[x] What if this is all just a wave function and it's actually explainable if we just investigate it further?

science

[x] If the rune is so smart, then does it know the answers to the test?

A hallucination makes for good company and better procrastination.

[X]What if this is all just a wave function and it's actually explainable if we just investigate it further?

[x] What if this is all just a wave function and it's actually explainable if we just investigate it further?

>>63409

Might I suggest not using an email? Type "sage" to not bump, or put witty commentary. Although, it's typically left blank when not saging.

[x]What if this is all just a wave function and it's actually explainable if we just investigate it further?

This seems interesting, lets science the fuck out of whatever comes along.

[x]What if this is all just a wave function and it's actually explainable if we just investigate it further?

New blood is always welcome, and this is a good start.

So what exactly did our character sacrifice to get here?

[x]What if this is all just a wave function and it's actually explainable if we just investigate it further?

Sure

[x]If we move the chair and do zen meditation on the thing does it make it faster?

Seems like there's more effort put into this than many first stories we see. Keep going, full speed, chop-chop, etc.

>>63416 I'm gonna let the story bring that out.

[Ψ]What if this is all just a wave function and it's actually explainable if we just investigate it further?

Assuming that what is underneath your seat right now is real, sitting on it probably constitutes consent to opening a mystical bridge between Klingon land and you. Plus, even if it isn't real, your hallucinations are always weird enough to warrant an investigation. Sitting on this will likely lead to bad news bears, and investigating it might make for a fun story for the kids when you volunteer at the hospital downtown. Ergo, you should probably look at it more closely, and slightly away from where it shines.

You slither off the chair onto the carpet. Someone needs to vacuum this, and it's probably going to be your roommate, not you. As you get on your knees, the array visibly reacts to your repositioning. It grows dauntingly, and then almost comedically it shrinks back down, this time changing the letters. You strain your neck to view the new wording as you vantage gets smaller, forcing you to crawl closer.

Conjure familiar
This is my condition
To enter my milieu
I must give an action

You stare at it blankly. So it's consensual slavery, good thing you moved out of the way. You wonder if there's reasonably a way for you to throw the thing for a loop. Do other things go into the portal? You write down a copy of a math problem and a chemistry problem and place them both on the portal. If this one is so wise, you should have this work returned in perfect completion.

A flash of light envelops the room. A crack of light so to speak, and then the papers are gone. The array is much dimmer too, as if the powering it was limited. It even seems to putter, with little moments of even softer light, as if the array itself was gurgling or coughing.

You wait there on the floor for around ten minutes. Another crack of light occurs where the last one was. The papers have new markings on them. You tentatively pick them up.

The first thing you notice is the smell. Heavy ink has been on your paper, and it bleeds through. The second thing you notice is that you can't read the more literate parts of the notes. They shift from what appears to be Japanese to Chinese and then to French. Really, none of it makes sense. Well, nothing in the chemistry section. In fact, the paper seems completely filled, but no final answer was given, as the directions clearly stated it needed only to mark the structure by naming each atom's hybridization and resonance structures. You inspect this more closely.

It's like a downward spiral into annoyance and embarrassment. There is no indication that whoever wrote this actually understood how chemistry works on a deeper level. They hardly seem to comprehend what the C's and H's are, and have drawn diagrams trying to explain what they're supposed to be. While they're right that they're building blocks of matter, they also have drawn them out exactly like building blocks. Their idea of hybridization is to meld the two blocks together. At the bottom of the page each note is scrawled haphazardly, ink appearing in places without reason, probably thrown on there.

So eldritch abominations need tutoring, that's reassuring. You glance at the math problem. It's done for a change. While the thing seemed to have trouble solving the problem, they understood what space was, at least. You see a Cartesian plane laboriously expanded to the third dimension to draw the lines required to draw the quartic section. The array has new words now. You put the paper down and look.

Your riddles I admire
Please, give your conditions
Whatever you desire
To gain this logician

To serve with the magician-kind
And the most clever of this time

Are you supposed to name the conditions by speaking them? Do you have to write them down on a paper. You rise to your desk and rip another paper out of your notebook. The one used by the entity is bleeding ink. Prioritizing disposal, you tiptoe to the trashcan to throw this paper away. As you return the array waits patiently for an answer. No, you need more analyzing time. You grab a pen and place it on the array.

The array does not move, it seems to ponder the object, weighing it, feeling it, touching it. It's a flat array, so it shouldn't be feeling anything but the backside, but explaining hallucinations or the things that go bump in the night never really works out the way it should. This logic helps soften the shock of your pen disappearing and returning to you in all of it's pieces in the span of two minutes, ready to be put back together. The words stay the same.

You wish you had a spectrometer, what if some chemical substance gave this thing fluorescence? You could analyze the concentration with respect to time and realize if a super poison was waiting for you. You put one of parts to your pen, and it smells faintly of every hard herb imaginable. Your sister used to love these herbs, she was always into paganism and the like, and littered your room with 'healing stones' and 'protection sigils', an interesting contrast to you, the overworking no-nonsense type. You couldn't really ever dislike what she did though, as it came from a place of love, so you learned how each herb smelled. Faint traces of patchouli, the love herb, and myrrhe, a magical amplifier show themselves as you waft the scent of the pen. At least that's what she said, and she was apparently good at this stuff. It reminds you of memories that you never got enough of, memories which perhaps you can't get back. It's almost nostalgic.

The array also smells like patchouli, along with hints of belladonna, myrrhe, yarrow and thyme. It's almost nauseating to have so many scents in one area. Is whatever lies on the other side like this? How does the person even breathe?

You touch the array, your finger faintly scraping the edge. It rubs off on your finger, a fine powder colored a pale magenta hue. It flows like silk through your fingers, and smells strongly of deep forest herbs. The array reacts to your touch, as it spins rapidly to add more of the powder where you cut it off.

Tallying your newfound knowledge of the array, you know that it transports things, has the same smell your sister always had, and can't understand organic chemistry. It struggles with harder math concepts, and wants you to join it as a servant. Overall, you gather that it is a polite, if demanding, eldritch horror.

Your introspective moment is cut off by the flash of the array. A paper is on it, and it has a single line of English. The paper is more like parchment, the sepia tone a contrast to your almost see through notebook paper.

Name your conditions, clever one.

The array's force is gravitational and magnetic. It pulls you towards the sigil until you are standing over it, the paper in your hand ready for a response. It seems your summoner doesn't care for waiting much longer.

[x] Write in: [Name your conditions]

Some suggestions:
[x] I want to finish my education, let me complete my coursework and exams with newfound knowledge
[x] I want to be a scientific genius, let me have my own state of the art laboratory to hone my knowledge without books
[x] I want to be the best doctor, give me the skills and opportunities to test them

Feel free to go wild though, he is really tired.

[x] I want to be the best doctor, give me the skills and opportunities to test them.
-[X] And the best damn coffee there is.

[x] I want to be the best doctor, give me the skills and opportunities to test them.
-[X] And the best damn coffee there is.
I'm willing to second this as it appears the beings grasp of physics does not necessarily seem to exceed our own, so go for medical why not. Also,sure super coffee.

[X] I want to be the best doctor, give me the skills and opportunities to test them.
-[X] And the best damn coffee there is.

I like this option.

Whoa, already missed the first vote. A write-in on your second ever update is... probably not a great idea, but hey, welcome to THP!

[x] I want to finish my education, let me complete my coursework and exams with newfound knowledge.

Token sober vote, because I'm boring.

[x] I want to be a scientific genius, let me have my own state of the art laboratory to hone my knowledge without books...
-[x] ...and a decent cup of Earl Grey.

Coffee is poo, tea is better.

>>63424
>Coffee is poo, tea is better.
*Drops his cup of Toraja in a horrified shock*

[x] I want to be the best doctor, give me the skills and opportunities to test them.
-[X] And the best damn coffee there is.
[x] Most importantly, I want to be able to return here periodically, should I have need of its resources.

We don't even know 'where' it is, so free reign comes with the territory. Also: MODERN BOOKS AND MEDICINE.

As they said, their physics knowledge is not better than our own and by teaching it, and participating in discussions, we will learn more of it anyway. That is probably not the case for the physician area.

Finally, with this, we'll end up either being bitter rivals of the magic mumbo-jumbo Lunarians or fellow disciples. Should it be the latter, I'm looking forward to the spellcard battles. A sky needs not two suns, after all.

>>63426
I do want to note that continuing your coursework implies you return Outside periodically to take exams and attend course lectures, however adding this would also allow that. Consider that if you prioritize your schooling Outside that'll count for more than adding the ability to return as a separate term. Even then, your addition is very important to remember. I mean how can you become a doctor if you can't pass undergraduate studies, amirite?

>>63427
Yeah, I took this as "I want to continue my studies, but this contract takes precedence" as opposed to the other option which seems to put his focus on graduation.

[x] I want to finish my education, let me complete my coursework and exams with newfound knowledge

>>63424 here.

Changing my vote to
[x] I want to finish my education, let me complete my coursework and exams with newfound knowledge.

Tea is still better.

[x] I want to finish my education, let me complete my coursework and exams with newfound knowledge.
It sounds like this person has sacrificed a lot for his continued education. Why should he abandon it now?

Calling it now and writing

>>63432
Not yet!

[X] I want to be the best doctor, give me the skills and opportunities to test them.
-[X] And the best damn coffee there is.

[x] I want to finish my education, let me complete my coursework and exams with newfound knowledge
-[x] And the best damn coffee there is

Standing over the humming array, it finally dawns on you that perhaps taking this 'illusion' seriously might be a good idea. There is something very real about the pull from the flowing pentagram, something you cannot ignore or write off in sarcastic quips for much longer. You lean over the table, scratching in your requests.

Really, let's just say this is real... shouldn't you want to finish college? Basically just ace every course you take? You'd have instant rapport with the professors and get into any medical school you want. Is that truly what's worth it though? What was your original goal, science? Doctor?

Looking around the haphazard dormitory for what seems like the first time in the last month you've been living here, you let reality and the new fantasy sink in. You can't skip this institution. Therefore, you need to prioritize schooling.

You scratch the conditions you set forth in English. Unlike your searching scrawl, this script is done with the utmost care, every little nudge watched for. Your cursive turns into print, and slowly you show your invoker your desires.

You want to finish your education, and the best way to complete those exams is with this mystical knowledge you seem to gain. Perhaps it's just your brain working faster, or you figuring out that 40 resistor circuit on your own, but what matters is that the rune gave you the means to the answer, and you intend to abuse that as much as possible.

You look down and are ready to throw the paper beneath your feet, and a small twinge of mischievousness crosses your mind. You add a small addendum, coffee. The best this thing has. Cocoa beans extracted for a black drink that has caffeine. You can't stand the taste of water imbued with caffeine powder any more, and you're pretty sure you threw up when trying the cold brew stuff. Eww. You want good old timey coffee, and that's final.

The paper drops to the ground. As if pouncing on prey, it disappears in a flash of light. You vaguely wonder how it only transported the parchment and not you. The intensity of color from the array seems to be standstill, a change from the sputtering and haphazard style when transporting. You consider that maybe the Klingon got over its coughing fit.

The pull from the array is immense, and you know you can't fight it, you gave the conditions, you accepted the terms and you counter-proposed. Any attempt to leave now would be half-hearted, and ultimately fail. As you accept the crushing weight delocalized on every joint in your body, your vision fades to black as you fall into the ground.

Into? Yes, into. You vaguely recall the last sight of your dormitory was a level view of the carpet. That really needs some work. Around you is an ephemeral tunnel, taking you through space and time at impossible speeds. You dare to open your mouth to speak. Its colors are not nameable, they shift from one end of the spectrum to another. You close your eyes in fear of becoming blind. As you speak, your voice seems to collide against you, your speed catching up with the voice instantly, causing it to hit you with the impact.

You look behind you, the accelerating drag forces shaking you to the core. No, you haven't even entered the wormhole yet, this impossible wormhole. As you consider the sheer incredulity of this transport, you black out, losing form as you approach the speed of light through the interstellar shortcut.

"Impossible...energy..." you think you mumble as you come to. Wood. Fancy hardwood. You are on that right now. More specifically, the side of your head is on that. Your spectacles are out of place because of the position. You force yourself up, there's no protest other than your logic telling you that you should be out, knocked completely senseless, sleepy. You don't care. This isn't the worst you've felt actually. As you raise your head you see your summoner, and what is probably her assistant.

A beautiful temptress, is the best way you can describe her. Her red locks hanging from the front contrast her skin, creamy and yet pale like a Renaissance queen. That's not to say she's pallorous, she looks healthy, her eyes, mysteriously the color of freshly spilled blood, dart back and forth between the other woman and you. She gleefully chats in a strange language, though you think that if she spoke English you'd hardly understand her.

Oh and the bat wings, little leathery wings growing out of her head. That's strange.

Her attire is normal, and you note the conservative end of her skirt, but even then, you feel an urge to want her. You think that if you stretched your imagination back far enough, to when you had friends you could remember something. You recall five years ago, amidst a game over a table, with dice and sheets and cards. Beside you all were decks of cards with vortexes on the back. You faintly remember "Abyssal language" as the dialect for some monstrosities and demons, and while you'd like to identify that as the language, you know it sounds too beautiful when she speaks it to be such a damned tongue. She's beautiful, through and through.

Her boss, as it seems is not so. She's a tad chubby, though it doesn't show from her chin, rather her cheeks. She wears a long flowing nightgown, in fact you wonder if she's changed out of it in the last three days, the soft fabric rippling with wrinkles. You look into her violet eyes and notice the deep black circles underneath them. Her skin is sickeningly pale, and every movement is with a shaking hand. Her hair, what would seem like an impossible violet, seems almost cheap, as if it'd fade or fall off at any time. She looks fragile, but more obviously, she looks like disease and overwork have ravaged her physicality. You can't help but notice how similar you two must look at this moment. She seems more real than the bat wing girl. More tangible, as if the other were a fantasy meant to trick people. She's not pretty at all, this pallored girl, but you find her kind of endearing. That is, if she wasn't summoning you from who knows where.

She brings a cup of coffee to her lips, the cup moving precariously through the air, little jerks of movement threatening to spill the subject. She blows softly before letting it touch her lips, wincing at the heat.

Her servant also notices this, and seems to be pleading to be the courier in this exchange. Oh right, you've just now noticed, you're on the other end of a table. You can just about make the distance between her hand and you if you stretch.

The pale one is about to cough, and that'd waste the coffee. You realize now that she's struggling to hold it in, each breath from her stuffy nose taken precariously to avoid coughing or sneezing. You oblige her attempt and take the cup. You realize that trying to fight something that can take you across the universe is not a thing worth attempting, and even if sickly, you know she's not here for nonsense.

She looks at you after you take the cup from her hands, finally letting a coughing fit seize her. Asthma. Your mother had this before she was hospitalized. You know when it's bad or not, and while this sounds terrible, it's a passing fit. She recovers and looks at you, a mix of smugness and disappointment. You bring the coffee to your lips, and she finally speaks. In the most hoity-toity French accent you've ever heard, the most Cosmopolitaine set of vocal cords so far she fractures the English language pronunciation conventions.

"And thee' best dam coffee ther' 'ees?" It's nasally, but not by choice. Her sinuses are completely clogged. You honestly feel more pity for her, though the attitude is annoying. The coffee, however, is splendid. It feels very dark, a high concentration of real Arabica must have been used. This person had some wealth at her disposal, if the comically large library didn't allude to that.

"I presume then, you're my summoner?" you ask the sickly girl in front of you.

"That would be correct, I am Patchouli Knowledge, librarian to the Scarlet Devil Library, in a sense: your mistress. Some call it Voile, but that's a misrepresentation of my way of expressing to others it's sheer scale when introducing it." Her English is perfect now, though in reality you realize it's not English. It's translated perfectly within you, though you distinctly understand it is not English.

"So this drink is spiked with a translation spell? How did you do it? We should mass produce it so that the world can be better off for it, Miss Knowledge." you lose your sense of focus, perhaps because of your tiredness, or perhaps due to the sheer incredulity of the idea- a translation drink!

"You're much too quick, familiar. Considering you look no better than I. I wonder what karmic fate I have pursued to grant me a human when I asked for someone wise..." Patchouli trails off, looking at one of her books.

"Miss Knowledge, do not be so glum, you cannot call him foolish as a human when you fail to solve his riddles, so he must have some intelligence you seek," the batgirl interjects, Patchouli gives her a withering glare, then she turns to you.

"The solution to the "Organic Chemistry" problem. What was it?", she wags her fingers at "Organic Chemistry" as if it were a strange code word. You look at the paper she offers, a perfect recreation of your problem, expanded with way too much work in every wrong direction.

"Miss Knowledge, I really am more worried about you breaking the laws of physics by summoning me here than a problem of my homework, but I will say that every scrawl you've done there is hodgepodge and completely wrong." you snicker a bit, but the girl is obviously upset. You vaguely hear words like "Impossible" or "Trick question" being thrown out as the assistant calms Patchouli down.

"You... don't know much about science do you, Miss Knowledge? And what's this about familiar, doesn't that make me your glorified pet?" her frown at your first remark turns into a smug smile she waves for the assistant to bring more coffee before turning to you.

"That was our contract, no? I shall do all within my power to give you knowledge that you seek, including my brain altering magic that should make you smarter. I'm not going to mince words familiar, those in particular have augmented me greatly. You in turn, shall give me your aid. It's already etched in the cosmos, so we shouldn't have an issue. You agreed, and even communicated with your silly scientific problems, so I'd say that constitutes consent," endearing she may be, but that little smirk is getting annoying. Still doesn't change the fact that she couldn't solve them.

"OK then, fine. Do you realize that my condition implies that this portal must be made at specific times so that I may take my exams? I am a student at, quite literally, the best place of higher education in the world, and I'm not going to throw it away so easily." you take another sip of the coffee, it really is good. You look up at Patchouli, her brow is furrowed, and she seems quite daunted for once. The smirk is replaced with a frown as she looks over the rune underneath you. She mumbles something about being tired, but you can't quite make it out as she walks towards you.

"Of course, familiar. That is my duty to you. Note that this will be difficult for me, and expend a lot of my energy, so..." she doesn't give a withering gaze, or an annoyed look, but one that you identify with perfectly: exhaustion. Her eyes gloss over, her voice is monotone as she considers trudges along each syllable. Her eyes droop. You scramble to clumsily catch her, though you realize your are just as quickly about to fall over.

"... try not to be too much trouble and help me out in this one task." she accentuates the word "one", as if it's the most important thing in the world. She's also probably your weight, and you feel your weak muscles strain against her as you allow her to lean on you. She is asleep you realize, your shoulder being just softer than the chair she was sitting on.

The assistant returns with the coffee in time to see her master collapse. She rushes to assist you in keeping the girl up, which is great too, as you are about to pass out. As your knees buckle, your perceive a slender arm catching you and taking you towards a bed, or couch really.

"Now I have to take care of two workaholics, just my luck," whines the little devil, but before you can make a protest, you fall asleep on a leathery surface.

As you wake up you smell French cuisine in the distance. You realize now that you cannot see outside, so it could be night or day for all you know. You notice that your bag with your assortment of books is on a desk right next to the larger one that Patchouli has. You are situated in the middle of the library, with countless little midgets flying above you. They all seem deathly quiet, afraid of disturbing the studious masters. You suppose in a sense if they are lowly maids you have some command over them, though to stretch it is not a good idea. You realize that you've taken to being a pet rather well. Shouldn't this sort of thing agonize you? A Machiavellian caricature who lied to join enough extra-curricular officer teams for an education? Shouldn't you be furious at being underneath someone?

It just feels like it's not so simple. You follow the scent of food as you traverse the library. Your 'mistress' is no better off than you, and seems to be incompetent at the things you do. You don't truly seem like separate rungs of society, but more like equals with a minor set of favors going on. You're still kinda mad when she calls you familiar, and you sure as hell won't call her "Mistress" or something cheesy like that. The devil notices you first as you enter the what is most likely the dining area of the library. Yes, that is a thing.

"Oh hello! I didn't introduce myself, I'm known as Little Devil, but that's stuffy, so feel free to just call me Koakuma." you realize that those two mean the exact same thing, but you prefer the name. She keeps going. "You must be really strong willed to get up in only six hours, do they put you on a schedule in the outside world? I'm about to wake Miss Knowledge up, as she requested that she be up at all times before you, but it seems she failed. She was awake for three days! Can you believe that? You know, the familiar spell requires two beings to be in tune with each other both physically and emotionally, so you two must have been doing the same thing, or perhaps maybe you two..." of course a devil is a pervert as well, though you can't really understand half of what she's saying.

"Outside world? You mean the real one? What is this, a monastery of some kind?" you follow her as you seem to enter a smaller room in the library's deepest parts. You notice steam is being sent out to help with the congestion. This is a common relief for sinuses, and is likely what even allows Patchouli to breathe through her nose, labored and stuffy as it is.

You see her there, sleeping. Every bit of stress slowly works itself off, and it seems like she could go for days. To be honest if you hadn't trained yourself so thoroughly, you'd be asleep for days after that endeavor. Koakuma looks at Patchouli and perhaps you with what can only be described as pity. She walks over to Patchouli and nudges her, ignoring your previous queries.

"Miss Knowledge? I'm sorry to interrupt your sleep, Miss Knowledge, but it's time you awoke, your familiar is already up and about, though he seems worse for wear from it. I'm sorry for disturbing you Miss Knowledge, but it's only under your orders..." Patchouli grumbles as she turns her head into the covers.

"To be quite honest with you, I think she should sleep. You may be awake, but you seem just as tired, so I'd suggest the same for you. I'm leaving to make breakfast, if you're still up go to the kitchens in thirty minutes, ok?" Koakuma glides away from the door, softly closing the door. Wait, what? Gliding? As in, flight? Man have you got to figure that one out. You look at Patchouli and gasp, the fool! Her head is facing the pillow, and she can only breathe through her mouth. More than likely she'll snore and the sleep will feel like crap, and there's always a chance she'll choke, you can't have that. You carefully walk over to Patchouli and nudge her to face upwards again. You get a view of her face once more.

Tired eyes, furrowed brow, pale skin and fragile hair, slightly chubby cheeks(the one contrast to you, wherein yours are angular and hollow), and tepid lips. She's not beautiful, or pretty, or cute. She looks more like Cruella de Vil than the beautiful Koakuma, but you feel a connection, a deep empathy for her, in that form. You want to be her friend, at the very least.

"Sleep tight Patchouli, and make sure you 'port me back in three days for my exam." you whisper as you move out of the room. You're about to leave, when you hear a soft voice call out.

"Familiar, I can't believe I lost in waking up... I'll get you next time but, what's your name? Oh bother, I better get ready for work." her voice gains strength as she bolts up to dispel all sleepiness left.

"You glance at her,

"I'm a magician monster, or youkai. I suppose for an American, strange skinned though you are, monster or creature is more accurate than youkai. By the by, you're in a Wonderland where magic works, situated in Japan, known as Gensokyo. Anyway, the real question here is what are you doing in my room? You still haven't told me your name and you're already trying to break the contract with murder? Oh! Would you like to come to a meeting with me today?" she laughs a bit as she closes the door abruptly on you. It vaguely recollects to your mind that a familiar is a pet, meaning that she probably doesn't see you as much at all. You should probably tell her your name.

"You still haven't told me your name, and you're already trying to break the contract with murder?"
[x] Richard Meyers
[x] Li Qiangmin (given name Qiangmin) 李强敏
[x] Chiron Lamarck
[x] José de Luna
[x] Omar al-Shadid
[x] Vrishab Srinivasan
[x] lEt'S gEt CrEaTiVe! [Write-in]

"What are you doing in my room?"
[x] Koakuma dragged me over here, trust me princess, nobody's hungry like the wolf here.
[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[x] I was worried about you, so I stayed to try to fix your sleeping position.
[x] I-er, I was, like, worried, you know? Really, it's nothing weird or anything.
[x] Write-in

"Would you like to come to a meeting with me today?"
[x] Sure, what's it about, oh wise one? Do you have a league of evil you pilot?
[x] No thanks, I'm going to try to figure out some of my academics. I've been thinking about how maybe magic is really just an understanding of how electrons move and being intrinsically...
[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.
[x] Can you explain more of this to me? Like, this whole situation?


Be wary of your name. East Asian names are probably the best for you if you want Easy Modo. Names will have an effect on languages you understand and how people react to you, considering that uh, Chiron is very much like Stevie Urkel.

>>63433
Er... oops? To be fair, this is a pretty open ended contract. If you'd like to later on work on doing doctor stuff you should be fine. For now though you'll be using your newfound aid on more theoretical problems.

>>63434
Godsdammit a paragraph just got axed somehow. When you glance at Patchouli as she bolts awake, she asks you questions about your nationality, remarking that she was last outside in the 1950s, and explains that she's a magician.

>>63436
It also repeated itself somehow. Just repost it before the vote fairies get here!

[x] Richard Meyers
[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[x] No thanks, I'm going to try to figure out some of my academics. I've been thinking about how maybe magic is really just an understanding of how electrons move and being intrinsically...

[x] Omar al-Shadid
The blood of Al Khawarizmi himself flows within our vein!

[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor

[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.

>>63439
Yo al-Shadid is a cool name but Khawarizimi is such a glorious mouthful I'll make it the official name for Arabic!Anon if popular support demands.

[x] Li Qiangmin (given name Qiangmin) 李强敏
[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.

If we're studying to become a doctor, we should already know that having some food in us will provide energy for the day. Or night. Or whatever time it is.

[x] Tarou "Timothy" Yamada.
-[x] Look, learning Japanese was never a high priority, considering I've never even been there until now.
[x] I was worried about you, so I stayed to try to fix your sleeping position.
[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.

Whitewashed Japanese-American for either Easy or Lunatic mode, depending on your perspective. Also, never not food.

>>63440
It sounds mouthful enough that he'll blend in well, methinks.

[X] José de Luna
[X] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[X] Sure, what's it about, oh wise one? Do you have a league of evil you pilot?

[x] Richard Meyers
[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.

[x] Li Shuwen
[X] Worried about you
[X] Magic is just...

Kakaka!

Mmk. I'm gonna hold off until we get a name consensus. I will reveal a couple of things. These should give hints as to play style.

East Asian characters will blend in will to Gensokyo, whatever that means to you.

American characters are quite mundane, but perhaps knowing Latin is a plus?

Hispanic characters are actually not bad looking.

Middle Eastern characters have an ancestry with scientists and occultists.

Indian characters are one of the few spiritual ones.

African American characters are hard mode, but not without their benefits. They are spiritual as well.

I'll check in once a single choice hits five votes. >>63446 do you mind if I just count that as the standard Chinese choice?

>>63447
Odd way to go about it but I'll bite.

[X] José de Luna
[X] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[X] Sure, what's it about, oh wise one? Do you have a league of evil you pilot?

[x] Richard Meyers
[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.

Maximum dork.

>>63447
I don't, but update soon! Getting one out while you still have the juices flowing is the best policy

>>63450
Agh! I'm uncomfortable without the name decision being made yet. I'll start writing two drafts for the most common choices. Please vote friends.

[x] Richard Meyers
[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.

WONDERBREAD LET'S GO

>>63442 here.

Alright, swap my top vote for [x] Richard Meyers. I don't really care for the full-whitebread option, but I have doubts about there being a five vote consensus in any reasonable amount of time.

>>63452
Seconding this.

>>63452
thirding

[x] Richard Meyers
[x] I noticed you were sleeping facing the pillows, and that bugs me as someone training to become a doctor.
[x] Shouldn't we eat first? I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, but I honestly can't remember when I ate.

"Richard Meyers, Miss Knowledge. Though most of my buds call me Richie," you answer. Patchouli opens the door from what must have been the bathroom if it was designed with the most space and least amount of light possible. She is changed in a new robe of similar color. The pale purples go well with her hair, frail though it must be. Interestingly, she maintains her little night cap.

"Oh, so you're straight and through an Anglo-Saxon American hmm?" she asks, she walks past you into the main section of the library, beckoning you to follow. You don't find this difficult, as she moves leisurely, stopping every couple of moments to scan a bookshelf.

"Yeah, I'm not a exotic foreigner, but hey, you apparently summoned me for my smarts right? Anyway about the sleeping thing, Koakuma led me there and she let you put your face on the pillows," you begin to explain, you don't see any reaction from Patchouli, save a single eyebrow raised when you mention Koakuma leading you. She picks out an old tome on one of the bookshelfs, muttering its name under her breath. You look the title over and chuckle when you notice the language. Learning Latin has its perks, you also know some Ancient Greek.

"It bugged me seeing you clogging your breathing as I'm training to be a doctor. Oh, by the way, what's the Ephesia Grammata?" She seems to ignore your question, opening the book to some formulas in Greek. You ask again.

"Oh! I was just thinking about your education, considering how in the Outside becoming a doctor is quite dependent on schooling. This book is just a reference of some older magical formulas, I wanted to cross reference them with Hindu and Bhuddist mantras." Patchouli then begins a semi-coherent ramble about the different styles of mantras, explaining that Greek mantras were less about philosophy and more about protection and the cycle of seasons. You struggle to grasp the meaningfulness of what she's saying, and before long she's reciting the formulas, oblivious once again to your presence.

Like a tiger, you wait for her to finally stumble on a particularly long mantra and quickly attempt to regain any chance of talking. "Slow down there Miss Knowledge! l understand you're busy and all, getting to whatever this meeting is, but shouldn't we eat first? I mean, I'm not usually hungry in the morning either, I can't remember when I last ate." She seems annoyed by your butting in, and pauses near her desk. With a sigh she turns towards where the wafting smell of food was coming from.

"I suppose you're right, familiar. Let's do this quickly though, I wanted to get some reading in before my meeting," she actually huffs as the midget maids guide her to a seat near the doors where Koakuma must be. You realize that even after the long walk, you're only near the wall adjacent to Patchouli's bedroom, just how big is this place anyway?

"So, Miss Patchouli?" you sit down on the seat across from her, the maids paying you no such attention, "Do you own this place? Is this some sort of huge library for the occult?" Patchouli smiles at the question, and ponders it as a plate with a lingonberry crepe is brought out for both of you.

"No, I'm afraid I don't own this mansion, though once could say the library is mine." She can't be serious, how big must the entire mansion be if this is just the library? You must have been openly aghast because she actually snorts at your disbelief. She's already attacking the plate, as if she were in a race.

"You see, this entire mansion is bigger on the inside, as there's someone who can manipulate time and space in here. The space part only seems to work here though, but still impressive for one such as yourself, no?" There she goes with that pretentious voice again, the worst part being that you can still hear the Parisian French on her, it just gets translated instantly into English.

"Yeah, I think as a defense mechanism from insanity I've just sort of accepted whatever bullshit is powering these abilities. Is she the one in charge of the mansion then?" In truth you're still interested in figuring out how this works, if any of this can be recreated in "the Outside", as your boss calls it, who knows how much bank you'd make!

"No, she's the maid. The mistress is a vampire named Remilia Scarlet. That's how the mansion is named "Scarlet Devil", get it? Actually, I'm going to be meeting with both of them. It concerns your contract, so I suggest you join me," she's halfway done with her food, and every sentence she speaks is rushed, every bite she takes drowned in water.

"That's a point I wanted to ask you about. It's not just about exams and whatnot, it's also about volunteering and community service. I can't do that if I'm stuck here forever with only a couple of hours as exceptions," she stops eating and furrows her brow at this development. Oppposite as she was doing before, now she robotically and arduously chews every bite, drinking water only after swallowing for a couple of minutes.

"That's not in the contract," she decides after pondering the concern. Nope. Nope-nope-nope.

"Yes it is. Getting into medical school is continuing my education. You have to allow me to do it," you smirk, oh no she doesn't stop you from your dreams. Hell no. She stares at you now, the chewing ceasing as you reply.

"Merde... look, you'll at most be needed here for a couple of weeks if you're so rushed to leave. Just follow me to my meeting so I don't have to brief you later. I already have your testing dates, as I told Koakuma to handle all of that if I forgot," as she finishes conceding, she rises from her chair and walks out of the vicinity to what seems like the opposite part of the room. She beckons you to follow, this time a frown etched on her. You do so, seeing as it's so important.

After five minutes of uninterrupted walking, Patchouli no longer stopping at shelves to inspect books, you make it to a large set of double doors. Koakuma must have joined you as you walked, as she struggles to open the doors with an assortment of maids. Must be some dense wood.

As soon as Patchouli fits through the crack in the double doors she's off. The main hallways are just as dark as the library, chandeliers being the only source of illumination. The atmosphere is looming and gothic, large gargoyles on either side of the red carpet imposing themselves upon you. Whoever owns this must be a big deal, someone not to be trifled with. If they're a vampire as Patchouli claims, then their prescence must freeze hearts. It's a wonder Patchouli lives in somewhere like this.

"Psst, what did you say to anger Miss Knowledge?" you turn to your right to see Koakuma right up to your face. Must have forgotten about her. Patchouli doesn't seem to notice, even in such a big hall where the acoustics must be booming. Either Koakuma is doing some magic or Patchouli is really fuming.

"I reminded her of her contract, she didn't take it well," you whisper, Koakuma nods in understanding, waving her hands in a choreographed motion before speaking again.

"Yeah, she's been stressed out lately, the asthma attacks she has are getting her the second she steps out of the mansion, even going to the balcony is giving her fits. I honestly spiked her food with medicine so that she could speak clearly when talking to Remilia." Right. Patchouli had a pretty nasty coughing fit last night, though you didn't know it'd be that bad.

Wait, she's speaking to the vampire? This must be serious then.

At last you arrive at the double doors, the rest of the walk spent in deathly silence. The door to this room is as large as the doors to the library, if not larger, and a swarm is at its handles as soon as you approach.

"Familiar," she begins coldly, "I'm going to follow my contract, but may your chosen God or lackthereof have mercy on you if you make a fool out of me. Stay quiet unless spoken to if you value your life, and Koakuma, I'll do the punishing myself if you don't heed that as well," you turn to Koakuma to see if she's bluffing, the devil's face nervous. It seems you're both out of the loop to the subject matter.

You don't expect to see a young girl with a frilly dress and light blue hair sitting at the head of a large table, or a white haired beautiful woman in a maid outfit.

"Patche! It's good to see you out of that library for once! Sit so we can drink some tea," cries the little girl. The maid silently moves out of the room.

Wait, that means that the girl in front of you is the vampire. The one that Patchouli says will kill you if you're not careful. That vampire. Did she just call Patchouli "Patche"? That's a cute nickname. Does that mean...?

"If you say so Remi, I wanted to talk to you about something serious though, it's about that plan I mentioned a while back," she sits at the seat next to what you can only assume is Remilia and beckons you to stand beside her. Did Patchouli just call Remilia "Remi"? So that means they're friends. Oh crap.

"How dreadful you are at times Patche! Do tell who is the ah, unimposing young man standing beside you, oh and do sit, I can't stand when Sakuya just stands there, so I shan't stand it with you," she sips her tea while you nervously sit down. Let's not piss off the vampire, even if she's a little girl. Maybe we can mess with her later.

"Oh, he's an American named Richard Meyers, my familiar for the time being, though begrudgingly so," Patchouli doesn't look at you as she brings to tea cup of to her. As you are about to make a scowl at her, you notice the area in front of you has tea. Odd, you didn't notice it there a moment ago.

Oh right, time shifter. Great. I guess that makes her a good maid, you didn't even notice the wait, or have to call for her. The maid is stoically silent as she returns next to the vampire.

"Well Patche, you can't expect a sentient being to be like a dog, that's the tradeoff for intelligence: attitude from that intelligence. Well Richard, you have my greetings, do help my friend with her dilemma." She's really well mannered for a brat, like a European aristocrat you read about in old Romanticist novels. You smile at her, you find it hard not to, she has a similar vibe to Koakuma, unnaturally charismatic.

"Yes, my dilemma. Remi, I'm going to be blunt, I want to start an incident to cure my asthma," Patchouli sounds like she just expressed high treason, and Koakuma's eyes go wide. Incident? Like terrorist incident? What does that have to do with asthma? Remilia stops toying with her cup and looks at Patchouli worriedly.

"Patchouli, we can get Eientei to-" Remilia stops as Patchouli stands up to interrupt her, though you notice the action is much less imposing coming from the girl in the nightgown.

"No Remilia! You and I both know that hasn't and won't work, this asthma is beyond natural, it needs an unnatural solution an I plan to get it!" you realize that this is the first time Patchouli has raised her voice, and she begins coughing into her sleeves. Remilia waits for her to finish coughing. That's some respect to someone who just yelled at her. They must be long friends.

"Why does this need an incident then? What power source could you possibly need to make this cure?" Remilia asks gently, Patchouli downs the tea in a single go.

"The Philospher's Stone and the Alkahest Solution. That's what I need, the only way to cleanse the magical flux and taint inside my system at this point is to have an infinite receptor. At that point I can convert it into a solid state of flux and use the Alkahest to dispose of it, or just use the Philospher's Stone to turn it into a compressed solid," Patchouli explains, her speech all too fast, a hint of desperateness, anger, wonder and hope all combined. You know this is the abridged version, and Patchouli is oft to go on another ramble. You decide to take action, despite her protests. You hear the familiar shift in her voice to a higher pitch, she's about to go into another fit. You reach over and put your hand on her shoulder.

She reluctantly stops speaking, taking a deep breath before descending into another fit. This one is truly violent, and you begin to worry for her health. You move into action, saying the practiced lines that you learned from dealing with your family's asthma. She's hyperventilating now, could this actually harm the 'magician monster' that is your boss? Who cares? Right now, she's a patient, and you didn't learn to be both a Phlebotomist and Pharmacy Technician before college to let someone choke in front of you.

"Deep, long breaths Patchouli. Nice and steady. Drink some of your tea now that it's stopped for a bit. Calm." She doesn't have that scowl anymore. You have to coax her into breathing steadily from the ragged hyperventilation.

"I don't nee-" There she goes again damn it!

"I'm doing my best to help but you need to listen Patchouli. Slowly breathe in and out, then drink a sip of tea. In. Out. Good." She doesn't protest anymore. You vaguely notice Remilia echoing your words at this point, standing on the other side of Patchouli.

It takes ten minutes before Patchouli finally is over the attack, and even then it's only after Koakuma rushes from the room to retrieve a red vial of medicine. The room is silent. Your temporary courage subdued by what had to be a glint of a silver knife coming from the maid, though you have no idea why she'd threaten you. That's the thanks you get from patients sometimes.

"Patchouli, I'll do it. You need rest, this goose chase of yours is only making your condition worse," Remilia breaks the silence, gently placing her hand over Patchouli's. The magician raises her eyes at the vampire, with what must be gratitude.

"No Remilia, in fact, I wanted to tell you this so that you could avoid responsibility. This is my goose chase, and I know it's hurting me. That's why I got the help." She's much calmer now, though it could just be fear from that monstrous attack. Remilia seems flabbergasted, and in fact so are you. Strong vampire, time stopping maid, and she refuses? Remilia also seems to have much more patience than you, because it's you who breaks the sacred rule Patchouli set forth.

"Wait, then why even bother telling her? She has so many resources? Even if you were trying to hide it ou would have been more effective by not telling her at all. Plus, what am I supposed to do? I don't do magic, and the Philospher's Stone is nothing but myth! You just said this isn't a natural science problem, so what's the goal?" Patchouli looks you over with tired eyes. She must have been pulling these all nighters for a while now, constantly under stress from the asthma. It's hard to maintain eye contact with her languid gaze on you.

"She'd find out. She always does. Then she gets involved. I don't know what you can do, because you're right: the Philospher's Stone is impossible. Even if it were real, I'd need energy to power the impossible magical and chemical reactions. I don't know any of the chemistry involved, or physics. I'm a holed-in mystic, and I'm hopelessly and utterly lost. I need your help desperately, or else I'm going to be afflicted with this for who knows how long. There, are you satisfied?" Patchouli doesn't stop staring at you as she drones out her response, now so soft that you must stay attentive to catch it.

And man did that response hit you. I mean, yes Patchouli is kind of a jerk to you, but hey, so have your previous bosses, and they weren't dealing with solving an impossible problem from literally opposite fields. You look away.

"I'll do what I can, but I can't say it'll work." you carefully respond. You can't just deny her, both the magic from your contract and your conscience holding you to your new task, and yet you can't really promise success. That must have sounded weak, but what can you do? You don't know about these situations, you're used to being the one with knowledge, not being clueless.

"That's all I ask. Remilia, if you'd like to help, I'd appreciate it if you'd search for any magical tomes we don't have in the library. I know you don't like those tasks, maybe Sakuya can handle it," she mumbles. For her part, Remilia doesn't give you a glare, or do any dramatic action. She just stands there, holding Patchouli's hand and nodding. You're not really a social person, so you don't quite understand what's happening, but it seems to cheer Patchouli up a bit. Now that you think about it, she actually seemed to release some tension when you responded that you'd do what you could. Maybe you shouldn't doubt the little actions so much.

"What a terribly dreadful brunch," Patchouli chuckles a bit, drinking another cup of refilled tea with her free hand. "You'll have to excuse me for that, Remi, may we get some confectionery and cakes? You must tell me the gossip before I seclude myself again." It's the most fake cheery act you've ever seen, but you're not spoiling the mood, you even chime in when the conversation moved to sweets and cakes. Before long, at least an hour has passed where the room seems much more at ease. As you rub your small stomach from the cake, Patchouli stands up as if to leave.

"Well, no rest for the wicked, Remi, I'm going to go and work on my project. Thanks for entertaining me. Let's go Richard, we've much work to do," Patchouli declares. She extends her hand out to you, as if to rouse you from your filled stupor. Remilia snickers at that motion before rising as well.

"Nothing of it, Patche. I'd always choose to spend time with a dear friend like yourself. Good luck, mum's the word on our parts. Oh, and good luck on bonding with your familiar, I'm glad it only took a night and a half day to say his name," Remilia jokes, Koakuma actually flies over and offers a high five as Patchouli pouts before turning to the door. You are so returning that high five.

After returning to the library, your appetite filled for possibly the whole day, Patchouli stops in front of her desk at the center of the room. She finally turns towards the two of you after digging through several volumes on her desk, and when she does, her tired look is just a bit brighter.

"OK you two, we've work to do. Richard, it's up to you if you'd like to study your own academics or if you want to read some of my books. We don't know what the answer might be, so any path is worth pursuing," she seems like a general briefing each batallón before a battle. You give her a salute, though she doesn't seem to get it.

"Right... Koakuma, please make sure none of the fairies disturb me, and prepare the 'the best damn coffee there is', because we're going to need it in a bit." Koakuma seems to get your joke, as she salutes while returning a hearty 'ma'am, yes ma'am!'

You assemble an assortment of books at your desk as a cup of black coffee and decadent Earl Grey is delivered to you. You don't know exactly how you're going to solve the Philosopher's Stone, but hey, anything's worth trying.

How will you attempt to solve the Philosopher's Stone?
[x] Pursue more of your academics, you just know there's a scientific way to make this possible.
[x] Grab one of Patchouli's introductory magic books. Perhaps a basic understanding of both magic and science could help. This option is influenced by a unique skill of yours
[x] Dive into more obscure occult books. You've got to get to the more advanced material, and you know Patchouli can't have read them all.

How long will you work on this before you take a break?
[x] Four hours or less
[x] Eight hours at most
[x] Until Patchouli dozes off or gets distracted
[x] No sleep until clear!

Interaction?
[x] Patchouli, you guys should be closer if you're going to make this work.
[x] Koakuma, she's been quite nice to you, why not talk with her a bit and rattle off some ideas?
[x] Sakuya and Remilia, maybe they can give you some information about where you're at.

Holy moly dialogue is hard. I feel naturally you'd go to the meeting after talking more with Patchouli, as she probably only gave you leeway because of the morning tiredness. Also, I'm tired of the asshole or villainous Remilia portrayal, so I made her actually a good friend for once.

Regarding choices, now that the main character creation has started the choices you make will have a bigger impact on the story, as I felt they didn't mean enough this update. I'm also going to notify you when your skills make something different. This doesn't always mean it's the best choice, stay realistic with your paths y'all.

>>63456
Ahh! Pro tip, iPads are wonderful for many things but image board posting is not one of those things. Have an image.

[x] Grab one of Patchouli's introductory magic books. Perhaps a basic understanding of both magic and science could help.

Can't calculate a + b without knowing b. Or at least a ballpark estimate.

[x] Eight hours at most

Didn't we just finish pulling an all-nighter?

[x] Koakuma, she's been quite nice to you, why not talk with her a bit and rattle off some ideas?

Never enough Koa.

> Holy moly dialogue is hard.

Understatement of the decade. If you'll permit me a few suggestions...

1) Break up some of those long run-on sentences.
2) Commas between names and sentences directed at them:
> If you say so, Remi...
> How dreadful you are at times, Patche!
> No, Remilia!
3) You slipped into first person for a moment there.

You're doing great otherwise, keep up the good work.

> Also, I'm tired of the asshole or villainous Remilia portrayal, so I made her actually a good friend for once.

Thank you.

[x] Pursue more of your academics

This is our forte and an unique approach that barely anyone in this place can follow. We can turn to magic if we find this insufficient.

Maybe we should try all the common treatments for symptoms first? A healthier Patchouli is a happier Patchouli.

Heh, imagine if we discovered the current of asthma... That's quite a feat for an undergraduate, no?

[X] Until Patchouli...

Work 'till you drop-but no more than that.

[X] Interaction: Patchouli.

She's the boss.

I'm seconding >>63459
[x] Grab one of Patchouli's introductory magic books. Perhaps a basic understanding of both magic and science could help.
[x] Eight hours at most
[x] Koakuma

> Also, I'm tired of the asshole or villainous Remilia portrayal, so I made her actually a good friend for once.

I love you.

>>63461
A third vote for this.

[x] Grab one of Patchouli's introductory magic books. Perhaps a basic understanding of both magic and science could help.
[x] Until Patchouli dozes off or gets distracted
[x] Patchouli, you guys should be closer if you're going to make this work.

[x] Grab one of Patchouli's introductory magic books. Perhaps a basic understanding of both magic and science could help.
[x] Eight hours at most
[x] Koakuma

Seems like Patchouli's kind of going round the bend if she hasn't already. Hopefully Remilia and Richard will be able to pick up the pieces after all is said and done.

[x] Pursue more of your academics, you just know there's a scientific way to make this possible.
[x] Eight hours at most
[x] Sakuya and Remilia, maybe they can give you some information about where you're at.

Protips on writing dialogue:
1) Read what you've written out loud. Does it sound like the way someone would actually talk? If it doesn't, consider the way people form sentences IRL. Hell, go transcribe a podcast or a(n unscripted) Youtube video if you have no idea. The point is that you don't want to put words in somebody's mouth that sound like they were generated by a Markov chain.
2) Tying in with the point above, a more general rule of thumb is that people speak in utterances, not lines. Something I personally lean on is a rule of six words or less for a given sentence. Obviously, that doesn't work all the time, but you can always find ways of compressing dialogue and making it more... well, conversational.
3) Tying in with the end of the second point, if you have two or more characters conversing, make them converse. Consider what it is you're having them say. Does it feel like they're turning to the audience to explain some necessary point or minutia? Don't do that. Every piece of dialogue should be aimed solely at the participants of a conversation, even if that means turning some piece of plot knowledge into a shared assumption on the characters' part.
4) Unless there's some specific reason for one character to verbally address another by name, use indirect cues if it's not obvious who's talking to whom. Otherwise, we can probably assume who's being addressed by context. A two-person conversation in particular doesn't call for a lot of "Kagomeeeeee" "Inuyashaaaaaaaa" exchanges -- in most cases.

If this advice is extremely vague and has left you with more questions than before, then I've done my job.

[X] Grab one of Patchouli's introductory magic books. Perhaps a basic understanding of both magic and science could help.
[X] Eight hours at most
[X] Koakuma, she's been quite nice to you, why not talk with her a bit and rattle off some ideas?

>>63459
>>63465
Thank you both so much for the tips. I will definitely work on the talking heads syndrome.

[x] Grab one of Patchouli's introductory magic books. Perhaps a basic understanding of both magic and science could help. This option is influenced by a unique skill of yours
[x] Eight hours at most
[x] Koakuma

Time to bunker down and think. You've got a magical conundrum, and you know absolutely nothing about magic. All the normal magical methods have been ineffective, and you have been whisked from your home in exchange for performance enhancing magic to use science to solve said conundrum. That's the abridged version.

In reality, you're more of a pet to a purple haired, frail, female magical demon-monster-creature-cryptid-thing. Your summoner or master has the equivalent of magical radiation asthma and she can't even go outside before she's coughing out her intestines. Your job is to make the legendary Philosopher's Stone using magic and science and then think of an operation that will remove "flux" and "taint" from your boss's lungs (and probably every-organ else) and dispense of the thing in a perfect solvent. Piece of cake.

Perhaps the first issue is that you have no idea what "flux" or "taint" is, or how one gets them inside their body, or really anything about magic. You need to learn about how magic works so that you can actually make some good ideas that aren't random shots in the dark. You look at the various advanced textbooks on your ornate mahogany desk. These may be useful, and you're going to occasionally check them, but you're gonna wait for later. No use in working on something else when Patchouli is little more than a few steps away from you and practically begged you to try to solve her problem.

Actually, speaking of Patchouli, she's already nose deep in a book, a cup of coffee next to her, and you swear it hadn't even been a minute since you arrived. You are about to ask her for a book recommendation, but you really don't want to interrupt her. In truth, Patchouli doesn't seem too sound of mind right now. That's not to say you're much better, but she was lashing out at what's supposed to be her best friend over a suggestion. She must have had this ailment for a while, you know how chronic illnesses wear someone down. Better not to give a reason to be yelled at.

Instead you walk up to Koakuma as she rushes from a bookshelf with a particularly nasty stack of books towards Patchouli's desk.

"Want some help there?" You're taller than her, so you chop her load in half before she can respond.

"Thanks, Miss Knowledge can be demanding at times," she sighs, her shoulders and back groaning in appreciation. The both of you silently drop the books off on the peripheries of Patchouli's desk. She doesn't even notice, or if she did, she'd rather read her book. You want to say something to Koakuma, but a emphatic finger in front of her mouth, followed by a zipping up motion convinces you not to. You move a safe distance away before Koakuma speaks again.

"Thanks again, did you need something?" Koakuma doesn't really look like a devil, other than the comical wings next to her head. You wonder about what makes someone a devil as opposed to a random demon. Distractions! You need an introductory book, not fun facts about devils.

"Yes actually, I need an introductory book on magic. Any suggestions?" Koakuma puts her hand on her chin as she scans the nearby books.

"You know... I think the reference materials are this way," she mumbles as she guides you around the massive library. The titles are in an assortment of languages. Arabic through Zulu, English through Sanskrit, every text is represented in some part. Being able to read all this would be great, but you really only know three languages: English, Latin, and Greek. You scan for dictionaries of any kind, but even if you were to find them, you'd probably gloss over them, lost in the endless shelves.

"So, I can whip up a reading translation potion, but those aren't really the best." She stops right in front of you as you arrive at a particular shelf filled with much cleaner books. These are in pristine condition, as opposed to the dusty and almost broken tomes in some of the shelves.

"I know English, Latin, and Greek, but hit me up with that potion, please," you reply. You expect dissapointment from the devil, but she seems elated and grabs four books instantly off the shelf.

"Perfect! Quick get that book, and that one too!" You reach for a particular book she points at, this one written in what seems like medieval Latin.

"No, that one is terrible, that one!" She beckons even less clearly than before, but trial of elimination seems to win out. After decimating the bookshelf, you and Koakuma carry back the load of around twenty books. At this point, Koakuma begins sorting out the material. While most you understand, a couple are in different languages, particularly Arabic and what seems to be Hindi.

"So, read the stack closest to the chair first, then move clockwise from there. You don't need to memorize this like your science-y books, there's no test," she chuckles at her own comments, "but they'll let you understand what's going on," she finishes, moving her arms back akimbo style, clearly prideful of playing librarian.

"Hey, thank you so much, I would've been lost here without your help." She grins in response, you wonder how much she gets thanked.

"No problem, Richie! Oh, let me cook up that potion for you, it's kinda nasty so I'll put it in your coffee," she's about to take off, but you feel the need to talk to her more. She really has been the most cordial to you out of everyone in this crazy mansion.

"Hold up!" Patchouli scowls at the pair of you, she is not pleased with your exclamations. You ignore her, you've been religiously quiet when moving through the halls, any loudness turned into a weird pseudo yelled whisper. She can deal with one genuine shout. Koakuma turns to you as you walk towards her, Patchouli might scowl one second and blast you with insane magic the next, you don't want that, so you keep it quiet.

"I'm gonna study for a while, but afterwards can we, uh, hang out and, like, talk about some ideas?" you ask. Does that sound needy? What if it's interpreted the wrong way? Why is it so hard to tell when talking to a devil? Koakuma only grins as you bluster your words.

"Sure, but shouldn't you ask Miss Knowledge? She's the best at this stuff," she gazes at Patchouli, who is now furiously scratching something on parchment. one book held in a stand, the other beside her. You don't know why she's doing differential calculus in that weird Mongolian script, but you do know it's out of your league in terms of magic. The math: easy, the Mongolian: potion-able, the flower drawings and weird shapes: nope.

"That may be the issue. Ever had her try to explain her research?" Koakuma shudders at the thought.

"Right. Maybe I should help you out then. OK, I've got to go, good luck!" She's off to the kitchens, were she's probably going to brew your potion.

You return to your desk. The first book, surprisingly enough, is in English. Well, that's not the real shock. The really big hitter is the fact that the books are "Dungeons and Dragons, Fifth Edition, Player's Handbook" and "Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Master's Guide". You open up the book to see a couple of notes.

'I've heard this was a popular game in the Outside. The magic is accurate to an extent, don't worry too much about the specifics, Suffice it to say, "The Weave" is known by many names(leylines, knots, mana), but cannot manifest in the Outside world for some reason.'

You digest the books quickly. You used to play this game back when you did things with friends, and the reading level isn't too difficult. You ponder that Patchouli must be closer to a Sorcerer or Warlock than a Wizard, since she isn't human and is more like a magical aberration.

The next books are different. It's at this point that Koakuma returns with a cup of coffee and a clear vial.

"Thanks, are you gonna also be reading?" You take the vial and mix the liquid with the coffee.

"I have to keep this place up and running, but I'll sneak in some if I can," she replies, before you know it she's already disappeared. Work never seems to end here.

You look upon the "book". In truth, you see papyrus, not as old as the Greeks, but carefully recreated. The Greek Magical Papyri, in their full form. Impossible.

Apparently not. You dive into the text as the translation slowly washes over you. You notice how the spell instantly translates all text that you see, though it is important to note that as you read, you realize how wrong the translations can be. Your own studies of Greek end up being more correct than the translation, especially for the old stuff. It seems the spell translates Modern Greek.

You glean important information over elemental magic, Patchouli's specialty. It's made obvious from the loving annotations that she inscribed, little tidbits of outside magical schools, and even parts where Patchouli lampoons the similarities between Greek and Egyptian magic. You also notice the first spell is the familiar spell. The one used on you, albeit with alterations.

For a full day she fasted and even made the trek to the roof during the dead of night. You wonder how much medicine and steroids Koakuma must have fed Patchouli to allow the first part of the ritual to begin. Deep myrtle was burned to allow the link to occur, upon which she descended back down and began the process to truly contact you.

'Supernatural familiars just won't happen. Retch every time I try. Try normal.' You read Patchouli's note. The important question here is: why? Patchouli should be able to summon the angel unless some other force is stopping it. It's like physics, another force has to act on Patchouli or else the magic will keep working, so what is it? Is that the taint? Maybe if you just keep reading...

There's a section on curses, but nothing about taint. Both of them aren't really about anything Patchouli would use. One is to stop someone from victory, and the other makes someone obedient. Neither of them involve demons or elemental magic.

Those three books finish the first stack. You get the gist of magic: it unlocks some form to control energy to do very specific things. The ways people control this are why you have different names. The complex rituals aren't really necessary, and the laws of the universe still apply to a degree. For instance: energy must be maintained, and so must mass. In that case the Philosopher's Stone must be able to power these reactions, however they may occur. Another important thing is to be able to take the energy released by the reactions and store them safely, otherwise you'd have a nuclear apocalypse when you turn stone to gold.

Elemental magic is extremely complex, and requires both control and the ability to be flexible with these reactions. Fire and air are the easiest of the bunch, as they come down to the creation of a force or the creation of energy. Water and earth are the hardest because they either require a force to move water or require someone to expend energy to shift the structure of either the air or earth to create water or certain rock formations.

And some magic can't be done if you've done something else, case in point? Patchouli cannot do anything holy. She writes large notes saying things like 'Too much divinity', or 'Holy=can't' all over every holy spell. She straight out can't do it for some reason.

It's been four hours, you realize. You stretch and look around. Koakuma is off returning books, and for once Patchouli isn't looking at her books or writing some equations in it. She's looking at you.

You look back. It's an awkward stare, and in truth you're both searching each other, rather than locking eyes. Surprisingly, she's the one who speaks first.

"You're stretching too?"

"Just finished the Greek Magical Papyri" She seems embarrassed. "I really appreciated your annotations."

"It's one of my favorites. Get back to work, please," and her head is back into the book. So much for talking with her.

To your left is the next set of books. These are much more involved, and most are not in any language you know, save for a Latin translation of The Key of Solomon.

The first two books are in Arabic, and the slipshod potion only gives you a vague understanding of astrology and talisman making, but you doubt these will do much to help you. Astrology follows a complicated set of rules and diagrams, but overall you find that you'd have no purpose in it for making a Philosopher's Stone. The section on talismans more closely approaches alchemy. Essentially, when creating a talisman the goal is to have an image of nature doing its job. The ingredients are a bit too badly translated to learn any specific talisman, but you understand that the principals of astronomy, astrology, and talisman making all are inherently combined in creative that image of belief. There are no annotations in this one, though furious circling and underlining were done to this work.

The next book seems to be in Arabic, but upon closer inspection, you realize it is in fact a Latin translation. Score! This book, the Sefer Raziel Hamalach is a Kabbalian grimorie. It is filled to the brim with protective magic and rituals about angeology. The other pressing thing here is the constant talking about the days of the week. You swear you remember some analogs to East Asian magic with the days of the week. This book has almost no annotations. It seems past a certain point of the names of the angels Patchouli just stopped even trying. She did underline the section on the names of the Christian God, and even wrote them backwards in small print. interesting.

The final book is in Italian. You recall Ringo, the Japanese horror movie, as the spell translates the book's name: Heptameron, or Seven Days. The book is a huge astrological and elemental grimoire, noting every day of the week, every hour of every day and every night. It shows large runic sigils and even seasonal differences in magic. You can gleam an understanding of Patchouli's adaptation of the holy magic into elemental magic.

You can't really think all too well anymore. You realize you've worked for eight hours, the little bits of light you'd see in the library have turned to a shimmering twilight. You get up off your desk for a much needed stretch, taking both the books you've read and your science books with you. Patchouli is still working, but you realize she isn't going to last much longer.

"Do you want to relax for a bit? It's been eight hours," you ask. Patchouli sighs before turning to you.

"Thanks for the offer Richard, but I'm pretty close deriving a new formula that might work." She looks back at her book. You feel you could probably convince her to leave that behind and walk with you, but if she's adamant on not moving you aren't one to force her.

"Oh before I forget, your next exam is in two days, I'll transport you tommorrow night." Didn't she just try to avoid sending you back and forth? Maybe the loose control over your mind by the contract also has an effect on her.

"Good to know, thanks." You walk towards the kitchens, Koakuma is sitting on a small table, lazily reading a shoddy young adult novel. At least it's not Divergent.

"Hey there. I'm done for now, how's the book?" You take a seat next to her, arranging each book of yours in an easy to reach fashion.

"Hey, Richard. This one's alright. What are your ideas, questions, comments, and/or concerns?" she playfully asks. Time to ask away.

What are you questions?
[x] Why can't Patchouli do any holy magic?
[x] What is taint?
[x] Just what is Patchouli's elemental magic?
[x] Write in

What are some solutions for the Philosopher's Stone?
[x] Use talisman magic to power the changing of elements and power it using enthalpy of formation of various things
[x] Use astrological signs to gain the energy, you only need to find a way to change the chemical composition
[x] Maybe you should read some more to gain more knowledge... you aren't ready to throw around ideas.
[x] Write in

After this conversation, what will you do?
[x] Eat
[x] Sleep
[x] Talk to someone? (write in who you want to socialize with if this is the case)
[x] Study for your exams
[x] Keep studying magic
[x] Write in

I want to mention a couple of things. Firstly, the very best option for each route will always be a write-in using knowledge gained from the text. I actually skimmed all the books Richard read, so don't be afraid to be creative. That's not to say a good option can't be done by using the choices given, but for Best Ending 100% you're probs gonna have to get creative in certain places. Secondly, expect slower updates for a while, it took me a while to make this but I feel I've given some decent mágicks knowledge so it was worth it. Thirdly, science route will require you to give me some decent science. The answers given should already be a hint as well as Richard's explanation of magic.

[x] Why can't Patchouli do any holy magic?
[x] What is taint?
[x] Maybe you should read some more to gain more knowledge... you aren't ready to throw around ideas.
[x] Eat.

Your Koa is adorable.

[x] Is it possible that Patchouli's inability to perform holy magic and her failure to summon a supernatural familiar are connected? Is the underlying cause of the former somehow connected to the latter? She was trying to summon an angel.

Or was the implication that she was trying to summon a fallen angel? Or that angels aren't holy? I know very little about things like this.

[x] Is there a physical reason why magical energy is released in different forms, and why those forms are so specific? Has there ever been any research on this topic? If we can determine how magical energy is controlled, we may be able to manipulate it more precisely.

Why work with phlogiston if we can discover hydrogen and oxygen?

[x] Study for your exams.

[x] Why can't Patchouli do any holy magic?

Seems like something we should work on if we can, could make things much easier in the long run.

[x] What is taint?

Can't fix it if we don't know what we're dealing with!

[x] Use astrological signs to gain the energy, you only need to find a way to change the chemical composition

We're already pretty good at chemistry, right? Seems like this would be playing to our strengths.

[x] Study for your exams

Gotta be the very best like no one ever was!

Right, I really want to update soon, but currently we're locked. I'm gonna be eating tacos till Saturday, and if there isn't a clear cut winner I'll just have Richard ask all the suggestions. That is, unless not asking wins out.

>>63469
I second these.

Thirding >>63469
.

Questions, in order of precedence:
[x] What is taint?
-[x] Should I be worried about it as well?
[x] Why can't Patchouli do any holy magic?
[x] How could I find out more about the correspondence between the elements and the days of the week?

Solutions:
[x] Maybe you should read some more to gain more knowledge... you aren't ready to throw around ideas.
-[x] Consider deeper research into talismans and astrology together. Don't discount angeology either.

Afterwards:
[x] Study for your exams.
[x] Peruse for some casual bedtime reading.
-[x] Surely there's a good tome on daemonology or two around here.

>Ringo
In seven days, she'll come for your dango. How horrifying.

>You feel you could probably convince her to leave that behind and walk with you, but if she's adamant on not moving you aren't one to force her.
I guess that's why she's called the Great Unmoving Library dohoho

Jokes aside, if I can draw on a bit of meta-knowledge here, we should be looking into the Daoist(? Confucian? Whatever Chinese philosophical basis it was) reckoning of the elements in the near future. Or I guess we could just lean basic Japanese. Either way, it'll be key to understanding the correspondence of the elements and the days of the week.

Also, I'm starting to think, based on the language shenanigans, that we ought to pour some efforts into adding another language to our repetoire. In particular, the dead-end when it comes to talismans seems tempting to follow up on. If we knew Arabic, we might have a shot at some good alchemy knowledge. Perhaps we can leverage Patchy's performance-enhancing magic in remedying the issue?

(By the way, I'm personally curious as to how that translation potion is supposed to influence our ability to comprehend. Does it give any comprehension of the underlying structures of the words, or does it just transmit their face meaning? That could be an important consideration for dealing with things written in Hebrew or Greek, considering numerological considerations are heavy in those brands of magick, and that would be pretty critical if we pursue anything angelic.)

Incidentally, while it might be tempting to lean on magic to solve tricky problems, given that we don't understand the nature of taint or flux yet, we don't really know if it could happen to us as well. Who knows what sort of cumulative effects that enhancement magic and potions could have on us, even in the short-to-mid term? We ought to be careful until we have a firmer grasp on that sort of stuff. Even if we get reliable-sounding information, we probably still ought to air on the side of caution.

That's why I'm thinking the solution will come from carefully finding parallels within our hard sciences by which to extend magic -- or vice-versa. If we use magical assistance, it should be done conservatively and towards an end of acquiring knowledge and a greater understanding of how it can be applied vis-a-vis science.

Finally, just for fun, we could look into a bit of daemonology. Koakuma seems like a good friend to have, and why shouldn't we understand our friends a little better?

P.S. I wouldn't call this a hard-and-fast 'rule' (inasmuch as there are rules about writing), but I think it's a good guideline to live by when it comes to dialogue:

Group actions with dialogue by who the actors are.

In other words, as a singular example,

>"Just finished the Greek Magical Papyri" She seems embarrassed. "I really appreciated your annotations."

>"It's one of my favorites. Get back to work, please," and her head is back into the book. So much for talking with her.

even though this is more or less clear in-context it's a little bit of a bad practise. If my eye shifted down from a paragraph or three above, for instance, this would read differently, and I might attribute the dialogue to the wrong character.

The naive solution would be as simple as

>"Just finished the Greek Magical Papyri. I really appreciated your annotations."

>She seems embarrassed. "It's one of my favorites. Get back to work, please," and her head is back into the book. So much for talking with her.

See? There's more of a clear bounds between who's doing and saying what.

(Also, personally, it's not very effective just saying 'she seems embarrassed' there. Something as simple as a flush of the cheek or an averted gaze works just as well. But that's beyond the scope of what I'm illustrating.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you may understand who's doing what in a particular scene, but do keep in mind that we don't necessarily know. Anything you can do to make things clearer to us is a good thing, even if that's just attaching different bits of text to different bits of text.

A mix of >>63474 and >>63469 since those two theories in the latter seem like a good idea to look at.

Did it died?

it did died, didn't it?