Matou Shinji and the Broken Chains (HP/FSN CYOA)

[Skull Leader]

The Bearest of mages may wish to kill Shinji, but his attack is shit. We are so much better in desingagement, it's not even arrogance to ignore him. And I still treasure the thought of raising Fusion on the next level through better understanding of Shinji's connection to spirits (also, that sleazy guy inside of our Wakame, never forget that one). But maybe that's just a wishful thinking.

This might be a little strong but how in the hell can you consider Mischa's attack weak? He was able to fight back several champions almost by himself. Lestrange did not injure herself in the Potion Champion Brawl. Olu was not hurt solely cause of the form he was in is one of the most tanky forms someone can be. Mischa is not going to let another Matou run away from justice. You can not simply ignore the pissed off Bear in the room.

On a scale of 0 to 10 on how much Mischa hates Shinji, he is at 11 at the moment. Shinji is the ancestor to his family's most hated enemy as well as having killed one of the only champions that Mischa friends on the island. At this point Mischa has became wrath incarnated. Relying on simping keeping one step ahead of Mischa or running away is not a good plan. At some point Mischa is going to find Shinji and kill him. If not on this island, then later after the championship where he can call in help to kill the grandson of Russian's Enemy Number 1.

While I am curious about learning about Shamen, ultimately this Shinji is never going to be a Shamen. He already has enough skills that he is already learning to try jumping into a complete new Skill Tree on a whim. This Shinji is already has Eastern Wizard/Assassin/Alchemist skill trees to explore more. Starting another skill tree that he only explores in the most shallow way is counter productive of his goals. I would not turn down the knowledge if presented it but actively seeking it when there are far more important things to do seems silly to me.

[X] Information on Mischa

[Malgos]

Information on Mischa

.

[sileaf]

While I am curious about learning about Shamen, ultimately this Shinji is never going to be a Shamen. He already has enough skills that he is already learning to try jumping into a complete new Skill Tree on a whim. This Shinji is already has Eastern Wizard/Assassin/Alchemist skill trees to explore more. Starting another skill tree that he only explores in the most shallow way is counter productive of his goals. I would not turn down the knowledge if presented it but actively seeking it when there are far more important things to do seems silly to me.

Agreed.

If i recall, eastern wizard/onmyoudo deals extensively with spirits as seen on mahoutokoro.
so pursuing eastern arts seems to be in line with learning how to utilize fusion and perseus's power.

( I kind of wish Shinji to take on fujou's boon for himself. They could have helped him find teacher or teach him)

I think Shinji direly need to be more aggressive in learning all he can.
This championship has shown him again and again that it takes his all (and even at cost) to survive, let alone winning (he is now out of championship for good).

I

[Malorius]

Skull Leader, everything you pointed out proves that Bearest is good at stationary spellwork. That's not really all that there is to offence from my opinion, more like aggressive defence. You position yourself and control territory. Mobility is essential for attack and Mikhail is shit in that regard.

That's not really important though. I largely disagree with your assumptions that those things will matter.

I figured out that you guys are interested in information on Russian Wonder only to be prepared for his attack and be reactive, as we usually are in such things. But... If we choose to get our act together and be responsible, then we have to take care of the guy ourselves. We need to track him down, approach stealthily - and I'd like to take a moment to gush over finally getting the Mantle - and kill him. One decisive act of murder. His offence will matter little then, only his sensitivity and wards. So we better strike him on the move, not when he barricaded himself and lies asleep. If Alfa strike fails, we disengage and try again later, because the guy can't follow. Repeat until success.

We even have an IC justification for cold-blooded murder now! After we are done with main quest, of course. Not sure how it meshes with our promise to Rachel though.

About Shaman stuff. I actually agree. We don't have time for new skill tree. What I wanted were some low hanging fruit of spirit lore and detection spells which we lack despite our self-proclaimed proficiency in Eastern skills.

But that's more of a personal desire, so I don't intend to sway anybody on my side.

[alfheimwanderer]

Choice 357: [x] Information on Mischa

---

Chapter 88. Daybreak

His appetites sated by hot stew and pleasant company, Matou Shinji drifted off to the land of dreams. And in his dreams, he wandered through a world where grey-white what overlaid by lines of light and darkness, a world he thought he remembered.

‘This place…I’ve seen it before.’

He’d dreamed of it during the preliminaries, when he’d taken a nap in the purified shrine, in the room where Ramona was brewing one of her potions.

‘And now I’m seeing it again. After falling asleep quite close to her.’

Relatively speaking, anyway. It wasn’t as if he was lying next to her or anything, but he was within a space under her control, and so might as well be surrounded by her. An odd thought, that.

Still, he didn’t think the fact that he was seeing this place again was a coincidence.

What was it that shopkeeper in Mahoutokoro had been so fond of saying? That “there is no such thing as a coincidence in this world. There is only the inevitable”? There was more than a grain of truth to that.

Still, what did all this mean? The flickers of darkness, the pulsing of grey in white and white in grey, the whispers, the buzzing, the song? Now and then, as he walked about, he could almost pick out patterns in the chaos, but these strands of meaning broke down when he stopped and looked more closely, dissolving once again to incoherent background noise.

Maybe there was a lesson there, in how things seemed to make sense in motion, but broke down once he stopped.

‘Am I…’ he wondered, as he started walking again, seeing the shards of dreaming, desire, ambition, begin to form into some arrangement he almost thought he recognized, only to scatter once he stopped. ‘Are my movements affecting things?’

He couldn’t quite be sure, for the very act of observation seemed to alter what it was he saw.

So he kept walking, and walking, but not looking – not really, as something emerged from the center of the chaos.

‘That shape…’

Was that…a shape?

An irregular thing to be sure, with smaller shapes super-imposed on its edges. Patterns on patterns, dispersed in a not-quite fractal. Nodes of silent grey, ripples of radiant singing white, blossoming into a thousand iridescent shades and hues.

…crystallized mystery distorting reality, beyond the ability of the human mind to take in all at once.

‘Is this…the island? What it looks like from some strange angle?’

There was a sound like gentle laughter, carried by a non-existent breeze, and when Matou Shinji turned, his eyes opened upon the waking world once more.

---

‘It’s dark,’ he noted, sitting up and looking around to find that the sun had not yet risen upon the world, though the gloom was beginning to lighten, with the shadows of trees lengthening and stretching out across the land. ‘And…the fire hasn’t gone out.’

Had Ramona not put it out before she went to sleep? He knew she’d taken second watch, after he’d turned in for the night, but it was unlike her to be so irresponsi—

And then his thoughts dried up as he caught sight of a familiar figure sitting by the fire, peering into the flickering flames with pale golden eyes.

“Good morning, master," Zelkova spoke, turning to nod at the onmyouji. “Did you sleep well?”

It was a nostalgic gesture, and one he’d found he’d missed.

“You’re back,” he whispered, his voice catching in his throat. “I-I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever see you again.”

"Do not worry, Master. While I was grievously injured, the ministrations of Miss Labelle and Miss Ahgeak were greatly helpful in speeding my recovery,” the kodama answered, turning back to the fire. “It is unusual to find one who can create a sanctuary for spirits without a physical structure to work with.”

“In your experience, or from that of the Great Tree?” the boy questioned.

“The knowledge of whence I came is also mine, just as all I have learned will one day become part of a greater whole,” his familiar answered. “Humans…and those like them, are different. They stand alone, or at least believe they do, unaware of the way they as a collective can reshape the world itself. To perceive, to observe, is to change, whether one is in the present seeing what the future may hold, or one is looking back at the past and dismissing the glories of an age.”

“…you seem different,” Shinji observed. Yes, his mind was still foggy from sleep, but he didn’t think Zelkova had been one to wax philosophical.

That was, if it was really philosophy, and not an attempt at describing the inner workings of the world.

“Perhaps I am, at that,” the kodama answered. “But neither were you left unchanged by your ordeals. Even if you have forgotten.”

"...my...ordeals?" the British Champion echoed in a hollow tone, before realization struck him. "You. You know what happened. You remember."

"Not everything, and I am unsure how much your mind could bear if I were to share what I know,” Zelkova noted. “Some of it, I believe your mind has suppressed to keep you sane. The rest is unclear, as it was when I was roused from inactivity.”

“Oh?”

“An ancient spell poured itself into you, Master,” the familiar related. "Its energies burned through you, through your nerves, through your channels, through your vessels and soul, searching for something it recognized.”

“And…?”

“It found what it sought, and sent you near to one of the scattered pieces of self you left behind. Your wand – my current vessel – was sent with you, due to the bond between us, as were your vials, as they are laced with your energies.”

There was a heavy moment of silence.

“I see,” Shinji said. “And my clothes?”

“They were not of you, and so were destroyed,” the tree spirit reported.

The British Champion couldn't help but wince at that. While his outer layers had been nothing special, the enchanted underarmor made by his former Master, was priceless, even damaged as it was. Without it, he lacked access to superhuman speed, strength, and other such outside of fusion…
‘Well, not that those things were so useful the last time I got into a fight. Even with those, I lost an arm and a leg.’

If his former master had not been able – and willing – to create replacements for him, replacements through which he could still somehow feel and interact with the world…

‘No, thinking about the what-ifs is madness. I’m alive, and not unarmed, so I need to be satisfied with that.’

Or so he told himself.

"But what of you, Zelkova?” he questioned, as he got to his feet, finding that his aches and pains had all but disappeared. “You were changed as well, you said?”

…perhaps this was related to why both of his mental partitions were accessible once more, after he’d gone through a week of one not even registering as existing.

"I thought it would be best if you did not bear the burden of another soul all on your own, Master," Zelkova answered quietly, looking down. "A human – or near-human – cannot bear the strain, especially when the soul is far…denser than your own. In trying, you nearly destroyed your mind.”

“Destroyed my…wait, denser?”

"Heavy with mystery,” the kodama answered, turning to look at Shinji with old eyes.

“What did you do?” the boy asked – no – demanded. “With this soul?”

“I fused with it, Master – or at least a portion of it, whatever you could not withstand,” Zelkova replied. “It is…an unusual experience, to be sure.”

Shinji swallowed.

I'm sorry. You always seem to get the worst of things when you're working with me."

"I would not say so," the other noted mildly. "For in experiencing new things, I learn about aspects of the world I did not know existed, about sensations I did not previously understand.” The tree spirit smiled ever so slightly. “And through what transpired, I have attained the gift of flight.”

"Flight?" Shinji echoed numbly. “But how…?

To demonstrate, the kodama stood and rose into the air, with the would-be onmyouji only belatedly noticing the small wings that now sprouted from the sides of the spirit avatar's feet.

“To join the birds in the air, to be free as the zephyrs. To soar unbound – it is a wondrous thing indeed."

“…couldn’t you already do that when dematerizalized?”

“Yes, but it is not the same, as no doubt you know, Master,” the familiar rejoined. “For those of spirit perceive things differently from those of flesh. When I move as a spirit, I do not feel the wind rushing past me, I do not note the distance between myself and the ground. I do not truly feel fear or anticipation – not as I do when in this form.”

"Indeed so," another voice spoke, with Ramona sitting up from her bedroll on the other side of the flames, having been roused from her own slumber by the sounds of voices. "Form shapes function, after all.” She smiled slightly, blinking the sleep from her eyes. “Good morning, Matou. And Zelkova, thank you for taking the 3^rd watch."

“It was no trouble, Miss Ahgeak,” the kodama replied politely, with Shinji only looking between them.

‘When…did they meet?’

“If you are curious, your familiar returned while I was on watch,” the Champion of Qausuittuq supplied. “He was kind enough to take over, that I might catch a few hours of rest.”

“Only fitting, after you took in my Master and fed him,” Zelkova answered, with a deferential nod. “And it is no great labor to commune with the spirits you have gathered.”

“So, it isn’t,” Ramona mused, rising from her bedroll to rummage around again. “So, will you and your Master be staying for breakfast, or will you be heading off? I think I have enough if you want to join me for just a bit."

Caught off guard by the offer, Matou Shinji had to think about Ramona's question for close to a minute he answered.

On the one hand, the notion of breakfast was personally appealing, as he was quite hungry, even after the tasty meal last night – that, and last night had taught him that her cooking was fantastic. As well, an extra hour at her camp was an extra hour of safety, given that it was probably well-defended against threats from outside.

On the other, he had already lost a day due to his misadventures, and every moment that he and Zelkova spent near Ramona – a specialist whose powers stemmed from interacting with spirits – was another for her to study them.

‘Not that she probably hasn’t done so already, and that she can’t ask the spirits she communes with about what Zelkova had to say.’

Still, as dangerous as it might be for a competitor to know his capabilities, the boy grudgingly admitted that if she'd wanted him dead or to seek an advantage over him, she could have simply left him for dead – or killed him herself while he was helpless. So…

"...I wouldn't mind staying," he hazarded, glancing at his familiar, who had alighted on the ground once more. "But I'll leave it up to you, Zelkova."

"Then by all means, stay, Master," the kodama said deferentially. "This place is safe enough, and you should recover your strength before setting out. I will keep watch until you are ready to depart." He bowed slightly to Ramona, as he rose higher into the air and vanished into the sky. "My thanks for caring for my master in his time of need," his voice called after them.

Ramona waved it off.

"As I said, I was just being a decent human being. You don't have to thank me for that," she noted, knowing that Zelkova probably wouldn’t hear – but that Shinji would, and could pass it along. "I would have done the same for anyone." She paused. "Well, except maybe that Russian fellow - there's something…off about him."

"...off you say?" Shinji inquired, eyes narrowing. "What do you mean, ‘off?’"

"Just that the spirits on the island don't seem like him very much. He's...intense, and not in a good way."

Hearing Ramona's comment on the Russian champion, Shinji was curious as to what she meant - especially as he knew that Mischa was no friend of his.

Indeed, given that his...intervention at the end of the preliminaries had caused the Russian champion no end of pain. Quite literally, in this case, as he had heard that the other's wounds – grievous, ugly burns with metal melted into his body – utterly refused to heal, with the only thing keeping him in the Competition being a combination of sheer willpower and a suit of enchanted armor that supported and enhanced his failing body.

'It's just too bad he didn't die too...' the boy thought to himself, shaking his head. 'That would have made things simpler.'

Admittedly, he did feel a little disgusted at himself for wishing for someone's death, but given that the Russian Champion had been quite clear about his enmity - and apparently had been asked by Slughorn to...eliminate the wayward British Champion, well...

'Better him than me.'

By now, he was fairly certain that the Russian had been the one to push him off the building during the ill-fated manly picnic too, so he had…quite a debt to settle with Misha.

‘And whatever is going on with that guy, however big a threat he is, I’m pretty certain I can handle him,’ Shinji thought to himself. Lestrange had hurt him quite badly herself, and Shinji didn’t exactly consider himself a slouch in combat…

…he’d better not be, since in this competition, his strength as a combatant was perhaps the only thing that might give him an edge.

He was less confident about his potions brewing abilities – which had effectively been crippled with the loss of the Book of Potions, and about his stealth capabilities, especially as it was very strange to be in spirit form. The Elixir of Fading, while useful in many ways, still transformed him from human to spirit, and if it made him more resilient against physical damage, made him more susceptible to other things.
Granted, he didn't remember any occasion where such had actually harmed him yet, but there was no point in leaving things to chance – not when he had the chance to consult with someone whose skillset was based around working with spirits.

"You're a shaman, right?" he hazarded, as Ramona bustled about, busying herself with making breakfast out of what remained of the stew, and a leavening of herbs and…some kind of grain. Her motions were efficient and practiced, betraying long experience at this sort of wilderness cooking.

"I am," she confirmed, as she ladled two bowls of stuff from the pot, handing him one. "You've seen as much. What of it?"

‘Huh. How nostalgic indeed...’

The contents appeared to be nanakusa-gayu - a rice porridge thick with herbs that was eaten shortly after the new year as a way to banish evil, even if the herbs were not what he was used to, and generous chunks of vorpal rabbit floated in it.

This, Shinji found interesting, given that he didn't know that people from America knew of such foods – but then, she'd cooked a French stew for dinner, and seemed to be on decent terms with the former Champion, who was at least partially Japanese, so he supposed he shouldn't be too surprised she knew how to make other dishes.

"Well,” he said, as they settled in to eat. “I was wondering...if you had any advice.” His lips curved into a wry, self-deprecating smile as he spoke, shaking his head. "Not about the tournament or brewing. Just about working with spirits. Understanding them. That sort of thing."

"I would have thought that practicing the Eastern arts and having a powerful familiar would you enough with such," the Champion of Qausuittuq chided, glancing over at where Zelkova had taken flight once more, and was now doing some mid-air acrobatics. "Especially as you have a good enough relationship that you can utilize spiritual fusion."

"...that's true," the boy admitted, hesitating for a moment. "But, if I’m honest, I’m nowhere near as skilled as someone who has been just studying onmyoudo, and even if I rely on my familiar.” Shinji sighed. “If he's around, he can share his senses with me and help me better understand the world of spirits. But if he's not..."

"Ah, you mean if he is damaged, such as during the preliminaries."

"...yes."

She quirked an eyebrow at the boy.

"Do you have another way of interacting with spirits and seeing them, then?" Ramona questioned, her expression curious. "Something which renders you more...open to them – like me?"

"...and if I did?" Shinji questioned. "What advice would you have?"

"I suppose that would depend if it was something you learned how to do, or an ability that you gained through something like...drinking a potion," the young woman responded, with the boy stiffening as her words hit the mark. "I see. In that case, answer a question for me: do you retain physical form, or do you become like a spirit yourself?"

"...the latter."

"I take it you are aware that spirits do not see the world as we do, then?"

"I'd gathered that much," Shinji replied, remembering how whether there was light really didn't seem to matter, yet how the presence – or absence – of prana did.

"Some spirits – like your familiar – are existences that can think and communicate as we do. They have a higher consciousness, and such have something of free will. Others, like simple nature spirits or degraded human ghosts, do not." She shook her head, chuckling a bit. "They drift, you could say, drawn to things like them, though their drifting can be directed. The kagura of shrine maidens, for example, create echoes and eddies in the spirit world, the ritual of their forms creating change – though in the absence of other energies, such the scope of such change is...limited."

"Huh. Is that the principle behind something like a rain dance?"

"Essentially. What you have to remember is that the spiritual is not as unaffected by the physical as you may imagine."

"And the reverse, can the spiritual affect the physical?"

"In some ways. When the spirits in question are aspects of nature, certainly. Else, there are cases where human ghosts holding very strong grudges lose their memory and form, becoming only curses. You may have heard of poltergeists?"

"Ah," Shinji nodded. "I never thought about those, actually. So those are just curses, basically. Not spirits anymore?" He paused. "So, can you deal with those curses as well?"

"It's not impossible," Ramona mentioned, "though spirits of nature are far more malleable than living curses or human ghosts, at least for my arts. Should you become something like a spirit, I do not think you need concern yourself with spirits of nature. Rather, you should be wary of the dead, the curses they leave behind, and the various things that might compel a spirit."

"...I don't suppose something like a song might do?" he asked, remembering the dream he'd had of nodes of shadow in a world of white, with whispers, song, and a strange buzzing.

"For something that resonates with an aspect of them, yes," came the answer. "Like calls to like, after all - so the more spirits of like nature there are in a space, the louder the song - the greater the resonance. That is, incidentally, how one can use even the simplest of spirits to accomplish large scale interventions."

"...like using a phoenix feather to call forth the concept of revival or healing. Turning an echo into the real thing, no matter how temporarily."

"More or less," Ramona agreed. "If you truly can take the form of a spirit, you might be able to leverage this greater resonance for yourself – but be wary, lest you be lost in it yourself."

"...I'll keep that in mind."

​This information on spirit resonance was intriguing to Shinji, not just because he liked to know some of the basic theory behind how things worked, but because it had some disturbing implications with regards to Mischa's and how the spirits didn't like him. He knew from previous observation that Ramona, to a spirit, seemed like a void to be filled, something that allowed her to draw them into herself easily. If Mischa, by contrast, could be described as intense...

"But back to the Russian…you said something was ‘off’ about him,” the boy commented, as his thoughts whirled furiously. "What did you mean by that?"

Ramona paused, looking over at the British Champion, and slowly weighing just what she should say.

"Ever since his...injury, he's been...different," the young woman said after a minute. "To a spirit, he's less a person than a human-shaped pyre, consuming everything around it to sustain its own existence."

"Well, that armor of his probably does need a good bit of magical energy," Shinji temporized. "Maybe that's it?"

She shook her head.

"It's not just magical energy he consumes," Ramona stated grimly. "He consumes spirits as well, much as certain types of vampires must consume the blood of others to maintain their physical forms."

"What." Shinji was aghast at hearing this. What kind of person...what kind of creature consumed spirits, if they weren't spirits themselves? "You say he wasn't like this before his injury?"

"Well, the spirits still didn't like him, but...back then, it was as if the pyre was only smoking," the Champion of Qausuittuq related, shaking her head. "Now it is ablaze." She fixed Shinji with a serious expression. "You know he will try and kill you, right?"

"...he has to catch me first," the boy quipped, with a confidence that he really didn't feel. "And to do that, he has to find me. Its a big island. There's every chance I won't run across him."

"And if you do?"

The question, though asked in a mild tone, cut him to the quick.

"...I'll think of something," the boy replied after a time. "I mean, I'm not exactly helpless, you know?"

"It's true, you are not," Ramona remarked. "But then, no Champion is, not even your foe."

Shinji grimaced.

"Fair point," he conceded, finishing the rest of his porridge in silence, before handing her his empty bowl. "I should probably be heading off. I've bothered you for long enough."

"It wasn't really a bother," the Inupiat girl said, waving him off. "But yes, allow me to get you your wand, your vials, and the replacement brewing supplies I mentioned."

"Right."

He watched as the girl leaned over to a sack by her bedroll and retrieved his wand and potions vials, handing them to him.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Don't mention it," Ramona replied, turning to rummage about once more. "Now, this cauldron you lost...was it a gold cauldron or a silver cauldron?"

"...neither of them," the boy replied, wondering if she was actually asking, or if she was - like Hermes in The Honest Axe - testing his honesty while already knowing the answer. 'Though she couldn't know, could she? It's not as if I ever took my supplies out in front of her, since she was the brewer.'

"Good," came the answer, the Inupiat girl handed him a flattened disk of metal, along with a stir-stick, a pestle, and what looked a shallow bowl of stone, but on closer look had several articulated pirces. "These should do then?"

"...a collapsible cauldron...and mortar, too?" Shinji commented, blinking. "Are you sure I can take these?"

"Pays to travel light when one is out here," Ramona replied. "Besides, they're spares. My pot – also collapsible, by the way – is rated as a high-quality cauldron, you know?"

"Heh." Shinji almost laughed, considering how prepared this other champion seemed to be compared to him. "Well...thanks. I...I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it, really. You're doing me a favor by lightening my pack," the Champion of Qausuittuq quipped, at which point, the boy did laugh – but just a bit.

"I'll take your word for it."

"Please do."

The boy called to Zelkova in his mind, with the kodama acknowledging his master’s intent and dropping out of the sky by his side.

“Let’s go,” he said, and the two left the clearing far behind, going to seek their destiny.

---

Choice 358: What are Shinji's top two priorities as he sets out into the wilderness?

[ ] Reaching the center of the island, where the ruins are - that's where he knows Elesa will be eventually
[ ] Getting a good vantage point of the island as a whole so he knows where he is
[ ] Foraging - he needs food and water if he's going to survive for any length of time
[ ] Looking for unusual potions ingredients
[ ] Testing his abilities, and finding out what the heck is up with this mantle
[ ] (write-in)

[sileaf]

[x] Testing his abilities, and finding out what the heck is up with this mantle

Edit: changing
[x] Getting a good vantage point of the island as a whole so he knows where he is

[Malorius]

[x] Testing his abilities, and finding out what the heck is up with this mantle

That's a given. Sweet Murder Mantle, we will finially be together... Forever.

[ ] Foraging - he needs food and water if he's going to survive for any length of time

Make a bit of a supply stock to not bother with distractions of physical needs while we go full on Adventure time. Memories left behind have to be harvested, we can't let the mystery remain unresolved. (Also, loot.)

Really not sure about that write-in, sileaf. It sounds like a neat but time consuming task, and while we are not pressed by our hunger anymore, that will not last.

[sileaf]

It is his top two priorities... I am of impression that he will find food when he is hungry, but it isn't on top of his list.

Kind of like setting a goal?
Foraging is more necessity rather than goal.
He can just eat whatever attacked him.

Besides, Shinji doesn't have anywhere to store them...does he?

[Malorius]

Right, we are down to storage space of normal pockets on our conjured clothes. Since we don't intend to set up camp, but prefer to stay on the move, that's important. Unless we have some helpful utility ofuda?.. Yeah, don't think so.

Good thinking.

Alf, does sileaf's investigation idea require a full action? Maybe it can be integrated in story anyway since its fairly intuitive clue from Zelkova and close to Shinji's current location.

#TotallyNotGamingTheSystem

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Zelkova has informed him that the door has sent him near scattered pieces he left behind. Investigate this pieces. Ramona's mention of spirit resonance can be used to find them. Perhaps while in fusion form.

That "piece of himself" is the flow ofuda he left with Ramona. It is why he appeared somewhere near her, and not elsewhere.

As for storage space, you still have your potions satchel, and a knapsack of sorts included with the stuff Ramona gave you.

[sileaf]

That "piece of himself" is the flow ofuda he left with Ramona. It is why he appeared somewhere near her, and not elsewhere.

As for storage space, you still have your potions satchel, and a knapsack of sorts included with the stuff Ramona gave you.

Ah...i thought it was a chain quest.... o///o

Revising then

[Malorius]

[x] Getting a good vantage point of the island as a whole so he knows where he is

Orienting is important. We know very little about our surroundings, time to fix that. Elesa's a patient girl.

I think.

Anyway, having a high ground is important for any fighting scenario.

[Skull Leader]

[X] Reaching the center of the island, where the ruins are - that's where he knows Elesa will be eventually

Remember how we signed an agreement on helping Elesa? See I do not want to run afoul with that so we need to not jerk around doing other things when we have this semi-understood magical agreement to follow that might start acting against Shinji if he continues to do everything but find Elesa.

Orienting might be important in this endeavor but ulimately its not that we want to know where we are but that we NEED to find Elesa. For the sake of Shinji's continued health.

[X] Testing his abilities, and finding out what the heck is up with this mantle

I can go with this as we really do need to work out the kinks in his magic after the day before events as well as need to understand this mantle.

[Malorius]

Well, let's hope that we won't get severe debuffs to rolls on Elesa action without orientation. My, I really hope that we won't stumble on someone unfriendly when we blindly stumble across the island in search of it's center!

As long as we vaguely move towards our goal, the contract shouldn't be an issue. We don't intend to renege.

[alfheimwanderer]

Ah...i thought it was a chain quest.... o///o

I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression, but remember that deep down, he actually does remember what happened with the Jinn and such - his conscious mind is simply blocking his access to these memories to protect itself. So far, you're going down the Labyrinth Exploration chain, having missed one quest hook that involved the ocean.

[Malorius]

Now I want to go back to the dungeons and explore it even more. Ugh. Good job triggering my inner completionist, Alf. Now I have to throttle him again.

Was "ocean" a part of Labyrinth quest? Or a side quest? Since we can't act on it anymore and don't intend to explore until after main quest, I think a small thing like this won't matter. Right?

[alfheimwanderer]

Was "ocean" a part of Labyrinth quest? Or a side quest? Since we can't act on it anymore and don't intend to explore until after main quest, I think a small thing like this won't matter. Right?

That would have been a side quest.

[Malgos]

Vantage point to find Elesa.

[alfheimwanderer]

Vantage point to find Elesa.

You can choose two priorities, Malgos.

[Malgos]

You can choose two priorities, Malgos.

Thank you for the heads up and sorry for not making it more obvious but those were supposed to be the two priorities.

I thought the vantage choice would be good to be able to find the safest way to meet up with Elesa. If he knows where potential enemies could be on his way and the lay of the land it would allow him to get the most use out of his stealth and movement skills to get there. To me it just seems like these two choices go together really well, but if they're a bit redundant then I'll probably change out the vantage point one for something else maybe foraging, since you never know what could happen.