[X] Let's end this. Launch a full offense.

I have the feeling we won't be out of Namek for some time.

>>64625

0/10

I think the Stealth Fairies are in the area, and Kenshiro's spidey-sense is tingling.

[x] If there's already someone watching, fake them out. Make a mound of snow and draw an eye symbol on it, looking up and out. Incant the spell with the doll behind the mound, hide the doll behind some snowballs you carry around as 'backup'. First time around, look around desperately as if you detected the spy's presense. Repeat a few times, making it look like there are blindspots close to the mounds themselves. Give a similar order to the Alice-Patchy team.

I think I like faking out people too much, espically with Yukari around. (This sort of thing happens if there aren't all that many votes around.) Might be funny to pretend we're warding against flyers though, although against Komachi, Yukari and such can still go about like normal.

>"Alright." she replies after a few seconds. You hesitate going back to setting the dolls, feeling even more uneasy. You're worried that someone might be watching you, and if you were, then they might be able to catch onto the doll alarms before they can be of any effect or help. Maybe you could send out the assault team and anyone else currently on standby to sweep the area and make sure no one is in the area, spying on you. Then again, if it's just your nerves, it could be a waste of time, and end up giving away your position to others if the other team doesn't know what you're up to yet.

[x] Continue what you're doing; it's just nerves.

Even assuming you are being watched, the enemy won't be able to get in close to you or the alarms without setting them off. The entire point of this exercise is so that we can bring the entire assault group to bear at once on any area the alarm goes off. Right now the assault group is at the base and equidistant from every alarm we set, and that is the best place from them to be as we could expect an incursion to come from any direction.

Leave the locating the enemy forces to the scout team.

Hm. If they know where the dolls are and can guess what they do, couldn't they set them off beforehand and fly over another way?

>>64722

You're paralyzing yourself with self-doubt, here.

If they figure it out, so what? We have a dedicated defense team for a reason and can recall the assault team instantaneously with the comm badges.

>>64725

More importantly, if they're not moving through the forest, they're going to be plainly visible to Lily, no matter what direction they're coming from.

>>64726
good point. the only thing i'm worried about is Reisen throwing off Lily's or anyone else's perceptive abilities. Also, if there is someone (Yukari) watching us there's not only little we can do about it but also it's a poor choice to rely on the enemy's supposed ignorance.

[x] Continue what you're doing; it's just nerves.

[x] Continue what you're doing; it's just nerves.

Accept that their side has ways of spying on you that are undetectable and cannot be countered. You have better things to do with your time than waste it chasing your own shadow.

[X] Turn invisible using you ghost powers, see if your possesions change too. Use the badge to communicated you have a bad feeling, maybe the enemy is on a sneaking mission. Set up the dolls as stealthly as possible.

It never hurts to be careful, you know.

>>64761
I wonder if ghost invisibility is effective against all opponents here, Komachi if no one else should be able to see ghosts regardless.

I can get behind this.

[x] Turn invisible using your ghost powers, see if your possessions change too. Use the badge to communicate that you have a bad feeling, maybe the enemy is on a sneaking mission. Set up the dolls as stealthily as possible.

Updates coming sometime later today. I've been told my computer is entirely fucked, the power supply blew out and took my processor and motherboard with it. I also need to replace my RAM as well. $515 later, I could have thrown a new graphics card and a new hard drive, and I would instead be buying an entirely new computer to put my existing two hard drives into.

>>64990
>Updates coming sometime later today.

hooray!

>I've been told my computer is entirely fucked,

oh no!

>>64786

I don't think she would be there, too lazy for it.

[x] Turn invisible using your ghost powers, see if your possessions change too. Use the badge to communicate that you have a bad feeling, maybe the enemy is on a sneaking mission. Set up the dolls as stealthily as possible.

Anyways, seconding this, caution never hurts.

>>64991

At least on the bright side, my computer will actually have a power source capable of supporting the fucking thing. I've thought for a long time that I was fucked over when it came to the actual building of my computer, so many errors referencing devices not getting enough power being a clear enough sign, but me in my idiocy didn't ever think to question it beyond decrying the errors whenever they popped up.

As a bonus, everything will run faster and better now being brand new, so I can writefag at double speed.

As for those updates I said I'd get 'later today', well, make it sometime tomorrow. Tired, and Fallout 3's call is stronger than sitting in a dark, hot room, typing on a small, shitty keyboard with a horrible backspace key, sitting in a small, hard, creaky chair, and not even a working sound output jack so I can listen to music while I write.

>>65173
>>hot room

lucky bastard.

[x] Turn invisible using your ghost powers, see if your possessions change too. Use the badge to communicate that you have a bad feeling, maybe the enemy is on a sneaking mission. Set up the dolls as stealthily as possible.

You can't get over the idea of being watched, and you're worried about continuing. You're going to disappear then, and you concentrate on fading out. As you do, you notice that the sword seems to flicker slightly, but otherwise remains visible, and the dolls are also unaffected. You touch your hand to the sword's handle and try to make it immaterial as well, but for each minor success you have in making it intangible, you struggle with a strong power that overwhelms your concentration. After a while you give up trying to turn the sword and retreat a bit, fading back in. You reach up to the badge.

"I've got a bad feeling out here, feel like I'm being watched." you say quietly, scanning the trees for any sign of movement.

"Should I go take a look?" Youmu replies over the badge.

"If you feel like it, but do it carefully and take your time." you say. You head back towards the tree line and return to setting up the dolls when Youmu comes up behind you.

"Out this way?" she asks, looking out into the trees as well. You nod, and she hops into the air and floats off into the trees. You continue to make progress setting up the dolls, going slower now though. Even if Youmu hasn't found anyone yet, doesn't mean there's not still someone watching until they're caught. You're relieved when you start getting closer to Alice and Patchouli, who are advancing at double your pace. After several minutes, the three of you have set the final doll.

"All done," Alice says. "What now?"

"I don't have anything in mind, but I felt like I was being watched when I was out there alone." you say, causing Alice and Patchouli to look a little concerned. "If they were, they probably know about the dolls. Youmu is out looking for anyone." As if on cue, Youmu emerges from the tree line, and all three of you turn your attention towards her. If you got the ping, the other two must have as well. Youmu looks a little surprised at the unified motion.

"What's wrong?" she asks, sounding a little nervous.

"Nothing, you just triggered the alarm." you say. "Find anyone?"

"A few tracks, but no person." Youmu says. "The tracks I did find weren't turned towards us though, so maybe someone came by without realizing we were out here."

You're a little relieved that she didn't find anyone, but these tracks are a bit curious. You wonder if you should have someone take a closer look into them and see if they can be followed. You also need to find something else to do to occupy your time, unless you want to just bide your time now and wait.

---

Late updates.

>You're a little relieved that she didn't find anyone, but these tracks are a bit curious. You wonder if you should have someone take a closer look into them and see if they can be followed. You also need to find something else to do to occupy your time, unless you want to just bide your time now and wait.

When everyone is capable of flying, tracks are pretty damn suspicious.

[x] Tell Patchouli to go back to the base to alert the defenders if the alarms go off. Alice should do the same with the assault team, and you'll go with the scout team. You'll be able to communicate with each other over the badge in the case of any false alarms.
[x] Alert Tewi and the scout team about the tracks. If it's a trap, then likely the enemy already saw you, in which case you should take point and have Tewi's team follow you at a distance.

It could be an ambush, or it could be an attempt to lure the assault group on a wild goose chase. Either way, it's dangerous to overcommit yourself.

>>65389

You can't make snowballs in midair. Flying above the trees makes you a target and leaves you without a chance to retaliate.

>>65403

Yes, but you could still hover inches above ground.

>>65416

Maybe it's that the track-maker was making snowballs?

In this case, if we still want stealth, I think we can try hiding the sword under the snow and extending ourself away from it, using the thread for control/retreiving. We can probably make a good, reusuable decoy that way - have the sword travel under the snow, gathering attention and snowballs and if the other team tries to investigate try to set it off.

>>65465

If this is a trap and their ambush party is small enough to handle, we'll want to look like we're alone so we can draw them out. Or if their force is too large, it's be better to lose one person than the entire scout party, and have your assault team counterattack instead.

I doubt it's just someone gathering snowballs; there would be enough snow in the immediate vicinity around their base for that, and no one has engaged any of the enemy forces yet.

Like it's been said before, No Body has a lot of defensive options if things get hairy. It doesn't pay to be overcautious about your personal safety; it's better to think of how you can best serve the team.

Just got a call that my computer's new motherboard is backordered, so there'll be slow updates until tuesday at least. It would take about that long to get votes anyway, so yeah.

I thought I was just joking when I said I wouldn't have the votes to update until Tuesday.

>>65741

I can't speak for anyone else, they're probably tied up with some "Can't think up any good option" decree, but I'll be blunt. I'm not very interested in snowball. I'd have to agree with the guys calling "Are they still on Namek?". Read-only mode, personally.

>>65743

And if all I have are readers and no voters, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. This doesn't last as long as people might think if only you would vote, y'know. If you're not interested in what's going on then how about doing something about it? Complaining about the direction something is going when you're not voting to try to move it along is pretty pointless.

[x] Tell Patchouli to go back to the base to alert the defenders if the alarms go off. Alice should do the same with the assault team, and you'll go with the scout team. You'll be able to communicate with each other over the badge in the case of any false alarms.
[x] Alert Tewi and the scout team about the tracks. If it's a trap, then likely the enemy already saw you, in which case you should take point and have Tewi's team follow you at a distance.

I'm helping!

>>65756
King should stay near the back rank. Begin moving Queen back.

[x] Tell Patchouli to go back to the base to alert the defenders if the alarms go off. Ask Alice to discreetly swap the dolls so that they're the kind that blow up instead and continue planting them as were look-outs.
[x] Alert Tewi and the scout team about the tracks.

>>65748
If you find this is a serious problem, you should come up with options to give us instead of asking for write-ins.

>>65766
Agreeing with this. Even if we then vote for some write-in, the options provided help to give us guidelines on approaches to take, at the very least.

[x] Tell Patchouli to go back to the base to alert the defenders if the alarms go off. Alice should do the same with the assault team, and you'll go with the scout team. You'll be able to communicate with each other over the badge in the case of any false alarms.
[x] Alert Tewi and the scout team about the tracks. If it's a trap, then likely the enemy already saw you, in which case you should take point and have Tewi's team follow you at a distance.

I thought the optionless part was because this was hard mode? That being said, usually the last portion of each update can be decoded for options.

>>65814

Yeah, but must the mini-game be on hard mode too?

[x] Tell Patchouli to go back to the base to alert the defenders if the alarms go off. Alice should do the same with the assault team, and you'll go with the scout team. You'll be able to communicate with each other over the badge in the case of any false alarms.
[x] Alert Tewi and the scout team about the tracks. If it's a trap, then likely the enemy already saw you, in which case you should take point and have Tewi's team follow you at a distance.

voting.

>>65846

>Yeah, but must the mini-game be on hard mode too?

So long as it has a direct bearing on the attitudes and affections of the targets of your current route, yes.

That aside, the current tactics I have plotted in my head as the 'ideal plan' would win you the game by noon the next day. Speaking of 'next days', I should be getting my computer back tomorrow or Wednesday if nothing goes wrong, so I'll be updating much faster, with an update coming tomorrow regardless.

>>65981

hooray!

>That aside, the current tactics I have plotted in my head as the 'ideal plan' would win you the game by noon the next day.

I'm wondering, what is the plan for 'tonight' in terms of food and sleeping arrangements?

>>66091

In-game we don't really have a reason to believe at the moment that this will take all night, but Yukari can easily gap things in for her team, and Yuyu probably has enough food and bedrolls in the mansion to bring out for ours.

Remember that a lot of the players are non-human and are going to require less accommodations as far as food and sleep.

>>66117

The only one on your team that needs basic human amenities is Reimu, and she doesn't really need that much since I envision her as being able to push herself past 'normal' human limits of hunger and fatigue if she needs too. Youmu can last even longer, and she still counts as two people, so she can switch off to have a rest and still be there to defend. Everyone else only acts human-ish out of comfort or habit.

Yukari has Sanae, Keine, Rikako and Marisa, who are closer to 'normal' humans as far as endurance goes. Eirin would have some kind of energy supplements, and Sakuya can take a tea break any time she wants. Then there's Rumia...

Anyway, update impending. I'll be getting my computer back tomorrow now it seems, and if they try to pull some new excuse as to why I'm not, I'll firebomb them.

[x] Tell Patchouli to go back to the base to alert the defenders if the alarms go off. Alice should do the same with the assault team, and you'll go with the scout team. You'll be able to communicate with each other over the badge in the case of any false alarms.
[x] Alert Tewi and the scout team about the tracks. If it's a trap, then likely the enemy already saw you, in which case you should take point and have Tewi's team follow you at a distance.

You should probably get out there a bit and take a look around for yourself. You're the only one that doesn't have a set position in a team, and you plan on capitalizing on that by switching roles. With what Komachi told you and now the discovery of the tracks makes you a little unsettled, and you're starting to feel you need to start some combat in order to get things into motion. If Yukari's still working on her plans, you're done, so you could try to interfere with her.

"Patchouli, Alice," you say, turning to them. "Go back to the base and tell the others about the alarms. Patchouli, you'll work with defense, and Alice, you'll tell the assault team. Be sure to tell them to use the badges to communicate as well, keep down false alarms." The two of the girls nod in reply, and you press the badge. "Scout team, come back, we have some strange tracks nearby. I want you to check them out with me."

"Alright then." you hear Wriggle reply.

"Coming back." Tewi says, shortly afterwards. It occurs to you that you have no particular way to page anyone specific, but you don't seem to be sending messages to everyone at once. Pretty interesting, you're going to have to look into that a little bit more, it might be handy at some point in the future. Patchouli and Alice have departed, and you spend a few minutes waiting for the team to show up.

"What are you waiting for?" Tewi says from behind you. You turn and find the entire scout team smiling. You smirk back at them. They really have a knack for getting around. "You said something about tracks?"

"Yeah," you say. "Youmu found them after I felt like I was being watched." You realize as well that they didn't trip the alarms either. Could there be some kind of blind spot?

"So, you want to go take a look over them?" Tewi asks, scratching one of her ears.

"Yeah. If I was seen, then I want to take a look around, and I want you guys to follow along behind me as support. Maybe I can stir up some of the enemy and cause a small fight. Whatever Yukari's doing, we might be able to interfere with it." you say.

"Sounds interesting," Tewi says, smiling. "I've got a few traps set up as well already. If we do come across someone, we could probably lead them towards one of them."

"That could be helpful," you say looking towards the tree line. "Want to take off now?"

"Sure!" Tewi says, skipping past you. Luna and Sunny follow up on either side of you, and Wriggle floats past as well.

"I'm going to take the point actually. You guys back me up, but stay out of sight. I might be able to draw them out easier if I look like I'm alone."

"Oh, good point, and a sneaky ambush." Tewi says. "You think like I do. If you get in too much trouble though, we'll help you vanish."

"Okay then," you say, floating out of the snow. "Keep an eye out for me." You fly ahead, and you take a moment to look back just in time to see the four following you shimmer out of sight. You head along again, soon finding the tracks that Youmu had apparently found, very defined and obvious prints. You float along them, diving beneath the tree tops and hovering over the snow. It's more difficult than you imagined, as you almost drag along the top of the snow. You manage to avoid disturbing the tracks at least, and after several feet, farther than you imagine Youmu went, you see the tracks split into two directions. One set keeps going straight, while a second veers off to the right. You can't help but feel that this is some kind of trick, but you're not going to let up. The only question is which direction you're going to take.

---

Lesee. Choices are

[ ] Straight ahead
[ ] Right
[ ] Other (Go left? Go between? Sink into the ground? Create illusions? Create a sandwich?)

[x] Follow the tracks that veer off to the right

A clumsy attempt to throw you off their trail and lead you into an ambush. This just screams Marisa.

[x] Follow the tracks that veer off to the right.

Fantastic, apparently my hard drives are also toast, that means I lost pretty much 500 gb of shit, the majority of it I can't replace or will take a very, very long time to replace in full, including the past thread files that I had along with all sorts of assorted writing I had done. Now I'm being screwed over by having TWO 250 gb hard drives replaced by a single 80gb. This is fucking horseshit.

Still not going to have updates again for a while. A long while as it were now.

If anyone feels like sending me $773CAD, by the way, feel free.

>>66206

lol, no
you got raped

>>66201
>past thread files

I have most (I think) of your story saved. Want me to upload the html files somewhere for you?

http://z4.invisionfree.com/touhouvn/index.php?showtopic=81 has most of the story already packaged into a zip, with Threads 1-15 and SotM, and most of the others should be on the board still. Thread 16 is a problem, although I have it saved as some weird .mht format.

Although, the archive there annoys me in that you have to unzip it, then unzip the zips inside it as well. Made my own archive and stuck it with a linking ToC since it annoyed me so much.

So long as I can get the past files back, I'll be good. I don't rely on notes for the ideas I have for the future of the threads, at least, so no worries there. I'm more pissed over a lot of other things I lost, along with writing for ideas for other potential CYOA ideas I might have done down the road, as well as a relatively large amount of planning for a more complex mech based touhou CYOA. Though, I had help with the planning there, so I could get help again to go over it. I remember most of it anyway though. There are games and music I probably can't replace though, along with school work I had been doing.

At least now I'll have room for that ridiculously huge torrent of touhou music. I should have my computer back by noon tomorrow, unless they pull something new out of their ass that needs to be replaced. The only things that haven't been replaced are my case, my DVD drive and my graphics card.

... Actually, I probably should have had my card upgraded and gotten a second drive as well. Fuck.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ab39791a8b002bc6d2db6fb9a8902bda

FotLS-00-ToC.html should go to the rest.

Computer's back, but I probably won't update today. Going to be busy getting a lot of stuff I lost back.

[x] Right-o?

>>66347
Just updated, thread 16 zip is included.
http://z4.invisionfree.com/touhouvn/index.php?showtopic=81
http://www.sentrygun.com/touhou/threads/FotLS_01-19.zip

>Although, the archive there annoys me in that you have to unzip it, then unzip the zips inside it as well. Made my own archive and stuck it with a linking ToC since it annoyed me so much.
I just think it's easier to distribute it that way, so I can number things based on the story (and change that number if necessary) while having a permanent html filename, based on the thread number. Like, for the new zip, it should be easy to extract the new threads (FotLS_16.zip through FotLS_19.zip) and sort them out however you want them.

updates?

[X] Follow the tracks that veer off to the right

Hmm.

I should probably update, shouldn't I?

>>67376

No, that's not really necessary.

>>67377

Okay then, good to hear.

>>67377

You fool!

[x] Follow the tracks that veer off to the right.

Something about the tracks that turn off are more suspicious, and you decide that following them would be a better choice. You start along them, and shortly realize that there's something different about them. They seem smaller than the other prints. Smaller and more shallow as well,and you start to try to recall anyone on Yukari's team that might be small enough to make prints like these. After a while though, you start straining to see the prints. Not because they're fading or anything, but because it's getting darker.

Hold on...

“Hey, hold on a minute,” you hear Tewi say over the badge. “It's pretty dark out here, it's hard to see you from as far as we- crap.”

You're about to ask what's wrong, when you look up just in time for the area around you to vanish into blackness. You hold your position, hoping that whatever is going on resolves itself.

“What's going on?” you hear Tewi over the badge. You reach for it when you feel something bump into your chest and give a small squawk of surprise.

“There's someone in here!” you hear a voice say from several inches in front of you, a young girls voice. You think back to Yukari's team and what Yuyuko told you. This darkness, it must be Rumia. “Did you fall for it? You fell for it didn't you!?” Damn it, this must have been a trap. You float backwards a little, feeling a slight drag on the snow. With it being so dark, you can't see how much clearance you have in any direction. You're wondering if you should just withdraw when you hear a quick rustling sound.

“A snowball just came out of that darkness towards us!” you hear a voice over the badge, sounded like Sunny.

“Is that so?” Rumia says, giggling slightly. You feel something bump against you again, and this time a pair of arms close around you. “Oh! I forgot you were in here too, whoever you are! I caught you!” You struggle a little, trying to get free, but Rumia just giggles and squeezes. “Nuh uh! I'm bringing you back to Yukari!”she cheers. Not good, you can't let yourself get captured. You struggle harder, trying to pull yourself away, and feel a slight amount of snow on your feet. You've lowered a little bit, and you could probably make one more big push to get low enough to the ground to scoop a handful of snow. That's if Rumia doesn't pull you away. She doesn't seem to be trying very hard to restrain you, but her strength surpasses yours easily. You can probably still reach your badge too, call for help and tell the scouts to start throwing snow. Whatever you're going to do, you need to decide quickly, because Rumia's starting to adjust her grip a little more.

---

So the choices are :

[ ] Quickly try to lower yourself and grab a handful of snow
(Quickly grab her wrists, one in each hand and with all the force you can muster move one of them up and the other down - sorta relies on tricking the right and left brains though, would it work on a youkai? Also breathe out and drop down fast.)

[ ] Reach your badge and call for help, snowballs on your position
(Mind, I'd also go immaterial, but shouldn't this be the first option? Unless if you're trying to immobilize her and have your own voice to target, then fade out just before they hit. Or, Tewi might be lucky enough to hit Rumia in the dark without hitting you - her luck can extend to other people as well.)

I'll also put up :

[ ] Grappling? Go immaterial. You're a ghost.
[ ] See if you can send a blast through the sword. (Although do we know enough about it to do it so quickly?)

[x] Tickle
I suppose it depends on how free our hands are but ...

[X] Tickle
[X] Order scouts to attack the darkness.

>I suppose it depends on how free our hands are but ...

Should have put more detail into it, but she's basically got her arms around your upper arms and chest. You can easily bend your elbows up, but you don't have the physical strength or the leverage to pull her off of you.

>sorta relies on tricking the right and left brains though, would it work on a youkai?

>would it work on a Rumia?

Also, of course, there are other options. I just put the most obvious ones into the final lines and leave the critical thinking up to the Anons to see if they can find another way around the obvious.

It's too entirely bad my self-defense course hasn't gotten around to covering 'freakishly-strong flying lolis' yet.

Although, tickle/call out followed by a quick drop down would probably be the thing that would most likely follow for this. (Actually, in this situation normally you'd probably either headbutt, try to kick your heel into your butt (hopefully getting them instead), stomp the top of their feet with your heel or their knee, or grab their gentials and twist. However, even if height wasn't an issue I doubt I would recommend those here.)

>>67406

>It's too entirely bad my self-defense course hasn't gotten around to covering 'freakishly-strong flying lolis' yet.

That's the best part of those courses.

It should also be mentioned that she's grabbing you from the front, if it wasn't obvious.

[x] Tickle
If she doesn't release you immediately,
[x] Go immaterial
Either way, when you can reach your badge,
[x] Order scouts to attack the darkness

>>67408

>attack the darkness

I cast Magic Missile.

>[] Tickle

You're going to have to go immaterial to avoid the incoming snowballs anyway, so this step is at best unnecessary.

[x] Grappling? Go immaterial. You're a ghost.
[x] Reach your badge and call for help, snowballs on your position.

[x] Grappling? Go immaterial. You're a ghost.
[x] Reach your badge and call for help, snowballs on your position.

>You're going to have to go immaterial to avoid the incoming snowballs anyway, so this step is at best unnecessary.

Who cares? I want to tickle Rumia.

[x] Tickle
If she doesn't release you immediately, or upon release,
[x] Go immaterial
Either way, when you can reach your badge,
[x] Order scouts to attack the darkness

[X] Tickle
[X] Grappling? Go immaterial. You're a ghost.
[X] Order scouts to attack the darkness.

A few more seconds of struggling prove futile, and your attempts to pull her towards the snow seems to fail as you make no progress.

“So squirmy!” Rumia states, as she gives a pull and you feel the snow at your feet move away. She's got you now, and there's nothing you can think of doing. Except...

On an impulse, your hands jump up to Rumia's body, and you quickly place your hands on the sides of her torso, giving her a jab with your fingers.

“Wah!” she cries, and you feel her twitch slightly. You move again, bringing your hands up to her exposed armpits, and wriggle your fingers into them. “Wha-hahaha! No stop!” she cries, pulling her arms away from you quickly and tucking them into her sides. “Ah!” Almost as soon as she makes that noise, the darkness fades, and the light of the actual night returns, such as it is. You see Rumia in front of you, arms still folded at her sides. You float back a little bit as Rumia pouts a little, though looking more amused than upset. “That was sneaky,” she says, lowering her arms. “I won't let you trick me like that again though!” Rumia begins to float towards you again, holding her arms up at her sides in a ready position to clamp back down on you again. You bring your own hand up to the badge and press it.

“Scout team, ready to attack,” you say. As soon as you finish, Rumia lunges, and within the second of reaction time you have, you manage to fade yourself out as Rumia passes through your intangible form. Seconds later, a barrage of snowballs comes from the scout team that have appeared. Rumia manages to avoid the initial few, but a snowball thrown by Tewi manages to smack Rumia right in the forehead, causing her to flip over backwards in midair with a cry of surprise as you rematerialize nearby. The snowballs cease as the scout team begins packing new ones, while Rumia busies herself brushing snow out of her hair, but stops and winces for a moment, turning to you with an oddly happy smile.

“Would you mind brushing some snow off this ribbon for me?” she asks, tilting her head a little. That's a pretty strange request, so you can't help but think it's a trap of some kind. In the meantime, she keeps tapping at it and wincing. “Some other stupid youkai cursed it and I can't touch it. Please?” she sounds genuinely pleading now. Well... probably couldn't hurt. If she tries to grab you, you can just go immaterial again. You float towards her, reaching out for the ribbon. At the last second, you look at her face, and notice her stare has gotten even more intense, worryingly so. You hesitate for a moment, and Rumia lunges to grab your wrist.

A white blur passes just in front of Rumia's hands, giving you a window of opportunity to float back quickly, and Rumia kicks her feet in frustration.

“Don't touch her!” you hear Wriggle shout as another barrage of snowballs flies towards Rumia. She flies straight up to escape this time.

“Yukari~ It didn't work~” Rumia calls out as she ascends, and a large black split appears in the sky, which Rumia quickly vanishes into. A moment later, another one silently opens in front of you, and a snowball flies out of it towards you. You just barely manage to dodge it, only to see it vanish into another gap behind where you were.

“Down!” you hear a shout, and react more out of instinct than a conscious motion, looking up to see another snowball sail overhead, and trail it into another gap. You start flying towards the scout group, who have already taken off as well. “Hurry!” Tewi shouts to you, before being briefly cut off by a blur of white passing your face. Sunny slows down for a moment, getting closer to you, then matches your speed, while everyone else begins to slow down.

“I think it's safe now,” Luna says, looking back. You don't see anything back there anymore, but you do catch some slight motion in the sky, a speck of white and a speck of purple next to a speck of black, all of which vanish within a second. Damn it, it was a trap after all, wasn't it.

“You should go back for now,” Wriggle says. “Keep you out of danger for a while.”

“Ah, he's fine,” Tewi says, brushing your sleeve slightly. “Not a flake of snow on him!”

You're a little bothered. Rumia had tried to get you to... well, do something. If she was just going to grab you again she'd have done it a lot quicker than she tried, and on top of it she had tried to capture rather than simply throw snow at you. You wonder what Yukari's up to, but you don't necessarily want to retreat. You're feeling more like you should try to take the fight to her team. After all, Rumia's already been hit once, another two hits and she's down. You also want to try to find out more about what Yukari's been doing. There was that second set of tracks still you could follow, though you doubt it would lead to anything other than another trap, but you might have a chance to attack someone else and get a lead on Yukari's team. There was also something about the corners you remember. Whether or not you're up to it right now though...

---

Hmm, thought I counted 4 votes for tickle along with everything else. Well, I'm going with it anyway since if you're going to escape in the first place, might as well be a little less boring than simply fading out.

Huh, somehow the thread unposted a post? There are 4 votes afterall.

[X]ask them about rumia's ribbon
[X]check the second set of tracks

[x] Ask Wriggle about Rumia's ribbon.
[x] Check the second set of tracks.

Since Wriggle was the one who warned us not to touch her.

[x] Ask Wriggle about Rumia's ribbon.
[x] Check the second set of tracks.

[x] Ask Wriggle about Rumia's ribbon.
[x] Check the second set of tracks.

[x] Ask Wriggle about Rumia's ribbon.
[x] Check the second set of tracks.

Wait. A speck of purple, black and white. Unless I'm mistaken, that's Yukari, Rumia and Momizi. (It might be Rikako, but I don't see that being likely. Momizi can coordinate with Rumia through Yukari, this would take care of Rumia's problem of not being able to see that well.) The third can probably tip them off to attacks using her sight. If that's the case, you might be able to trip them up with Sunny's illusions. Have it superimposed on top of you, but make it go just a little bit faster than you while you're hidden. When you think the trap is sprung, throw the snowball as hard as you can at your own image - if they fall for it, the gap would likely be closer to you this time to minimize the amount of time you have to react.

Also, are we going to examine the tracks closely first, or follow them straight off?

[x] Ask Wriggle about Rumia's ribbon.
[x] Check the second set of tracks.

“By the way Wriggle,” you start, causing the girl to look at you. “Is there something about Rumia's ribbon?”

“Yes, never touch it, ever. If you see her trying to, or trying to get someone or something else to take it out, stop her immediately,” Wriggle says, sounding totally serious. You're a little skeptical about the importance of a single ribbon...

“Why's that?” you ask. Wriggle looks at the others, and floats past you, taking your arm as she does.

“Come on,” she says, tugging at you. You follow along, while everyone else stays behind. A short distances away, Wriggle flies behind a tree and pulls you with her.

“This necessary?” you ask. Wriggle looks a little concerned, looking around again.

“It's dangerous,” she says. “If this got around, there'd be a huge commotion over it.” You're still not understanding what could be so important about this really. “That ribbon is an amulet of some sort, that's all I know. Youkai can't touch it, so we can't help her, and humans are afraid of her as a youkai and don't get near her. All I really know is that it's a very dangerous seal, put there by a Hakurei shrine maiden in the past. Rumia will turn back to normal if it's removed.”

“A seal? In her hair?” you ask. “And 'return to normal'?”

“It's more, uh... is humane the word? If it was tied to her body, she'd be in constant pain from it and there's a chance it would get damaged,” Wriggle says. “And she's currently in a suppressed form. She's a youkai of darkness, right? You know how youkai are created?”

“Uh...” you scratch your head. You hadn't really had a chance to find out, as Alice's memory only had knowledge about becoming a youkai magician. You shake your head, and Wriggle sighs a bit. “There are different kinds, ones that embody an object, a creature, or a concept. Rumia's concept, 'Fear of the Dark', is what created her and her powers. Don't you think she's kind of weak for a youkai of darkness?”

“Well, I figured it was because she was young,” you respond.

“Or sealed,” Wriggle retorts. “Even someone like Yukari would look like Rumia if her powers were sealed.”

You take a moment to think about that, a Rumia sized Yukari. That actually might be an amusing change. Now you're curious though.

“What if you were sealed?” you ask, causing Wriggle to startle a bit.

“Eh!" W-well, I guess I'd probably turn back into a bug...” she says, rubbing her shoulder. “I wouldn't last too long after that, I'd probably be eaten by a bird.”

“What if I had taken the ribbon off?” you say, jumping back to the subject of Rumia.

“I don't really know, but it would have been very bad. Rumia was around before I was, and I'd only been in Gensokyo for a few days before she was sealed. It was always dark until she was sealed, no matter where you were. It took me a couple dozen years to even learn that it was Rumia that was behind the darkness back then, and by then the Hakurei that did it had passed her station onto her daughter and died an old woman,” Wriggle explains. A silence follows afterwards and Wriggle looks back to the rest of the group. “So, uh... we should go back.”

“Alright, I want to follow the other set of tracks we saw back at the fork,” you add, and Wriggle nods. The two of you head back towards the group, Sunny and Luna sitting next to a tree drawing in the snow while Tewi flew around in a small patrol.

“Done kissing back there?” Tewi asks as she circles back around, a wide smile on her face.

“Wha-!” Wriggle cries, flying up. “I was explaining something to him!”

“Su~re,” Tewi sings, flying around Wriggle. “Save it for after the game, lovebug.” Tewi flies down towards you with a smile, leaving a speechless, fuming Wriggle behind. “So, what are we doing now?”

“I want to follow the other set of tracks,” you say again for Tewi. She nods and floats back a little.

“It's probably another trap,” she says. You nod.

“I was thinking I'll hide with your group this time. If we do find someone, we'll get the drop on them this time,” you say. Tewi nods approvingly.

“I like the way you think,” she says, floating away. “Okay everyone, moving again.” Sunny and Luna look up, then wipe away their drawings in the snow and float over, along with a still upset looking Wriggle. “You tow fairies do your thing, we're going down the other tracks.” The two fairies nod in agreement.

“Okay, done,” they say after a short moment, and Tewi takes the lead, followed closely by you, with Sunny and Luna behind you and Wriggle taking up the rear. You reach the fork in the tracks rather quickly and head off in the other direction this time, following them until they suddenly stop.

“They'v-” you start, only to be interrupted by a jab in the side. You look at Tewi, holding a finger to her lips and pointing at a nearby tree. There, Marisa waits reclined on a branch, watching the path.

“What now?” you ask, keeping your voice low even though Luna's controlling the sound.

“Mmn, this is so boring~” Marisa complains, sitting up a little and stretching a little before rubbing her eyes. “I'm getting tired out here. Someone should have come by now. If no one comes soon I'm just going to go back to Yukari,” she says, floating off the branch. Even though invisible and inaudible, the group moves silently into the the tree line and watches as Marisa floats around a little, looking over the area for any sign of people. After a few moments, she turns around and takes off her hat, scratching her head. “That's funny, I feel magic around here.”

You turn your head back and look at the fairies. They shake their heads. Wriggle in turn shrugs.

“Not me either. We're not using magic,” Tewi says quietly. “Though...” Tewi's eyes fall to the sword at your waist. Ah, crap. By now, Marisa has turned around, and is floating over in your direction. It's the oddest feeling, looking Marisa right in the face as she approaches and her not even seeing you. You never even thought about that, even when you've gone immaterial in the past. You have to do something though. Marisa may not see you, but she's still headed straight for you. The most likely thing you can do is ambush her, but you've already got the advantage of being unseen. You could use that advantage to stay hidden, and follow her when she leaves. You could probably take her out of the game if you ambushed her now though, and that's one less player Yukari has on her team, and the loss might cause Yukari to rethink any current tactics she's been setting up.

---

[ ] Ambush (Take her out of the game now, maybe make Yukari reconsider)
[ ] Follow (See where she goes?)

Other thoughts -

Personally, I don't see her leaving with such a magic aura around, you'd probably have to leave the group if you wish to follow her. (There's also the chance that she can alert the others if she decides to head back but can't find the source of the aura.) We have the sword strung up, right? We can leave it behind and spread out to ambush her, or even bury it if we don't want to show that we're the thief quite yet. (However, we'll have to deal with that eventually...)

This looks like the perfect opportunity to find the enemy base. The only problem here is that Marisa won't leave as long as she feels magical aura from the sword.
[X] Quickly tell the scouting group the magical aura is probably coming from you, so you must leave to avoid them being discovered.
[X] After leaving, tell the scouts to try and follow Marisa back to the enemy base.

[X] Quickly tell the scouting group the magical aura is probably coming from you, so you must leave to avoid them being discovered.
[X] After leaving, tell the scouts to try and follow Marisa back to the enemy base.

Hm. You can also serve as a distraction if you're worried about them being found out.

[X] Quickly tell the scouting group the magical aura is probably coming from you, so you must leave to avoid them being discovered.
[X] After leaving, tell the scouts to try and follow Marisa back to the enemy base.

Marisa is unlikely to go back to the base if she thinks she's being followed. What's more is that she might just leave through a gap like Rumia did.

[x] Reveal yourself.
[x] Brandish the sword; challenge her to a spell card battle with it as the prize.

This way no matter what magic your group uses in following her, it won't tip her off because she'll have the sword with her. More importantly, in the event they fail in trying to follow her, you'll be inside their base and able to listen in on their plans.

If you challenge her to a danmaku contest, her ego will not let her allow outside interference (whatever the "trap" is here, it's unlikely to be merely Marisa alone; more probably there would be gapped snowballs coming after you again). You'll lose on purpose and pretend to leave in a huff by turning invisible, when in reality you'll be possessing the sword.

Hmm, maybe I should just go with three votes for a while, it might speed up the pace I can update.

Is that an update confirmation? Hm. Might as well strengthen it this time.

[x] Quickly tell the scouting group the magical aura is probably coming from you, so you must leave to avoid them being discovered.
[x] After leaving, tell the scouts to try and follow Marisa back to the enemy base.

I'll also throw in as a minor extra :

[x] Thank them for backing you up. (A really minor thing, but should help their morale a bit.)

>>67586

I think that would be wise.

[x] Quickly tell the scouting group the magical aura is probably coming from you, so you must leave to avoid them being discovered.
[x] After leaving, tell the scouts to try and follow Marisa back to the enemy base.

Marisa's gotten closer, and you don't want to risk being discovered any longer. The group has had to back up a little bit already to avoid Marisa stepping into Sunny's area of effect.

“She's probably sensing this sword,” you say quietly, touching the handle. “It, uh, used to be hers.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Tewi asks. “You should take off.”

“I was planning on it,” you say. “I don't want to end up getting chased though, and I can't easily make this sword vanish along with me. So...” you trail off, not quite sure what to do yet. Sunny and Luna look at each other, and Luna looks back to you.

“Actually, uh, I could probably help you,” she says. “I can control sound in more ways than one.” She carefully snaps a small dry branch off a nearby tree and holds it in front of her. “Everyone stay quiet,” she whispers, and snaps it in two. As she does, a loud crack of wood comes from the other direction, causing Marisa to wheel around.

“Whoa! What was that?” Marisa exclaims to herself, which is your cue to bolt. You fly quickly in the other direction until you hit an open enough patch to fly above the tree tops and out of sight. You wait a few seconds, and Sunny comes on over the comms badge.

“Okay, Marisa's wandering around confused now,” she whispers. “What should we do with her?”

“Follow her back when she leaves, see where she goes, then report back with the information,” you say.

“Got it,” comes the reply, and then silence.

“By the way girls,” you say into the badge after a few seconds. “Thanks for the back-up.”

“Think nothing of it!” Tewi replies. “I haven't had a chance to play like this in a while.”

“Me either,” comes Wriggles reply.

“We've never played with this many people before!” Sunny says happily. “This is really exciting, even if Star is on the other team.”

After that, there's no more communication, and you're left hovering above the trees. You're pretty exposed here, so you begin to make your way away from where Marisa and the scouts were before going back under the tree tops to avoid being too exposed. Now that you're separated from the scouts and on your own, you're wondering if you should head back to base. You could probably assume command of another group and go for another outing, or you could scout alone. The only thing presenting a problem is the sword you're carrying. You don't necessarily want to have to stop carrying it, since it might be useful, but if you were to leave it back at the base, or make a stop by the mansion itself and stow it away, you wouldn't have anything to give you away and could easily travel the garden unseen.

---

>>67589

It seems that the voting speed has slowed down along with the general update speed. While that's not entirely a bad thing, most of the time when I post an update, I'm still around for several hours after the fact and ready to post more. While it's no skin off my back to have to wait (as long as I'm not waiting 3 days for votes), there have been complaints about the speed of plot progression, as well as several people that have expressed disinterest in the current scenario. By no means do I want to have to compress the story events to speed through things, so the only remedy is more cowbe- votes at a faster pace.

There's also the problem that I know of at least one person that reads my story that doesn't vote, no matter how many times I have to tell him that if he voted he would be helping his own goal: to read what I write. Ideally, I would like to return to the way I had been writing towards the beginning of this, starting with an update at a certain time on specific days and updating in real time as the votes come in, but I'll need to be able to actually spare that kind of time again, which I won't have until mid-late December, lasting until at least Februrary.

Choices this time :

What you're doing :
[ ] Head back to base
[ ] Lead another team
[ ] Scout alone

As for the sword :
[ ] Leave it with you
[ ] Drop it off at the mansion
[ ] Leave it at base

EZ_Mode, around what time of the day is it in-game?

[x] Radio Tewi and tell her you're heading back to base; tell her to let you know if anything happens.
[x] Get a few volunteers at the base and head inside the mansion: You're going to be making sandwiches.
[x] Stow the sword away safely in the mansion.

Yukari can gap food in for her team, but we have no one on our side to provide logistics support.

Looks like we've drawn first blood. Once Tewi gets back from her pursuit, we should probably stick with her team. Our invisibility and incorporeality lends itself far better to scouting and trap-laying than anything else, and the scout team needs someone to make sure they don't accidentally set off our alarms.

The battle itself started at sundown. (For some reason, I also suspect Yukari might've manipulated the border between day and night slightly so we could go around gathering all the Touhous before sundown.) Add in some time for set-up and base construction, but still light enough so that we can tell the difference with Rumia's ability.

In other words, I doubt I gave you any new information at all.

[x] Radio Tewi's and tell her you're heading back to base. Tell her to let you know if anything happens.
[x] Get a few volunteers at the base and head inside the mansion: You're going to be making sandwiches.
[x] Stow the sword away safely in the mansion.

Not sure how to go either way, but might as well put this in to increase update speed. Will change if someone comes up with anything better. (Even if it's already sorta stated that our team can go without for a bit when I asked eariler.)

That being said, if this votes works I also add in this :

[x] Leave out the ingredients (making sure they won't get stale) and utensils. Leave a note saying "Please clean up after you're done. That includes you, Marisa."

If Yukari gaps in a food-making team after us (She has more humans on her team to feed) this can slow them down slightly as they have to put things up in an unfamiliar place. More likely though, we're just going to really screw around with Marisa's head. (As she seems the most likely to go inside to get something to eat.)

>>67597 here; amending vote:

[x] Leave out the ingredients (making sure they won't get stale) and utensils. Leave a note saying "Please clean up after you're done. That includes you, Marisa."

The additional time they then take to make sure this isn't a trap is going to more than compensate for the time we save them by leaving out the foodstuffs; I see nothing objectionable here.

>>67600

Hakugyokuro as I imagine it has a slight luminescence of it's own, so it never really gets very dark, or at least as dark as it would outside. The light equivalent I would say would be consistently similar to a full moon on a clear night, so even though it's dark, it's pretty easy to see. Factor in that the luminescence comes from the trees, and basically you have a faintly glowing forest of cherry trees. You also have the red sky, which has a bit of a glow of it's own.

Rumia's concentrated ability is absolute darkness, completely devoid of light. It would be relatively easy to spot in the clear viewing conditions.

[x] Radio Tewi's and tell her you're heading back to base. Tell her to let you know if anything happens.
[x] Get a few volunteers at the base and head inside the mansion: You're going to be making sandwiches.
[x] Stow the sword away safely in the mansion.
[x] Leave out the ingredients (making sure they won't get stale) and utensils. Leave a note saying "Please clean up after you're done. That includes you, Marisa."

>>67607

Now I'm hungry...

[x] Radio Tewi's and tell her you're heading back to base. Tell her to let you know if anything happens.
[x] Get a few volunteers at the base and head inside the mansion: You're going to be making sandwiches.
[x] Stow the sword away safely in the mansion.
[x] Leave out the ingredients (making sure they won't get stale) and utensils. Leave a note saying "Please clean up after you're done. That includes you, Marisa."

Bandwagon.

[x] Head back to base
[x] Drop it off at the mansion

This choice is getting far too complicated.

>>67612

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

[x] Radio Tewi's and tell her you're heading back to base. Tell her to let you know if anything happens.
[x] Get a few volunteers at the base and head inside the mansion: You're going to be making sandwiches.
[x] Stow the sword away safely in the mansion.
[x] Leave out the ingredients (making sure they won't get stale) and utensils. Leave a note saying "Please clean up after you're done. That includes you, Marisa."

guess i'll vote for this aswell

>>67665

Oh god.

[x] Radio Tewi's and tell her you're heading back to base. Tell her to let you know if anything happens.
[x] Get a few volunteers at the base and head inside the mansion: You're going to be making sandwiches.
[x] Stow the sword away safely in the mansion.
[x] Leave out the ingredients (making sure they won't get stale) and utensils. Leave a note saying "Please clean up after you're done. That includes you, Marisa."

You decide that you're going to spend a little more time patrolling around, but first, you need to take a few preparations.

“Tewi, I'm heading back into base. Contact me if anything happens,” you say. You receive no reply for a while.

“Roger,” comes the eventual confirmation as you draw closer to the base. You remember the alarms set up around the perimeter, and call ahead to warn Alice and Patchouli that any alarm within the next minute is you. Just as claimed, within the next minute, you pass over the perimeter, and the mental ping sounds for you as the alarm is tripped. Alice and Patchouli head outside seconds later as you draw towards the entrance.

“Welcome back,” Alice says. “How'd it go?”

“Tracks split after a while, both were traps,” you say. “We only fell for one of them and managed to chase away Rumia and score a hit on her. We were prepared for the other set of tracks though, and Sunny covered us all with her power. We caught Marisa lounging around, I fell back, and the scouts are following her back to wherever.”

“Sounds like it went pretty good then,” Patchouli says. “Why'd you come back?”

“Marisa could sense my sword, and I can't make it vanish with the rest of me. I was going to head back to the mansion and stow it away, and while I was there make some food.”

“Most of us are youkai though, we don't need to eat,” Alice says a little absent mindedly.

“True, but you still like to, don't you? It's more for morale than it is simply for provisions, plus, we can set up a distraction for the other team there. They have more humans after all,” you state. Patchouli nods and turns to Alice.

“Sounds like a good idea to me, usually I'd be having a snack right about now mysel-” Patchouli stops suddenly, looking a little surprised. “Oh! I completely forgot!” Both you and Alice look at Patchouli with confusion.

“Forgot what?” Alice asks.

“I-I didn't even notice Koakuma wasn't here. I forgot that her contract prevents her from leaving the house normally,” Patchouli says, sounding a little worried. “I need to go back and get her.”

“Can you do that quickly?” you ask, Patchouli looks down at the ground as if ashamed.

“I'm not really that fast or healthy, it would take me a while to get back. Koakuma would be here before me,” she says. Well, if it's speed...

“Aya, can you come outside?” you ask over the badge, and a few seconds later Aya pokes her head out of the base.

“You need me?” she asks excitedly.

“You think you can carry someone somewhere?” you ask, causing Patchouli to jump a little.

“Wh-wha-”

“Sure!” Aya exclaims, exiting the base and hovering over the snow. “Who am I carrying?”

“Patchouli needs to go back to the Scarlet Devil mansion to get someone, and you're the fastest one on the team that could get her there and back,” you explain. Aya nods with a smirk, and then swoops down and scoops up Patchouli, causing quite a bit of surprise to her and Alice. Patchouli doesn't bother to resist, as she almost seems to ball up as Aya adjusts her grip and floats up. Without any kind of preparation or warning, Aya takes off at incredible speed. You notice that the alarms didn't trip either when Aya passed them, which makes you realize that they can be defeated by going fast enough. How fast is questionable, since you're not sure anyone else could match the speed needed easily, but it does raise some concerns over any other holes in the defense system there might be.

“Well, all that's left now is to head back to the mansion and get food,” you say, looking at Alice. “Want to come with me?” Alice responds with a nod, and you press the badge. “Anyone that wants to head back to the mansion for a second to get a snack, I'm leaving in a few seconds, so join me outside.” Almost as soon as you finish, Yuyuko floats through the doorway smiling ear to ear. You really could have seen that coming. Meiling also comes along, and Nitori right behind her.

“I want to help too!” Nitori says, bouncing into the air first. “What are we making?”

“Probably just sandwiches,” you say. “Nothing special.”

“Do they have cucumbers?” Nitori asks. Right...

“Probably,” you say, floating into the air as everyone else joins you. “I'm going to go find some place to put this sword first though, so I'll lead you to the kitchen and you all could start gathering some ingredients together.” Everyone nods, and with that, you turn towards the mansion in the distance and head towards it, before you stop. That's right, the alarm system is up. Patchouli is already long gone, and only you and Alice are left that are tuned into it.

“Actually, Alice, I think you might have to stay behind,” you say, causing her to look confused for a moment before the same realization dawns on her.

“Oh, the alarms! Though, couldn't we just alert the others with the badges?” she asks.

“We could, but there'd still be the delay in getting the message out,” you say. Alice thinks for a moment, then lights up.

“Ah! Why not just put everyone on Alert? If they're all outside watching the perimeter, they'll be fine without us,” she says. Pretty good idea actually. You send the message to everyone, and in a short while, everyone has exited the base and is wandering around outside. Good enough, you guess. Your small group passes over the perimeter and heads towards the house. The going is quiet, as everyone takes the time to watch the grounds below, just in case they spotted someone. The mansion is reached without incident, and you lead the others into the building. You lead them as far as the intersection that leads to the kitchen, and give them directions from there, heading off towards your room to stash the sword. Maybe not 'stash', as you do little more than simply slide the sword underneath the sheets and make your way back to the kitchen. What you find surprises you, 6 people, instead of the 3 you expected. The tall, silver haired woman, Sanae, and Mystia. Only you really seem to be put off by this, of course, as Meiling and Nitori are pulling out various foodstuffs from the fridge, while Alice and the tall woman talk off to the side.

“Uh, well,” you say, walking into the room, causing everyone to look over at you for a moment. No one seems to stop and worry about you either. Guess it's been mutually decided that inside the house is a safe zone. You head over to where Meiling and Nitori are stockpiling the food. You notice quite a few cucumbers piled up as well.

“What are you making?” Sanae asks, watching as the other two girls move food to the counter.

“Sandwiches,” you answer. “Easy enough to make. How about you?”

“Mystia said she'd grill something up. Apparently she has a food that helps humans see better in the dark,” Sanae says, sounding a little impressed. You glance over at Mystia, and catch a small smirk on her face that she quickly makes disappear.

“Hope it works out for you,” you say, turning to the girls as they finish. Alice joins you as well, holding a small jar.

“Eirin told me to give you this,” Alice says, setting the jar on the counter. You look at the woman as she walks part, behind the other two girls on the other side of the counter, nodding to you as she passes. “She says it's an energy supplement, she's given it to her team to help them be more alert and effective.”

Something about it seems kind of suspicious. Eirin's supposed to be a chemist of some kind if you remember correctly, so what would keep her from handing off some kind of drug to shut down your entire team. Alice seems sincere enough though, and you're sure that Alice wouldn't be sounding as enthusiastic as she does if she had a reason to be suspicious. Still, you're going to need to be careful with them, at least until you can get some clarification on the matter. For now, you're going to make some food.

***

The girls helped you make some sandwiches, after you showed them how you made them, they picked up easily enough. Nitori added a special touch of cucumber to every one she made, which you didn't quite mind. The other team's food makers had left before you were finished, but not before Alice stopped Eirin to talk again for a few seconds. After the sandwiches are finished, you secure some paper while the others search for something to carry the food. You return with some suitable implements just as Nitori finds a stack of what looks like some kind of lunch box. They're easy to open and close and one is big enough to carry what you've made, so it's settled. The girls start to set the sandwiches inside as you write a note:

“Hungry? Feel free to make yourself a sandwich from what's available on the counter. Please make sure to be fair when making one and leave a reasonable amount for others. Also take care to clean up after you're finished.”

After a moment, you decide to add:

“That means you too, Marisa.”

With a smile, you set the note onto the counter along side the sandwich fixings, each carefully arranged on a set of plates and covered to keep them fresher longer. You're going to make sure to come back later and check and clean up if necessary, but that won't be for a while now.

“Ready to go?” you ask.

“Sure thing,” Alice says, carrying the box. You take up the jar of pills and set off for the base with everyone else. Now that you're not going to have to worry about the sword giving you away, you could rejoin the scout team. The only questions is if you're going to stop at the base first and check in before calling for information.

---

God damn, took me hours to finish this because I didn't feel like writing anymore about halfway through. I'm going to go vent my frustration at taking so long by murdering Super Mutants.

I just realized we have all the convenient plot explanations on the other team: Yukari messing around with gaps, and Eirin's shady drugs, and, in general, magic.

[x] Check back at base; examine final touches of base construction and whether Aya and Patchy are back yet.
[x] Call for Tewi

>>67665
I still don't get this.

>>67729
Not very quick.
It's the same background obviously, but it was intended to demonstrate two contrasting scenes. The left one (first one) was intended to just be scenic, with Letty dancing across the water's surface like that. And the second one was meant to demonstrate an "after" when Letty fell beneath the surface, or was hiding there, and that group in the background was playing with snowballs.

Either Cirno was intended to be in both images, but they goofed, or she was only intended to be in the "after" shot on the right, and they goofed again.

>>67729

Cirno's feet are reflected in both pictures.

>>67721

>[x] Call for Tewi

If only you knew how long I was waiting for someone to actually write this.

[x] Check back at base; examine final touches of base construction, whether Aya and Patchy are back yet with Koakuma, and call off the alarm.
[x] Call for Tewi. You want to rejoin the scout team at the nearest opportunity, and you'd also like to ask Tewi if this drug Eirin gave you is reliable.

[x] Check in with everyone via badges. No sign of enemy base yet? Then...

[x] Construction: Jobs done. Join Intel.
[x] Munitions: Jobs done. Join Defense.
[x] Intel: We have defenses to keep enemies out normally; we need a fall back plan should the enemy bypass it and they break into the fort. Also start to help coordinate Assault with Scout. Finally, figure out a way to distribute munitions quickly and easily to hotspots.
[x] Defense: Remain alert. The enemy knows where our base is. Expect enemy Scouting team at the very least.
[x] Scout: Give up on finding that base. They are liable to walk right into it given the abilities of our opponents. Perhaps dumb luck will reveal the enemy location as they wander. For now, try to bait individuals or small groups to Assault.
[x] Assault: Move along routes secured by Scout's traps until Intel comes up with something better.
[x] Nobody: Participate in Intel's brainstorming. Once thats done, take part in whatever operation comes forth.

>>67740
Oh. So it's just a fuckup?

...oh! Man, I never looked at the OP picture closely at all. I thought it was just a single picture, not a side by side thing, and that the snowball fight picture was a snippet for an alternate version or something.

I am less confused now.

>>67737
And even less confused now that I saw this one, albeit saw it a bit late.

Slow votes~

[x] Check in with everyone via badges. No sign of enemy base yet? Then...

[x] Construction: Jobs done. Join Intel.
[x] Munitions: Jobs done. Join Defense.
[x] Intel: We have defenses to keep enemies out normally; we need a fall back plan should the enemy bypass it and they break into the fort. Also start to help coordinate Assault with Scout. Finally, figure out a way to distribute munitions quickly and easily to hotspots.
[x] Defense: Remain alert. The enemy knows where our base is. Expect enemy Scouting team at the very least.
[x] Scout: Give up on finding that base. They are liable to walk right into it given the abilities of our opponents. Perhaps dumb luck will reveal the enemy location as they wander. For now, try to bait individuals or small groups to Assault.
[x] Assault: Move along routes secured by Scout's traps until Intel comes up with something better.
[x] Nobody: Participate in Intel's brainstorming. Once thats done, take part in whatever operation comes forth.

[x] Check in with everyone via badges. No sign of enemy base yet? Then...

[x] Construction: Jobs done. Join Intel.
[x] Munitions: Jobs done. Join Defense.
[x] Intel: We have defenses to keep enemies out normally; we need a fall back plan should the enemy bypass it and they break into the fort. Also start to help coordinate Assault with Scout. Finally, figure out a way to distribute munitions quickly and easily to hotspots.
[x] Defense: Remain alert. The enemy knows where our base is. Expect enemy Scouting team at the very least.
[x] Scout: Give up on finding that base. They are liable to walk right into it given the abilities of our opponents. Perhaps dumb luck will reveal the enemy location as they wander. For now, try to bait individuals or small groups to Assault.
[x] Assault: Move along routes secured by Scout's traps until Intel comes up with something better.
[x] Nobody: Participate in Intel's brainstorming. Once thats done, take part in whatever operation comes forth.

Aren't they following Marisa to find the base? And Tewi is all about luck.

[x] Check back at base; examine final touches of base construction, whether Aya and Patchy are back yet with Koakuma, and call off the alarm.
[x] Collapse unneeded teams into others. (Cirno probably wouldn't care for Intel.)
[x] Call for Tewi. You want to rejoin the scout team at the nearest opportunity, and you'd also like to ask Tewi if this drug Eirin gave you is reliable.

[x] Check in with everyone via badges. No sign of enemy base yet? Then...

[x] Construction: Jobs done. Join Intel.
[x] Munitions: Jobs done. Join Defense.
[x] Intel: We have defenses to keep enemies out normally; we need a fall back plan should the enemy bypass it and they break into the fort. Also start to help coordinate Assault with Scout. Finally, figure out a way to distribute munitions quickly and easily to hotspots.
[x] Defense: Remain alert. The enemy knows where our base is. Expect enemy Scouting team at the very least.
[x] Scout: Give up on finding that base. They are liable to walk right into it given the abilities of our opponents. Perhaps dumb luck will reveal the enemy location as they wander. For now, try to bait individuals or small groups to Assault.
[x] Assault: Move along routes secured by Scout's traps until Intel comes up with something better.
[x] Nobody: Participate in Intel's brainstorming. Once thats done, take part in whatever operation comes forth.
[x] As an opener, kick around the idea of a tunneling attack made on the base. Komachi heard about the Jaws idea earlier...

What has Assault been up to? We haven't heard much from them lately... Are they already dead?
and yea... tunnel with darkness youkai,massive illusions, time/space distortions = problems. Hope China has some sort of answer as the flag defender.

>>67917

[x] Check in with everyone via badges. No sign of enemy base yet? Then...

[x] Construction: Jobs done. Join Intel.
[x] Munitions: Jobs done. Join Defense.
[x] Intel: We have defenses to keep enemies out normally; we need a fall back plan should the enemy bypass it and they break into the fort. Also start to help coordinate Assault with Scout. Finally, figure out a way to distribute munitions quickly and easily to hotspots.
[x] Defense: Remain alert. The enemy knows where our base is. Expect enemy Scouting team at the very least.
[x] Scout: Give up on finding that base. They are liable to walk right into it given the abilities of our opponents. Perhaps dumb luck will reveal the enemy location as they wander. For now, try to bait individuals or small groups to Assault.
[x] Assault: Move along routes secured by Scout's traps until Intel comes up with something better.
[x] Nobody: Participate in Intel's brainstorming. Once thats done, take part in whatever operation comes forth.
[x] As an opener, kick around the idea of a tunneling attack made on the base. Komachi heard about the Jaws idea earlier...

Enough?

[x] Check in with everyone via badges. No sign of enemy base yet? Then...

[x] Construction: Jobs done. Join Intel.
[x] Munitions: Jobs done. Join Defense.
[x] Intel: We have defenses to keep enemies out normally; we need a fall back plan should the enemy bypass it and they break into the fort. Also start to help coordinate Assault with Scout. Finally, figure out a way to distribute munitions quickly and easily to hotspots.
[x] Defense: Remain alert. The enemy knows where our base is. Expect enemy Scouting team at the very least.
[x] Scout: Give up on finding that base. They are liable to walk right into it given the abilities of our opponents. Perhaps dumb luck will reveal the enemy location as they wander. For now, try to bait individuals or small groups to Assault.
[x] Assault: Move along routes secured by Scout's traps until Intel comes up with something better.
[x] Nobody: Participate in Intel's brainstorming. Once thats done, take part in whatever operation comes forth.
[x] As an opener, kick around the idea of a tunneling attack made on the base. Komachi heard about the Jaws idea earlier...

*Vomits exuberance along this general direction*

Internet's been screwy the last few days. Seems stable enough now, considering I can actually reach a website. Updates pending.

[x] Check in with everyone via badges. No sign of enemy base yet? Then...

[x] Construction: Jobs done. Join Intel.
[x] Munitions: Jobs done. Join Defense.
[x] Intel: We have defenses to keep enemies out normally; we need a fall back plan should the enemy bypass it and they break into the fort. Also start to help coordinate Assault with Scout. Finally, figure out a way to distribute munitions quickly and easily to hotspots.
[x] Defense: Remain alert. The enemy knows where our base is. Expect enemy Scouting team at the very least.
[x] Scout: Give up on finding that base. They are liable to walk right into it given the abilities of our opponents. Perhaps dumb luck will reveal the enemy location as they wander. For now, try to bait individuals or small groups to Assault.
[x] Assault: Move along routes secured by Scout's traps until Intel comes up with something better.
[x] Nobody: Participate in Intel's brainstorming. Once thats done, take part in whatever operation comes forth.
[x] As an opener, kick around the idea of a tunneling attack made on the base. Komachi heard about the Jaws idea earlier...

You should make some calls, get some info. You decide to buzz Tewi first.

“Found anything?” you ask.

“Mmm, something. Don't know what to make of it. Already called that Yuyuko lady and gave her some details,” she says. “Other than that, Marisa lead us back to Yukari all right. They talked for a bit, but we didn't hear anything, then they vanished through a gap. Other then that, there's nothing here, just a small hill of snow.”

“I think that Yukari woman could see us too,” you hear Sunny say quietly in the background. “I know I'm not at my strongest at night, but...”

“I don't like her. There's something about her eyes that bugs me,” Tewi adds. “I'd prefer not to have to chase her around anymore unless we're going to attack.”

She does have a point. There's so much about Yukari you don't really know, and she seems the kind to know more than she lets on. You can't shake the feeling that she's an important figure, and that just motivates you even more to win. If Yukari really is as powerful as she seems, managing to beat her would be a badge of honour.

“Very well then, you've done good. Come back to base, there's going to be some reorganizing,” you say, and cut communication until you reach the base again. As you approach, you notice that the area around the base has not only been swept clean of snow by Mokou, she's even taken care not to damage the plant life or base. As you approach, the watch breaks and begins to settle into separate groups again, until you call everyone over.

“I've brought back some food for us to enjoy, and there's going to be some slight reorganizing of teams,” you say as Alice opens te box as she steps up next to you. “For now though, enjoy a brief snack.” The girls voices pick up as they slowly gather and pick through the box. Seems that even despite the majority of youkai, they're not going to turn down a chance to eat. Nitori manages to snag one of her own cucumber laden sandwiches, and Alice sneaks out one as well, though she seems to be holding it, probably for- Oh, right.

“Aya, Patchouli, you almost back?” you ask into your badge, not sure if they even persist outside of Hakugyokuro, or have that kind of range. Rather than receive a reply over the badge, however, you hear a distant shout, and soon enough, Aya touches back down with a slightly dazed looking Patchouli, the two of them tailed by Koakuma.

“S-so fast...” Patchouli mumbles, shuffling towards you as Aya floats over to see what's drawing a crowd, and Koakuma floats alongside Patchouli. “So cold too at that speed...”she continues, rubbing her arms slightly.

“I could warm you up, Mistress~” Koakuma says, drifting sideways alongside her. Alice looks back over her shoulder, looking a little red in the cheeks.

“Patchu, I made you a sandwich too,” Alice says, holding up the one she retrieved from the box. “I made it for you, so I made sure to hold it,” she continues with a smile, which in turn causes Patchouli to blush herself a little bit. You let the two of them enjoy their little moment as Koakuma follows the crowd as well. The scout team shows up soon afterwards, and through the commotion, they too are lead to the food. Of all the team, only Tewi doesn't take anything to eat. Once the crowd has eaten and scattered, there's still a fair amount of sandwiches left, so you have them brought into the base and set aside. Having given them some time, you once again call their attention.

“As I said earlier, there will be some team shuffling,” you state as everyone quiets to let you talk. “The construction team will be merged with intel,” you begin, only to be cut off by a curious hum.

“Intel?” Cirno questions, wings buzzing behind her. “That's, um...”

“Intelligence, handling information,” Letty finishes for Cirno.

“Ah, but that sounds boring~” Cirno whines. You realize that placing her into intel would really be wasting her talents, especially when, well, she doesn't seem to be the best fit for 'intelligence'.

“Cirno can join the assault team then, I'm sure your abilities would be better used there,” you follow, and Cirno seems content with that. You catch a movement out of the corner of your eye, Yuka combing her fingers through her hair idly, though she's still bearing a strange grin. “Continuing, munitions will be joining defense team. That means Alice, Hina and Medicine, you're going to help guard the base as well.”

“That suits my style, really,” Alice says.

“I-it's probably for the best if I stay here as well,” Hina says, occasionally glancing at Nitori.

“Definitely not!” Medicine shouts, stamping her foot. “Su-san is getting bored and wants to fight, so Medicine wants to fight too!” You're not really sure how to answer her. You're still a little unsure about her stability and you're concerned she might go overboard.

“You're going on defense,” you say, not willing to change your stance.

“But-” Medicine begins, only to be cut off.

“It's okay, dear. Lady Yuka will hurt them twice as bad to make up for you,” Yuka calls out. The small doll hovering beside Medicine starts bobbing around excitedly as Medicine looks like she's getting worked up.

“Oh! Miss Yuka! Fight hard for my sake!” Medicine cries out dramatically. You're not really sure that you like where this could be going, but another glance at Yuka's unsettling smile makes you feel that you're not going to be questioning her much. She's staring at you, too, you notice now.

“The new intel team will help co-ordinate Scout teams information with Assault team's movements, who will be deployed now that we've been getting information about enemy movements.”

“Hmhmhm,” Flandre chuckles. “It's finally time to go play with the others!”

“You show Remilia not to underestimate the Scarlet Underdogs!” Meiling cheers from another part of the group.

“New defense team, stay alert now. Patchouli and Alice are tuned into the security perimeter we established, as am I. They can co-ordinate direct defense, so keep an ear open for them calling an alarm, and be on the look out for enemy scouting teams. Try to keep them from getting away if possible,” you say, receiving nods from the team members scattered through the audience.

“Scout team, you're not pursuing the enemy base or their leader any more. Instead, you're going to scout out the surrounding areas and send back information to intel. You should also try to take down any opponent you come across. Single opponents can be dealt with by a direct attack or an ambush, but any groups you find might be best baited into traps or ambushes. If possible, try to get back up from the assault team.”

“Got it,” Tewi says.

“Oh, scouting!” Koakuma says. “Hey! Can I join that team?”

“Actually, you haven't been placed yet, so it really depends on your what sort of ability you have,” you say.

“I'm kind of okay with magic,” she says, tail curling behind her back. “I'm pretty fast too.”

“We'll see how well that goes for you then,” you say. You'll give her a shot on the scout team for now, but you'll still move her if she ends up not being too helpful. Now that Koakuma's here though, that means teams are balanced normally.

“Youmu, you no longer need to be split between two positions,” you recall, to which Youmu only replies with a nod, and then fades into a blob. Guess that was Myon. You spot the real Youmu on the other side of the crowd. “That should be handy for the assault team, no longer with it's leader split between two tasks. Your team is to move through friendly territory held by Scout team's traps and engage enemies, and provide back up for Scout teams plans and attacks, while trying to find and take out any opponents you find on your own. You are the only group with the actual task of finding the enemy base and leader now.”

“Shouldn't be too hard,” Youmu says with a grin. “This is my garden, they can't hide from me here.”

“We're going to hit them hard,” Mokou says with an equally sarcastic grin. “Destroy their bases and players.”

“Sounds like a plan then,” you say. “Teams are set now. I'm going to stay in the base for a while and help intel co-ordinate, then I'm going to tag up with any team I can join and go along with them. Understood?” The reply comes as a cheer from your entire team, and once again they scatter, noticeably more energetic. You get ready to head off to the base, when Patchouli stops you.

“Say, I had an idea,” she says, smiling slightly. “Something I think you'll like.”

***

“Alright then, Intel team's gathered. Scout team says they've given some information about things they've found?”

Yuyuko nods with a hum of agreement, and turn towards the tree in the center of the base. A number of small blobs float into the tree and disappear, and after a few seconds, a glowing map appears over the area, with several points marked.

“These are points where the Scout team has found something that I've marked here on this map,” she says, gesturing to the large display. Quite an unexpected, yet quite useful skill. “We're not entirely sure what they're supposed to be, so more investigation is needed. Whether or not you want to look into them yourself though is up for you to decide.”

“I might take a look at some time. Right now though I want to put an idea of Patchouli's into play,” you say, smiling to yourself at the idea she presented. “I think the enemy team would get quite a surprise out of it.”

“Oh? Sounds like fun,” Yuyuko says, floating away from the map as it fades. “Are you going to go out and play again? The assault team is getting ready to head to one of the first points of interest.”

“By the way,” you interject. “What would you say about the idea of a tunneling attack?”

Yuyuko stops to think for a moment, a blob floating around her slowly.

“I'd prefer if you didn't damage the garden in any way. This is still a game, so don't go overboard,” she says.

“Hm, I'm sure I'll find some way to pull it off,” you say. For now though, you've another decision. Patchouli presented you with something that you want to field test, and you're a little anxious to see if it'll work in the first place. It might be a wasted opportunity if you head with the assault team though, so you're split between accompanying the assault team to their location, or trying to locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

---

[x] Locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

[x] Locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

Okay.

[x] Locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

[X] Locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

[X] Locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

Mysterious, undetailed plans described only offscreen before being carried out?

Success is assured.

[x] Locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

>>69219

Oh, sure it is.

[X] Use 'it'.

[x] Locate a suitable opponent for Patchouli's idea with the Scout team.

Truth be told, you want to implement this idea as soon as possible, as it could prove very useful for the rest of the battle. You meet up with the scout team and prepare to leave. The current course sets you parallel to the assault team's course for a while, as Tewi is going to go around and check her traps.

“Someone should have stumbled across one by now,” she says as the group takes flight, flying high over the perimeter to avoid tripping the alarm. Once over, Sunny covers the group as you set off along the treetops. Koakuma keeps pace with everyone fairly well, and she's already struck up a light chat with Wriggle. You're a little curious about why she got left behind even though she was one of the first ones that had heard about the game, but you'll have to ask later. After a few minutes, the assault team breaks off and lands at their location, and you continue a ways past until Tewi descends into the trees. The rest follow behind her, and she holds up her hand for everyone to stop. She points ahead, where you see Reisen and Keine near a tree. A few seconds later, there's a snap, and a snowball flies from behind another tree and just barely misses Reisen's head as it sails into another tree.

“Jeez, Tewi's traps are getting more complex,” she complains, standing up. Tewi snickers a bit to yourself, causing you to glance at her.

“She found it,” you say, and Tewi just looks at you with a grin.

“She might have found that, but-” Tewi says, getting cut off by a sudden scream. You look back to where Reisen stood to see her now hanging by one foot, too occupied with keeping her skirt from falling as Keine searches for where the rope that holds Reisen is anchored.

“Ah, never gets old~” Tewi sighs, balling up a wad of snow in her hand. “We should take some throws.”

Actually, this seems like a perfect situation to use it. The enemy team is already distracted, which buys you the time you need.

“Koakuma, contact Patchouli and tell her we're ready. Wriggle, help Yuyuko pinpoint us,” you say, turning to Tewi. “We'll need to draw their attention for a while.”

“Distractions? Gee, it's like you really know me!” Tewi says with a sarcastic smile. “This should be a good show though.”

As the other two prepare, you and Tewi head out of Sunny's effect, effectively reappearing. Neither Reisen or Keine seem to notice for now as Reisen's fighting with the snare around her foot, and Keine had managed to unsecure the rope, and is currently keeping watch in the wrong direction.

“Oh, looks like we caught a cute bunny!” Tewi calls out, catching both the girls attention. Reisen stops bothering with the snare and lands next to Keine, both who make a move to gather snow. You and Tewi hold up your own snowballs.

“Hold on now,” you say, trying to stall them. It works on Keine, but Reisen still gathers a handful of snow and starts to pack it down as she stands. “We just want to talk for a second.”

“Yukari isn't accepting negotiations,” Reisen says, and that acts as a cue for Keine to start gathering snow as well. In a few seconds, the four of you are all 'armed', and have entered something of a stand-off. “We've finally been given the go ahead to engage enemy forces.”

“Don't look at her eyes,” Tewi whispers to you, and you look back at Reisen, then recall what you had heard. Her ability is centered on her eyes, right. Instead, you avert your eyes to Keine, who is the only one that looks nervous out of the four of you.

“What's wrong,” Reisen jeers. “You that afraid of me you can't look me in the eyes?”

“It's nothing like that at all,” you retort.

“We're ready,” you hear Koakuma say from behind you. Excellent. A cocky smirk comes to you now.

“We're not here for negotiation,” you say. Afterwards, you press the badge. “Ready when you are.”

“Got it,” Patchouli's voice comes through. Reisen looks at you, and then the badge.

“Oh? Communication devices. That's a pretty interesting thing you've got there,” she says, nodding appreciatively. “Maybe I'll take it from you, that'll help us track your team down better.”

“You'd think so, huh? Though...” you break, stalling for time still. “How do you plan to deal with our 'secret weapon'?” Reisen shifts a little bit, and Keine takes a ready stance.

“Secret weapo-”

“Wait, look ou-”

Neither girl finishes as a large cluster of snowballs falls from the sky, hitting the top of a tree and bursting into a shower of powder and chunks of snow. The rest of the team appears, snow in hand, and you begin to approach where the two girls sit, half buried in snow, digging themselves out.

“What was that!?” Keine cries, shivering as she brushes what snow she can off.

“Artillery...” Reisen replies, shoving a pile of snow away from her. “How can you even manage something like that though?”

“You can thank some magicians on my team. Making good use of some left over ice elementals and a map of the garden,” you say. The rest of the scout team gathers alongside you now, standing over the downed girls. The artillery shot had to count for at least one hit, and now you've got the upper hand, outnumbering the two 3 to 1. “Right now, we've got a pretty big advantage,” you say, turning the snowball in your hand.

“You know, hesitating to take out an enemy can lead to being killed,” Reisen says, looking up at you. Once again, you look away from her, causing her to huff. No one else is looking directly at her either.

“I'm not really a soldier type, so I'd let you go in exchange for some information,” you say. You see Reisen's expression change a little out of the corner of your eye.

“Like what?”

There's a number of things you could ask. Where their main base is, where Yukari is, their tactics, if they have anything to do with the 'areas of interest' the scout team already found. You're probably only going to get one question, and you can't even be sure that you'd get an answer, let alone a truthful one. It might be better to take the advantage to remove at least one of the two from the game. Both could be helpful to your chances of success.

---

[X] "The colour of your underwear."

[X] "The colour of your underwear."
Followed by
[x] Try to remove Reisen from the game.

Pondering.

If we do ask where their base is, we'd probably get a lie if we do it the straightforward way. Thus, if we decide to go that route, I'd propose asking both of them to close their eyes and pointing to where their base is as quick as they can. If they point in different directions or hesitate, pelt them both with snowballs. Also, surround them so they cannot get all of you with either an illusion or snowballs. Or, place yourself so that Keine is between you and Reisen.

That being said, I'm still not sure whether or not to take them out or ask them something.

>>69282

Nice combination.

>>69283
You're falling seriously close to the realm of the Knight and Knave puzzle. Even if they do somehow point in the same direction, there's no guarantee that either is telling the truth. Consequently, even if one of them does tell the truth and the other lies, you wouldn't know that one was pointing in the correct direction.

[X] "The colour of your underwear."
[x] Remove Reisen from the game.

[X] "The color of your underwear."
[x] Try to remove Reisen from the game.

Whatever. Changing vote.

[x] "The color of your underwear."
[x] Try to remove Reisen from the game.

You run several questions through your head, eyes jumping between the two women. Truth be told, you really have no idea how you would tell if you were being lied to, especially if you asked a question that would give you an advantage. You eventually decide to give up on a question and just take her out, but as you do, a question comes to mind that causes you to grin. Too good to pass up.

“What colour is your underwear?” you ask Reisen, who immediately begins to turn an embarrassed red.

“W-wh-wh-” she stammers in reply, as shocked looking as Keine sitting next to her. You don't wait for her to recover, and you toss your carried snowball at her, causing her to reflexively raise her arms to protect herself. Everyone else joins in pelting Reisen, and she gives a pitiful wail as more and more snow piles onto her.

“Haah~ Out already...” she whines once the snow stops. Keine's managed to free herself, but was quickly surrounded and captured. Reisen pulls herself from the snow, shivering. “C-cold...”

“We have our first enemy casualty,” you say into the badge, paging the Intel team. “Removed players should regroup at the mansion?”

“There should be more than enough space there,” Yuyuko replies. “I think I might head back there myself shortly and start up some tea if we're going to be expecting more people to be trickling in as they get taken out.”

“I-I'll be fine,” Reisen chatters, trying to restrain her shivering. It's clear she's not only cold, but also wet from snow.

“Probably wouldn't be good for you to stay in those clothes either,” you say. You return to the badge. “Yuyuko, probably going to need some kind of temporary changes of clothes as well, since people returning might be wet.”

“Oh~ It would be terrible if someone got sick,” Yuyuko replies. “I'll have to take Youmu with me then when I go back.”

You look back at Reisen, who is still standing there watching you. You had expected she would have left by now.

“Waiting for something?” you ask. She doesn't reply, instead rubbing her arms and trying not to look cold.

“Th-thanks...” she says quietly. “Even though I'm the enemy.”

“Hey, it's just a game in the end, right? You shouldn't have to be forced to be uncomfortable just because you lost,” you say. Reisen smiles a bit, and looks around a little.

“So... w-which way to the mansion again?” she asks. You float above the tree line, and look for the large tree. Once you see it, you use it to judge the direction, and point off past the tree, a direction that would be behind Reisen, on her right. She nods and floats away, floating above the trees as you lower again and return to Keine, who has been waiting under guard.

“What should we do with her?” Tewi asks, already holding another ball of snow. While you could also remove her from the game now as well, you also consider letting her go. It's possible that she'd go right back to Yukari and tell her about your new weapon options, which while it would ruin a bit of the element of surprise it has, it might cause Yukari to change her plans, and there could be an increase in enemy movement, making it that much easier to find her team members. You don't expect Keine to make any attempt at all to fight back, regardless of the decision.

[ ] Remove her from the game. (Chance to take out another opponent, she can warn the others of your capabilities.)
[ ] Let her go. (Chance to disrupt Yukari's plans and force her team to move into more traps.)

Interesting. I'll need to check the teams again, but between Reisen and Keine, wouldn't that be a good chunk of Yukari's team ability to keep their base hidden? (Reisen because of illusions, while Keine does her history eating thing.) Would any history-trickery be negated if we defeat her?

I'm also thinking that maybe we can use her to hit Yukari - let Keine escape while we throw snowballs at her, and hopefully it would get a gap when it opens up. Doubtful it would work though, even if we use the artillery option instead. Still, I'm thinking that we should try to see if we can attack a gap even once.

There's also the idea that maybe the badges can serve as a location device. If so, we sacrifice one to a snowball and hit an opponent with it, and hope Yukari gaps them back to base. However, it can probably be reversed so that they can track us the same way.

I'm also wondering why Keine doesn't seem to be fighting back. If we decide to get her out, maybe talk to her a bit?

[x] Tie a blindfold around Keine's face.
[x] Tie Keine by the arms around a post.
[x] Remove her from the game.

I'm feeling ruthless.

[X] Let her go and keep an eye on her.

Yet another chance to follow the enemy. Maybe this has something to do with he's strategies?

And maybe we can get some nice info following her? This time we will be watching it with our own eyes.

>>69442

I lol'd. I'd be doing something else to Keine if she was blindfolded and tied up though.

Yum.

Mind, if we just followed Keine, I doubt that we'd get anything other than a gap and snowball in the face for our troubles. Maybe steal her hat, have her chase the scout team for it a bit, and finally hide yourself in the hat itself before she gets it back and is gapped back?

However, it also sounds like a good way to get snowballed out of the game quick if anyone detects you. Can the dolls be modified to give out a silent location beacon?

Wait. Maybe we can just cast a delayed alarm spell on the hat itself. After all, Alice said that anything would work for the spell, right? And it did give a direction when it pinged.

[x] Remove her from the game.
[x] Steal her hat.

My desire for a complex plan is outweighed by my desire for a silly hat.

Hm. I'll 'balance' then.

[x] "Haha, stole your hat!"
[x] Have the scout team cover for you, and accidently miss Keine as you figure out what to cast on the hat.
[x] Arrange for Keine to get her hat back and her escape. When it pings, get Alice and Patchy to help you triangulate where Yukari's base is.

>>69458

>Yum.

Indeed.

Keine-milk is delicious, nutritious and fun to squeeze fresh!

Now if only I could milk THP for votes. Neverending font of updates.

Hm. Already voted for this one, but I'll help out by voting for the next series of updates :

[x] "Oh yeah?"
[x] Snowball DEATH BLOSSOM mode

[x] It's a trap, but you can't let her death go unavenged. Calmly stroll into the killing ground.

[x] Pelvic thrust to the eyes.

[x] Go Super Saiyan AND Summon Exodia at the same time, they'll never expect it.
[x] Try to keep it short this time.

[x] "Haha, stole your hat!"
[x] Have the scout team cover for you, and accidently miss Keine as you figure out what to cast on the hat.
[x] Arrange for Keine to get her hat back and her escape. When it pings, get Alice and Patchy to help you triangulate where Yukari's base is.

{x} tip her over.

[x] "Haha, stole your hat!"
[x] Have the scout team cover for you, and accidently miss Keine as you figure out what to cast on the hat.
[x] Arrange for Keine to get her hat back and her escape. When it pings, get Alice and Patchy to help you triangulate where Yukari's base is.

Probably would've made more sense to arrange one of the scouts to steal the hat, but oh well.

[x] "Haha, stole your hat!"
[x] Have the scout team cover for you, and accidently miss Keine as you figure out what to cast on the hat.
[x] Arrange for Keine to get her hat back and her escape. When it pings, get Alice and Patchy to help you triangulate where Yukari's base is.

>>69488

Well jesus, why don't you the story for me if you knew what was going to happen. God damn it, now I have to replan EVERYTHING ffs. brb 7 minutes

[x] "Haha, stole your hat!"
[x] Have the scout team cover for you, and accidently miss Keine as you figure out what to cast on the hat.
[x] Arrange for Keine to get her hat back and her escape. When it pings, get Alice and Patchy to help you triangulate where Yukari's base is.

[x] "Haha, stole your hat!"
[x] Have the scout team cover for you, and accidently miss Keine as you figure out what to cast on the hat.
[x] Arrange for Keine to get her hat back and her escape. When it pings, get Alice and Patchy to help you triangulate where Yukari's base is.

You feel a little guilty for ganging up on Keine like this. Sure, it can't really be helped in some situations, but Keine is shivering a little now too from the snowbath she received courtesy of the artillery snow. Taking her out of the game would be a waste of an opportunity, but first...

“I'm going to let you go, on one condition,” you say, smirking. You turn to Tewi, and she seems to be the only one not looking at you with a confused expression. The rest of the team backs down as you step forward. In a flash, you snatch Keine's hat and hoist it into the air.

“Ah! Hey!” she cries, and you jump back, taking to the air as you do.

“Haha! Stole your hat!” you declare, and soon after, Keine kneels and begins gathering snow. The scout team looks ready to start throwing.

“No, let her chase me,” you say out loud, looking towards Sunny and Luna now. You make a gesture towards the two of them, pointing at them then pointing in a direction. You ave over the rest of the team and they follow you as a snowball flies past the gathering group as Sunny and Luna fly off in another direction. “We'll move for a bit, then scatter. I'll meet with Sunny and Luna and finish my trick there. Do not attack Keine, evade only. Fly above the trees once I call for a regroup.” Despite the looks of discontent in the rest of the team, they nod, and your group takes off, ensuring Keine is on your heels. As you fly, snowballs periodically whip past the group. You make a point in flying erratically, and everyone else joins in as well. After a few seconds, you press the badge.

“Sunny, stop where you are and hide. Be ready to catch me,” you say, and receive a reply shortly afterwards. At that point, you nod to Tewi, and make a sharp turn, the rest of the group splitting into different directions. You look back, seeing Keine stop for a moment, throwing a snowball after someone else, then setting off in your direction with another scoop of snow.

“Give me back my hat!” she shouts as another snowball sails into a tree.

“Look right,” you hear Sunny say over the badge, and you turn your head. “Stop!” she shouts as your eyes meet a tree. “There!” she says, and you understand, making another turn and heading straight for the spot. You prepare to stop immediately, and it helps when Luna and Sunny appear in front of you seemingly out of nowhere. “Move left!” she then whispers, and the new group flies off to the side as a now confused Keine coasts into the area and looks around. You don't have much time to waste, Keine will leave if she thinks you've vanished, so you begin to cast the alarm spell you've been cooking up in the short delay you've had, altering it with a time delay trigger typically used for traps. Even being less than five feet from Keine, she doesn't notice you three at all, floating above the snow. You finish the spell, and focus the energy into the hat. It shimmers for a moment as a faint band of magical characters appears around it, and even before it fades some of the characters begin to fade as a representation of the time delay trigger. Perfect.

“Ready,” you say. “I'll drop this here and shake some branches. Luna, you make it louder so Keine will hear it, and we'll leave.” The fairy replies with a nod, and you drop the hat onto the snow, then reach up to the branches. You give the branch a small shake, and Luna's amplification makes it sound like someone's falling through the tree as the three of you retreat. Keine turns, and takes the bait as expected, picking her hat up from the snow and brushing it off.

“Geez, what was that about,” she complains, placing the strange box-hat back onto her head, completely unaware of exactly what she's facilitating. She spends another couple seconds combing the area, then flies off when she doesn't find anyone. You wait a while to be sure, then start flying in the opposite direction Keine went.

“Okay, regroup,” you say into the badge, and Sunny drops her cloaking field and the three of you pop up above the trees. You can already see Tewi and Koakuma, and yous tart towards them, but Wriggle doesn't appear above the trees.

“Wriggle, you lost?” you say, hoping for an answer. You get no response, and start to get a little worried by the time everyone else regroups.

“Hiding, enemy close,” Wriggle whispers through the badge. You could hear a few voices in the background as well. Not good, there's an enemy team close by, and Wriggle is stuck near them. You need to find her quickly, if even to get her out of there. You're not sure what to expect when it comes to who you'll run into, but you don't exactly want to risk a message that could give Wriggle away and get her taken out before you could save her. She's an important asset to the scouting team with her use of the phantom butterflies that populate the garden. Even making a short call for information on how to find her could put her at risk, but with only a general idea of the direction she went, you could spend too long looking for her and draw more attention, especially if you're close to part of the other team.

---

Also, I've been thinking about something lately. There's been quite a few times when I would be at a point and think of the potential of an H-scene, and even went so far as to put serious thought into planning, then ultimately end up not inserting the hooks that could lead to the scene due to my difficulty in convincing myself I could justify it, causing them to essentially become unused data.

Well, anyone that knows me knows how I feel about ideas for things I want to write. Question is, would you rather I get them out now, or wait for a while and let the backlog build up to the point I could turn out a different scene for a different girl every day for two weeks?

>>69573

Write them out now.

>>69573
Save them for later

>>69573

Save them for later - they might end up useful within the story, and nobody wants a reposted H-scene.

>>69589

That's the thing, all the ones so far have been idea's I've had that would tie into the canon of this particular situation, that being within your own temporary body and interacting directly with the girls you've helped. The chance for these scenes to be used passed with the time I'd have used them already, the only reason they didn't get tied in was either because I couldn't justify it well enough for myself. As an example, Alice is one of them. When you showed up at her house and she said she wasn't decent. Instead of Alice running off to get dressed, she continues to linger even after you've come in, and Alice starts talking about how grateful she is, how she would like to repay you, etc. At that point there'd have been a choice option, and one of the possible options would have been to basically say 'I'll take what you give me', to which her response would be 'my body' and possibly another choice whether or not to fuck her silly.

The ones I have currently that are pseudo-cannon in that they should have happened, but didn't due to lack of inclusion involve the aforementioned Alice, and Hina. The other two I had planned because I like the ideas for them, but weren't included for different reasons. One because it would require a complete about face for the character and lacks a proper element of motivation, while taking advantage of it's own plothole solely for the sake of avoiding having to rationalize why it happens. The other didn't make it because I cut the scene it would have been connected to plotwise due to the time spent collecting players for the snow war, but still balanced on faulty logic and would require a choice that would conflict with the so-far-perceived goal of helping everyone and trying not to fall victim to personal desires simply for the sake of doing so.

Also, votes.

Augh, I can't think of a good write-in for this. I'd say our best bet is to let the scout team begin looking for Wriggle while we call for the assault team as backup. Have Yuyuko get Wriggle's location info ready but don't announce it till back up arrives. Have the defense team go on alert and have Patchy prep the Frost Mortar.

Dammit, I'm no good at strategy. Write-ins for these sorts of updates...it's useless.

[] Have Luna amplify all the sound in the area. If the enemy is talking, you will hear it. Of course, no one in the scout team should make any sound.

Too dangerous. If anyone at base decides to message us with valuable intel, we may end up broadcasting it to the area.

[x] Have Tewi lead the way to Wriggle. With her luck, we may end up finding her immediately. Even without her luck, its still better than standing around for now. Either way, if the enemy finds us, attention will be drawn away from Wriggle. If we find Wriggle, we can extract her. Koakuma will contact Patchouli (via her contract link or making her way back to base). Let Patchouli decide what to do on her end. Shes a smart girl, she can handle it.

We are gonna have to think on our toes for now. Yes, its risky. But if we move decisively and purposefully, we can capitalize on opportunities that would be difficult to respond to with a set plan in mind. Set a goal and then use whatever means present themselves. Our goal is to get Wriggle to safety.

[x] Have Tewi lead the way to Wriggle. With her luck, we may end up finding her immediately. Even without her luck, its still better than standing around for now. Either way, if the enemy finds us, attention will be drawn away from Wriggle. If we find Wriggle, we can extract her. Koakuma will contact Patchouli (via her contract link or making her way back to base). Let Patchouli decide what to do on her end. Shes a smart girl, she can handle it.

Eh.

[x] Have Tewi lead the way to Wriggle. With her luck, we may end up finding her immediately. Even without her luck, its still better than standing around for now. Either way, if the enemy finds us, attention will be drawn away from Wriggle. If we find Wriggle, we can extract her. Koakuma will contact Patchouli (via her contract link or making her way back to base). Let Patchouli decide what to do on her end. Shes a smart girl, she can handle it.

[x] Have Tewi lead the way to Wriggle. With her luck, we may end up finding her immediately. Even without her luck, its still better than standing around for now. Either way, if the enemy finds us, attention will be drawn away from Wriggle. If we find Wriggle, we can extract her. Koakuma will contact Patchouli (via her contract link or making her way back to base). Let Patchouli decide what to do on her end. Shes a smart girl, she can handle it.

>>69618 is changing vote to

[x] Have Tewi lead the way to Wriggle. With her luck, we may end up finding her immediately. Even without her luck, its still better than standing around for now. Either way, if the enemy finds us, attention will be drawn away from Wriggle. If we find Wriggle, we can extract her. Koakuma will contact Patchouli (via her contract link or making her way back to base). Let Patchouli decide what to do on her end. Shes a smart girl, she can handle it.

I may like my idea better, but yeah, it's risky enough.

>>69596
>At that point there'd have been a choice option, and one of the possible options would have been to basically say 'I'll take what you give me', to which her response would be 'my body' and possibly another choice whether or not to fuck her silly.

Would have been awesome. Do want.

>would require a choice that would conflict with the so-far-perceived goal of helping everyone and trying not to fall victim to personal desires simply for the sake of doing so.

That's not a problem. Saints wouldn't be saints if there were no temptation.

>but still balanced on faulty logic and would require a choice that would conflict with the so-far-perceived goal of helping everyone and trying not to fall victim to personal desires simply for the sake of doing so.

Nobody doesn't seem to be that particular monocle-dropping sort of moralfag. He's fine with making ribald jokes, doing body shots with a shinigami, stealing a kiss from a sleeping ghost, introducing a cat youkai to the wonders of her own body, and consummating the relationship between two women vicariously. As written the long-term possession seems to create a deep empathic bond with the possessed, which readily lends itself to sexual desire.

The moral issue is, as Yukari warned, the potential fallout: If he had sex with Alice for example, what happens to the relationship between her and Patchouli? Would Alice proceed to fall in love with Nobody, or would the experience be cathartic and actually serve to strengthen her relationship with Patchouli? Neither outcome retroactively makes the act itself wrong or right, but the unintended negative consequences of his action (and inaction) is something the character is going to have to face eventually, and how he deals with this in fact will probably be essential to his moral development.

And I agree with >>69851. That would've been awesome.

[x] Contact everyone but Wriggle on the badge and declare temporary radio silence.
[x] Have Luna amplify all the sound in the area. If the enemy is talking, you will hear it. Of course, no one in the scout team should make any sound.

Wriggle would've explicitly told us not to radio back if she was in immediate danger of being given away. In fact you should declare radio silence no matter what you do, just in case somebody didn't get Wriggle's message and decides to broadcast something to the entire team.

>>69573>>69596
If you want to write them now, then write them. Space them out between story updates, maybe once a week or something. Nobody's going to complain about a bonus side-story, especially not an h-scene side-story, especially right now when we're seeing maybe one or two h-scenes per month across the entire site.

>>69887
That's what I thought too, then people started complaining about HLA's side stories.

Fucking blew my mind.

[x] Have Tewi lead the way to Wriggle. With her luck, we may end up finding her immediately. Even without her luck, its still better than standing around for now. Either way, if the enemy finds us, attention will be drawn away from Wriggle. If we find Wriggle, we can extract her. Koakuma will contact Patchouli (via her contract link or making her way back to base). Let Patchouli decide what to do on her end. Shes a smart girl, she can handle it.

“Tewi, think you can lead the way?” you ask the rabbit girl. “You're lucky enough you might find her immediately.”

“If only it was that simple. My luck only affects others,” she says with a sigh. “Things turn out in my favour so long as the outcome rests on someone else's shoulders, you know?”

“Well,” you say, looking back at the rest of the team. “What about one of us then? Can you make us lucky enough to find her?”

“Probably,” she says. “It won't be an immediate thing though. Hmm, I'm not sure it works on devils and fairies though.”

“Alright, we need to get moving now then,” you say, floating along the trees. “For now, don't hide the group. We can try to use our presence to draw out any enemy forces nearby and hopefully they'll be the ones near Wriggle.” You point the group in the direction you remember Wriggle heading when the group split originally, and fly along, scanning the ground beneath. After a few seconds, you see some shadowed movement under the trees, and hear some voices. In only a second, before you can even really register the movement, a ball of white flies through the trees directly at you. You instinctively fade out as the snowball passes through you, and you notice an arrow shaft protruding from the underside. A snowball arrow? You reappear and proceed to head down when Tewi grabs your arm, looking a little worried for once.

“Tewi?”

“You don't want to chase her,” she says. “You'll never catch her so long as she has the cover of the trees. She's not alone either,” Tewi points down to the trees, and you catch another glimpse of movement, a pair of shadows moving near the one you had first seen. “Looks like she's got that witch down there with her too. Can't get too close or we'll be blasted, can't stay too far or we'll be shot-” As if on cue, another snow arrow whizzes past, and just barely manages to miss Tewi, clipping her ear as it passes.

“Ah! Damn it,” she curses, grabbing the spot she was grazed. “Eirin is probably the only one on the team right now that can actually hit me. We're going to have to do something.” Before you can respond, however, you see a rustle in the trees, and Wriggle flies out, looking quite panicked.

“Run! They-” She doesn't get to finish, as suddenly a patch of trees lights up as a black clad figure fires a ring of light towards you. In the moment of panic and hesitation, the ring passes you, and you realize that it's a tunnel of danmaku.

“Oh no, the edges!” Tewi shouts, sounding really panicked now. You don't stop to question her as you fly towards one side of the tunnel, the rest of the group doing so as well, just as a second flash of light at the end of the tunnel becomes a brilliant beam of scorching heat. There's only barely a foot of space between the swirling walls of danmaku and the burning beam of light, and the light is overwhelming, making it difficult to see anything, damn it. You're caught wondering what you should do when a shadow closes in, and another snow arrow passes only inches from your head. Not good. The entire scout team is sitting ducks here. After a few moments, the large beam of light fades, and Tewi flies over as the rest of the team panics.

“You, you've got to stop them!” Tewi shouts. “We can't get close like this, we'll be pressed into the walls and pelted until we're all out. Eirin's aim only gets better the closer you get to her. Go through the wall!”

You don't have much of a choice. You're the only one on the team that could pass through the wall immaterial. Time for you to pull the scout team out of the fire. You fade out once more and float towards the wall, passing through without issue and following it down towards it's point of origin. There's three people there, and going in alone is surely madness. The least you can do is break the tunnel of danmaku, if only for a moment so everyone else can get out. You just need to try to not get taken out first. Once you reach the base, you find the black clad blonde fairy, Lily Black, along with Marisa and Eirin. Marisa thrusts a hand forward into the tunnel opening and fires another giant blast of light, while Eirin begins to take aim at someone. You begin to move away, when Eirin turns her head towards you, and you freeze. You know you can't be seen, but the look in Eirin's eyes, like she almost can, makes you feel cold, more so than the snow itself. Another frightening woman.

You fly away from them, heading to the ground as you fade back in. You can only carry two snowballs at once, so you're going to have to pick your targets well and hope you can make at least one hit. You can't afford to screw this up. The scout team is on the line, and without them your tea won't have an easy time getting information. Another thought occurs to you as well, to message the assault team. They're probably close enough that they can get to you quickly, but that would still be a few minutes, but guarantee your victory. You don't have the time to be fighting with questions, you need a decision.

---

So, it's this :

(Pick two targets, and probably priority of them as well.)
[ ] Lily Black
[ ] Marisa
[ ] Eiren

and

[ ] Maybe call the assualt team? It'll take time for them to get here.

I'm also thinking of doing this :

[ ] Go above them, ram yourself into some branches to shake off some snow. Go immaterial and quickly to the ground, then materialize with snow all over yourself and ram one of them.

However, that sorta depends on how everything is arranged, and you'll probably have to figure out who to target still. I can probably figure out a few variants on how to do this one.

Hm. They also seem pretty close together, so I think when choosing a target we can try lining ourselves up with at least two of them. Then, if we throw a snowball and the first of them dodges it, it can still hit the person behind it, and that other person would've had less of a warning.

With that, we might be able to distract all three with only two snowballs - one at the two that are co-linear with us, and the other at the remaining.

>and without them your tea won't have an easy time getting information.

[x] Marisa
[x] Eiren
[x] Go above them, ram yourself into some branches to shake off some snow. Go immaterial and quickly to the ground, then materialize with snow all over yourself and ram one of them.

So, I'll go with this for now :

[x] Go to a position where Marisa is between you and Eiren. Throw a snowball hard, hopefully getting Eiren if Marisa dodges.
[x] Immediately throw your second one at Lily Black.

Hm. Here, I think Eiren is the most dangerous one, given she seems to be able to sense us and she probably can think of some good tactics to use against us - so, I'm giving her priority to be taken out with a snowball. Of Lily Black and Marisa, Marisa is probably the better fighter and would be more likely to dodge - so we place her between us and Eiren. I'll note that Marisa has more offensive firepower, but she's human and can tire (although I suppose she might've taken some of Eiren's drugs?) and I believe it's been noted that's she a bit weak against the cold, so she can be worn out.

[x] Go to a position where Marisa is between you and Eiren. Throw a snowball hard at Marisa, but it will hopefully hit Eirin if the witch dodges.
[X] Keep changing between material and thereal to reload ammo. Try to eliminate one of them after/if their tactics are broken.

Main target is Marisa, secondary target is Eirin. Though Eirin is more dangerous at any other time, Marisa is a bigger threat at the moment due to her danmaku.

Both of them are dangerous alone, so they need to be taken out. And What is Lily Black doing here? Two hardcore players and one spring fairy? Something smells fishy.

[x] Go to a position where Marisa is between you and Eiren. Throw a snowball hard at Marisa, but it will hopefully hit Eirin if the witch dodges.
[X] Keep changing between material and thereal to reload ammo. Try to eliminate one of them after/if their tactics are broken.

Three of them? If only we had a third hand...
...
...Hold on

[X]Tie string to a snowball.
[X]Use doll hax powers to effectively hit one with a snowball, Whilst you throw the other two.
[X]Turn on Noclip when they get distracted.
[X]Escape with scout team.


I'm a genius!

>>69920

What string? Do we even have one with us now that the sword is hidden?

>>69921

Yeah, you should at least. Alice gave one of her anchor rings for her magic dollstrings.

>>69920
Excuse me, but how to you tie a string to a snowball?

>>69926
Very carefully.

[x] Enchant a snowball with Animate Doll (sentry) so that it leaps at movement. Throw the regular snowball first followed by the enchanted one at Marisa.

She's got the team pinned in a hollow Spark. Disrupt her and the rest of the team can help fight or retreat. She might dodge the first, but the second will catch her off guard if the spell works.

We researched independent doll magic... whaddya need string for unless you want to control it directly. hopefully doll magic works close enough to golem magic to allow us to enchant a ball of snow with the gift of action.

>[x] Enchant a snowball with Animate Doll (sentry) so that it leaps at movement

Excuse me, but wouldn't that not only take a considerable amount of time, the enought for the scout team to be anihilated, but it would also reveal Nobody's position? When we used that spell wasn't there, like, lot's of light and magical fireworks?

[x] Go to a position where Marisa is between you and Eiren. Throw a snowball hard at Marisa, but it will hopefully hit Eirin if the witch dodges.
[X] Keep changing between material and thereal to reload ammo. Try to eliminate one of them after/if their tactics are broken.

C'mon people, we need votes!

>>69937

To be more precise, Alice is the one that refined your base spells cobbled together from magical trap triggers and rudimentary construct enchantment magics. Alice's specified and tweaked their use for the more specific purpose of giving life and movement to a doll rather than the general equivalent of such things. Your magical abilities are still better suited to simple magical constructs and traps.

The problem is of course, it uses a lot of magical energy and is quite visible. In any case,

[x] Go to a position where Marisa is between you and Eiren. Throw a snowball hard at Marisa, but it will hopefully hit Eirin if the witch dodges.

Going with this since it has a winning number of votes.

[X] Keep changing between material and thereal to reload ammo. Try to eliminate one of them after/if their tactics are broken.

Also taking this because it has 3 votes as well.

[x] Go to a position where Marisa is between you and Eirin. Throw a snowball hard at Marisa, but it will hopefully hit Eirin if the witch dodges.
[x] Keep changing between material and thereal to reload ammo. Try to eliminate one of them after/if their tactics are broken.

To get this situation under control, you're going to need to make the most of your chances, and with three targets and only two shots, one of which is going to have the element of surprise, you need to maximize your chances of hitting someone. You circle the attack group, trying to find a spot where you can get Marisa between you and Eirin. Eirin's constant movement makes it difficult, and you see first hand how she manages her arrows, drawing a flat topped arrow shaft from a quiver at her hip, and having Marisa create a snowball at the end with magic. That's your chance, when the two are close. You take your shot then, as Eirin turns back to the tunnel to pick a target. With a strong pitch, you let loose one of your snowballs.

It works better than you could imagine. The snowball hits Marisa's hat, knocking it off and into Eirin, who get startled and misfires her bow into the air. The sudden commotion confuses Lily Black as well, who loses concentration on maintaining the constant swirl of danmaku and the tunnel develops a gap in the wall that flows along towards the scout team. Taking advantage of the confusion, you throw your second shot. The element of surprise no longer in your favour though, Eirin spots you just at the moment you release, and intercepts your snowball with an arrow shaft as she flies towards you. You begin to make your retreat, heading down to the tree line and vanishing along the way. You slip into the trees, and shortly afterwards, Eirin floats down after you, landing in the snow. She's looking directly at you again.

“You can't hide from me like that,” she says out loud. She actually can see you? She slings her bow over her shoulders, then brushes out some wrinkles in her clothes before kneeling to gather snow. “I suspected there would be ghost tricks going to a place like Hakugyokuro, so I took a special concoction that heightens the mind's natural ability to detect irregularities in energy, specifically those caused by ghosts.” She smiles at you, walking towards the spot where you're hovering. “Mind you, I still can't hit you. I haven't developed an ointment to allow a living person to become ethereal, but you can't run from me. On top of my special senses right now, I've also taken some of the performance enhancing supplements I gave to you back at the mansion.” She stops for a moment, laughing a little to herself. “You probably thought it was a trap, but I can definitely guarantee that they're completely harmless, and completely safe. Not that I blame you though, the only reason I hadn't slipped depressants into the food you had gone about preparing was because Yukari had specifically told me not to use underhanded tricks like that.”

Against what some would say better judgment, you make yourself reappear in front of Eirin, who continues to stand there, rolling her complete snowball in her hand.

“You'd cheat to win?” you ask, a little annoyed by her admission. She simply sighs and shakes her head.

“I'd cheat for Kaguya,” she replies. “She's not one to accept defeat, and even something as simple as a snowball fight is a matter of pride to her. She would try to win no matter the cost, and it's only fitting that I help her to her ends no matter what I have to do.”

“That's... kind of sad actually,” you say with a smirk. “You'd let yourself sink to such lows just because you can't let someone get upset.” Eirin maintains her same knowing smile, not even wavering in the slightest.

“I guess I would,” she says after several moments of silence. “Arm yourself. At the very least, we'll have a fair exchange of throws right now. I won't blame you if you run though.”

You feel strange. There's something about this situation, something about Eirin. Something is off, but you can't place exactly what. Still, she's giving you a chance to be on level ground, but also seeming to give you an opening to run away. Both feel like a good idea right now, but you simply can't do both.

---

[x] Escape. And point out that she can gloat only after her team wins, not before.

[x] Hint that Kaguya is the next target for your team.

Who knows, maybe it'll prompt her into running back to her and thus out of your way for now.

[x]Hit her from below after vanishing into the snow.
[x]Head back into the snow, run.
[x]Hint that Kaguya is the next target.

Dunno what to do. WIll wait for more write-ins.

You can't hide, since she can see you.
You can't run, since she can easily keep up with you.
You can't fight her directly, since her drugs give her some advantage.

I'd say in such a situation the thing to do would be call in an air-strike from the assault team, but I'm not sure what you could do to keep Eirin occupied and remain safe long enough for it to arrive.

I suppose we could go immaterial and move about 50 feet into the ground, hopefully out of range of her new senses, then get some horizontal distance so we pop up where she can't track us. Of course we'd be ‘flying’ blind during all this, so something could go horribly wrong, but if we want to just straight out escape it might be the only way she won’t be able to follow.

On the other hand, if we escape normally and she does follow us, then that would be a rather silly move on her part. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to bring her directly to the assault team or set up some other kind of ambush.

The biggest problem is that there is no strategy against Eirin with any chance of success. All fanon references paint her as either a better Chessmaster than even Yukari, or as nigh untouchable; in canon, her only weakness appears to be her devotion to Kaguya, but we're not in any position to exploit that right now.

[x] "It's nice that you're honest..."
[x] "But you know? The best kind of cheating isn't insuring victory..."
[x] "But rather, it's to redefine defeat!"
[x] Something else that I'll probably vote for later.

[X] Keep watching her as you call for back-up from Assault Team. If she try anything funny, go immaterial.
[X] Distract her until back-up arrives, but not taking many risks.

She just admitted she'd cheat if she could, so there's no reason to believe her assertion that you'll be having a "fair fight".

[x] Agree to a one-on-one duel. Tell the scout team over the badge they're free to engage the enemy at will, but Eirin is yours.
[x] Bait her into chasing you, then call in an artillery strike on your position, turning immaterial again once she gets close to you.

You could also call in the assault team, but without Eirin's tactics, your side already has the overwhelming advantage. Lily Black and Marisa are both the proud type, so without a leader to sound a retreat, hopefully they're willing to fight a pitched battle instead of fleeing.

[X] Keep watching her as you call for back-up from Assault Team. If she try anything funny, go immaterial.
[X] Distract her until back-up arrives, but not taking many risks.

She's got something planned. Best to keep it safe.

[X] Keep watching her as you call for back-up from Assault Team. If she try anything funny, go immaterial.
[X] Distract her until back-up arrives, but not taking many risks.

Nice try, Eirin, but it is actually I who is behind you!

Already reached three, but I'll guess I'll vote/bump.

[x] Keep watching her as you call for back-up from Assault Team. If she try anything funny, go immaterial.
[x] Distract her until back-up arrives, but not taking many risks.

Guess not. Reached auto-sage.