then she sure as hell isn’t either.

>>26377
It doesn't really matter since Sakuya just proved the Fate of the Present card to be utterly useless.

Now that I think of it, it was suspicious that Sakuya didn't prevent Nathaniel from getting an ass kicking from Remilia. She also didn't prevent Remilia from breaking his watch. Oh well, we're fucked now.

I bet we could use the Fate of the Present card to turn all of our blood into holy water. Sure we'd die, but Remilia drank some of our blood, and that would be most uncomfortable for the little vampire. Of course I don't honestly think this would work, I'm just desperate.

>>26381
Hm, I wonder if anything different would happen if we scry someone with our blood in them. A degree of control, perhaps?

>[X] Use your final card: Fate of the Present on her.

Did you people actually read the update? Fate of the Present does not work like that. Nathaniel thought it did, and he was wrong.

>>26382
Speaking of which, we also got a bit of Flan's blood when we stabbed our eye, didn't we? And then Remilia bit us. Does that make it incest?


Anyways, I would have to guess that scrying a person with our blood in them wouldn't give us as much power as control... but maybe the ability to see not only through their eyes, but also their mind/soul as well. We might get a chance to finally get some answers directly from her head, but that probably won't give us that much information.

Or maybe, having our blood flowing through her body might force her to see what we see when we scry (since scrying doesn't seem to be linked with the actual eyes and vision, it might instead be linked to the body or soul, and blood comes pretty close, especially since vampires have a special interaction with blood). So Farmer to scries himself. That would probably very disorienting for Remilia, like moving with your eyes closed or worse (since her hand-eye coordination would basically be backwards). Then while she's tripping over her own feet we slap her repeatedly, padmaid unable to do anything but watch in horror as her all-powerful mistress is reduced to a miserable pile of tears before a scraggly one-eyed farmer.

I'm only half-joking, btw. Vampires have a special dependency on blood, and our blood is coursing through her veins. That's got to count for something.

>>26384
The question then is how DOES the card work, assuming it does at all?

I don't think it's completely useless. Between what he had been told what the card did, and those little moments involving Sakuya that clearly influenced him in his decision to use it on her, I think he was basically manipulated into wasting the card. Remilia even said she was disappointed in him, mocking him not for using the card, but for how he used it.

It could be Nathaniel was also misled about who the card wouldn't work on, in which case we could try it either on ourselves, or him.

It might still work on Cirno, and if you want to save her now would certainly be the time to try it.

But, if you want to also impress Remilia, you would have to use it in a way she wouldn't expect. Saving yourself or Cirno would be too obvious, and as evidenced by the way that little loophole involving Sakuya had already been accounted for, you can't use it on someone she would expect you to use it on.

So, what if you used on someone she wouldn't expect? Someone she either takes very little notice of, and pays little mind to?

[X] Use "Fate of the Present" on Flandre Scarlet.

Let's welcome chaos.

> [X] Drop pants, do helicopter.

But seriously, it's going to be one hell of a gamble to try and use this card from afar, but i think it's just about the only thing we can do short of tossing cirno at her, kissing her or, indeed, doing the helicopter...

[X] Use "Fate of the Present" on Flandre Scarlet.

You want off the wall?

[x] Kiss Sakuya.

>>26360
"The Spanish Inquisition" I lol'ed!

But this time my heart quite stop beating!

>>26374
>>26367
GO2HELL!! Surrender yourself isn't an option!

We have a last chance, and I won't miss it!
It was obvious since the beginning that a GOOD END with everybody happy won't come, and I told you that we needed Adam and Flandre's help.

Here is my impossible write-in:
[X]Challenge Remilia to a hide-and-seek game (I doubt she'll refuse a last game)
[X]Go in the basement with Cirno, Nathaniel, and don't forget Equitas.
[X]If needed, use [Fate of the Present] on Nat to keep him alive.
[X]Ask Cirno to freeze the doors behind you.
[X]Find Flandre and Adam (scry them if you don't find them), ask for their help.
[X]Adam/Glish will accept to help Nat/John, and Flandre will surely accept too if you offer her Equitas(I doubt Nathaniel need it anymore in his state)
[X]Remember that Remilia doesn't know about Adam, (nor about Ex-Rumia) take advantage of that.(except if Sakuya told her)
[X]Ask Flandre:
-[X]if she can help you to catch Remilia and Sakuya. Since she's quite clever, it won't be difficult for her.
-[X]if she refuse, then ask her if she can help you and Cirno to escape SDM.
-[X]if she refuse again, then ask if she can keep you alive with her as her new playmates.


[X]And if Remilia refuse your challenge, then THIS IS GENSOKYO!!! She can't refuse a SpellCard Duel. Put all your might in it.
[X]Beforehand, use [Fate of the Present] on Cirno so she can escape the SDM successfully and tell Yukari/Ran what's going on in SDM.

I need your trust anons.

[x] Take the Fate of the Present card out of your pocket. Tear it to shreds while you speak.
[x] "Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your malicious intentions, the only thing you've managed to really break so far, is my heart."
[x] "So you really are evil? You really are a villain? ...how uninteresting. Honestly, I’m very disappointed. It’s the obvious conclusion any idiot could draw from the moment they walk in the door. I thought you more exciting than that, Remilia. I thought there was more to you."
[x] "I'd just like to point out that you were given every opportunity to succeed. There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I even invited your friend Nathaniel, but he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikeable you are. An unlikeable loner who shall not be mourned."
[x] "Since we seem to be rating one another, I give you a three out of ten. It was a fun ride, but the truth is so mediocre it brings the whole thing down."
[x] "And as for you Miss Izayoi, you win best supporting actress: Never have I witnessed someone play the idiot so convincingly."
[x] Take Cirno by the hand, walk away. Exit through the front door, never to return.

Hey, she let Nathaniel do it; it's worth a shot.

>So Farmer to scries himself.

MALKOVICH MALKOVICH MALKOVICH MALKOVICH

[x] Smug smile. "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."

Hmmm... if we decide to use Fate of the Present on Flandre, I suggest we phrase it "Little Miss Scarlet"... so when Remi laughs in our face, we can say back "I wasn't referring to you."

[x] Take the Fate of the Present card out of your pocket. Tear it to shreds while you speak.
[x] So you really are evil? You really are a villain?
[x] ...how uninteresting. Honestly, I’m very disappointed. It’s the obvious conclusion any idiot could draw from the moment they walk in the door. I thought you more exciting than that, Remilia. I thought there was more to you.
[x] Since we seem to be rating one another, I give you a three out of ten. It was a fun ride, but the truth is so mediocre it brings the whole thing down.


I thought she might just be plain evil without a cause and just amusing herself with torturing people.
But that is just plain and utter boring. I thought there was more to her, some plot or sheme.
>>26378
You made a good write in.

You forgot just one thing Remilia. It's so simple. You're in Gensokyo.

[x] Whisper to Cirno: It's alright, you have a plan. Tell her to declare a spellcard once it looks like you've distracted Remilia with your words.
[x] Take the Fate of the Present card out of your pocket. Tear it to shreds while you speak.
[x] So you really are evil? You really are a villain?
[x] ...how uninteresting. Honestly, I’m very disappointed. It’s the obvious conclusion any idiot could draw from the moment they walk in the door. I thought you more exciting than that, Remilia. I thought there was more to you.
[x] Since we seem to be rating one another, I give you a three out of ten. It was a fun ride, but the truth is so mediocre it brings the whole thing down.
[x] Declare your own spellcard immediately after Cirno does, then both run away while they're busy dodging.

Fate is weak when many are strong. Remilia may have been playing this game for centuries, but she never changed the rules to take into account outside interference when she came to Gensokyo. And in the off chance Yukari is watching, the invocation of spell card rules gives her a justification to intervene. It would be funny if the tools Remilia gave us to defeat were indeed cards, just not the ones she had intended.

Continued from >>26394

There's also a few other reasons I propose this modification :

Natanthiel was rarely wrong, although alot of the time he simply didn't have all the information. The Fate of the Present probably would've worked on Sakuya - except, maybe Remilia has an active veto power. Such a thing makes sense I think, considering Remilia would be somewhat aware beforehand that she can't make up all the exceptions beforehand. If Remi thought we were using Fate of the Present on her, then she might not use her 'veto' right away - which may give a sane, smart Flandre a crucial few moments to 'destroy' any fate controlling her.

Even if it doesn't work, it might give Remilia pause - when was the last time she ever really thought of her sister?

Things that might impress Remilia-

1- Kill Cirno
2- Defeat Remilia/Sakuya (impossible)
3- Tell a joke

I don't think destroying the present card can impress her all that much now that we know it's useless...in fact, I'd be pretty much expecting that...

Anyhow, why should we play her game one last time? It's another game that only she gets to decide the rules. If I were a kid I'd probably just say something along the lines of "You cheat! I don't wanna play with you anymore!" instead of amusing her in her request.

Anyways, I'd just like this added to the write up lists.

[x] "Children can be cruel, selfish and sometimes hypocritical. I guess I should have known that there wasn't much chance that a child would ever allow someone else to win at their own game."

Anyone up for one final game of E-card with EVERYTHING on the line?

>>26397
>when was the last time she ever really thought of her sister?

About twenty minutes ago when Flandre came up in our conversation with her.

Not 'think' in that sense.

>>26397

I'm curious as to why you would think the effect of freeing Flan from any fate manipulation by Remilia would make her more sane.

Think about it. You've got a irreparably insane vampire with a shattered soul who has the nigh-unstoppable ability to destroy anything at will, a whole lot of pent-up anger and resentment towards her sister, yet is somehow kept pacified and occupied enough to be kept contained in the basement.
If anything, Remilia's influence is probably the only thing that's keeping Flandre from tearing the entire mansion apart should she ever go into a rage like the one we saw.

Were that influence removed, though...well, I think you can imagine what would happen then, and that's the point of doing it.

Hmmm... I consider the destruction of the entire SDM a viable solution to this, and any other problem. After all, you can't cook an omelet without burning down a few houses first.

>[x] Take the Fate of the Present card out of your pocket. Tear it to shreds while you speak.

Fuck, NO! What the hell are you thinking?

>>26362
>She’s going to kill you. She. Is going. To kill you.
I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, by this development. At least we're getting a Scarlet Bad End hat trick. If anything, our consistency in this regard is... admirable?

>One last chance. Impress her.
Why? What's it going to accomplish? This is still a part of her game, and it's still a game she has never lost. Why keep playing it? She's going to kill us either way, may as well play it our way for once. Well, with her power-tripping and Owen aching to end this story already, I don't think we'll get to do anything awesome, but might as well give it a shot.

>you disappointed me so very much when you played your last card. I would have expected a smart man like you to know that I would never allow such a loophole like that to exist in my game. A shame you had to realize your mistake instantly; I would have enjoyed watching my Sakuya string you along for a while like she strung the farmer.
I'd be pissed at that last crack, but Nat was pretty spot on about everything except that. Now, is that bad timing, or is that bad timing?

Quick refresher:
>“The magic of ages still at hand, torn out of time and given as a gift. The soul wishes to advance to days of now, troubled times with many emotions. Present this card to the heavens with a purpose, and the magic shall flow upon you. Fate, which even now is being set in stone, shall unravel beside you, giving what all desire, but few receive: the power to change a life. Worry much about what you will change, for this has not been preordained by the fate you make for yourself. Worry still about what will happen once you do.”
Gotta wonder what the card actually does. Nat was wrong, Dio was stringing us along, and Remi likes messing with us. On that last note, I'm pretty reluctant to trust that it even does anything. Even if it does do something, it probably won't work the way we want if it's disadvantageous to Remilia winning (thinking what >>26397 said).
Operative bits are "Power to change a life," and the "Worry much about what you will change" bits, I think. Maybe Nat's interpretation was a little too esoteric; maybe it's nothing as complex as freeing someone from Remi's manipulation. Maybe it really is as simple as changing something about a person's life. That's open to plenty interpretation, and at least we know what it doesn't mean... Needs more thought.

>>26395
>But that is just plain and utter boring. I thought there was more to her, some plot or sheme.
I'd be inclined to agree, but there's a pretty good chance we fucked up some where that foreclosed the option of finding out the truth of the situation; a flag we failed to hit somewhere. We probably talked ourselves right around it, as per usual.

The "F U" write-in is good; that's the kind of shock to the system she needs, but I'd like a crack at the card just out of curiosity's sake. I got class, though, so I'll post a vote a little later.

Also, U.N. Owen's Higurashi-induced ramblings are getting pretty close to eclipsing the enjoyment I'm getting from the story. I'm looking forward to what Umineko does to him.

While Fate of the Present might've been just powerless all along, I find that a bit doubtful. Considering the amount of guests Remi had, I doubt that all of them would save Fate of the Present for last, and the others might've found it odd if it did nothing at all. That, and it doesn't need to be a total dud for it to be unhelpful to the user. (Remember how Natanthiel's Fate of the Past went?)

And Flandre's insanity, whatever the cause is a bit odd. A broken prototype device made for an entirely different purpose made by someone that never even met her was able to break her out of it, if she for a moment.

[x] "So you really are evil? I'm disappointed. I wanted to believe in you."
[x] "This isn't a game. All the tricks and half-truths, they're not about winning, it's about you being afraid to lose."
[x] "There is where we are different... I am not afraid."
[x] Turn to Cirno: "I trust you, you're the only person I have never doubted during this whole ordeal. I need you to trust me. Lend me your strength."
[x] Declare: First Harvest.

2 on 2 danmaku. WE'RE THE STRONGEST! Hope and friendship will beat fate!

>>26404
Actually, that might not be so crazy as it seems.

She wants us to impress her, and considering what she thinks of us, what might accomplish that?

She thinks we should be more outgoing, show more of a spine? Well, what better way to do that than take out that last card and show her what we think of her and her game by tearing it up and telling her in no uncertain terms to go fuck herself? To not try to escape our imminent death, our fate, but to face it head-on?

In this game of hers he's like a cat toying with a mouse before killing it. She lets her prey run, thinking it can escape, and allows it to try knowing full well she can stop it at any time, continuing until either the prey becomes too exhausted to resist any longer or she just becomes bored. But what if the mouse didn't run? Didn't try to get away, or resist the inevitable? If you can't fight, can't escape, and can't do anything to prevent your demise, then the very least you can do is take away whatever pleasure and satisfaction she might get from watching you squirm or try in vain to get away.

[x] Find a pair of glasses.
[x] Put them on.
[x] Pull out your pocket knife.
[x] Take off glasses
[x] "Come, Remilia Scarlet. Let's kill each other."

I wonder if we can use Fate of the Present to bomb our way out of the mansion.

>>26408

Uh, no, it is stupid. Remilia is going to kill everyone. Impressing her will only give the farmer a higher grade, but it won't save him.

The card is not useless. It has a power, that is for sure, just like the other two had. We just don't know what is really is. Wasting the card like only to die with a better grade is stupid, and you should feel stupid. If there is any hope, is in using it to help Cirno. We do not know what effect it will have, but we must do everything to protect her, we must use every little hope to save her. SOMEONE must survive.

[x] "So you really are evil? I'm disappointed. I wanted to believe in you."
[x] "This isn't a game. All the tricks and half-truths, they're not about winning, it's about you being afraid to lose."
[x] "There is where we are different... I am not afraid."
[x] Turn to Cirno: "I trust you, you're the only person I have never doubted during this whole ordeal. I need you to trust me. Lend me your strength."
[X]Use Fate of the Present on Cirno
[x] Declare: First Harvest against Remilia.

>>26411

Oh yes, whatever was I thinking suggesting such a clearly stupid idea. Your idea of responding to someone who is willing and able to kill you where you stand by throwing pretty but ultimately harmless lights at them when they are not only naturally faster and stronger than you but also protected by someone who can stop time, and thus avoid anything you throw at them with zero effort is clearly far more brilliant. If nothing else, she'll give you a higher grade just for giving her such a good laugh before she kills you.

I wonder what would happen if we use the Card on Nathaniel.
He must be under the influence of Remilia's fate power.
Maybe he still has some strenght in him. He really bought Sakuya's little act. Either we give up like >>26374, fight like >>26407 or mock her >>26378
Someone needs to stay behind to distract Remilia while someone else grabs Nathaniel and runs. I doubt Sakuya would jump in when Remilia is fighting.
She probably wants to have fun as long as possible with her prey. We could use this somehow.

>>26413

It's still better than throwing away what little hope one can have. She can't kill the farmer after a danmaku game, even if she wins. That's why danmaku exists, fool.

>>26415
Because someone whose plans entail usurping control of Gensokyo is really going to give a damn about whatever rules were set down by the very people she ultimately intends to overthrow. Right.

>>26415
Assuming she bothers to obey the rules.
Assuming she doesn't just give us that previously mentioned "butler end".

Honestly, the big "fuck you" seems to be the best way to impress her so far, but I don't know if that is really the best thing to do. >>26408 mentioned it like a mouse refusing to be toyed with. Honestly I can only see it as an attempt to impress her, i.e. being toyed with.

Only useful course of action, and a particularly risky one, would be to bring up the discrepancies in knowledge that we seem to know about; namely Adam and that letter Sakuya was writing. Flandre was convinced that Remilia did not know about Adam, and honestly I think she's too insane (not just from metaknowledge) to be a player in the game. I think that, even with the big revelation that Sakuya wasn't helping us, she is still doing stuff behind Remilia's back. It might even be possible to get a "free shot" on this by mixing it in with something like "So, you're with her, Sakuya? All the stuff about hating Remilia and hiding Adam from her was a lie?". That won't work with where Owen cut off the story though, so it'd have to be reworded.

[X]Use Fate of the Present on Cirno
[X]"Hey,Cirno,listen,lets finish this in one go, by combining our powers,let's settle this."
[X]"Whether it's impossible or laughable,we will open up a path to the future!"
[X]"If there's a wall, we'll break it down, if there's no path, we'll make one with these hands!"
[X]"Me..."
[X]"US"(with Cirno)
[X]"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!"
[X]Declare: A Farmer's Nightmare:Early Frost
[X]FREEZE THE MANSION, ALL OF IT

...Just had a urge to say that. Not really serious, but that's my vote. And yes, that card was pulled out of nowhere, in true Super Robot fashion.

>>26416

Yes, because attracting attention before the time is always bad. It's not time yet, else she would already have overthrown them. But as we can see, she is still just a resident of Gensokyo, not it's ruler.

Either she plays by the rules or the current rulers go after her head before she can overthrown them.

>>26419
Dead men tell no tales. You seem to be assuming some omnipotent being is watching us right now. You could make an argument that Ran is watching, as Nate told her to watch way back when they spoke Latin, but that still doesn't help us simply because Remilia doesn't know about it.

Since Remilia doesn't think she's being watched, she'll have no problem killing everyone here. She might get what’s coming to her afterwords, but that wont help Cirno or Farmer one bit.

>>26419
Okay, let's say you're right, and she won't simply plow through our little light show to rend us limb from limb, and will humor us with a danmaku battle. Let's even say that, in the highly likely event that she wins, she can't/won't kill us anyway. What then?

Even if she can't kill us, she certainly isn't obligated to let either us or Cirno go, and any attempts at escape can be easily thwarted when Sakuya can just use her time stop and drag us back.

Really, considering all the other things Remilia can do to us without killing us, a quick death is probably far from the worse thing that could happen to us. She could lock us up in a holding cell to be used as a new blood supply, for instance. Even if Cirno regains her regeneration, now that Sakuya knows to be wary of her freezing abilities, they could probably keep her restrained in some way and kept handy so Remilia can torture her whenever she wants. Or, perhaps she could just dump us back into Flandre's den for more fun and games, until the little psycho loli either breaks us with her games or just turns us into a fine mist.

>>26417
>Only useful course of action, and a particularly risky one, would be to bring up the discrepancies in knowledge that we seem to know about; namely Adam and that letter Sakuya was writing.
Yeah, can we do something revolving around this? Talking to Remilia about something she genuinely doesn't seem aware of strikes me as a good idea. Also, use the card on something.

>>26424
Yes, lets tell her about Adam. That way she can kill him too! What fun!

Any idea based on using the card in a "novel" manner is fundamentally flawed, because it assumes there's some mistake on her part, when most of the story has revealed the most meticulous planning of our escapades. Remilia has been playing this game a long, long time, and she's seen a lot of players, some of whom apparently have been exactly like you. You think you're the first one to think to use it on her sister, or herself, or anyone else for that matter? All we know about it is that it apparently strips her control of someone's Fate, but that itself is only secondhand knowledge from Nathaniel, to whom she let "slip", knowing that he had the Past Card and could reverse time to act on this knowledge. Now we have disconfirming evidence of its efficacy, since Sakuya is immune to it for reasons Remilia won't elaborate on. Even if the card does anything, it won't be anything she wouldn't expect it to, and any apparent change is very likely to be a careful facade, in place for the same reason she went to lengths to have Sakuya entertain your notion of saving Cirno: Greater despair when you realize that she's pulling the wool over your eyes. Don't destroy the card? Fine, keep it. But using it is almost certainly suicide.

[x] Don't use the card on anyone.

>>26422

If Perfect Memento in Strict sense is to be taken as literal canon, she wouldn't be able to kill us after beating us in a danmaku duel.

Anyone see any holes in my argument?

Let's think out of the box, she just using her power of fate to make US do want SHE want. Impress her? To hell with that!

[x] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exist, talking petty talk with her, completly ignoring this immature child named Remillia.

What she gonna do? make Sakuya bring us back, we just have to repeat the snene over and over again. killing us while ignoring her? Is just like admitting her lost. Torture us? we can do suicide way before that. Either way, she will lose if we ignore her.

I have no regret...

[x] Use "Fate of the Present" on Flandre Scarlet.
-[x] But phrase it so it's 'Little Miss Scarlet' at first.
-[x] Phase Two : If that doesn't work, at least ask why. See if you can send Remilia's reply back to Flandre. Chances are whatever it is, it would enrage Flandre.

There you go. Multiple ways in which it may work, and while we still haven't gotten around to figuring if we can switch around a Scry, the last part may be able to trigger a reaction anyway, even if Fate of the Present doesn't trigger and even better, Remilia's own words would be used against her.

I just realized that Remilia patiently waited until Nate played his last card before she killed him. She was clearly bored of him earlier, so why wait? I think that perhaps part of this game is that she can’t kill us until we use ALL our cards. By putting on this show with Nathaniel, threatening us, and telling us to impress her she’s trying to provoke us into using our last card.

>>26430
Why end the show early when there's still something left of it for her to enjoy? It's the same reason she kept him alive while Sakuya was stringing us along retrieving Cirno, and why she bothered with telling us our respective "scores" for the game. Because she enjoys watching people scramble to escape from the well she threw them down. The higher they climb, the closer they seem to get to escaping, the more enjoyable it is for her when they fall back down to the bottom.

That, I think is why she waited. To see just how much higher Nathaniel could climb before he eventually fell.

Heh, I wonder...what does Owen think of all this?

>>26432

Amusement.

Remilia is the author's stand-in after all.

>>26428
This is so stupid it might work.

[x] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exist, talking petty talk with her, completly ignoring this immature child named Remillia.

>>26435
Stupid, insane, or damn clever?

For someone whose whole thing is controlling people, to be not only disobeyed but flat-out ignored is bound to make an impression on her.

Or just really piss her off.

[x] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exit, talking petty talk with her, completely ignoring this immature child named Remilia.

Fixed. This'll either get Cirno killed, screw us over, save us, or kill us. Here's hoping it's one of last two!

>>26437
> last two
> kill us
Honestly, this late in the game, I don't think we're going to get a continue. Death is probably just another bad end now.

>>26436
>Stupid, insane, or damn clever?
All three.

[X]Challenge Remila to a Danmaku duel to stop this madness.
It is the only way to have her fight closer to our level.

[X] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exit, talking petty talk with her, completely ignoring this immature child named Remilia.

Wasn't the point of this game to leave the mansion? Who's Remilia to say we've already lost? Fuck you, I'm out.

You know how Nathaniel saved us from Flandre by putting on a performance for her? I wonder if we can do the same here.

>“NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!”

This gives me a horrible idea.

[x] To Cirno: "Be ready to whistle when I give you the signal."
[x] Walk over to Nathaniel, and sit down on the floor next to him. Conversationally, "Are you still alive, old boy? Can you... whistle? Like this." Demonstrate. "Come on. Whistle."
[x] Regardless of whether he does, signal to Cirno to repeat the whistle.
[x] "Some things in life are bad; they can really make you sad!" Use your hands to manipulate Nathaniel's face into frown. "Other things just make you swear or worse. When you've emptied out your pistol, don't fumble for your fob--give a whistle! And this'll help things turn out for the best! And..."
[x] Break out into song: "Always look on the bright side of life." Refrain. "Always look on the light side of life." Fancy it up with some danmaku pyrotechnics.
[x] "If life is kicking you in the bottom, then there's something you've forgotten..." Improvise a jig, "And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing!"
[x] "If you're feeling things are grim, don't obsess over who 'wins'." Get up in her maid's unflappable face, as if you expect her to follow along. "Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing!"
[x] "Always look on the bright side of life." More danmaku. "Always look on the right side of life." Stomp to your right.
[x] "For life is quite absurd, and death's the final word. You must always face the curtain with a bow." Bow.
[x] Back to Nathaniel: "Forget about your revenge, it's all worthless in the end; you've never had a chance anyhow!"
[x] Sit on his chest. "Always look on the bright side of death! Just before you draw your terminal breath!"
[x] Stand back up, take out the Fate of the Present card, and tear it to shreds in front of Remilia. "Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it; if life's a laugh, even undeath's a gas, it's true."
[x] Sling Nathaniel's arm over your shoulder and hoist him up, motioning for Cirno to help you. "You'll see it's all a play, best to laugh along the way, but remember that the last laugh is on you!"
[x] "Sing along!" Try to start Remilia off on the refrain. If she does, see if you can get Sakuya to follow. "All together now!"
[x] Start hobbling Nathaniel toward the exit, while giving him pithy folk reassurances, loudly enough for everyone to pick up on. Don't stop yammering until the door latches behind you.

Worse things happen at sea, you know?

>>26442
>>Wasn't the point of this game to leave the mansion? Who's Remilia to say we've already lost? Fuck you, I'm out.

Well, there is that small matter of the fact that she and her maid are basically standing between you and the door, and even if you get outside you might still have her loyal gate guard to get past. Assuming Sakuya doesn't just do a time stop and drag you both back inside like she's done once already.

>>26443

This! A thousand times, this!

Or if that isn't feasible...

[x] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exit, talking petty talk with her, completely ignoring this immature child named Remilia.

>Death is probably just another bad end now.

Death is the good end here now that Owen has lost it.

>>26446
>Death is the good end here now that Owen has lost it.
But does he know he can kill?

>>26444
>Well, there is that small matter of the fact that she and her maid are basically standing between you and the door, and even if you get outside you might still have her loyal gate guard to get past. Assuming Sakuya doesn't just do a time stop and drag you both back inside like she's done once already.

See, that's the ultimate irony: Nathaniel, whom was given every opportunity to escape never actually left, because he felt he couldn't or wouldn't or would be brought back, constantly finding new ways to justify choosing to remain here. Behavioral despair. Learned helplessness. His mind has become so mired in these fatalistic conceptions of will and causation that he won't try to escape his cage, even when the door is left open for him. After all, you can't escape the prison walls that you've created in your own mind.

I wouldn't be surprised if this lip service to non-interference is what assures Remilia that her game is somehow 'fair'. Hell, her reaction to Nathaniel's suggestion that she was "cheating" was to free him from his bindings. Think back to Flandre: Why did she ask us if we wanted to play with her? Similarly, Remilia is and has always given you the "opportunity" to leave the game, even when she does all she can to disguise it. These forced consent situations pervade the sisters' interactions: Meiling's repeated "bets" with Remilia, Flandre's games with you and others, Remilia's card game (for "real" or "fun"?)... almost anything untoward that has happened so far has been prefaced or qualified with an (apparently) vacuous alternative posed to the victim.

Do I expect her to try to stop you? Yes, I expect her to try very hard, yes, just not in the way you expect. Veiled threats, we've heard. Sexual temptation didn't work. Unlike Nathaniel, we've expressed nothing in the manner that would suggest we'd stick around for revenge. What comes once you call her bluff is bargaining: Your life for Cirno's, or your life for Nathaniel's. After this is dismissed by saying that you'll be taking them anyway, she'll appeal to your sense of duty: Those clothes on your back, the ability to scry, Cirno, Nathaniel, your adventure, she gave you all this! The keys and other trinkets, the cards, having Sakuya teach you danmaku, she worked so hard to make this authentic for you. Finally, tears, revelation of a traumatic past, frank insights on her character, pleading that she can't help herself. She'll beg you not to go.

Vanity. All of it vanity. The vanity of a child so deathly afraid of abandonment that she's mindwashed her maid to the point where she's essentially an automaton, a girl who forcibly transformed her sister into a lich, driving her violent and insane, then keeping her locked her in her basement. Harden your heart and walk out that door.

>>26450
Nathaniel chose to forgo escape and saving himself, true, but from what he said he did it in the hopes of saving someone else. Considering we had the very same opportunity to escape that he had, but chose to remain in hopes of saving Cirno, how are we any different in that regard?

Even if it's as simple as walking out the door now, wouldn't doing so defeat the entire purpose of our passing up our previous chance to escape, to restore Cirno to her original, non-mortal state?

Do you really think simply walking away is the best course of action? Or have you simply given up on the alternatives?

"A rift in the sun saves one."

I, for the life of me, cannot remember where this was first stated. I have tried searching through all the threads but to no avail.

>Even if it's as simple as walking out the door now, wouldn't doing so defeat the entire purpose of our passing up our previous chance to escape, to restore Cirno to her original, non-mortal state?

These are exactly the kinds of things Remilia is going to say. But her fate manipulation is not absolute, otherwise she wouldn't use other methods. Proximity is one apparently major factor. A second point is that Sakuya's explanation of how Remilia has affected her is called into question, since everything else she said was a lie. Hell, it explains the entire purpose for that interlude: Sakuya putting the idea in your head that Cirno's problem has to resolved through Remilia, thus gaining Remilia more leverage. The truth could very well be something else, like Sakuya's time manipulation slowing her regen time. And finally, seeing as how Remilia just told us she was going to kill her, I don't think we'll be getting any help on that end stemming from benevolence, and I refuse to make any more deals with the Devil.

>Do you really think simply walking away is the best course of action? Or have you simply given up on the alternatives?

If you don't think it's time to give up on the "alternatives" now, when you're apparently an epitaph's length away from the death of you and the person you care for, when will you? How much worse will you allow things to get?

>>26452
As I recall, it was one of the questions Ran asked us when trying to determine how we got there.

>>26454
Ah, you're right. Somehow, I misread that part. Thank you.

Also, I just had a random thought: would it be possible to use our last wish to fix Nate's watch? Would he even be able to use it in his state? Hmm...

>Nathaniel chose to forgo escape and saving himself, true, but from what he said he did it in the hopes of saving someone else.

He felt driven to do something... to save who? Us? He didn't seem be concerned with getting us safely outside the mansion. Sakuya he only decided on saving when she gave him the sob story. He apparently forgot Adam. This is all after admitting that he was completely powerless in the face of Remilia.

We chose to remain because we wanted to help Cirno and because this appeared within our grasp here, seeing as we appeared to be within the good graces of our host. Now it has been revealed that we are not. Unlike Nathaniel, who has found a cause to die for, the Farmer and the Fairy have no such pretensions: The only thing in their minds should is survival, for themselves and for one another, prospects that grow ever dimmer the longer they stay here.

Tired…weary…need, sleep. Cannot…comment on all…I wish to…

I’ll let the vote run for perhaps six more hours before closing the polls. I will try to get an update to you late tomorrow, as I incidentally have to write an actual paper for school due Friday morning, and I need time to think on how best to work out the story from here.

>>26364
Kai is a definite possibility down the line, but I’ve been promising it seems half a dozen people on IRC that I’d look into the demo for a similar visual novel first: Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. Supposedly it’s similar to Higurashi, or at least made by the same people, though there’s enough differences to make it not stale. It has piqued my interest, and the music sounds very enchanting, so it and Kai are definitely on my list (And Haruhi Suzimaya, and Read or Die, and Paranoia Agent, and the Lighthouse CYOA, and…)

>>26366
Well, he can’t say it, so I’ll say it for him:

I told you so.

>>26371
You are a bold man to suggest that which none would dare to try. Out-of-the-box thinking, crushed once again by Anon’s love for lolis. Perhaps, in another world, it might have worked…but I commend you nonetheless.

>>26374
>this is my final vote for this amazingly superb story.
Ohh…you think this is the last vote you’ll get a chance at? No, no, dear boy…this is but the beginning of the end. Don’t think you can run away from destiny now.

>>26375
Long Answer: I detest mind-altering drugs and alcohol of any kind on both a moral and personal level, except when medicinal use is prudent. As I have no disease which requires such usage, I neither need nor want the hallucinogens of which you speak. My mind, while strange, is precious to me. The things I think, I wish always to retain, so that I might learn from them. I admit that, on occasion, deep emotion of kinds not often encountered by the average person well un inside of me, for reasons I cannot explain. Such was the case several days ago, and in my odd emotional state I wrote not from my mind, but from my heart and soul. I hope I did not frighten you; it was not my intention. Or perhaps it was; I am no longer in that state of mind to tell.

Short Answer: No.

>>26377
Just about as much fun as Mokou and Kaguya are having right now. Make of that what you will.

>>26380
>Oh well, we're fucked now.
Only with an attitude like that will you be.

>>26388
So crazy it just might work.

>>26395
>I thought she might just be plain evil without a cause and just amusing herself with torturing people. But that is just plain and utter boring. I thought there was more to her, some plot or scheme.
How can you be so sure there’s not? Even when the normal is not as it seems, that which is unseemly is itself not what it seems.

>>26405
>I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, by this development. At least we're getting a Scarlet Bad End hat trick. If anything, our consistency in this regard is... admirable?
Pure coincidence, really. Though the Scarlets would be more prone to killing you than others might be.

>Well, with her power-tripping and Owen aching to end this story already, I don't think we'll get to do anything awesome, but might as well give it a shot.
Your ability to do awesome is limited only by your mind, pitted against mine. You want a good end? You want awesomeness? Then write it. I am not so close-minded that I will not reject gold when it is given to me. But at this point, it is you, and not I, who must seek to find that treasure. Also, I wouldn’t exactly say “aching”, but yes, I would like this to end fairly soon.

>Also, U.N. Owen's Higurashi-induced ramblings are getting pretty close to eclipsing the enjoyment I'm getting from the story. I'm looking forward to what Umineko does to him.
When everything is laid bare…when I have no time and no options left for me…when life flows into me through unknown currents…this is what I become. Not a casual man who laughs with his friends, not an intelligent man who sees patterns and knows strategy, not a sadistic man seeking the despair and hatred of others…I become a shell, a shell of nothing but words. Everything I think, I write. I do not ponder my words, but only create them. Perhaps genius is held within those characters, or perhaps the beginnings and endings of an insane mind. I know not. All I can do is write, and let the emptiness consume me. Perhaps, with chance, something on that page will take root within my heart, and soothe the cavern within it, returning me to my normal state.

I await Umineko with eager anticipation. Thank you for not fearing me.

>>26432
>what does Owen think of all this?
I think you are extremely awesome for continuing to believe in an insane man, and I think I should thank you all, once again.

I also think the amount of discussion, in this thread and in the entire story, is more than I could have ever wished or hoped for…more than I’ve ever even dreamed of. Thank you. Thank you for showing me you care.

>>26434
Nice try, Remilia, but it is actually I who is behind you!

>>26438
>I don't think we're going to get a continue. Death is probably just another bad end now.
Far from it. I will not end this story with your untimely death. If you die, the death will only be permanent if in it there is closure. Do not fear death. Do not fear me. Do not fear her. Fear nothing. You have wasted enough time in fear already.

>>26446
>Death is the good end here now that Owen has lost it.
Do not underestimate my mental state, traveler; words mean little when you do not know the meaning behind them. It is in my “insanity” that I realize the vast importance of remaining sane, and how I must cherish it.

And who knows. Perhaps the insane one among you is the most sane one of all…

If I didn't know any better, I'd say we are heading into a "rocks fall, everyone dies" end.

>And who knows. Perhaps the insane one among you is the most sane one of all…

Just walk away and ignore her? Turning your back to Remilia and Sakuya while slowly walking toward the exit while talking with Cirno like nothing is going on sounds pretty insane. It's the most insane thing that one could do.

>>26459
>If I didn't know any better, I'd say we are heading into a "Rumia regenerates without her ribbon, swallows the sun" end.

[x] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exist, talking petty talk with her, completly ignoring this immature child named Remilia.

Wotth'hell, Archie, wotth'hell.

[x] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exist, talking petty talk with her, completly ignoring this immature child named Remilia.

Yer kinda...
Yer kinda...a kid, huh.
Dis whole thing, y'know. Dis death, and dis backstabbin', and dis myst'ry...
It's kinda...what it's all built on, y'know?
It's kinda stupid.
I'm gonna leave now.
Hey, Chirno. Y'wanna come wid?

Far too late to bring up this observational point, but it is also my fault entirely since I just got into reading this on Monday and finished a few hours ago...

In the end we're dealing with a game right?

What is the best way to get past something you don't see immediate way of besting? Through use of a glitch of course, and where might we find that currently? Why it just so happens that we have someone sharing that name, and they also refuse to be accepted by Remilia, or perhaps she's even blind to it for the time being.

What's the best way to deal with this situation thing? Bring the glitch to light and take advatage of it while you can before the game master can do anything about it!

Of course this is just my thoughts on the matter as a gamer/programmer so I might be taking things a bit too far with the analogy but eh.

Very well then: this vote has won:

[x] Take Cirno's hand and slowly walk toward the exist, talking petty talk with her, completely ignoring this immature child named Remilia.

My writing will likely not commence for another 12 hours or so (due to life happening), so you can expect an update either late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

I don't feel nearly as bad making petty remarks like this when the thread's already at autosage. It's almost liberating in a way.

Only 3 updates in an already gigantic thread, you are a monster!

>>26469

Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod.

>>And who knows. Perhaps the insane one among you is the most sane one of all…

So destroying the card is actually going to impress Remilia and save everybody?

>all three? I trust U.N.Owen would never drop that kind of "it was just a game" ending on us

Uh...

>>26473
>Uh...
Well, he didn't. What I meant was that everyone in the mansion was in on it like it were some big joke, EXCEPT us and the ice fairy, and then we all sit down and drink tea afterwards while laughing. Wonderful as an anti-climatic ending but ...

It's too bad we can't have another playthrough like with a game to try and see other routes (like Koakuma or Sakuya maybe?).

Ok, Koakuma's route just spells bad end but hey, I'd have wanted to read that bad end...

>>26474

I know. It's that it's still a game, just not a nice game.
>>26475

Did we ever 'aimed' for a target, or a did we even bother going for someone's route?

>>26469
The suspense is KILLING me.

Also, 256+ posts with so few updates. Jesus, it's like Owen is trying to break all the records of the boards. If he doesn't make a new thread, I can see this one getting close to MiG's record of 1,5k+ posts.

>>26476
>Did we ever 'aimed' for a target, or a did we even bother going for someone's route?

Closest thing we came to a "route" was with Cirno, but honestly we've been far too busy with not dying to entertain the notion of pursuing any of the mansion residents romantically.

>>26479

Route doesn't necessarily mean romantic involvement, it could simply mean friendship or an attachment to a specific character but it usually always ends with that character being the focus of the ending for our hero wether it be his reason for acting or a person he/she can bind their fate with after the story.

For all we know, there might have been a route that could have led us to become good friends with Nathaniel!

>that could have led us to become good friends with Nathaniel!

Not in this lifetime

>For all we know, there might have been a route that could have led us to become good friends with Nathaniel!
I lol'd. Good show, Anon.

>My writing will likely not commence for another 12 hours or so (due to life happening), so you can expect an update either late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Do you enjoy torturing us? I demand a WALL next post.

>>26469
Looking forward to seeing how it'll turn out; best of luck here and I'll be keeping an eye around.

Oh, and also:
NADIE SE ESPERA A LA SANTA INQUISICIÓN!
(Ignore that if you wish, just responding to a fun twist.)