Create.swf Adventures: Cottagesnagged

[Leylite]

> Exit, check the Options menu and fiddle around with those, then reload your End of Chapter 1 save.

[causticlyOptimitious]

> Pocket Dimension: Literally be in someone's pocket.

[KimikoMuffin]

> Hit Exit so we can see the title screen.

> Continue.

You patiently wait for the save file to load. Good loading times aren't particularly numerous!

> Be Shanghai.

> -=->

> -=->

> -=->

> [S] Enter player two.

[AUDIO]

The world is full of of supernatural phenomena. In fact, there are so many different kinds, it's hard to classify them, simply because there's so much overlap.

If you were to try to define "magic" (as opposed to power from the gods, or ghost activity, or just plain weird stuff happening), though, the definition would have to be something along the lines of "supernatural activity which is deliberately caused by an intelligent living being."

You know, sorcery and spells. The kind of thing witches do. Explosions and potions and whatnot. (Of course, by that definition, "fairy magic" also qualifies ...)

There's even a spell for turning yourself into a youkai of the magician species.

In the middle of the Magic Forest, there is a cottage that is, quite naturally, about the same size on the inside as it is on the outside. It has been inhabited continuously by a family of youkai-magicians for the better part of sixty years. Originally, it had only one inhabitant; but then the family expanded, first through marriage and then with children.

And you (speaking of which)?

> -=->

You are Carroll Kirisame. You currently in the immature stage of a youkai-magician's life, which means that your body ages like that of a human. You are vaguely aware that your family is highly unconventional, but nobody seems to care, so you don't either. When you were seven years old, in spite of the best efforts of everyone around you, you became obsessed with the color pink, like all seven-year-olds (though fortunately this did not extend to your choice of clothing, which was being made by your mother until fairly recently); however, now that you are eight, you're thinking of changing your bedroom back to being white. Or maybe blue.

Your plans are currently approximately nonexistent; you've done your best not to make any commitments today, because your parents have been putting something together in hushed tones, and evidently want to surprise you. Eight-year-olds tend to be more perceptive than most adults give them credit for, although in their defense, your father tends to begin revelations of such things with "So, you've probably figured it out already, but ..."

Regardless, there's still probably plenty of other things to do which won't interrupt whatever your parents are planning today (yeah, you're pretty sure it's today). You're a magician, after all. What will you do first?

[Kíeros]

> See if you can sneak about and glimpse hints as to what they are planning to do for you today.

[Leylite]

>Check the GRIMOIRE OF CARROLL to see if you have any painting spells with which to repaint your room.

>Peek out the window.

[Iyestorm]

>Experiment by drinking potions you made! Not the explodey kind that Marisa uses.

>Potions: Be perfectly safe, or at least safe-ish. You are responsible and so are your parents. These aren't out of your level, just basic stuff. Like flavor-changers or something.

>Shanghai: Wouldn't Yuyuko have been a much better example to make your point with?

...then again, I suppose Alice's point still stands.

[Sinjin]

>Carroll: Check up on your Magic Book collection.

[causticlyOptimitious]

show spoiler

hide spoiler

<_<;; I found this far, far funnier than it should have been.

Anyway,
> Carroll: Wonder why the trigrams on that paper appear to be in the Fu Xi configuration, when those on the Hakkero are typically depicted in the King Wen configuration.
> Carroll: Get ye book.

[KimikoMuffin]

> Carroll: Magic room into blue and white stripes for camouflage.

While this is no doubt an awesome idea, you cannot make any changes to your bedroom without the Grimoire of Houses, and your parents have expressly forbidden the use of grimoires of any description without their supervision. Your big sister has similar restrictions, which surprised you at first, but it quickly began to make sense the more you thought about it.

> Carroll: Regard drawings of magic circles on wall.

Gone are the days of working puny weaksauce magic using sorcerous triangles and mystic squares. You have finally learned to make pentagrams, hexagrams, and your latest creation, an octogram. Not heptagrams, though, because fuck trying to draw those particular grams.

(Your big sister used to have fun getting you into trouble by teaching you swearwords, but then you and your parents caught on and she recieved a lump sum of trouble. You now keep swearing within the confines of your own head, and so does she.)

You even asked your father, who said that nobody actually uses "those sevenagrams" because nobody can draw them. This was the sort of answer which you've learned to immediately disregard in favor of asking your mother, but she confirmed it.

The octogram is in turn surrounded by eight trigrams, which are arranged in the Fu Xi configuration because you can never remember how the more modern King Wen arrangement is supposed to go.

> Carroll: Peek out the window.

Yep, the Forest of Magic is still there.

You do not yet fully understand the point of having windows when the view consists solely of a bunch of trees, especially when 75% of the light you usually get is either magical or artificial; things like cross-ventilation or seeing the weather are sort of like secondary benefits to the fact that, in your understanding, windows are for seeing through.

[KimikoMuffin]

Bonus content: fanart by Stuffman on Maidens of the Kaleidoscope.

[Iyestorm]

Nobody does it. You know what you must do.

>Be the hipster. Draw the Sevenagram.

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Not even Patchouli Knowledge uses Heptagrams?! KM, I have accepted your attempts at 'character modification' for the sake of your personal 'fanon' well in the past, but this is crossing the line!

(I am joking and you are awesome. I still refuse to accept that Patchy can't draw Sevenagrams, though.)

[shinyjiggly]

>Carroll: Examine books on bookshelf

[makuta]

Are you sure no one can draw them? I found something that might help a little. Just look under the spoiler.

show spoiler

hide spoiler

[Brickman]

What happens when you make a magical polygon which isn't regular?

[KimikoMuffin]

> Carroll: What happens when you make a magical polygon which isn't regular?

Broadly speaking, irregularity results in a loss of efficiency. The more regular the shape is, the better the spell will work.

If it's not regular enough, the worst case scenario is that something explodes when it isn't supposed to, or vice versa. Your first attempt at a pentagram, which was before you'd even gotten triangles down, did not end well.

> Carroll: Open drawer.

Your father works at KappaTech, and you often get a first look at the weird inventions they make there. Sometimes, they're even at the point of being useful and stable.

Fortunately, your Laptop Magicomputer is a solved problem, as it were. The only new thing is the parental controls, which allow your parents to monitor where you go on the internet, and automatically prevent you from visiting certain websites. The software's primary component is based on magic, which uses common sense rather than rules, and therefore KappaTech's advertisements boast a 99% success rate, rather than the approximate 1% success rate of nonmagical software.

You are completely mystified as to why you'd need such a thing. Are there websites with lots of swearing or something? No solid explanation has ever occurred to you, which your parents apparently think is a good thing.

> -=->

You captchalogue it in your sylladex, which is another of your father's weird inventions. It is somewhat needlessly complicated compared to your inventory, but the novelty has three whole days before it will wear off.

You use the Anytime Anywhere fetch modus, which allows you to scroll through the captchalogue deck at will. However, it always seems to sort them so that the specific item you want is at the bottom, forcing you to scroll through the entire deck. A while ago, your big sister stole your Inventory modus, which enables you to access any item at any time no matter where it is in the deck, but you don't mind because it made a complete farce of the whole idea.

> Carroll: Seek down parent, request use of Grimoire required to correct room coloration.

You find your mother with your big sister. (Calling her your "big sister" in English never gets old.)

They are working on some sort of swirly energy thingy. You don't even consider the possibility that they might be doing something dangerous, because your father isn't involved, and this is the middle of your living room with no sign of any kind of protection.

> Carroll: Pester mom.

[Kíeros]

> Ask her what that spell was that was being done when you entered.

[PriffyViole]

> Disregard warning, erase house from existance

> Have to put it back together

> Thing above: Be the thing you're busy with later

EDIT: I couldn't listen to any of the sound files other than the last one. Any idea why that is?

[causticlyOptimitious]

> Mom: Put spell-in-progress in your pocket.

[KimikoMuffin]

EDIT: I couldn't listen to any of the sound files other than the last one. Any idea why that is?

That would be because I changed some of the code for how it handles music code, and accidentally put "$fyle" instead of "$file" at the relevant spot in that version. Fixed!

[KimikoMuffin]

> Carroll: Ask her what that spell was that was being done when you entered.

> Carroll: This means using a second magic spell to make the paint yourself!

Now there's a thought. You have no idea how to do it, but creating your own paint is an obvious solution!

Shanghai captchalogues the convex crucible with her Inventory modus. Not the one she stole from you, she has her own.

> Carroll: Ask where your Dad went. There is alarming lack of explosions at the moment...

[Kíeros]

> Head out to the front yard to see if he's there.

[Leylite]

> Go through the attic, open the roof hatch and peer out over the front yard to see if your dad is there. That way you'll be able to see him but he probably won't spot you.

[makuta]

> Carrol: DodgeGraze Huge Frickin LaserMaster Spark.

[KimikoMuffin]

> Carroll: Wing a danmaku at your sister's head for being a smart-aleck, then run outside before she can retaliate.

> -=->

> Carroll: Head out to the front yard.

As Shanghai flies off somewhere else, you really quickly locate your father.

> -=->

You have not yet had The Talk with your parents, nor do you know that there is one to be had, and you are therefore only vaguely aware that fathers are usually supposed to be men; your complete ignorance of the subject, and your fairly keen understanding of your father's personality, have left you with the conclusion that either nobody told her she couldn't be a father, or she knew and simply didn't let that stop her.

(You know where Shanghai came from, though. Your mother built her as a doll, and then she and Marisa took bits of their own souls, smooshed them together, and then put them into the doll. This was perfectly safe; apart from anything else, souls can be split indefinitely.)

> Carroll: Pester daddy.

[Kíeros]

> Carroll: Continue your prior danmaku with Shanghai