[x] Join the Assault team.

God damn, Eirin has a counter for EVERYTHING.

Eirin is awesome like that.

Lesee...

This time I'll go for :

[x] Join Assault.
[x] Also, warn Yuyuko about this new development.

There's one other thing that we can try :

[?] Get your sword. It's payback time.

>>70690

>pic

oh lord what

[x] Join Assault.
[x] Also, warn Yuyuko about this new development.
[!] Get your sword. It's payback time.

No more reasons to keep the sword hidden now, since Nobody can't fade anymore. That was a dick move, EZMode.

>>70697

I was originally intending to have that last choice as a specific choice between run and fight, as in actually present the choice selections.

It's only a dick move if it comes out of nowhere. There are hints towards something being off.

Also, I think I'll get started on those side-stories. Where to start though? Alice, Hina, Chen, Yukari or Komachi?

>>70701

Yukari, then Komachi.

As expected of Eirin.

[x] Join the Assault Team.
[x] Also, warn Yuyuko about this new development.
[x] Get ye flask sword.

You're corporeal indefinitely, and you're apparently their main target, so scouting is not going to work for you. Mokou is on the Assault Team--you should all know how the Kusanagi got its name. And there's also the more direct application of using it to kick up waves of snow from the ground.

Alice if I remember correctly is on Assault Team but should probably be swapped to the now vacant position in Scout Team, where ability to control dolls at a distance will have the most impact.

>>70701
The description you gave for the Alice scene was most compelling. Komachi, well, there's still the possibility something will happen in the future.

[x] Join the Assault Team.
[x] Also, warn Yuyuko about this new development.

Also, can we extend our vision to what one of our dolls see or is that taking the magical connection too far? If so, trying to squeeze a doll through one of Yukari's gaps for a quick glance could give us a better idea where her base is.

It occurs to me that Eirin might recognize the Kusanagi. She went up to the moon with Lord Tsukuyomi after all. If it's referring to the god, then he's the brother to Susanoo and Amaterasu who are strongly associated with such.

>Also, can we extend our vision to what one of our dolls see or is that taking the magical connection too far? If so, trying to squeeze a doll through one of Yukari's gaps for a quick glance could give us a better idea where her base is.

Isn't that why we stole Keine's hat? Although, I'm wondering on when or if it would go ping for us.

That, and even if we could do that with the dolls, I'm wondering how we'd get one of them to pick it up and get it past Yukari.

>>70717

It's a non-issue, since Yukari definitely does, and should have alerted her lieutenants to this fact. Still, that they know about it doesn't mean all that much, except maybe for Marisa.

[x] Join the Assault Team.
[x] Also, warn Yuyuko about this new development.
[x] Get your sword.

“I think I will join up with you after all,” you say to Flandre, who smiles widely. “First though, I've got something I need to do.” You turn from the group and float a short way away, pressing on the badge.

“Yuyuko? Bad news. Eirin brought some kind of salve that binds a spirit to the material realm, and I've been hit with it,” you say. You get silence for a few seconds.

“That's not good,” Yuyuko replies solemnly. “A ghost that can't disappear isn't very spooky,” she adds after a few seconds, which makes you smirk. You can imagine she's smiling on the other end as well.

“Be careful if she shows up around there, at least. We might not have a lot of spirits playing, but we should at least try to maintain our unique abilities,” you say.

“Oh, fight for ghost rights Kenshiro! Make us proud!” Yuyuko cheers. The line goes quiet then, and you look back towards the base, judging the direction form where you are to reach the mansion. You need to get your sword right now, to make up for your loss. You feel a breeze rush over you, and you turn back to the group of people.

“I've got to g get something,” you say. “Since I'll be joining the Assault team, I'm going to need more physical power. I'll be-” you say, trailing off when you notice everyone's expressions. “What's wrong?”

“Where'd that sword come from?” Merlin asks, eyes on your right hand. A shock jostles your body when you feel a weight in your hand, the cold grip of the same sword you had in mind, and you look down at the still sheathed bronze sword. How did it-

“Not bad!” Aya says, “That was pretty fast.”

“You're going to use that?” Youmu asks, floating over to you. “Is that going to be enough?”

You look down at the blade, lifting it up in front of you. This is enough? You can feel it's weight in your hands, a familiar feeling, and the wind at your back. The wind... yes, there was wind that time too, wasn't there? You pull the sword from the sheath and look it over. It's scratched and notched, and it's not very sharp. That's not why it's useful though. The wind picks up, and now you think you finally understand. You raise the sword over your head, holding the grip firmly, and with a wide swing, you bring the sword down. A torrent of wind kicks up from behind you, the trees beneath you sound like an ocean with the wind rustling through them. Almost simultaneously, all the girls move to hold down their skirts, save for the two in pants. All look equally surprised though.

“An artifact sword,” Mokou says, wearing a disbelieving smile. “No, 'The' artifact sword, isn't it? Kusanagi.”

Youmu floats up, looking down at the sword with wide eyes.

“No way! This junky thing is that sword?” she cries. “I can't believe it's real!”

Mokou chuckles from behind the girl, and places a hand on top of her head.

“Are you really so surprised? Think about where we live,” she says, looking at the sword herself. Indeed, everyone has gathered close now to see the sword you're now holding.

“Still, even for a place like Gensokyo there are still legends,” Youmu says after a few seconds.

“This is an artifact?” you ask, looking at the blade, turning it over in your hands.

“A divine artifact,” Koakuma says, poking her head up over the group. “Taken from the tail of Yamato-no-Orochi by Susanoo, god of the sea and storms.”

“You know more about this?” you ask, as th group parts to allow the girl to come closer.

“I know a bit. From books I read in the library when I'm not busy. I don't remember a whole lot though,” she admits, looking down at the sword. “Ah, I can already feel it's oppressive aura.”

“Oppress- Ah, right” you say, only just recalling Koakuma's nature. She looks a bit upset, though why you're not entirely sure.

“This sword can control the direction of the wind, or so it's said,” Koakuma continues. “Though from that breeze we got there, I'm pretty sure that means the legends are true.”

“Pretty amazing,” Aya says with a grin, brandishing her fan. Right, that could do something similar. “I can create blasts of wind, but controlling it? I think that Kanako would like to meet someone like that.”

“So, with this sword, we can win?” Flandre asks, looking up at you. You're not entirely sure how to answer. You wouldn't want to take all the credit after all.

“I don't know about that, but it's a powerful weapon, so I wouldn't doubt we have the advantage with this,” you answer. Flandre looks a little disappointed, but perks up shortly afterwards.

“We should get to work as soon as possible then!” she shouts, floating into the air. “Beat up my sister and get her to acknowledge me.”

“I'd like to stretch my legs a little as well,” Yuka says, drifting along lazily. “I promised dear Medicine I would hurt the enemy for her and so far they've all been too weak to stand to me and face their demise.” Again with that unsettling smile.

“I'll show them why I'm the strongest!” Cirno cheers, buzzing around the area excitedly now. Everyone's getting worked up now, probably because of the idea of being backed by an artifact weapon. Even Youmu looks more energetic, but would charging directly into combat be a good idea? You do have a pretty powerful offense you reason, but even still, if you can manage some tactics and traps still, you stand very little chance of losing. How will you approach the situation now that you've assumed co-command of the Assault team?

---

We're a ghost with Summoning the Loyal Steel?

Hm. More open-ended this time. Alright.

Lesee. We can do more coordinating between Scout and Assault, with Scout simply staying out of the way and providing info for Assault to do the actual killing. (I'm pretty sure that's the way most Special Forces operate anyway.) Course, since we're already doing this...

Possible use - coordinate with Aya to form snowstorm traps. And, oh I dunno.

http://www.military-sf.com/Tactics.htm
http://www.military-sf.com/OffensiveOperations.htm
http://www.military-sf.com/essays1.htm

[x] "Kusanagi, eh? I was gonna name it something like Goresplitter or maybe just The Lopper, but I guess that's fine too."
[x] Ask Youmu what strategies she had planned, besides Yuka's laughing.
[x] Mokou is the obvious flag runner with her impenetrable aura of flame, handing off to the fast-footed Youmu for transport back to base.
[x] In the event we find the base, Yuka and Merlin are free to engage and occupy the enemy's attention.
[x] Warn Mokou not to be baited by Kaguya; if Kaguya wants to win so badly that Eirin is willing to cheat for her, then she should get more satisfaction out of beating her in the game than by beating her physically.
[x] Arm yourselves, but ask Cirno to freeze the core of the snowballs--they'll last longer and throw better.
[x] Until the enemy positions or base is located, you should maintain a high profile in an attempt to bait the enemy, as well as engaging in search & destroy tactics.
[x] Make sure everyone is aware of their defensive options: Youmu can cut snowballs down, Yuka can block them with her parasol, Mokou can melt them, Cirno could form an ice wall (?), Aya can deflect them with her wind fan.
[x] Fly high; you'll minimize the ability of the enemy to surprise you, to flee, and to reload, but you'll have to make every one of your own throws count.

Fucking Mokou and Cirno, man; it's like putting a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same room. If we were to kick up a large amount of wind behind us, ask Cirno to take point and cool the area, while Mokou takes up the rear and heats the area, could you generate the massive air pressure differentials needed to create a thunderstorm?

Amending:
[x] Ask Koakuma if the sword is going to be a problem for her, and tell her that she's fee to join the scout team or join Miss Patchouli if she so desires.

I thought she was already in Scout?

I should ask, with control of the wind... does that mean we can use the wind as a *sense* ?

'cuz if so... It's time to make Yukari's spying look second-rate.

[ ]Try using the wind to sense nearby people, then if successful expand outwards as best we can.
[ ] Form an offensive: Mission - Assassinate Remila - Taking out a strong figure should inflict considerable morale loss. (and i can't remember offhand, was Suika on the enemy team? If so, hit her too. her mist/splitting power is dangerous, though i don't know if we'd know of her risk yet.)

There was Yuyuko's Report near the end of Thread 19, part of a big 4-post wall.

Suika's abilities is near the top of >>63652

[ ]Try using the wind to sense nearby people, then if successful expand outwards as best we can.
[x] "Kusanagi, eh? I was gonna name it something like Goresplitter or maybe just The Lopper, but I guess that's fine too."
[x] Ask Youmu what strategies she had planned, besides Yuka's laughing.
[x] Mokou is the obvious flag runner with her impenetrable aura of flame, handing off to the fast-footed Youmu for transport back to base.
[x] In the event we find the base, Yuka and Merlin are free to engage and occupy the enemy's attention.
[x] Warn Mokou not to be baited by Kaguya; if Kaguya wants to win so badly that Eirin is willing to cheat for her, then she should get more satisfaction out of beating her in the game than by beating her physically.
[x] Arm yourselves, but ask Cirno to freeze the core of the snowballs--they'll last longer and throw better.
[x] Until the enemy positions or base is located, you should maintain a high profile in an attempt to bait the enemy, as well as engaging in search & destroy tactics.
[x] Make sure everyone is aware of their defensive options: Youmu can cut snowballs down, Yuka can block them with her parasol, Mokou can melt them, Cirno could form an ice wall (?), Aya can deflect them with her wind fan.
[x] Fly high; you'll minimize the ability of the enemy to surprise you, to flee, and to reload, but you'll have to make every one of your own throws count.

Big write-ins are attractive.

>>70769
>Cirno could form an ice wall (?)
Noooo~ i think this may be the perfect application of PERFECT FREEZE, don't you?

Heck, maybe all of Cirno's spellcards can be altered to work with snowballs, since a diamond blizzard could be a fun snow-barrage that's bound to hit someone if the targets are too close to each other dodge properly.

First of all, how exactly do you expect to use the wind to "sense" anything? If you had the olfactory senses of a dog, you could use it to detect the smell of people more easily, I suppose.

As for flying high and remaining visible, you'll be limiting your own abilities to surprise, flee, or reload as much as the enemy's, if not more so. Don't forget, Yukari's gaps give the enemy the ability to basically come from anywhere, flee from anywhere, and reload from anywhere. About the only thing that prevents this tactic from putting you at a complete disadvantage is the fact that the sheer firepower the squad has gives them both an effective offense and defense.

One thing we might want to consider is attempting something like what we saw with Marisa, Lily Black, and Eirin's combo attack, and think of a ways to have our team use their abilities in tandem to pin down the enemy and make them easier to hit. Hell, between her Double Spark and general ability to scare the hell out of people, Yuka alone could be an effective tool to control enemy movements, allowing a perfect chance to set them up for either an ambush or a snowball artillery strike, or even both.

Also, if we are able to produce snowballs through either Cirno's abilities or via magic from our teammates, we might also want to consider instituting a "scorched earth" policy, melting away any snow we aren't immediately using as we either advance or retreat through the combat area so the enemy can't use it themselves.

As for worrying about Mokou getting baited by Kaguya, what if it can work in reverse? Granted, she's probably not as temperamental as Mokou, but it might not be impossible to provoke her enough to draw her out on her own.
We might also be able to do something similar with both Remilia and Marisa. Of course, now that we cannot become incorporeal, pissing off a vampire who wants us completely and utterly destroyed might not be the wisest move.
Marisa, however, might be able to be coaxed out now that we visibly have her sword out.

Nevermind, it was mentioned anyway.

Okay, as already mentioned a problem with flying high - it still allows suprises of the Yukari kind. So, if we manage to go that route I'd advise at least one person to look up.

Some choices would be :

Mokou - can form a flame shield that can protect others.

Us - Use Kasanagi to blow away snowballs.

Youmu - From what I can tell, she can see using Myon, even if it's just a blob. So, she can watch our back without it being obvious. She's also fast, has fast reflexes, and most importantly, her sword skills are there to protect others - which this sort of thing is actually good practice for.

This is probably going to be triple posted when I'm done at this rate.

>>70785

Why do you forget your write-in?

Hm, sorta only have weird shit at the moment, but... well some more ideas.

[ ] Divide assualt into two sub-teams. Advance close to the ground, one team at a team securing locations. If ambushed, the sub-team retreats to the other sub-team before both together unleashing hell, or if one manages to get trapped, the other team helps. If one manages to spot the enemy first, both teams go out. (Hopefully getting around Star's ability to sense animate objects.)

[ ] Scout team just presses forward, avoiding all direct conflict with the enemy. All they do is hide, scout and direct Patchy-blasts and assualt teams.

Wait, that first one isn't right. Hold on.

Okay, forget the spoofing part. Unless if it's modified so that everyone has to pair up and move around while hugging each other very tightly while forcing poor Sunny to cloak all of you with an illusion. Otherwise, it's still a tactic of sorts.

Hmm... my idea-hamster is running tired. Lack of knowing where the enemy base here is killing us.

Possibilities -

[ ] Go high, like that write-in suggests. However, when up there ask Youmu if she thinks anything is out of place - yeah, it doesn't snow much here but ask her if she can try her best - after all, she is the gardener.
[ ] Note that with going high, also ask Youmu to have her Myon to watch our backs. Not only it would only look like we're unaware, point out powerful sword or not, her speed and reflexes outmuch ours.

[x] Ask Patchy and Alice to bombard areas with snow-arterillry - but concentrate on spread and rate rather than one-shot quantity. The reason? We'll ask them to put some alarm traps inside on them. Instead of a defensive perimeter, switch it around so that it's an offensive feeler of sorts. One of the other team should try to figure out just what we're doing, so we might get data that way. I'll also suggest starting out from the area we encountered Keine and Reisen. If Youmu has more than one thought on what may be out of place, also concentrate there.

[ ] Have Aya go around up high and shoot overlapping pictures downwards, forming a map. Don't think she has a Polaroid though, and this thing would've been much more helpful at the beginning of the game and later for comparison purposes.

Hm. I swear, it's like there's some sort of conspiracy out there that intercepts and puts grammatical and spelling errors into all my posts.

I also thought of a way Yuyuko can defend/turn back Eirin's salve. Mainly, it involves getting two of the ghosts that just hang around the place to glomp onto Eirin's hands, where there should be still traces of the salve (epically if Eirin prepped a snowball recently, as if she was going after Yuyuko.) - which I think would be like encasing Eirin's hands in fluffy cement. For delivery, I'd have the ghosts try to hide within another snowball themselves, departing from it only after it hits or right after it misses. (Eirin can sense dematerialized spirits, but it doesn't seem perfect. Having a single target to intercept suddenly turn into three may prove to be confusing.) However, I only see this popping up if Yuyuko manages to get cornered by Eirin alone, and if she decides to ask us for advice.

Also, getting into Eirin's good side is probably a good idea. Not only is she helping with that project, but her drugs (Mainly, if she can make drugs that enhance spiritual perception, she can probably make some that dull it.) might be able to be of use when we finally get around to storming Higan looking for Youki again. (Of course, this entire snow war may end up as practice for this thing...)

Half a week and we're still nowhere near consensus.

>>71181

I'll probably just go on with the two votes for the wall in.

>>71182

hooray!

[x]Try using the wind to sense nearby people, then if successful expand outwards as best we can.
[x] "Kusanagi, eh? I was gonna name it something like Goresplitter or maybe just The Lopper, but I guess that's fine too."
[x] Ask Youmu what strategies she had planned, besides Yuka's laughing.
[x] Mokou is the obvious flag runner with her impenetrable aura of flame, handing off to the fast-footed Youmu for transport back to base.
[x] In the event we find the base, Yuka and Merlin are free to engage and occupy the enemy's attention.
[x] Warn Mokou not to be baited by Kaguya; if Kaguya wants to win so badly that Eirin is willing to cheat for her, then she should get more satisfaction out of beating her in the game than by beating her physically.
[x] Arm yourselves, but ask Cirno to freeze the core of the snowballs--they'll last longer and throw better.
[x] Until the enemy positions or base is located, you should maintain a high profile in an attempt to bait the enemy, as well as engaging in search & destroy tactics.
[x] Make sure everyone is aware of their defensive options: Youmu can cut snowballs down, Yuka can block them with her parasol, Mokou can melt them, Cirno could form an ice wall (?), Aya can deflect them with her wind fan.
[x] Fly high; you'll minimize the ability of the enemy to surprise you, to flee, and to reload, but you'll have to make every one of your own throws count.

A thought occurs to you, looking down at the sword in your hands. Maybe it might be possible for you to use the wind to detect people at range? You're not entirely sure how you'd do that, but... well, it's worth a shot at least. First though, you need to get a grip on how it's power works. You hold the sword up in front of you for a moment and try concentrating on making the wind blow. You don't get much more than a breeze, the same breeze that's been present since it came back into your possession, so you're not too sure it's working. You try waving it a little, and the wind picks up slightly as a response. Even as it does though, you don't get much in the way of sensory feedback. Ah, oh well, it was kind of a crazy idea anyway.

“You okay?” Tewi asks, looking a little confused.

“Yeah, I just thought of something,” you say, moving on from your little distraction. “So... Kusanagi? Eh. I would have named it something like 'Goresplitter', or yeah. That works too I guess.” This time, everyone looks a little confused. Moving on then...

“Youmu?” you call to her, turning towards her slightly.

“Yes?” she responds.

“What sort of tactics do you have planned?” you follow up. “Other than Yuka's laughing everyone away.”

“Ah, w-well...” she stammers for a minute, looking down. “I didn't really... think of anything actually. I thought we could overwhelm the enemy team with our numbers and maybe surround them.”

“Well, that's pretty basic, but it would work,” you say, looking over the group. “Right now though, I think some clarification of specific roles would be needed. Starting with you,” you point towards Mokou, who simply floats nearby with her thumbs hooked into the waistband of her pants. “It's obvious that you potentially have the strongest defense in your fire, you can simply melt the snowballs before they hit you, so you could work best as the flag runner. Once you get clear of the base, you can hand it off to Youmu, whose speed will be able to carry it the rest of the way.”

“Sounds good,” she says, nodding.

“I agree,” Youmu adds as well.

“Next then, Yuka and Merlin, your task is to stir up the enemy base when we find it,” you say, looking between the two. Yuka doesn't seem to respond, but Merlin nods happily.

“I'll do my best!” she says eagerly. Yuka... you're not going to bug her about answering. She'd probably do that anyway even without being told, you'd imagine.

“Okay. Cirno, can you make snowballs?” you ask the fairy. She grins, and flaps over to you. Sometime during the short trip, she creates a snowball and hands it to you.

“Easy! I don't even need to get close to the ground,” she says with a huge grin. That's pretty useful, as you recall Marisa's creation of them for Eirin.

“How many can you make at once?” you ask, starting to see a very useful purpose for the fairy girl. Wearing the same grin, she floats back and crosses her arms. Her wings pick up speed, flapping quickly. As they do, a cloud of snow forms around them and drifts away, periodically gathering into clumps of snow. In only a few seconds, she's generated ten snowballs, each of which hover in the air around her as more form from the expanding cloud of snow.

“I'm a living snowball armoury!” Cirno declares, picking one of the floating snowballs out of the air. “I'm the best there is at this sort of game!” Everyone picks a snowball from the air as well, and once they do, Cirno lets the rest drop into the trees. “I'm really the strongest now!”

You can't help but smile at her enthusiasm, even if she might be a little boastful about it. You can't argue with the fact that an ice fairy would be quite good at snowball fights, you just hope that her skill matches her ego about it.

“Cirno, in the future, could you freeze the cores of the snowballs you make?”

“Oh? Yeah yeah, I could do that!” she says. “Better for throwing right?”

“Right,” you reply. Seems she really does know what she's doing here at least. “Right. Now, when we get moving, try to make yourselves high profile. We want to draw attention so we don't have to go scouring around for the enemy, let them come to us. Not to say we won't be trying to find them in the first place though, it should just be easier to do so.” You get a few acknowledgements from the group in response, and continue. “Don't think twice about defending yourselves either. If you have any means of destroying incoming throws, or stopping them before they hit you, then by all means exercise your defense to the best of your abilities. All of you should have some kind of idea of what you can do.” A few more acknowledgements.

“Are we going to be going soon?” Flandre asks, looking up at you.

“Yeah, we're going to be flying high as well. High enough to make it inconvenient for attackers to come after us unprepared, but low enough to still be seen. We'll have the advantage of being hard to surprise that way, and anyone coming after us will have to worry about their own supply of snowballs,” you say, looking towards the sky. “All good then? Let's get going.” The team cheers, and starts to fly higher into the air. You stay behind for a few seconds, however.

“Mokou,” you call, the woman looking back at you and stopping.

“Yeah?” she asks, turning and floating back a little. “You want something?”

“Just a little something to say to you personally,” you say. Mokou looks a little annoyed, but doesn't say anything. “I know you're in this for a personal reason, going after Kaguya. However, I don't want you to go out of your way to chase her down.”

“I don't see why this is any of your business,” she replies curtly, glaring at you a little. “It's a personal reason, as you've said.”

“Listen to me,” you say. “Eirin told me that she'd be willing to cheat for Kaguya's sake, that's how badly she wants to win.” Mokou doesn't respond. “I don't know what kind of problem you have with Kaguya, but please, let it go just for now. It's a game, just play it as a game. Don't let your personal feelings put you in danger.” Still no reply, she just floats there, watching you talk. You float closer and place a hand on her shoulder, and she moves to brush you off.

“I don't want to lose you,” you say, and Mokou freezes. If only for a second, you think you see a slight pink in her cheeks before she shrugs your hand off. “You're a part of my team and a valuable ally.”

“Yeah,” Mokou says, trying to look displeased, but only managing to look slightly embarrassed. “I... I'll consider it.”

“Good,” you say with a smile, then you float around her and head towards the rest of the group. You look back for a moment to see if she's following you, and reassured that she is, you continue along, rejoining the group, and everyone else starts flying alongside you, moving as a group now.

“Where are we going first?” Flandre asks, flying in closer to you. That's a good question for now. You don't really have any idea where to look for the other team, let alone their base. The Scout team had already taken off a while ago, so you could probably see if they have any information. There's also the places the Assault team was originally sent to go look around that you could still go to. Otherwise, you'd just have to choose a direction to fly and hope the enemy starts popping up to make themselves a target.

---

I don't have much of an excuse for not updating. Too many things I want to write, but not enough time or ability to do so has left me in a little despair. I'm probably going to have to relieve a little bit of mental weight be churning out some shorts for a while and hope that solves a bit of the problem.

[x] Radio Scout Team and ask if they've seen any enemy movement.
[x] If not, ask Youmu to lead your search. This is her garden after all.

Oh shit, Cirno's got the snowball equivalent of Gate of Babylon.

Mokou~

[x] Radio Scout Team and ask if they've seen any enemy movement.
[x] If not, ask Youmu to lead your search. This is her garden after all.
[x] Have at least one person monitering above you, in case of Yukari ambushing. (Obviously, she's not going at full power but she's making alot of use of it to simply get to places.)

It sorta occurs to me that between Keine's and Kaguya's powers, the previous trap-offensive-sensor might encounter problems, particularly if their going off counts as history. If that's the case, include some traps that should go off no matter what when they land. If they don't go off, chances are it's a protected area and the base. If they go off but the others stay silent, it's probably not a base. If they go off and the motion-triggered ones go off, there's movement and possibly a base. (After all, if something like that falls through, someone would probably go out and investigate it.)

For added fun, maybe Reimu can add in some barrier charms or something strange.

Oh, and this also needs something along the lines of Youmu 'reclaiming her garden'.

>>71540

I definitely did not forget about the time delayed alarm on Keine's hat at all. Definitely.

>>71544

:awesome:

>>71544
>Definitely.
Getting Rain Man vibes.

That's it for votes?

[x] Radio Scout Team and ask if they've seen any enemy movement.
[x] If not, ask Youmu to lead your search. This is her garden after all.
[x] Have at least one person monitoring above you, in case of Yukari ambushing. (Obviously, she's not going at full power but she's making alot of use of it to simply get to places.)

[x] Radio Scout Team and ask if they've seen any enemy movement.
[x] If not, ask Youmu to lead your search. This is her garden after all.
[x] Have at least one person monitoring above you, in case of Yukari ambushing. (Obviously, she's not going at full power but she's making alot of use of it to simply get to places.)

[x] Radio Scout Team and ask if they've seen any enemy movement.
[x] If not, ask Youmu to lead your search. This is her garden after all.
[x] Have at least one person monitoring above you, in case of Yukari ambushing.

Might as well try all your information sources.

“Tewi, you see anything?” you ask the badge.

“Not really,” she replies. “You know, this is strange though. Okay, everyone can fly, but shouldn't we be seeing more signs of them?” She does kind of have a point. The garden is rather large, still, but at a casual glance you should be able to see someone above the trees in any direction. Despite it being night time, it's not exactly as dark as you'd imagine. The garden itself seems to illuminate itself, and the snow amplifies the light somewhat, in contrast to a faint red light that seems to be radiating from the entire sky. You can't imagine why it would be so hard to find the other team, unless they had a way of getting around that didn't leave them exposed. Exposed...

Yukari, she has to have something to do with it. Those holes the snowballs came from, and the one Rumia disappeared into. Yukari has to be using them to move her team around so they don't have to go out into the open. If that's the case then, she has to have some kind of central base somewhere that she's basing herself out of. You need to find that, but right now you have no clue where to start. Well, maybe you don't.

“Youmu, you know this garden well, I'd assume?” you ask, causing the girl to give you a questioning look.

“I do. I am the gardener after all, why do you ask?”

“Other than where we set up our base, is there any other place that might be a good place to set up a base?” you ask, looking over the tree tops. Youmu looks around as well, probably assessing several idea's she's had to answer.

“There's a rather tight cluster of trees in that direction,” she says, pointing off to the west. “It has a small clearing, but the trees around it would give good ground cover. It's also close to the wall, so they don't have to watch all directions. Then there's the festival grounds closer to the house proper that have a lot of open space, but sparse tree cover, so unless they built a snowbase they'd be out in the open,” Youmu stops for a moment, thinking again and turning. “Then there's a hill over there,” pointing towards the south west. “It has a good view of the surrounding area, even though it's covered in trees as well. It would be relatively easy to defend a base built around the top from ground assault as well.”

They all sound like decent enough targets, though you're going to need to specify more it seems.

“Which one do you think Yukari is most likely to use?” you ask. Youmu gives a slightly discouraged look.

“I actually couldn't imagine Yukari using any of them, actually. She's the kind that would hide out in an extra-dimensional pocket and brush off any complaints about foul play,” Youmu sighs. Well, that hardly surprises you actually, though something tells you that this isn't the case. You have no real basis for it, but you have a gut feeling that Yukari does have a base somewhere in the garden. All you need to do is find it.

“Well, let's get checking those spots first then,” you say. “Aya, can you watch out above us? Just in case Yukari tries something from above?”

“Sure thing,” Aya says, nodding. “Nothing gets past my eyes.”

Mokou snorts a short laugh, but otherwise says nothing else. Aya doesn't react either. Now that's settled, which spot to check first; Western wall, Northern lots or Southwest hill.

---

Eh, haven't felt like writing much lately. Don't know if it's a side effect of having so much free time now I no longer feel pressure to do things at certain times of the day or if it's just because I'm getting lazy from the holiday season.

[x] Western wall

Actually, I think this would be best :

[x] Southwest.

Reasons being, we might have to end up checking all the choices, and when doing so we don't want to backtrack, which may happen if we do the west first. Also, if we do the west first they can try attacking from the southwest or the north if they're there.

Southwest may be better if going methoditically, since west would be right after it.

Also, I suspect there's a lesser chance of it being close to the house - Reisen did need directions when we got her out, and with the cover being sparse she'd be much more likely to notice.

Although I still like the idea of modified trap/beacon bombardment.

[x] Southwest.

[x] Southwest.

Also,

[x] Clue token: Outsmarting Eirin.

I almost forgot we had these.

Anti-Eirin ideas... hm.

There was the idea of using her salve against her, although that's more like if Yuyuko got cornered.

Another idea would be to use her increased sensitivity against her, besides going immaterial a ghost should be able to haunt and terrify. Key would be to change quickly to overwhelm the senses, and possibly have another nearby to take care of the distraction. (Of course, if you're going two against one you're in a good position to begin with. On top of that, since ghosts would be known to haunt Eirin would be more likely to know and deal with this downside.)

However, the most important would be a way to deal with Eirin if she managed to get out of the game - if she really cheats for Kaguya, I doubt being only offically out would stop her. Yukari might be forced to gap her to some time-out, although if there's a number out including Kaguya, we might start up an indoor game at the same time, and see if we can get them more interested in playing that. (Besides some obvious stuff like Mahjong or Hana-fuda, maybe a group-poetry session.)

[x] Southwest.

“Let's go towards that hill first,” you say, and Youmu begins to fly off, and everyone starts after her.

“Any particular reason?” she asks as you catch up to her.

“Not really,” you say. It's true you didn't really have much of a reason, but it is the farthest location from the mansion itself, so it seems like the best place to go for now. Along the way, you decide to call in to base. “Yuyuko, do we have any scout information about the hill in the southwest of the garden?”

“We don't,” she replies after a few moments. That settles it then, you're going to make a sweep of the area as well. If it's a blank sector in your intel, you want to take a look at it.

“Pick up the pace, I want to get there as soon as possible,” you say loudly. You look over at Youmu, and she nods in reply. While you know several of these girls could probably easily speed past you, they simply adapt their speed to yours as you accelerate. The treetops whip past beneath you, when you catch sight of something and slow down. Is that... a boat? You slow a little more, and point towards the site, looking at Youmu. She's noticed as well, and soon enough, your entire team has stopped, and is hovering in the air over a large clearing in the trees.

“Something's not right,” Youmu says, sounding annoyed. “There's not supposed to be a clearing like this here.”

“Looks like that Shinigami,” Aya says, clicking a few pictures with her camera as she speaks. “She looks like she's napping. She's sure taking it easy out here.”

“We should give her a snow bath,” Cirno says with a wide grin.

You're about to give your own opinion on the matter when you hear a ping. You're disoriented for a moment before you remember the time-delayed trigger you set on Keine's hat. While you're thankful it went off, it's coming from the east. Now you have an even bigger split decision. Below you, an apparently napping Komachi presents an easy target, to the southwest, a potential enemy base, and a magical ping to the east signaling the location of at least one person. If you don't investigate that ping immediately, Keine might move on, and you didn't set it to ping repeatedly. If you go chasing the signal though, Komachi might wake up and move on before you get back. What to do, what to do...

---

Pondering. We might be able to use the scout team to investigate, IIRC Alice and Patchy should get the pings as well, between the differences in position between you and them they might be able to figure out the exact position of the ping. A Full Assault Team might not be the best option to figure out what's going on.

Oh, and if we really wanted to test the bottle of pills we have, we can try using them on Komachi.

>Oh, and if we really wanted to test the bottle of pills we have, we can try using them on Komachi.

Komachi gave us a heads-up once the game started when she could have easily hit us with a snowball. It's unlikely she'd then lay a trap, so I think we should return the favor.

[x] Send the Scout team to investigate the ping; if they don't have a magician who can read the alarms on their team, then they need to meet up with one pronto.
[x] Tell the assault team to standby on the off chance this is a trap; you're going in to (hopefully) talk to Komachi.
[x] Wake Komachi up. Pinch her nose and when she opens her mouth, feed her one of Eirin's pills with your mouth. Once she's fully aroused you can explain to her that it's no fun to play with someone who's half-asleep.

This was my only path.

Vote speed hit an all time low?

Hold on.

[x] Send the Scout team to investigate the ping; if they don't have a magician who can read the alarms on their team, then they need to meet up with one pronto.
[x] Also arrange for artillery support for them.
[x] Tell the assault team to standby on the off chance this is a trap; you're going in to (hopefully) talk to Komachi.
[x] Wake Komachi up. Pinch her nose and when she opens her mouth, feed her one of Eirin's pills with your mouth. Once she's fully aroused you can explain to her that it's no fun to play with someone who's half-asleep.

Further insights :

[x] Should warn scout and magi-support - what the ping was and there's a high chance for either an ambush or a base where the ping is. Use bombardment to support scout. (Actually, after cleaning up over here I think it would be a good idea to get ready to go over that way as well.)

[x] It seems odd that Komachi would still sleep after all this, didn't Eiren say she gave out drugs to all of her team?

Another possibility is to put a repeating alarm on her scythe, although doing the same tactic twice seems a bit...

>>71884
>[x] It seems odd that Komachi would still sleep after all this, didn't Eiren say she gave out drugs to all of her team?

Would a clever slacker like Komachi willingly ingest drug that could cut into her nap time?

Possibly. Another is that maybe she ODed on it and experienced a crash.

That being said, having an active Komachi about is rather questionable, given that she also can teleport her team about, if she was actually alert at all. I'll probably end up changing that around hours later.

[x] Should warn scout and magi-support - what the ping was and there's a high chance for either an ambush or a base where the ping is. Use bombardment to support scout. (Actually, after cleaning up over here I think it would be a good idea to get ready to go over that way as well.)

[x] It seems odd that Komachi would still sleep after all this, didn't Eiren say she gave out drugs to all of her team?

[X]Contact base, see if Patchouli and Alice can lead Scout team towards the ping. If not, or if Scout team is too far for any effectiviness, have Aya go fetch one of them and go investigate it and ask for support from the Scout Team.
X]Eliminate Komachi. Even if she sleeps like there is nothing else worth doing, she could still be a threat when awaken.
[X]Yuka and Mokou should keep an eye open for any ambush, the enemy could be using Komachi as a decoy. Cirno must be protected.

This is all I could think of during the night.

>>71910
>X]Eliminate Komachi. Even if she sleeps like there is nothing else worth doing, she could still be a threat when awaken.

Not cool brah. Komachi isn't one to act out of bad faith, as our previous interactions with her showed, and probably only went along with this as an excuse to slack off. No one wants a snowball in the face when they're sleeping; pissing her off like that is a good way to earn yourself a one-way ticket to Higan.

What if we tell Komachi that a certain judge is looking for her?

>>71882 here. Changing the spare Komachi vote to :

X]Eliminate Komachi. Even if she sleeps like there is nothing else worth doing, she could still be a threat when awaken.
[x] If she's out, roll your eyes and ask her if she just decided to go to an out-of-the-way spot to slack off. Then, offer her warm and shelter back at the mansion.
[X]Yuka and Mokou should keep an eye open for any ambush, the enemy could be using Komachi as a decoy. Cirno must be protected.

It occurs to me more than fair play (although it's way past time to attack each other, she should be helping her team) or possible traps, we should actually try moving the battle along faster.

>we should actually try moving the battle along faster.

How else are you going to get to all the delicious content?

[X]Eliminate Komachi. Even if she sleeps like there is nothing else worth doing, she could still be a threat when awaken.
[x] If she's out, roll your eyes and ask her if she just decided to go to an out-of-the-way spot to slack off. Then, offer her warm and shelter back at the mansion.
[X]Yuka and Mokou should keep an eye open for any ambush, the enemy could be using Komachi as a decoy. Cirno must be protected.

Need more votes EZMode? Then here, have this. Yeah, no majority, but it's a vote.

>>72075

It'll have to do. This needs to continue.

And as a quick test...

>>72086
all hail our new Mod!

>>72087
Hooray!

>>72087

Ah, crap! I'll need to get around to bribing congraulating you.

[x]Eliminate Komachi. Even if she sleeps like there is nothing else worth doing, she could still be a threat when awaken.
[x] If she's out, roll your eyes and ask her if she just decided to go to an out-of-the-way spot to slack off. Then, offer her warm and shelter back at the mansion.
[x]Yuka and Mokou should keep an eye open for any ambush, the enemy could be using Komachi as a decoy. Cirno must be protected.

You should eliminate her. If she's out here napping like this, she should be taken out as punishment. It's only natural, and you're sure that the others wouldn't hesitate to do the same.

“Yuka, Mokou, can you make sure no one comes up behind us to attack?” you ask. Mokou nods, and Yuka doesn't reply. Fine. “Cirno, you think you can handle this?” you say, turning to the fairy, and pointing down at the woman in her boat. The fairy nods with an enthusiastic grin.

“No problem! No problem! I can do this!” she says, flying out in front of you. She rummages around inside a pocket on the stomach of her dress for a second and pulls out several small cards, which she releases into the air. The cards glow, and take to the air, rotating around her. Cirno's wings begin flapping rapidly as well as she raises her arms, placing her hands together in front of her and conjuring up a large cloud of snow. The fine powder quickly gathers into snowballs, this time in an orderly fashion compared to the random arrangement they had previously. After a second, the swarm of snowballs takes flight, targeting Komachi.

However, the shots miss, and that fact leaves Cirno fluttering in the air, confused.

“I was sure that was aimed right,” she says. She tries again, summoning the same swarm of snow and fashioning the same shots, and fires once more. Once more as well, none of the shots seem to come close. It's almost as if they're moving around her.

“Ah! Jeez!” Cirno fumes, and begins to fly in closer.

“Wait,” you say, flying towards her to stop her. You don't get to explain yourself though, since a long, shining blade appears above your head, and you can only catch a glimpse of the wooden shaft it connects to. You're pulled down quickly, and unable to get your bearing, you crash into the snow and sink. Sink into where there should be ground, as if it was a sea of snow. It was a trap afterall. You try to find your way around, fighting in the snow to right yourself, but you only manage to continue to bury yourself more and more with your struggling. After a few seconds, you feel another tug, and you're being pulled again. This time, you break the surface of the snow, and find one smiling ferrywoman looking down at you.

“Look what I caught here today!” she cheers, grabbing you under one arm and dragging you into the boat. It rocks as it if was actually on water, even floating in this impossible clearing of snow. You briefly get a glimpse of the sky and see the rest of the assault team rushing down before Komachi fills your vision again. “Hey! Look at me when I'm talking to you!”

You notice the snowball she's holding, and she leans back, almost reclining again like she was the first time you saw her, smiling like she just won some kind of game.

“Why haven't you taken your shot yet?” you ask, and she simply shrugs.

“I don't feel to pressured to act right now,” she says, looking up. You follow her gaze, and notice that even though the rest of the team still looks like they're approaching, they're not actually visibly gaining any distance. “They won't get here unless I want to let them near anyway, players or snowballs.”

“That's kind of cheap,” you state, looking over the side of the boat. The surface of the snow looks like it's hundreds of feet away. “Why are you delaying like this anyway?”

“Ah, well,” she mutters, idly rolling the snowball between her hands. “Yukari's ordered us to actually attack, but I wasn't about to attack your base, and I wasn't going to start prowling the garden hoping to run into someone. I decided I'd rather lay back and wait for people to come to me.”

“And why haven't you attacked me yet?” you ask. Once again, she shrugs.

“Well, it is kind of unfair, you know,” she says. “After all, you can't even get yourself a snowball unless I want to run the risk of losing.”

“What if I didn't need a snowball?” you ask, placing your hand on your sword handle. Komachi grins in return and shoulders her scythe.

“Want to exchange blows here on this cramped boat?”

“Of a sort,” you reply, before unsheathing the blade and swinging it upwards in a single stroke. You didn't intend to hit her, and you're glad you didn't, since the torrential winds that blew through the area kicked up a cloud of snow. You briefly see Komachi ball up in defense at the sudden storm of white, and a few seconds later, a bit of black hits the boat in front of you.

“Finally!” Aya shouts, holding her fan up. “Come on, let's go!” She takes off, and you follow behind. Both of you take a swing with your respective weapons, and kick up a massive wind that fills the area beneath you with loose snow. “Okay! Try it now!” Aya grabs your arm and pulls you aside as another wave of snowballs flies past you, disappearing into the thick mass of snow. You hear a surprised scream, and several successive thumps.

It isn't until the snow clears that you have a better idea of the situation, and see Komachi sprawled on the ground, surrounded by trees and covered in snow, the clearing had vanished. You're the first one to swoop back down and land next to her as she begins to move, brushing the snow off her, whining a little.

“C-cold...” she whines as she shakes off what hasn't already begun to melt.

“You're out, I take it?” Komachi responds with a nod, and starts to get to her feet.

“I wasn't expecting something like that,” she says, laughing a little. “It broke my concentration, and I didn't know what was going on until I started getting hit. You guys are pretty good,” she says with a smile.

“Good to see you're not too upset over losing,” you say.

“It's what I get to slacking off to much. I should have partnered up with someone. I never expected that I'd be attacked so quickly,” she says, looking around at the few others that have gathered. You roll your eyes a bit at that. She had made herself a pretty obvious looking target. She “Even if you hadn't pulled that trick, I'd have gotten tired long before I could have finished you all off one by one.”

“You shouldn't stay around too much longer,” you say, seeing that she's shivering a little, though apparently trying not to make it look like she is. “Head back to the mansion and get warmed up. There's already someone else on your team out.”

“Yeah, I should get back there. This robe isn't really warm as it is, being wet doesn't help it much,” Komachi says, floating into the air. “I'll be fine on my own from here.” After that, Komachi passes the rest of the team, and quickly vanishes in a blur. Now that she's been dealt with, you might still have some time to respond to that ping, and the original target is still close by. The team regroups while you plan the next move.

---

Hm. Site problems.

[x] Send Scout to investigate the ping, possibly using one of the other magicians to help pinpoint the location. Emphasise caution - if this is the enemy base, then expect alot of defenses.
[x] Aya and Youmu (speedsters) split off an do a fast clockwise sweep of the area, one covering for the other. Rest of Assault sweeps counter-clockwise. If Fast-Assault-Scout encounters problems, they contact main-assault and try to lead the enemy towards us. If clear, entire Assault regroups and heads towards the ping.

First part, we already voted to do beforehand. Second part, I'm iffy on since it splits the team and I do consider the ping rather important - so, the last part is just trying to cover as much ground as possible while keeping a degree of firepower/caution to deal with possible threats. Aya and Youmu, being faster should be able to make up for most of the lost time investigating this area. (This area should be a bit odd - why would there be a trap here? It could be the base, it could just be a way to occupy our time.)

[X]Contact base, see if Patchouli and Alice can lead Scout team towards the ping. If not, or if Scout team is too far for any effectiviness, have Aya go fetch one of them and go investigate it and ask for support from the Scout Team.

Too sleepy to think for a better write-in, and this one seems to cover many possible situations regarding how to reach the ping fast.

Hey, Youmu can use Myon as a blob to scout ahead, can't her? That could prove useful if there are other ghosts around, imagine all the stealth and surprise attacks.

[X]Contact base, see if Patchouli and Alice can lead Scout team towards the ping. If not, or if Scout team is too far for any effectiviness, have Aya go fetch one of them and go investigate it and ask for support from the Scout Team.

>>72180

Maybe you should put a sticky so the thread will get more attention...? Joking.

You should consider what day is today. Right now it's Crhistmas Eve on my country, most people usually spend this part of the year travelling or socializing with their family/friends/girlsfrieds/boyfriends/hospital doctors.

>>72185

There's not necessarily any way for me to tell where anyone is from, though. Even so, it's still the 23rd for me.

[X]Contact base, see if Patchouli and Alice can lead Scout team towards the ping. If not, or if Scout team is too far for any effectiviness, have Aya go fetch one of them and go investigate it and ask for support from the Scout Team.

Can somebody refresh me who is on the scout team? Didn't they already have a magic user or at least Koakuma?

Tewi, Wriggle, Sunny, Luna and Koakuma. If there's someone else, I can't remember.

[X]Contact base, see if Patchouli and Alice can lead Scout team towards the ping. If not, or if Scout team is too far for any effectiviness, have Aya go fetch one of them and go investigate it and ask for support from the Scout Team.

Updating tomorrow, going to be busy for the rest of the night.

>>72228

hooray!

Merry Christmas, EZMode.

updates?

Ended up being busier than I thought. Updates coming later today.

>>72500

hooray!

[X]Contact base, see if Patchouli and Alice can lead Scout team towards the ping. If not, or if Scout team is too far for any effectiviness, have Aya go fetch one of them and go investigate it and ask for support from the Scout Team.

Going for both targets would take too long, so you're going to have someone go in your place.

“Alice, Patchouli, either of you free?” you ask into the badge.

“We heard it too,” you hear Alice's response. “ To the east?”

“Yeah. I'm too far away to get there quick enough. Can one of you join up with the Scout team and head out there before they get away?”

“No problem,” Alice replies. “I can go out there.”

“Alright, give me a call when you get a handle on the situation,” you say. You receive a short reply and turn back to your team. “Let's get moving towards the hill.”

The trip is short, but before you get too close, Youmu stops you, and the rest of the team stops as well. Even before you can ask her what's up, she looks back at you.

“Something's wrong,” she says, looking back to the hill, then gesturing down towards the ground. You float down behind her as she begins to descend, and everyone else follows suit.

“What's going on?” you ask as you clear the tree tops, but you see soon enough afterwards. The trees ahead of you on the hill seem to cut off at unusual angles as they enter the snow. It looks like they were partially buried, and that's when you start to realize that a large dome of snow had actually been built on the hill, matching the slope to try to blend it in. A base?

“You can see it too, huh,” Youmu says quietly. “I wonder what they made it for.”

“Only one way to find out,” Yuka says from behind you, floating forwards. You get the feeling you should stop her, but you also feel that trying such a thing wouldn't work very well. She feels very dangerous right now, something about her sets off warning sirens in your head. She already has a snowball in her hand, and she reels back her arm for a throw. With her pitch, she strikes the dome and a portion collapses inwards, only to snap back as if it was never hit instantly, like there were frames missing of an animation. Almost as suddenly, the dome bursts outwards, and a hail of snowballs flies in your direction. They're thrown wildly and rather loosely, so they are dodged without much problem, but once they've all passed, once again the dome looks untouched.

“Definitely someone in there is doing this,” you say. You feel a brush against your side and look over to see Flandre floating next to you.

“It's Sakuya,” she says, watching the dome. “Not only is this exactly like her, but I can feel her in there, along with two others.”

“Do you know who?” you ask, hoping for some kind of lead, but Flandre only shakes her head.

“No, they're not familiar at least,” she replies, looking up at you. “It's dangerous to get close though. Sakuya could easily get us all out if she catches us in her power.”

“What about our people though,” you say, looking over the group. Flandre shakes her head.

“All Sakuya has to do is stop time. I... uh... get kind of bad sometimes and make a ruckus around the house and Sakuya is always the one that puts me back in my room,” Flandre huffs, crossing her arms. She looks a little upset. “It's unfair that she's so strong, I wish I could be as strong as that.”

“Well, your power is pretty strong,” you say. Flandre looks down now with a sad expression.

“Yeah but... it's not very useful...” she says, trailing off. You feel stuck for a moment, like you just blundered into an awkward situation, when you have a realization.

“That's not true,” you say with a smile, patting her shoulder. “It's very useful, especially,” you stall, looking over at the dome of snow, then back at Flandre. “Right now!” She seems a bit confused at first, but then she catches on to what you're saying and lights up.

“That's right! Sakuya can't fix it if it's all destroyed at once!” she says happily, turning back to the dome. Right now, you stop her, and she goes back to looking confused.

“First, we're going to need a plan. Sakuya can stop time, so we need to make sure there's not enough time in the first place. We need a definite surprise,” you say, and while that is a good idea, that's where it ends for now. You hadn't thought that far ahead just yet. What should you do in a situation like this...

---

Spent Christmas Eve with family and actually had a pretty good time. Forced interaction with family all day Christmas that ended with me falling asleep at my desk due to a combination of lack of sleep, turkey, and people. Slept in far too late on Boxing Day, spent the rest of the daylight hours waiting in lines at the mall because exchanges needed to be made, then go dragged back to more family junk until rather late and went to bed nauseous with a headache. Finally today got some time to actually kick back and relax. 3 days of constant interaction and activity, do not want. At least I can be sure I won't have to worry about New Years Eve. I'll be spending that alone in my room.

Just how I like it.

>“That's right! Sakuya can't fix it if it's all destroyed at once!” she says happily, turning back to the dome. Right now, you stop her, and she goes back to looking confused.

It sounded like a pretty good plan to me.

[x] Have Flan nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

>“First, we're going to need a plan. Sakuya can stop time, so we need to make sure there's not enough time in the first place. We need a definite surprise,”

[x] How big a snowball can Cirno make? And how big a snowball can Yuka lift? You'll have to see, because you're going to have Flan destroy the base and have Yuka drop an avalanche on them, simultaneously.

Sakuya may be strong for a human, but she doesn't have youkai moe.

Weird. Well, I can think of two things.

[ ] Have Flandre destroy the dome while you and Aya try to make a tornado outside. The others pitch in whereever.

First thing that actually sounded like an idea. More or less use the snow of the dome itself as a weapon, and the wind to make it hit from multiple angles at once. If you really want weather effects, you can not only have you and Aya doing blowing wind around, but use Mokou and Cirno to create a temputure differential. Very amusing thought, but even if it worked I doubt Youmu and Yuyuko would be happy about the garden.

So, option two, and my current choice would be :

[x] Embed the sword within the dome or the snow just underneath it - quietly, I think. Then, with the help of Alice's string you remote detonate it - so it blasts a huge gust of wind inside the dome itself. In the meantime, have everyone else surround it and be prepared to throw a bunch of snowballs in.

The insertion part is probably the iffy part, and we never tested using Kusanagi with the string, despite it being discussed. However, if we can get a blast within the dome, the dome changes from a protecting barrier to a thing that traps and concentrates the blast. At the very least, it would create a snow cloud that would obscure the trio's vision inside, and a cloud would be hard to dodge without getting alot of snow on you.

Alternatively, if you're worried about delivery, encase Kusanagi in a big snowball first, then have Yuka throw it in. It makes it look like a legimate attack so the trio wouldn't think of it as much, (And besides, after the wall is repaired would they look at it real closely? Just more snow for them to use.) and provides a bit of starting snow for the blast. Actually, I'm going to this from quietly inserting it. Given that Sakuya's guarding it, there's probably at least something important here.

>Given that Sakuya's guarding it, there's probably at least something important here.

Or, it is yet another trap.

>>72521
I have an ongoing theory that Yukari is using these traps to either move us in a controlled path, or to get an idea of our perimeter and "legitimately" zero-in on our base's location based on how we trip them.

[x] How big a snowball can Cirno make? And how big a snowball can Yuka lift? You'll have to see, because you're going to have Flan destroy the base and have Yuka drop an avalanche on them, simultaneously.

I like this one.

[x] How big a snowball can Cirno make? And how big a snowball can Yuka lift? You'll have to see, because you're going to have Flan destroy the base and have Yuka drop an avalanche on them, simultaneously.

[x] Afterwards, see if the Kusanagi still works when attached to Alice's doll-string.

So yeah... If I disappear for a few days, it's because the wind has blown over the ancient and rotting telephone pole that acts as the sole conduit between my house and the cities power grid. A single wire, mind you, that is already weakened to the point where the swaying caused by the wind is enough to cause power flickers, and might be getting further damaged by a family of squirrels taking refuge in the roof, with the entrance being right near where the wire actually connects.

The winds have already claimed my fence, having blown down a section that can only be replaced by rebuilding the entire fence. Joy. I think 2009 is trying to find a new way it can become the 'worst New Year ever'.

If nothing happens, updates when I wake up.

[x] How big a snowball can Cirno make? And how big a snowball can Yuka lift? You'll have to see, because you're going to have Flan destroy the base and have Yuka drop an avalanche on them, simultaneously.
[X] Then Cirno creates a controlled snowstorm with the help of Aya and Kusanagi's power at the area that the dome is/were. Mokou shields the party, and Yuka can make sure no one escapes alive the snow. Youmu and Myon, either both keep watch or one fire danmaku and the other keep watch.

Thought of using Myon to spy what's inside the dome, but time affects all. I'm sure that, if Sakuya is in there, then Remilia is in too. The third character is a mystery. I fear it can be Yukari, aren't she and Remilia friends? Or maybe Kaguya. You know, inside a protected dome with a time stopping maid seems safe, and I bet Eirin would think the same. Plus, probably confortable.

I'm pretty sure the snostorm will attract some unpleasant surprise, but hey, it looks good as an area of effect skill. And if it is yet another ambush, then we could probably hit them with it too.

[x] How big a snowball can Cirno make? And how big a snowball can Yuka lift? You'll have to see, because you're going to have Flan destroy the base and have Yuka drop an avalanche on them, simultaneously.

Haven't voted since forever

[x] How big a snowball can Cirno make? And how big a snowball can Yuka lift? You'll have to see, because you're going to have Flan destroy the base and have Yuka drop an avalanche on them, simultaneously.

You're going to make the most of the situation. You're not sure how good Sakuya's reflexes are, but you suppose that if you can hit the defending players immediately after the dome is brought down, it might be disorienting enough to get in some more hits before Sakuya can get a grip on the situation. For that though, you're going to need a lot of snow.

“Cirno, what's the biggest snowball you can make?” you ask, turning to the ice fairy. She looks away for a moment, as if considering something.

“Pretty big, uh, I'd have to show you,” she says.

“Do you think Yuka would be strong enough to throw it?”

“Oh yeah,” Cirno says, looking at the red-plaid dressed woman. “Everyone knows how strong Yuka is.” You look at her as well, and see that she's staring off into the sky looking kind of bored. She notices you first, and goes back to giving you her trademark creepy smile. Why you? You want to ask her what exactly it is that she's always grinning about when she's staring at you, but you also don't want to end up irritating her. Even though you're a ghost, you still have a lingering feeling that she could hurt you anyway.

“Could you get on with making that snowball then?” you ask Cirno, who nods and floats away from the group. As she does, her wings begin to flutter rapidly, kicking up a cloud of snow as she does so that trails behind her. Cirno looks like she's really concentrating now, and the cloud of snow gets thicker as it swirls around her, gathering in a spot just above her head. The ball grows rapidly as the snow compresses itself into shape, quickly growing to be at least two feet wide, and showing no signs of stopping. You watch as the fairy girl slowly winds down, her final product being a massive snowball, easily big enough to completely engulf the entire hilltop.

“That's...” you choke. You weren't expecting anything that big, but it sure does work for what you need it for. Before you can say anything, Yuka flies over to the giant ball and floats up underneath of it and carries it up, as if it were nothing, holding it above her head. “Hold on for now Yuka,” you call to the woman, turning back to Flandre. “Okay, your turn, do it.”

Flandre nods to you and looks back at the dome. She cups her hands inf ront of her, and begins whispering something. A tiny spark of light appears in her hands, and once it appears, something, almost like wisps of smoke, rise form the dome and drift towards Flandre, disappearing into the light in her hands. The light grows as it takes in this weird smoke-like substance, taking on a strange eye-like appearance, a shimmering ball of light with a small patch of dark in the center. The 'eye' grows still, until the wisps fade away and the final result is a roughly fist sized ball of shimmering energy. Flandre pulls her hands away and holds them on either side of the ball.

“Get ready,” she says, and you look over at Yuka and signal her. Yuka pushes the ball up a little more, and you go back to Flandre.

“Okay,” you say. With that, Flandre claps her hands together over the eye, and a thunderous boom echoes through the area. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Yuka release the giant snowball and fly above it, using her own speed to drive the attack faster as the dome immediately bursts into fragments of snow. You don't even get to see who else is inside the dome before Yuka releases the ball and lets it crash into the spot. The giant snowball hits the ground and immediately crumbles, creating an even larger pile of snow, this time reaching above the trees. There's no movement afterwards, you probably buried them all.

“We probably need to dig them out after that,” Youmu muses, floating towards the pile of snow. “We need to be ready to hit them more afterwards as well. Even a giant snowball only technically counts as a single hit, regardless of if they're buried by it or not.”

Everyone floats towards the pile of snow now, and they all begin to clear it away, though things go relatively easily once Aya starts using her fan to blow away large sections at once. The first ones uncovered are the other two that were in the dome, Lyrica and Lunasa, who are immediately pelted with snowballs from your team before they can even say hi.

“Using such a big attack,” Lunasa says as she's pulled from the snow, now officially out of the game. “I guess it was my mistake to think this was just going to be a normal snowball fight.”

“I thought it was pretty cool,” Lyrica retorts. “Our base just explodes, and all of a sudden we're buried in snow? We should have teamed with Suika.”

The two sisters are left to their minor bickering as they're taken from the snow, while half your team works on searching for Sakuya. A patch of snow is cleared away, and uncovers a different patch of white, an apron. Several people let loose a snowball, but only one hits before Sakuya vanishes, leaving a hollow spot where she had been buried. You don't get enough time to try to locate her before a snowball from nowhere flies towards you and hits you in the chest. You hear several other cries as you notice a few other girls each getting hit from a different angle. No more attacks follow after that.

“She got away,” Flandre says as she drifts towards you. “She went east though.”

“You can sense people, huh?” you ask, wanting to clarify the fact. Flandre nods. You look up to the sky, almost expecting to see another speck of black wink out, but you see nothing. You're actually surprised you didn't see anything.

“Yeah, but not from very far away,” Flandre says. “It works better in a house, where it can be harder to see people, or there are more things in the way between you and them. For something like this, well, it would be better for knowing who is hiding somewhere, and that's only if I recognize how they feel.”

“I see,” you say. Lyrica and Lunasa are lead to you now, and you turn to them. “So, you two are out?”

“Yeah,” comes the simultaneous reply from both girls.

“Well, I'm sure I don't need to tell you where to go then.”

The two girls float past you, heading above the trees as they fly towards the mansion. They don't get very far before Lyrica starts another argument between them. A quick assessment afterwards reveals that Sakuya's final attack managed to hit Merlin, Youmu, Yuka and Aya, along with you. That makes two hits you've suffered now. One more and you'll be out of the game. Perhaps you should reconsider your position again, or at least change your amount of participation. Aside from that as well, you need to do something else now. With this small base crushed, Sakuya disappeared into the east. You're a bit concerned that she might be heading to where you heard the ping earlier, and if that's the case, then the Scout team along with Alice is probably going to have a problem. On the other hand, there might be another base in that direction she's retreating to. In any case, it looks like your most obvious choices are in the east, but with two different reasons and the possibility of one common result, you're not really sure which lead you should follow there.

---

[x] Warn Scout team that Izayoi escaped and may be advancing toward the source of the ping, from the West, with your team in pursuit.
[x] You want Scout team to lay a trap between your position and the source of the ping if possible. You only need to hit Sakuya one more time, but her time manipulation requires a total surprise.
[x] The Assault team is to give chase after Sakuya. Aya will be taking lead, but her orders are to retreat until reinforcements arrive if Sakuya decides to engage: Her purpose is to make Sakuya feel harried.

[x] Warn Scout team that Izayoi escaped and may be advancing toward the source of the ping, from the West, with your team in pursuit.
[x] You want Scout team to lay a trap between your position and the source of the ping if possible. You only need to hit Sakuya one more time, but her time manipulation requires a total surprise.
[X]Another objective for Scout Team, eliminate Sunny if possible and retreat.
[X]Warn Alice and the rest of the team of the current situation.

>[X]Another objective for Scout Team, eliminate Sunny if possible and retreat.

Sunny is on your team.

[x] Warn Scout team that Izayoi escaped and may be advancing toward the source of the ping, from the West, with your team in pursuit.
[x] You want Scout team to lay a trap between your position and the source of the ping if possible. You only need to hit Sakuya one more time, but her time manipulation requires a total surprise.
[X]Another objective for Scout Team, eliminate Star if possible and retreat.
[X]Warn Alice and the rest of the team of the current situation.

>>72575

Well, shit. Is it Star, then? I don't know these fairies, they don't show up on the games, do they?

>>72577

They don't, but I don't blame you. I tend to not remember Akyu even exists until someone else brings her up.

>>72577
http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Three_Mischievous_Fairies

updates?

Whoop, thought I was forgetting something.

>>73170

hooray!

For some reason, I was thinking it would be interesting if the snow fight was told from various different perspectives of the various teams rather than only Nobody/Kenshiro's POV. For instance, this choice looks like something that would make more sense told from the Scout Team's POV.

Also, it really doesn't make too much sense all the interesting action would happen with only us nearby, it allows for lesser characters to get their limelight, and for someone like me, rotating around would give alot of time to think up a vote for that particular team.

>>73172

>Also, it really doesn't make too much sense all the interesting action would happen with only us nearby,

It doesn't, but the only other people in the field travel around invisible. More events need more people.

Also, >>73172

Good point. Who else would be up for being able to control separate parties at once?

>>73189

I dunno. Wouldn't that give us more contrl over the situaton? Wait, that's good, sn't it? Then yeah, I'm in.

>>73189

Well we already have some experience controlling Touhoes so I guess it would work.

So, finally declaring a hiatus. I haven't felt like writing much recently, and I have no idea why. Even the nagging sensation to write things I have yet to put into words is gone, so I'm taking a break.

>>73374

Thanks for letting us know. We'll wait till you get your groove back.

Eh, despite having taken a hiatus from my stories, I've actually been sparked to write something, something that's been due for a while now I suppose. Expect it by the end of the week.

>>73443

Is it the Alice H-scene? Please tell me it's the Alice H-scene.

>>73466

Yes. Also, if I have enough gusto I'll finish more than just one.

>>73481

Hooray!

So, at my current rate of writing, I'm not sure if I'll have it done over this weekend unless the urge to write hits me again tomorrow, but considering it's about 3 full pages in OpenOffice at 1856 words and I've barely started the foreplay segment, it'll probably double that at least by the time I'm getting close to finishing it.

>>73560
>I've barely started

Jesus christ, let's see if you can beat Owen.

>>73602

Er, 'beat' what?

>>73606
He probably meant the nine post long, gigantic wall Owen wrote for his Cirno short story.

>>73619

Ridiculous. The only time I could imagine posting that much for anything but an ending would be a single chapter of any static fic I would write.

WHERE IS THE ALICE H-SCENE, EZMODE?
YOU SAID THERE WOULD BE ALICE H

>>74023

I did, but then I lost the spark to write again. I had forced myself to write what I have so far in the first place, I couldn't squeeze any more. However, I did start feeling like writing the ideas I have floating around again, so I've been putting work into those to relieve a little bit of the mental stress of being overburdened with several different stories. I'll be getting back to the regularly scheduled writefaggotry pretty soon.

>>74056

You could always post what you already have.

>>74057

I'd rather finish it first. At this point, it would be like watching porn, then turning it off once the scene gets past the light foreplay and chatter and the girl is naked on a table.

[x] Warn Scout team that Izayoi escaped and may be advancing toward the source of the ping, from the West, with your team in pursuit.
[x] You want Scout team to lay a trap between your position and the source of the ping if possible. You only need to hit Sakuya one more time, but her time manipulation requires a total surprise.
[x]Another objective for Scout Team, eliminate Star if possible and retreat.
[x]Warn Alice and the rest of the team of the current situation.

“Tewi, keep an eye out. We encountered Sakuya and she escaped, but not untouched. She might be heading in your direction,” you say into the badge.

“Got it,” she replies, and you hear her talking to the rest of the Scout team.

“I want you to lay a trap for her. She might be heading towards the ping, so if you see her coming, ambush her.”

“Me? Set traps? Well, I never!” Tewi responds sarcastically.

“If you get a chance as well, try to take down Star if you come across her.”

“Right, right, will do.”

That done, you let up on the badge, then press it again, connecting to base this time.

“Alice, how are things?” you ask.

“Quiet,” she responds. “Anything happen with you?”

“I've been hit a few times now, I'm almost out. I can't turn ethereal, and Sakuya had been attacked but fled towards the east, she only has one hit left as well,” you recite the recent events to her.

“I don't think you should be out there anymore if you're so close to getting taken out. You should come by the base and organize from there, that way we can all protect you,” she says, sounding a little worried.

You don't really like the idea of sitting in the base and ordering your teams around remotely, to be honest, but it is the safest way to ensure you don't get tagged out. At the very least, you want to see Yukari get hit once or twice before you go down, so you know at the very least that both teams will be without their commander. You want some kind of leg up on the situation. Your choice on what to do now.

---

Short update. Getting close to a resolution.

Zuh? It updated?

I suppose we could go back to base. Mind, if we have to go out, I want it to be :

1) Get Patchy to prepare a bombardment.
2) Ride the snow to the target. (Which should be possible -- if we still had the ability to go immaterial.)
3) Snow hits a bunch of people for mass Hit #1
4) Immediately rematerialize and summon your sword, spin (Hina-style) and swing to hit everyone around you for mass Hit #2.
5) Something else.

[x] Return to base with the assault team.
[x] Assault team is to be folded into the defense team.
[x] Since you're in danger of getting removed from the game yourself now, tell Youmu that you want her to take command if you fall and explain your strategy for winning:
-[x] There's evidence that there's a number of players on the enemy's side are acting independently. You hope that by waiting them out, you'll be able to goad a good number of them into fighting a costly pitched battle on your own terms.
-[x] It is unlikely you will be able to win through eliminating all of enemy this way, but you hope to remove enough of them that taking their flag in an all-out assault becomes more viable.

Let's just hope this doesn't turn out like Dien Bien Phu.

>>74202

>2) Ride the snow to the target. (Which should be possible -- if we still had the ability to go immaterial.)

Easier than you think.

>>74204
>Easier than you think.

How? By taking off the clip?

>>74222

I meant more in accompanying the snow to it's target.

[x] Return to base with the assault team.
[x] Assault team is to be folded into the defense team.
[x] Since you're in danger of getting removed from the game yourself now, tell Youmu that you want her to take command if you fall and explain your strategy for winning:
-[x] There's evidence that there's a number of players on the enemy's side are acting independently. You hope that by waiting them out, you'll be able to goad a good number of them into fighting a costly pitched battle on your own terms.
-[x] It is unlikely you will be able to win through eliminating all of enemy this way, but you hope to remove enough of them that taking their flag in an all-out assault becomes more viable.

Personally, I think it would be fun if someone else - say, Yuyuko also accompanied us if that happened. Either way, the idea itself needs a third element to make it three hits - perhaps another shot, or another team entirely goes in and mops up conventionally. (Oh, and the comm-badge - see if you can get it to transmit only. Even if they get you out in retaliation, the rest of our team can figure out who's there.)

Also, for a trap for Sakuya, maybe just have Sunny go invisible and hold a snowball in front of herself, while the rest of Scout hides. Very simple, but gets around some nasty timing and reaction speed issues.

Third - creation of pursuit barriers/forward base near the suspected Enemy base - not anything complex, just a few barriers or whatnot to slow pursuit down if things go to heck, or a place to regroup. However, this might require Reimu - which to me, might be required anyway, since her protagnist miko powers have already been used to alot of weird shit they might throw at us.

Fourth would be a trap for Yukari - considering that she barely exposes herself, it's hard to actually confront her. Possibility - force her to attack us directly. One possible way is to annoy her team with repeated Patchy bombardments - I figure either Ran, Yukari, or Eirin would figure out where it is by back-tracking any parabolic arc if they notice too many. Knowing that would happen, at Patchy's site set up an exploding proximity snow trap under the arterillery portion. (Both getting an area, and if it's in the right place, protecting the bait.) (If it's too annoying, Yukari herself might take care of it.) Picture has a few variants on the idea. (Such as putting curses/poison in the snow to make it easier to track, putting an outer blast wing, or just re-doing it with directional snow blasts. However, it gets a bit complicated that way.)

[x] Return to base with the assault team.
[x] Temporially fold Assault team into defense - if what Scout is investigating pans out, they may be needed again - or, if Scout gets in trouble they would need some quick back-up.
[x] Since you're in danger of getting removed from the game yourself now, tell Youmu that you want her to take command if you fall.

Uncertainly if we're supposed to whittle them down - why would there be a base and trap in the middle of nowhere? I suspect they're more than decoys, with Yukari's ability to gap people around, they can easily become new flag zones. (Although it's odd that there would still be people manning the empty ones.)

>>74227

hahaha wow

[x] Return to base with the assault team.
[x] Assault team is to be folded into the defense team.
[x] Since you're in danger of getting removed from the game yourself now, tell Youmu that you want her to take command if you fall.

Alice does have a point, going back to base is the safest option. While it's not your favourite idea, you feel it's still too early to give up on this battle. At the very least, you want the time and safety to create a plan that will allow you to take out a number of the enemy team at once, even if it is due in part to your desire to show up Yukari.

“Right then, I'm coming back,” you say through the badge, and turn back towards the large tree in the center of the garden. “When we get back, you guys on Assault team will temporarily join Defense,” you say to the Assault team members. They respond and move along with you, taking a rough defensive formation around you.

“Youmu, if I get taken out, I want you to take command,” you say to the girl flying at your side. She gives you a stern nod.

“You can count on me,” she says, sounding rather serious. “It's my garden, I'm not going to let anyone use it to defeat me.”

“That's what I like to hear,” you laugh. After that, no one says anything. After a few minutes of flying, Tewi's voice comes over the badge.

“Got a bit of bad news,” she says. “We saw Sakuya in the area, but our ambush didn't go off too well. Luna's out, Wriggle and Koakuma are almost out and Sunny's unconscious.”

“Unconscious?” you ask, a little worried. “How'd that happen? What about Sakuya?”

“Well, she tried to catch Sakuya front the front while invisible, and she got run over, but we got her out at least” Tewi explains. You hear some chattering in the background. “Luna said that Sunny is weak at night, and that she's easier to damage. She could be out until the sun rises.”

Well, that's not what you had expected. You're a little curious about why Tewi didn't include herself in her status update, but it's minor compared to the rest of the situation.

“Bring Sunny back to the base then. I'm going back there now to protect myself, we'll have to keep her there until she gets up,” you respond.

“Alright, I'd like to get out of this fog as well,” Tewi says, then communications end. You're starting to have a slight doubting feeling in the pit of your stomach now. You reach base soon afterwards, and not too long afterwards, Scout team shows up as well, looking about as bad as Tewi made them out to be. Koakuma is carrying Sunny, and you watch as she brings her behind the defensive wall.

“Sakuya alone hit you that hard?” you ask. Tewi kicks some snow.

“Well, Sunny thought that she could catch her from the front with a single snowball, but Sakuya changed direction slightly and rammed into her. After that, she saw the rest of us and laid into us. I'm the one that took her down though,” Tewi explains.

“You did? How?”

Tewi smirks. “Lucky shot. She stopped for a second because she recognized Koakuma and I got a throw in.”

Well, at least she's not a problem anymore, even if she did pretty much rout the Scout team single handedly. You look around the base area, and you notice a slight fog has begun rolling in.

“Ah, the fog is spreading through the garden it seems,” Tewi says, looking around as well. “I get enough of this in the bamboo forest.”

It doesn't take long for the fog to completely fill the area, to the point where you can't even see anything past the ring of trees that surround the area. You don't like it, it's too easy for the enemy to stage an attack with an advantage like this. Right now, you need to be on your strongest defen-

“Something hit me!” someone shouts, and you turn towards the sound. Inside the defensive wall? You head inside. The fog isn't as thick there, but it still covers the area. Inside you find Medicine brushing snow off her head, surrounded by people.

“You were hit? Inside?” Youmu asks her, looking around with her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Medicine nods. “It felt like someone just dropped it on my head,” she whines, ruffling her hair with both hands, sending the loose snow everywhere. Everyone makes an effort not to get touched by the loose snow. After a few seconds, you hear another startled shout, and turn around to see Meiling brushing snow off her side.

“There's someone here,” you hear, sounded like Patchouli. “They're using the fog for cover, but no one can see them?” Some confused chatter fills the air, until another shout breaks it, this time from Patchouli.

“This is ridiculous!” Reimu shouts, stomping her foot. “We're going to get picked off one by one if this keeps up. Aya, you do something about this!”

“Me?” Aya asks, sounding confused. “Why me? You're the shrine maiden that solves incidents like this!”

“Blow it away or something with your wind!” Reimu exclaims. Aya simply sighs dejectedly and looks to you.

“Hey, can you take care of this instead?” she asks. “Just wave that sword of yours around a bit and clear this fog.”

Seems simple enough, but given the current situation, you think if you were to go outside into the dense fog alone, whoever is stalking your base will use the opportunity to pick you off. That they haven't already is surprising, given how much you stand out as the only man among women, but it would seem that whoever it is doesn't know that you only have one hit left to take. As far as you're concerned, Aya can do it herself, though you're not sure how much of an argument she would put up if you simply commanded her to do it. What to do?

---

>>74242
Remind me whose side Suika is on again?

Suika's on Yukari's side.

I would :

[x] Have Aya attack with her fan while you attack with your sword, coordinate together. Remember to jink erratically.
[x] Have Reimu put up barriers - slow down movement of the enemy. Mind, if it's Suika in mist-form, it might end up real helpful in 'boxing' her in.

[x] Have Aya attack with her fan while you attack with your sword, coordinate together. Remember to jink erratically.
[x] Have Reimu put up barriers - slow down movement of the enemy. Mind, if it's Suika in mist-form, it might end up real helpful in 'boxing' her in.

She can't complain if we both team up.

[x] Have Aya attack with her fan.
[x] Have Reimu put up barriers - slow down movement of the enemy. Mind, if it's Suika in mist-form, it might end up real helpful in 'boxing' her in.

I really, really don't want to risk being shot a third time.

[x] Have Aya attack with her fan while you attack with your sword, coordinate together. Remember to jink erratically.
[x] Have Reimu put up barriers - slow down movement of the enemy. Mind, if it's Suika in mist-form, it might end up real helpful in 'boxing' her in.

You have to take them down as soon as possible, and that means both of you acting in tandem.

[x] Have Aya attack with her fan while you attack with your sword, coordinate together. Remember to jink erratically.
[x] Have Reimu put up barriers - slow down movement of the enemy. Mind, if it's Suika in mist-form, it might end up real helpful in 'boxing' her in.

So, Aya is willing to blow Suika?What a slut.

[x] Have Aya attack with her fan while you attack with your sword, coordinate together. Remember to jink erratically.
[x] Have Reimu put up barriers - slow down movement of the enemy. Mind, if it's Suika in mist-form, it might end up real helpful in 'boxing' her in.

“We'll both go out there,” you say, reaching to the handle of your sword. Aya looks a little distressed, but doesn't object to the idea immediately. She starts for the door through the defensive wall while you turn to Reimu.

“We're going to blow away the fog. Think you can set up barriers to keep it out?” you ask. Reimu nods.

“I think I know who is behind this,” she adds dryly, sounding a little pissed. “I'll do what I can though.”

“Alright,” you finish, and head out behind Aya. Immediately out of the door, you unsheath your sword and take to the air. Aya does the same thing, only in the opposite direction from you. “Go!” you shout, and you head back towards Aya's direction, swinging the sword out alongside you. Aya flies away from you, pulling her fan out in a blur as she does. In only a second, she's already circled the tree once and disappeared from view. You keep on course, swinging your sword ahead again, and you feel a strong blast of wind whip past you, and it only increases as a black and white blur speeds past you and punches a hole through the fog, using the momentum of your blast of wind. Whatever Aya's doing at the speed she's traveling, she's effectively torn a giant hole in the fog cover with her speed and air pressure, and she quickly returns in your direction, whipping past as she goes back around the tree.

You turn, heading back int eh direction Aya went, and with another swing, Aya plows through the enter of your windstorm and amplifies it, driving another large wedge of the fog out of the area. At this time, you notice Reimu outside of the defensive wall, holding something in her hand. You don't stop to get a better look right now though, as you're busy just trying to keep up with Aya, who has already flwon back and taken off once more. Your semi-erratic pattern continues, with you flying a short way, swinging your sword to generate a blast of wind, and Aya driving through the same spot to create a strong gust that disperses the gathered fog. While it's not perfect, in only a few seconds, you've managed to clear out the front section of the area surrounding the base door. A few seconds later, and you catch a brief glimpse of a flash in the corner of your vision, and look back to see Reimu in front of some kind of glowing cube. Leaving her to what she's up to, you return to your task.

In just about a minute, you and Aya have clear the base area of the fog, which has already shown signs of thinning to begin with. While it's not completely clear, the fog isn't nearly as thick, and you can still see at least several feet into the tree line. From a quick report, it seems that the interior of the base is free of fog, and no one has been hit since the three of you left to drive away the fog. About now, you wonder what Reimu had been up to, and fly back around to her, finding her yelling angrily at the same glowing cube you had seen.

“Speak up!” she shouts, and you stop, deciding to watch from a distance rather than get close. “Where is Yukari's main base?”

You hear a low mumbling in response, but not clear enough for you to hear anything. Maybe you're too far away still after all. You get closer, but Reimu notices you now, and waves you down.

“Caught someone?” you ask, looking at the shimmering cube of light. Inside, all you can see is a thick cloud of fog, and... a head?

“Suika,” Reimu answers, pointing at the box. “She was the fog.”

“So, the attacks?”

“She was gathering loose snow with her power and hitting us with it,” Reimu says.

“What are we going to do with her?” you ask, but Reimu only shrugs.

“We can't hit her in her mist form, so we can't get her out of the game, and she probably wouldn't gather herself together just to be tagged out by our entire team, so,” Reimu pauses, nudging the box with a finger. “I was thinking we'll just leave her in there for the rest of the game and keep her under watch, at least until she tells us where Yukari's base is so we can end this.”

“Reimu, let me go~” Suika's voice whines from inside the box, a faint form of her head sans horns looking out from inside of it.

“We can wait all day,” Reimu says, crouching to see into the box better. “Besides, I know you can't say anything about the base, because your inability to lie would end up giving away an important clue, even by accident.”

“Please let me go, Reimu,” she whines again. “It's going to be so boring waiting for you to lose.”

Reimu nudges the box again, harder this time, and Suika whines a little more in response. You should try to take advantage of the situation, having an enemy team member captured, and one that apparently can't lie at that, you could get some useful information out of her if only you knew how. On top of that though, you'd have to come up with a decision about what to do with her in the first place, to keep her imprisoned or to actually let her go.

---

Huh. If we decide to let her go, we'd probably want to first get her to promise to stand still and have us tag her out, while Suika does nothing to tag us out or give Yukari's team any more advantage.

Other possibilties would also include asking her to gather a few ingredients for after everything's done.

There's also the asking questions part, or perhaps freezing or filling up the entirety of the cube to 'hit', but my laptop battery is running out fast.

Oh, and consider this as an add-on to whatever the hell we actually decide for serious :

[x] "Reimu, you're a genius."
[x] "Once we figure out how to mass-produce these, we can make millions! Even billions!"

Suddenly, SuikaCube(tm)!

>“Please let me go, Reimu,” she whines again. “It's going to be so boring waiting for you to lose.”

Okay, you pissed me off.

[x] "So you're saying we're going to lose, then? You better have some damn good evidence for believing that. I think I'd be a shame to leave the impression that the oni as a race are only full of hot air, figuratively and literally."
[x] "Or if you'd rather stay silent, we can play tennis to pass the time. My sword and Aya's fan will be the rackets; you can be the ball."
[x] If she caves and gives you information, you can swear on your karmic record that you'll let her go, if she allows herself to be eliminated. Otherwise, no deal.

[x] "So you're saying we're going to lose, then? You better have some damn good evidence for believing that. I think I'd be a shame to leave the impression that the oni as a race are only full of hot air, figuratively and literally."
[x] "Or if you'd rather stay silent, we can play tennis to pass the time. My sword and Aya's fan will be the rackets; you can be the ball."
[x] If she caves and gives you information, you can swear on your karmic record that you'll let her go, if she allows herself to be eliminated. Otherwise, no deal.

[X] "If you want to be set free, then let's make a deal. You let us tag you out and we let you go, how about?"
[x] "You say we're going to lose? You better have some damn good evidence for believing that. I think I'd be a shame to leave the impression that the oni as a race are only full of hot air, figuratively and literally."
[x] You'll let her go, if she allows herself to be eliminated. Otherwise, no deal.

[x] "Say Reimu. Does Suika have any particular likes?"
[x] Upon hearing sake: ask a team member to get some and bribe the info out of her. Tempt her as necessary.
[X] As an added bonus, she needs to be solid to drink it. Hit her with snowballs while she's solid.

Hm. We seem to get worked up a bit easily.

Curiousity : When you stated that this part is getting close to a resolution, would it be through say, being completely overwhelmed on all sides, time-skip to the end, or do we get a heroic out (and presumably, a time-skip?)?

>>74867

Consider the situation and it's factors. which result seems the most likely to occur and the easiest to fulfill?

Answer: You can get tagged out very soon, at which point I'll autocomplete the rest of the battle and skip right to the aftermath.

[x] "So you're saying we're going to lose, then? You better have some damn good evidence for believing that. I think I'd be a shame to leave the impression that the oni as a race are only full of hot air, figuratively and literally."
[x] "Or if you'd rather stay silent, we can play tennis to pass the time. My sword and Aya's fan will be the rackets; you can be the ball."
[x] If she caves and gives you information, you can swear on your karmic record that you'll let her go, if she allows herself to be eliminated. Otherwise, no deal.

You feel a slight twitch at Suika's words. She said you're going to lose? That's funny...

“So, you're saying we're going to lose, eh? You better have some evidence to back that up. I'd hate to think that you'd disgrace the Oni name by being a,” you pause, for dramatic effect, leaning clsoer to the cube. “Liar.”

The cube rocks violently, causing you to recoil a bit. The gathered mists congeal into a small Suika, standing within the magical prison cube and looking quite agitated. A few of your teammates gather at the door and pour over outside the base.

“An Oni would never lie!” she shouts, though not quite impressively given her rather diminutive size. “Telling you would be a bad thing though,” she amends, crossing her arms. “I don't have to tell you anything!”

“Well, if you'd like to stay silent,” you say, waving your sword around. “I guess we could pass the time with a game of tennis. My sword and Aya's fan as the rackets. Hmm,” you hum, tapping the cube with the edge of the blade. It bobs a bit under the contact. “I don't remember tennis balls being so square though.”

Seems like she's a bit upset at the idea, and the slight jostle she's received. You give the cube another tap, and it sinks from the air considerably, causing Suika to squeal a little as the floor drops from beneath her feet. She bounces off the ceiling of the cube and hits the floor again as it bounces back up to position. That looks like it would kind of hurt, actually, though you don't know exactly what slamming against walls of magical barriers feels like.

“Ow~” Suika whines, picking herself up off the 'floor' of the cube. You tap the cube again, and this time take a step back, winding back your arm in preparation to 'serve' the cube. Aya looks a little surprised, but appears to be getting ready to intercept.

“Game star-”

“Wait!” Suika shouts, diving to the floor of the cube. You hold your arm back, watching as Suika picks herself up again, apparently having been of the belief you wouldn't have stopped. “It's true that you'll lose. Yukari has it all planned out.”

“And what kind of plan is that?” you ask, crouching in front of the cube. Suika hesitates for a moment, but gives in.

“She's had a number of locations prepared to draw attention by being suspicious, and uses them to either co-ordinate ambushes, or simply to keep the enemies that find one occupied trying to figure out it's importance while a they attack another part of the team somewhere else in the garden,” Suika explains, slumping to a sitting position. “Except, that didn't play out too well because you were all hiding instead of looking for her. I was sent out to try to stir up some trouble to catch your attention, when I saw part of your team attack Sakuya. I took the opportunity to follow them back here...” Suika stops, looking around at the container that holds her.

“You sound like you have more to say,” you state, nudging the box and causing Suika to roll back. She rights herself again and gives you a very tiny angry glare.

“And since I found your base, I decided to attack a little, while sending another part of myself back to Yukari to tell her where you were. I ended up getting partly trapped here and interrogated, and once I told that to Yukari,” Suika's expression changes drastically now, taking on an air of confidence. “She told me to explain her now defunct plan and recent events to waste your time while she slips in through a hole she'd make in the back of your base and take off with your flag.”

…

“Damn it!” Reimu shouts, pushing through the confused crowd that had gathered. “She's right! Damn that Yukari!”

You look up from the cube at Reimu's shouting, and the rest of the team bursts to life as well, taking to the air and scattering around the base area, trying to catch a sight of anyone. Suika only laughs from inside the cube. You respond by giving it a smack with your sword, and her laughter quickly changes from a laugh to a shriek as she's bounced around inside the small prison. Reimu swings back around to you from inside the base.

“It's really gone,” she says, looking around. “Where'd Meiling get off to? Wasn't it her job to guard the flag?”

“Hey, can you let me out now?” Suika whines, sitting on the floor of the cube. “I don't want to just sit in here the rest of the game.”

“Only if you agree to be tagged out,” you say. Suika considers the option for a little while.

“Alright, I guess. I've already been enough help to my team,” she says. You turn to Reimu, and she sighs and does... something, and the cube vanishes. The miniature Suika falls a short distance, then pops back to her normal size, at which point she raises her arms in surrender.

“Okay, tag me out,” she says. A few nearby team members duck into the fort and return with a few snowballs, which they eagerly pelt her with, all while she simply smiles. Once the hail of snow ceases, she brushes the loose snow from her shirt and gives you a quick salute. “Good playing with you! See you back at the mansion!” With that, she takes flight and heads off.

Now, Yukari knows the location of your base and has made off with your flag. You have no idea where to start looking, or even how to go about searching for her. For all you know, she could be back at her base already, and you're one capture down. You're going to need to get a handle on this game if you want to win now. With you on your last hit, and potentially on the doorstep of a capture loss, you need to make a decision.

[] Yukari has to be in the East. Locate her base and stage an all out assault. If you're going to do down, you're going down fighting.
[] Yukari knows where you are now, and has likely set traps for your pursuit. Strengthen your defenses and force Yukari into sieging you.

Hm. Holding out on a siege against someone that gaps around... not the best of ideas, I think.

[x] Warn everybody that we're going to have company.
[x] Yukari has to be in the East. Locate her base and stage an all out assault. If you're going to do down, you're going down fighting.
[x] Have Patchy deliver you to the Eastern Spot by snow-airmail beforehand though. (>>74202) Hopefully, you can take more down or create a diversion and by leaving your badge on transmit to send back data even if you're tagged out.

Said idea still needs a part 3 (3 hits on an enemy) to really make it complete, but there's multiple ways of doing that anyway.

>>74929
Which begs the question why the game hasn't ended yet. In a usual game of capture the flag, a point (or win) is scored by one team stealing the other team's flag and taking it back to their own base. If Yukari gapped in, the flag should already be at her base.
Or did I forget something in the rules?

>>[] Yukari has to be in the East. Locate her base and stage an all out assault. If you're going to do down, you're going down fighting.
Of course, we just stated we don't know where her base is.
>>[] Yukari knows where you are now, and has likely set traps for your pursuit. Strengthen your defenses and force Yukari [to besiege] you.
Pursuit? to where? through a gap?

>>74931

IIRC, it's two times capture, or get the entire other team out.

>Where'd Meiling get off to? Wasn't it her job to guard the flag?”

My guess is that Remilia gave her an order as her employer to betray us, and if that's the case I can't really blame her for choosing her job over a game. I wouldn't put it past Remilia to do this, as Sakuya getting taken out was probably a huge blow to her pride.

Yukari couldn't have gapped into the base herself, as Reimu's wards should have prevented this. Next round, we'll put an alarm signal on the flag, so we know where it is and if someone comes near it.

Going into an all-out attack is probably suicidal, with the way Yukari seems to be keen on goading us. If Meiling was a defector, then they won't be able to take it from us this time so easily.

[x] Yukari knows where you are now, and has likely set traps for your pursuit. Strengthen your defenses and force Yukari into sieging you.
[x] Ask Yuyuko to go call a time-out, you're down a point, so you need your flag back to continue. Tell her to ask Yukari if her team needs a rest before recommencing the game.
[x] Put an alarm amulet on the flag when it's returned to you, set to go off if anyone comes within a few feet of it.
[x] Ask Reimu what the maximum distance from the flag that her sealing can prevent borders; we need to know how much time we'll have to bring the enemy down if the flag goes missing again.

Yuyuko can turn incorporeal and use the spirits to communicate through Hakugyokurou and declare the time-out without any danger of being targeted. She's the one person Yukari that is unlikely to ambush or capture. Furthermore, this will show Yukari that she can't force us into acting recklessly by playing dirty.

More importantly, if Yukari decides to take a break, we'll have some opportunity to get some real character development going during in the interim, see how everybody is holding up on both sides, engage in pre-fight banter, drink some tea, etc.

[X]Ask Youmu to send Myon search for Meiling in immaterial form. Yuyuko can use the ghosts of Hakugyokuro too.
[X] Where is Alice? Maybe she can use her dolls to search Meiling too. That and she needs to get back ASAP.
[X] Those who have not returned yet should keep an eye for Meiling or anyone who may have the flag.
[X] Discuss with Yuyuko and Patchouli about what Eirin did to you. Maybe there is a way to null it?

[x] Yukari knows where you are now, and has likely set traps for your pursuit. Strengthen your defenses and force Yukari into sieging you.
[x] Ask Yuyuko to go call a time-out, you're down a point, so you need your flag back to continue. Tell her to ask Yukari if her team needs a rest before recommencing the game.
[x] Put an alarm amulet on the flag when it's returned to you, set to go off if anyone comes within a few feet of it.
[x] Ask Reimu what the maximum distance from the flag that her sealing can prevent borders; we need to know how much time we'll have to bring the enemy down if the flag goes missing again.

If Meiling took the flag, there may still be time to find and catch her before she reaches the enemy's base. The problem is, we can't risk getting hit anymore, most of the team has been hit at least once.

>If Meiling took the flag, there may still be time to find and catch her before she reaches the enemy's base.

It's unlikely. Since Yukari planned this herself, she would have gapped her out the instant she cleared the necessary distance from Reimu's barrier.

This is far too late, but...

I fail to see how totally turtling up would help. Is charging in as a counterattack a predictable action? Sure. But what makes you think that withdrawing inwards isn't also a predictable action, if not more so? At the moment, the other team shouldn't have any idea that we know where they are, while they do know that we know that they know where we are. Even more, given our abilities on paper, the fastest they would have to worry about is Aya (We don't have gappers or teleporters on our team.) - so they're going to be expecting some amount of warning before any attack we make. (Why spend alot more attention and resources trying to defend against abilities the enemy shouldn't have in the first place? The worst we can do that they know of is to bombard them from afar, and for all they know they just have to dodge and ignore afterwards.)

On the flip side, there's nothing stopping Yukari's team from gathering all the data they could before attack our base. (Why, are they going to decide to do a full frontal attack for no reason?) There's Yukari who can place observers like Momizi whereever she likes, and after studying our fixed position for however long as needed (there's no reason for them to hurry if there's no counter-pressure on them, and after they get the observation set up it would be nearly impossible to get our own teams out of our base without them noticing), attacks us by placing her attackers in exactly the right spot.

[x] Yukari knows where you are now, and has likely set traps for your pursuit. Strengthen your defenses and force Yukari into sieging you.
[x] Ask Yuyuko to go call a time-out, you're down a point, so you need your flag back to continue. Tell her to ask Yukari if her team needs a rest before recommencing the game.
[x] Put an alarm amulet on the flag when it's returned to you, set to go off if anyone comes within a few feet of it.
[x] Ask Reimu what the maximum distance from the flag that her sealing can prevent borders; we need to know how much time we'll have to bring the enemy down if the flag goes missing again.

Yukari has to be in the east, but now that she knows where you are, you don't feel you can risk an all out attack. She'd be prepared for that, not least of all would the rest of her team be ready for an attack as well. You decide that you need to strengthen your defenses and draw Yukari out. If you can get her to siege you, you could have the upper hand with your fortifications, plus any other defenses you can set up. First though...

“Yuyuko,” you call, searching the area for the ghost. She floats into sight and bobs in the air above you. “Go call a time out with Yukari. If she's captured our flag already, we're going to need it back.”

“Okay~” Yuyuko says, floating away.

“Also,” you add, causing Yuyuko to stop. “Ask her if her team wouldn't mind a short break.”

“Sure thing!” she calls, returning to her ascent. A few moments later, and a number of floating orbs appear everywhere, fading in from nothing. Yuyuko's voice echoes through them. “Yukari, we need our flag back if you're done with it already, and we'll be taking a 15 minute break afterwards.” Afterwards, Yuyuko floats back down. “She should have heard that,” she says, smiling.

A few seconds later, and you hear someone behind you call out. You turn to see a large black hole opening a few feet above the ground, and Yukari steps through, carrying your flag. Not just Yukari either, as the hole grows larger, more of Yukari's team steps through from the blackness within, until the entire team is in your base.

“If we're taking a break, we might as well use it to be friendly, don't you think?” Yukari asks, hoisting your flag towards you. “You might also want this back,” she continues, someone from Yukari's crowd nudging Meiling out of the group. She has a few wet spots on her clothes. “I didn't get away totally unnoticed. Your guard here managed to follow me, and did a pretty good job chasing me as well. She even managed to hit me, though I paid her back for that.”

“Still in the game though,” Meiling adds. “At least for another hit.”

You step forward and reclaim your flag, the entire time Yukari's grinning at you.

“So, let's take our break,” she says, and her team spreads through the area, as does yours, meeting up with their friends on the other team. You're going to take this time to prepare a little bit first, with Reimu's help. Finding her doesn't take too long.

“Reimu, I'd like to ask you something,” you say as you approach her, taking her attention away from Alice and Marisa.

“What's that?”

“I need your help with some defenses,” you state. “Some kind of way to 'lock down' the space around our flag so that it can't just be gapped through. Can you do something like that?” Reimu frowns a bit, crossing her arms.

“Well, it's not like I can't, but...” she trails off, looking around the area. “This space alone would take me a while to prepare for. It's not just an instant thing. I'd need time to set it up, and it would take longer than the free time we have right now.”

“What about a smaller area, like just around the base itself?”

“Still a few minutes,” she replies. “I'd need to start now if it's to be done before we get back to playing, and frankly I want to enjoy the time to relax a little.”

“So long as you can do it I don't really mind,” you say. “I'm going to go replace the flag now and relax a little myself.”

“Alright,” Reimu says, then turns back to the other two. You head off to do what you had said, though along the way you think of a new defensive trick. Once inside the base again, you take the flag back to where it had been left originally and replace it, then prepare the same alarm spell you had used to create the perimeter alarm. It only takes a few seconds to incant the spell, and the flag glows briefly once it's done. Now then, there's some time to kill, and everyone is on hand right now. If there's anyone you wanted to talk to, now would be the ideal time.

---

Interactions~

>You might also want this back,” she continues, someone from Yukari's crowd nudging Meiling out of the group. She has a few wet spots on her clothes. “I didn't get away totally unnoticed. Your guard here managed to follow me, and did a pretty good job chasing me as well. She even managed to hit me, though I paid her back for that.”

On one hand, so full of shit. On the other, still full of shit but just wants us to doubt our alliances. Still, the higher road is to maintain that it's just a game.

[x] Talk to Meiling. It was a good thing you picked her as flag-guard if you were able to get a hit on Yukari for it; you'll be counting on her in the second half.
[x] Mingle. Make yourself available to those who may want to talk to you. The inclement weather is a good conversation topic.
[x] Make sure those who your team has struck out knows there's no hard feelings.
[x] Since you made your base available to both teams, ask Yukari if she'll show you her own base.

You're asking Yukari this not so because of any actual advantage, but because it's an excuse to get her alone, and with a time-limit in place in case the atmosphere turns less than friendly.

One of the justifications for this get-together was to rule out the usual suspects in the cause of the odd weather, so we'd do well to mention it. In the off-chance we actually learn something, we can tell Reimu so that she won't start pointed in our direction when the shit does hit the fan.

[x] Thank Meiling - maybe she could've called for help (After all, none of us are fighting alone), but she chased after the flag and got a hit on Yukari - no small feat. Also, take responsibilty for the loss of the flag - you are after all, the Commander and allowed your temper to take over where you should have been reorganizing your own forces.
[x] Something something something. Consult with intel? See if Patchy can set up the snow bombardment/traps? I'll vote for just about anything that sounds good.
[x] Before the break ends, make a dramatic speech. Make sure Merlin plays in the background. Morale is important, and goal of the game isn't to capture some silly flags, but it is to impress girls.

I wonder why I don't get as many votes as I used to.

>>75723

I'm not sure whether this is sarcastic or not, but if it isn't I'd say the reason was the Snowball fight arc. Thinking up good plans for it is hard based on the abilities of our opponents.

I also think that is the case, being the one here that's making what seems to be the majority of the ideas, alot of them even I consider to be a bit... wierd. (Trying to get around some of the limitations of our ability/toolset.) Personally, I'd perfer just leaving them out as possibilities, but it would just make things go slower. The suggestion to switch to multiple viewpoints was one of the ways I sorta hoped to be able to 'cheat' around this idea/vote-paralyzation.

That being said, this is a break in the game - a social event. Doing leader things should only take a short bit of the vote.

[x] Some combination of >>75679 and >>75683

>>75724
Yeah, this. I miss our Quantum Leap-ing days.
Maybe we should have made this snowball fight a bit smaller in scale.

Oh well!

>>75724
>>75735

Well, I think that it would be good for you to know that you're very close to a resolution. It also occurs to me as well that I could wrap it up now in (hopefully) a grand wall rather than have to go through several more choices that may (or may not) prolong the game even more and bring a potentially better end result.

So:
[] Proceed as normal
[] Wrap-up end

[x] Proceed as normal

>potentially better end result.

Being seen as someone worth a second glance by the competition sounds good.

[] Proceed as normal.

NEVER (GUNNA) GIVE (YOU) UP!

[] Proceed as normal.

We dug this grave, with a lot of love, and now we'll rest in it.

Hmmm... I don't mind either way, although I think the question is more a matter of :

Are you a masochist?

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

>>75683 here. Might as well combine >>75679 as well - with the possible exception of the last part, simply asking for the base to be shown. In it's stead, I suggest :

[x] Ask Yukari if we can talk to Marisa alone.

The fact we're using Kusanagi has already spread out throughout our own team, and there's no way it would be kept secret after the game is done. At the vert least, there's still a chance we can at least inform her ourselves before the news gets to Marisa from other channels. (Although with Suika's diversion and report, she might know anyway.) It won't be a pleasant conversation, but if it's to be done, now's the time.

In addition to that, we should be able to ask Marisa a question. Why didn't she just summon the sword back when she found out it was missing? (Out of character, it's likely that we're linked by blood to it - and furthermore from that, I suspect that Yukari probably had the power to stop our death, but didn't. However, I don't see any reason for the character to suspect that at the moment.)

[x] Proceed as normal
[x] Wrap-up end

I'M HELPING

>>75753
>It won't be a pleasant conversation, but if it's to be done, now's the time.

Actually, I don't foresee many difficulties.

Marisa: "Hey, how did you get this sword?"
Nobody: "I fucking stole it, man!"

To which Marisa cannot reply because she stole it in first place.

>>75808
This sounds like such a Mitch Hedberg moment.

>>75808
Meta-knowledge-speaking: Marisa will just say "I borrowed that sword first. You're already dead so you can have it back when I die."

>>75810

We may as well go full bore and do the in-game battle dialogue:

Nobody: "Oh? Over your dead body? Well, it's your funeral!"
Marisa: <sweatdrop> "That's not exactly what I meant..."

Danmaku ensues, followed by tea.

EZMod, with the way things have been progressing, I'd like to suggest you to try to embellish the votes as much as possible so as to take the story in an interesting manner. As has been mentioned, write-in only is difficult, especially due to the complexity of the required planning, and by its very nature is difficult to reach obvious consensus. I think it would be best for this character interaction part (which is really the true core of the story) that you take all the necessary creative liberties you need.

Nobody has a fairly well developed personality by now, so I suggest you just take that and run with it. That's the stuff we're really interested in, and that's why we wanted the snowball fight to begin with--to meet the Touhous.

If you don't feel you could to write all the dialogue because it would be putting "words in our mouth" then I suggest microupdates for each encountered Touhou.

tl;dr: write moar plz

>>76049

I already have some stuff planned that you're going to have thrust upon you, mostly because of how things are turning out and because I don't want some of the ideas I had for scenes go to waste.

The problem right now though is that for the first time since I've started writing, I'm struggling trying to find a way to word the update and it's dragged me to a halt, along with meatspace obligations rising.

That and the fact I can't type for shit right now. 13 typos made and corrected since I started writing (now 14) this post alone.

Hmmm... I had some ideas for how a speech would go. Mind, it was mostly strings of oxymorons and really weird-ass jokes. (Such as even though their snowballs will blot out the sun we like the shade, constant referring to everybody as 'men' despite you being the only male, talking about 'avenging her death', etc etc.)

The only thing I'm going with is congratulating Meiling, since it's the only constant between the two whole votes I got, and I was going to kind of mix in elements of the other parts of the votes, but that's where I'm stuck. What I have so far feels off.

>>76059

Well since the tone of the snowball match has been different from the rest of the story, this part should sound off in comparison, shouldn't it?

>>76063

I mean it feels artificial, like it's being said just to be said.

I think I'll try rewriting it from scratch again and change the lead up a bit to see if that helps me.

[x] Thank Meiling. Commend her for doing her job and getting a hit on Yukari.

With that task done, you think back to Meiling. She chased after Yukari to fulfill her role and managed to get a hit on her at the same time, no small feat, you're sure. It doesn't take too long for you to find the red-headed guard, being one of the taller girls in the crowd. She's talking to Flandre as you approach her, and notices you once you get close.

“Oh, hello,” she says.

“I just wanted to say that you've done a good job defending the flag so far, even if it did get taken, you pursued Yukari of all people,” you say, causing her to look down at her feet in what strikes you as embarrassment. “You even managed to hit her too, something that's personally impressed me.”

“Just doing my duty,” she says, lifting her head. “It's what I was assigned to do, after all,” she adds.

“You're doing it well, though. We're going to have to be on alert after this, so I'm counting on you to keep up the good work,” you say. Meiling smiles and salutes.

“Of course! Wouldn't want to disappoint! No one gets past me and gets away!” Meiling says cheerily.

“Huh? Then why's Sakuya always mad with you?” Flandre asks, causing Meiling to turn a faint red as she looks away.

“Haha, Flan, that's different,” she says embarrassedly. “I mean, I take this a lot more seriously.” Afterwards there's an awkward silence for a few oments as Meiling realizes what she's just said. “W-what I mean though is that this is more important. Right now, that is. It's a competition, so I have to be at my absolute peak, right! I guard the flag like I guard the gate!”

“People are always getting into the house anyway though,” Flandre adds, once more seeming to crush Meiling slightly.

“If Remilia didn't really want them there though, they wouldn't be in the house, would they?” Meiling says.

“Guess not, she'd have Sakuya throw them out probably,” Flandre reasons.

“Right! See!” Meiling cuts in. “Doing my job!”

“About as well as normal,” a voice interjects. Remilia approaches the three of you from the air. “Anyone that wanted to get away from you still could though, so you're not really that imposing as a guard.”

“Ah, R- Lady Remilia, I didn't see you there,” Meiling stammers, noticeably correcting herself.

“You're right, at least. If I really wanted my visitors to leave, I would have them taken away by Sakuya or remove them myself, since you seem to be little more than a convenient lawn decoration,” Remilia says to Meiling. Meiling simply smiles and rubs her head.

“That's flattering, Lady Remilia,” Meiling says, sounding a little too sincere. Remilia smirks and turns away, looking at Flandre, then to you.

“Are you enjoying the company of my household? They're a fine lot, aren't they? A weak guard, a disobedient little sister and a sickly magician, quite a group. It's kind of refreshing to be fighting against you all though, reaffirm my status and position as head of the household,” Remilia says, casting a glance at Flandre towards the end. “I just hope you don't get taken out before I get a chance to attack you. Too bad you...” Remilia trails off, furrowing her brow for a moment. “Hmm, there's something wrong with you... I can't see it.”

“I'd think the problem is more with you,” you say. She must have been trying to use her power. “Whatever it is you're not seeing. Could it be because you're too weak to change my fate?” Remilia reacts noticeably to that, her face scrunching up for a second.

“Oh ho ho, you've got quite a smart mouth, haven't you? Shame you're already dead. I'm going to have to just take pleasure in defeating you,” Remilia practically snarls before turning and flying off.

“You know, if you keep antagonizing Remilia like that, she's seriously going to attack you,” Meiling says, sounding a little worried. You simply shrug.

“She can try whatever she wants, I don't have anything to be afraid of. I can't die again. If I get roughed up a little, I'll be better prepared for the next time,” you state.

“You're pretty brave then,” Meiling says. “I know she just looks like a girl, but she's really strong. She's hard to fight hand-to-hand, and she's got strong danmaku skills too.”

“I could probably hijack her body if I really wanted to, actually,” you say, remembering the recent bodyjackings you've found yourself in. Meiling blinks in surprise.

“You can do that?” she asks. You nod as a response.

“I haven't actually tried to take over someone's body, so I don't know how it would work, but I should be able to. Theoretically.”

“Can you do it to anyone?” she continues her line of questioning.

“Probably. Probably not really powerful people, though,” you say. You're not entirely sure how it works, the random body possession. You're not really sure if you could succeed in taking over someone either, since you have no idea how to do it manually, it's always been automatic.

“I bet Meiling would probably like you to be inside her sometime,” Flandre says absently, causing the green-clad guard to rapidly turn red.

“F-Flan! Don't say things like that!” Meiling says desperately. “If someone heard that they could take it way wrong!”

“What'd I say!?” Flan whines, sounding genuinely confused. Meiling looks at you, which doesn't help her embarrassment much, though she forces a smile.

“Don't worry Meiling, I know it was just an innocent misunderstanding,” you say, and Meiling nods to reply. “Besides, I'm sure you'd say so yourself if you wanted it,” you add with a grin, and Meiling freezes up for a moment.

“Hey! You're doing that on purpose now!” she whines, taking a swing to hit you in the shoulder. You can't help but chuckle at her reaction, and she joins in a little afterwards. “Don't tease me, or you'll regret it!” Meiling states playfully, still red in the face.

“I'm sorry, Meiling, it was just too good to pass up,” you reply.

“I'll let you off this time then,” she says with a grin. “Oh, I wanted to ask Patchouli something and I nearly forgot. I should go now while there's still time,” Meiling says, then floats into the air. “I'm off now,” she says, then departs.

“I'm going to go talk to Mokou, she seems like a nice lady,” Flandre says before flying off on her own as well. Now, you've a few minutes before the game begins again, so if there was anyone you wanted to talk to, you need to get moving.

---

[x] Go relax with Reimu.

Hell, since I can't remember if we needed to talk to someone else we might as well get some Reimu points in.



I'd like to get into Meiling too.

[x] Ask Yuka why she keeps staring at you.

Danger factor be damned, that is weird.

still on namek.

>“I'm going to go talk to Mokou, she seems like a nice lady,” Flandre says before flying off on her own
Oh, this will end well.

>>76551

You will be on Namek forever unless I get more votes. If I had more than 2-3 votes over 3 days, I would update more than once a week or so.

>>76553

[x] Ask Yuka why she keeps staring at you.

Doesn't afraid of anything.

>>76555
Alright then.

[x] Ask Yuka why she keeps staring at you.

[x] Ask Yuka why she keeps staring at you.

[x] Ask Yuka why she keeps staring at you.

[x] Ask Yuka why she keeps staring at you.

Now that you have some time, you stop to think about Yuka. More importantly, why she always seems to be watching you so intently. It's beginning to wear on your nerves a little bit, though you're not entirely sure why you put off asking her about it. In any case, you're going to solve that right now, and set out to look for her. It doesn't take you more than a minute to find her, sitting on a rock next to Medicine, who seems to be talking excitedly about something. Yuka sees you approaching, and when she does, that same strange grin comes to her face. Medicine stops talking and looks up at you as well, though she just looks irritated that you're interrupting.

“Yuka, I've been meaning to ask you,” you begin, clearing your throat. You're starting to feel this might have been a bad idea. “Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Are you unsettled?” she asks plainly.

“Uh, a little, yes,” you admit. “It's a little strange.”

“You would believe so,” Yuka says, reclining a bit on the rock. “So would others, those that have become weak.”

“Become weak?” you ask, not sure where she's going with this.

“In my head, I see you as a frail human, fortunately a dead one. Fortunate for you, that is, because then I only have the satisfaction of imagining how I would kill and eat you otherwise,” she states flatly. “I'm not like these other 'youkai' here, these human-like weaklings that deny their instincts and pleasures for the sake of your feeble race of intelligent snacks. It's only because there are so many of them that I can't act out of turn and do what I please. Youkai are meant to eat humans, not sit around a table drinking tea. If I could act unopposed, like a true youkai, I would give that annoying shrine maiden and witch what they have coming.”

“You're so strong though, Yuka, you could tear everyone up if they tried to stop you!” Medicine whines, apparently siding with Yuka's point of view. Yuka simply chuckles and ruffles the girl's hair.

“There's no fun in rushing a slaughter, young Medicine. There are still some strong youkai left on the fringes that would get in my way, not to mention the sheer number of opponents I would have if I did attack would overwhelm even me,” she says, which seems to upset Medicine a bit, but she doesn't say anything more. Yuka looks back up at you. “Are you satisfied now?”

“Kind of, though now I have a whole new set of issues,” you say. “Why are you so intent on killing humans?”

“Why are you humans so intent on surviving?” Yuka retorts. “You are nothing. You have no power to change your world, so instead you change it by force and destroy it. You have no power in nature, so instead you try to tame and control it. You have no power in the Heavens, so instead you look to symbols and icons in futile hope of being something more. Being a youkai of flowers, I have a particular problem with human presence. Their worthless hands plucking and tearing innocent flowers from the land without care, but if you start tearing and plucking humans, you're a monster and you should be destroyed,” Yuka breaks, chuckling slightly. “Truly contradictory. If only they could hear the voices of flowers, they would know that they hate humans just as much.”

You don't really know what to say to that. You're not sure there really is anything you could say. She could have a point, something you couldn't prove easily. Not alone, at least.

“If you think so poorly of humans and other youkai, why'd you come here then?” you ask, now wondering if she has ulterior motives. Yuka sits forward again, crossing her legs at the ankle.

“Even I like a little distraction every now and then. Medicine wanted me to go, and so I came for her sake,” Yuka says, looking at the blonde haired girl. Medicine seems rather pleased by that response too. “She overheard about this from those rabbits in the bamboo forest, she's been rather close to them lately.”

“They're nice people, not humans either,” Medicine pipes up suddenly. “They give me treats when I visit and Eirin spends a lot of time talking to me about anything! She asks me a lot about how I feel though, it's kind of strange.”

“Well, I guess I got all I wanted to know,” you say, taking a step back. “I'm going to let you two get back to whatever you were talking about before.”

“Good bye, 'commander',” Yuka says, emphasizing commander with a slightly sarcastic tone. Medicine goes right back to her chattering after that, leaving you to break away and head off. There's still some time left, so you can stop to talk to one more person at least before the game starts again.

---

Even though I know there are a number of people unsatisfied with the snow fiasco, please keep up with votes, if only to hurry and get back to the good ol' problem solving antics everyone loves.

[x] Go relax with Reimu.

Huh. I guess that's Yuuka for you.

[x] Go relax with Reimu.

>and Eirin spends a lot of time talking to me about anything! She asks me a lot about how I feel though, it's kind of strange.”
Oho. Getting some field experience for that project, huh, Eirin?

[X]Consult Patchouli and Yuyuko about your inability to tunr imaterial. Maybe they can help?
[X]Go relax with Reimu.

Patcouli may have some anti-spell thing that can dispell whatever Eirin threw at us, and Yuyuko because she is the mothernfucking princess of ghosts.

>>76601
>tunr imaterial
>Patcouli
>mothernfucking
wat

>“In my head, I see you as a frail human, fortunately a dead one. Fortunate for you, that is, because then I only have the satisfaction of imagining how I would kill and eat you otherwise,” she states flatly. “I'm not like these other 'youkai' here, these human-like weaklings that deny their instincts and pleasures for the sake of your feeble race of intelligent snacks. It's only because there are so many of them that I can't act out of turn and do what I please. Youkai are meant to eat humans, not sit around a table drinking tea. If I could act unopposed, like a true youkai, I would give that annoying shrine maiden and witch what they have coming.”

Next possession target: Locked.


>There's still some time left, so you can stop to talk to one more person at least before the game starts again.

[x] Go relax with Reimu.

[x] Consult Patchouli and Yuyuko about your inability to turn immaterial. Maybe they can help?

[X] Consult Patchouli and Yuyuko about your inability to turn immaterial. Maybe they can help?
[X] Go relax with Reimu.

>>76612

Well, shit. You don't notice mistakes like that when you're typing. Or drinking.