Journal Quest

[Vindictus]

Let's think outside the box here, people.

We're in a library. Let's read some books!

 

[Tackyseven]

I am all for that.
We might actually learn something.

 

[shaderic]

Another piece of advice:

Don't trust the journal.

We only want to be entertained.

Following the breeze seems as sane a course of action as anything else. You hardly know anything, so whatever gives you more information about where you are and why is good.

Dance, puppet.

Click to shrink...

And if this isn't ominous, I don't know the meaning of the word.

Remember people if we want the entertainment to continue we have to keep him alive and arguably healthy so play nice!


what do you call yourself journal holder?

Click to shrink...

My name's Kurtis. That's about all I trust you with, right now.

The follow the breaze idea sounds like it could work.

Also if you wish to know this entity/personality/whichever term you wish to use calls itself Malcolmo.
Guys you may wish to introduce yourselves.

Click to shrink...

Uh, hello?

Of course where are my manners?

You can call me Seven

Click to shrink...

... Seven. I mean, Malcomo at least sounds like a name, but this is a number.

What kind of evidence would you accept?

Click to shrink...

Well, it's more like this is a book I picked up off a shelf. My first thought was that the book is sentient somehow, rather than transmitting words between me and several other people. But, I'm willing to believe you guys on this one.

So... you're not from Spacebattles? About half a year ago there were a bunch of incidents of people ending up in various fictional universes with a journal that connected to a forum thread on there. Or, at least, fiction with that as a premise. You yourself may be fictional; I haven't really had any evidence to suggest otherwise, to be honest.

Click to shrink...

Well, I do hang out at SB from time to time but... Wait a minute. Hold the phone.

Hold the god damn phone.

Are you telling me, that I'm in some kind... ROB scenario? Those aren't real. They're just stories.

Then again, reality and I aren't exactly getting along too well right now. As rationalizations of the situation go, this one isn't exactly the worst of them. I could always be in a coma.

Well, since you're talking like this isn't SB, where exactly am I transmitting to? And what's it read as 'over there'?

Anyway, I'm Random832 - I'm not going to sign my name to everything, but if what you're saying about us each having different handwriting works out you should be able to tell.

Click to shrink...

... I'm going to call you Ran. Because 'Random832' works as a username, not practical name.

And Seven? You are now Sven. I am now imagining you as a big, burly Russian dude, with a dark mustache thick enough to pain with.

*Snip*
Do not adjust your book.

This is perfectly normal.

There is a simple truth involved here with what you're reading in this journal.

What if we had ideas that could think for themselves?

What if one day our dreams and nightmares no longer needed us?

When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The Time of Tanuki.

~ A tanuki what goes auuu in the night.

But seriously, keep walking calmly into the wind~

Click to shrink...

What the...

You're fucking with me, aren't you?

Bii, the fuck are you doing? Acting like the big shot that you are not will frighten the lad. :/

Click to shrink...

Glad to see I'm not the only who thinks so.

Huh. Bii + Tanuki = Sounds like Biigoh. Well, at least I've heard of some of you people before. Maybe.

what it comes down to is this:

*snip*

you are likely trapped in a world not your own, which over here is some type of fiction. Wherever you are likely has rules you don't understand, and your only current lifeline is a forum of random people some of whom take entertainment from your struggles. However, at least some of them (arguably most of them) want to see you survive, so listen to the more sensible advice.
-R.A.G.

Click to shrink...

Thank you Rags, for your remarkably optimistic summation of my situation. At least if I'm connected to the internet, (this is the internet, right?) I can have you guys google stuff for me. Which, given my current locale, may be more or less useless, but sti-

Oh.

Fuck.

There's a piece of wood sticking out of my shoulder. About a foot long, narrow, and the end is feathered. Motherfucker.

I've been shot.

Put pressure on the wound, put pressure on the wound...

 

[Biigoh]

Run for cover! Do NOT pull out that arrow! Pulling it out is NOT good and will lead to blood pressure dropping!

~ A tanuki what goes auuu in the night.

​

 

[Malcolmo]

Get into cover quickly! Move erratically! Whatever shot you is probably going to try to shoot you again.

 

[Inara Seraph]

I really fucking hope you aren't reading this journal when you've just been shot.

If you do make it to safety, congratulations! If someone is shooting at you and you don't know where they are, you've probably already lost. In the unlikely event you have managed to find cover, I'd suggest you find something to use as a shield and some way to locate the shooter.

 

[Pipeman]

Huh.
A combat encounter this early?
Try not to die.

Now on to something more important.
This is indeed not SB, but QQ or questionablequesting.com, if you prefer.
Essentially a questing board created to not have to deal with the somewhat draconian moderatorship over on SB.

It even has a NSFW section!
You're not in it, though.
So keep all those dirty thoughts to yourself, you pervert!

- Pipeman

 

[Malcolmo]

... Seven. I mean, Malcomo at least sounds like a name, but this is a number.

Click to shrink...

Also my name is spelt Malcolmo dammit!

 

[shaderic]

Good news.

Bleeding stopped. I think.

Bad news.

My shirt is the bandage, I'm covered in blood, and I feel really cold.

Likely the onset of shock. Also, moving my left arm hurts. Badly. So does my shoulder in general.

Hunkered down, but not really able to run. It takes effort not to scream. I can feel the snot running down my face with the tears from the pain.

I don't want to die. It feels really cold now. I absolutely, truly, do not want to die. Haven't felt this cold since that one camping trip.

Really tired now. Can't afford to sleep. Don't want to die. So cold.

Don' wanna die.

 

[Inara Seraph]

Welp, I hope whoever took you out isn't interested in killing you. Maybe just capturing? Who knows, it could be a misunderstanding. You are trespassing in a sense, after all.

GL

 

[R.A.G.]

Do you know what shot you? Also, best to give up as things stand. You are injured and lost. Also, find the fucking reference desk.

 

[Biigoh]

Okay!

You're still alive! That's good! Alive is good! Think positive. Are there anything around you beyond books and shelves? Like tables or chairs?

~ A tanuki what goes auuu in the night.

 

[Malcolmo]

At this point you may have to hope that whatever shot you wants to take you alive as I don't really see any way for you to get out of this mess otherwise.

 

[Ardion Prosili]

IF you absolutely need to remove it, and I'm not saying you should, you're going to have to push it through till the tip is out, break it off and then slowly extract. It's....not a good thing.

 

[Tackyseven]

That thing that hit you was probably poisoned. You have to escape, hide! This is the time to push past the limits you didn't know you had don't give up.

YOU CAN DO IT

 

[shaderic]

Ho, so this is the tome that intruder was carrying.

The pages are empty... No, it writes my thoughts. A grimoire?

I wonder what a man would want with such a thing?

 

[Malcolmo]

Who are you and what did you do to the person who was carrying this book.

 

[Pipeman]

You killed shaderic!
You bastards!

- Pipeman

 

[shaderic]

Who are you and what did you do to the person who was carrying this book.

Click to shrink...

So it speaks. Unsurprising, given that this is the library of the Toshokanou.

I am Shizuku, of the Honshin clan.

As to the unfortunate human who picked you up, he is unconcious. I have treated the wound from the trap, and he is recovering. Although, I wonder how a human without any equipment, weapons, or campanions managed to reach the depths of our territory?

Perhaps he is a magus?

Unlikely, given that human magic users, let alone male ones, are as rare as hens teeth.

You killed shaderic!
You bastards!

- Pipeman

Click to shrink...

So, that is this human's name. It does indeed sound like that of a magus.

In any case, the man is not yet dead.

 

[Tackyseven]

。。。しまった

 

[Biigoh]

You are not a human? What are you?

~ A tanuki what goes auuu in the night.

 

[Malcolmo]

First of his name is Kurtis not shaderic. And as for how he got there he had about as much idea as you do. In other words none at all.

 

[Pipeman]

Don't think he's a magus.

So far our best guess is that he was randomly transported to wherever you are by a being of godlike power.

Oh, and the book merely let's you communicate with us (there are several people you are talking to) and doesn't actually contain any intelligent beings itself.

The basic story behind the book, as far as we know it, is that we are a group of somewhat unrelated people who are living our normal (otherwise completely non-magical) lives and have access to a machine (an advanced contraption) that, among other things like communicating with owners of machines like it, lets us read whatever shows up in the book and answer.

According to our previous conversation shaderic was pretty much simply another one of us, before he was suddenly transported to wherever you are and shot with an arrow, when he tried to find a way out.

- Pipeman

 

[Emdemian]

And what, Shizuku of the Honshin might you be? I gather from your implications that you are not human.

(OOC: this format intrigues me to no end. Thanks for running this quest and bringing it to my attention. I may run some similar quests in such a format in the future).

 

[R.A.G.]

If it has happened as it has been written, he caught the whimsy of A Random Omnipotent Being, and was thrown from his world into yours. He will need help to survive, for Chaos Shall follow him at every turn...rather He will appear as some manner of strife will begin to commence. Help him, for yourself if nothing else.
-The commonplace One

 

[Pipeman]

If it has happened as it has been written, he caught the whimsy of A Random Omnipotent Being, and was thrown from his world into yours. He will need help to survive, for Chaos Shall follow him at every turn...rather He will appear as some manner of strife will begin to commence. Help him, for yourself if nothing else.
-The commonplace One

Click to shrink...

Could you please stop being so unnecessarily melodramatic?
Let's just be rational about this, okay?

Yes, there is the possibility that, whoever sent him there, sent him there because something big is going to happen and he needs to be involved, but you shouldn't overreact this strongly just because of that.

If you expect there to be an epic quest he is "fated" to be involved in waiting for him, you will see one when there isn't simply because of the confirmation bias.
He could just as easily just been thrown into a sandbox scenario or just be there to cause some butterfly effect, without actually becoming some sort of "Chosen One" himself.

(And that's not even going into how easily one could come to the conclusion that "ill news is an ill guest" from the melodramatic crap you just spouted.)

- Pipeman

 

[Malcolmo]

Piece of advice just ignore the more insane or odd comments from us since they're more likely to be someone messing around as opposed to prophecies or actual good advice.

 

[Pipeman]

It's a combination of us sometime being idiots and horrible people looking for entertainment and not being sure if the stuff in the book is actually really happening somewhere, that makes us do things like that.

- Pipeman

 

[Zasnul]

Sven

Click to shrink...

There is only one Sven, and he is a big blue knight with a funny helmet.
...
Its not a russian name, too.

/Just passing by./

 

[shaderic]

I am an Usami, one of the Rabbit Folk.

We are quite similar to humanity on the surface, the most obvious difference being our long ears. There are other things of course, but this is the most blatant.

The divisivenes amongst you is both amusing and informative. I doubt that much of what you say is directly useful, but it I learn from it nonetheless, as befitting a Honshin.

Also...

。。。しまった

Click to shrink...

While I am not fluent in Lunar Runes, I can recognize that phrase at least. Please, do try and be less... vulgar.