A Frog in a Strange New Pond (Crossover Quest)

[Nitramy]

Your name is Moriya Suwako.

And you are falling.

A few moments ago, you were chatting idly with your conqueror / successor / landlady Yasaka Kanako and your descendant Kochiya Sanae about the upcoming cherry blossom viewing holiday, where the Shrine Maiden would host a get-together - all of your friends from in and around Gensokyo would come and have a party.

Heh, heh, party. Nine times out of then, those things end up in danmaku fights - but no lasting harm is done (except maybe a few bruised egos, but that goes away in awhile), and everyone treats it more like a game now rather than a battle of life and death.

Speaking of life and death, you're going to be hitting the ground in awhile - fast. No time to ask yourself how you got here.

What do you do?

[ ] Fly out of here!
[ ] Take stock of your surroundings, THEN fly the heck out of here!

(P.S. Expect story posts to come every three to five days.) :)

[serbii]

GTFO.

[Aldraia Dragonsong]

If we do not have time to think about how we got here, we do not have time to take stock of our surroundings. Skip to the flying!

[leon89]

[x] What we need to do is stop falling then take stock of our surroundings. We can hover right?

[Nitramy]

Flying is an act that comes to you as naturally as breathing - given what you are - and taking care of the nine-point-eight meters-per-second squared (or that was how the rather loopy Hell Raven explained it when she really got into one of her guest lectures on physics at the Human Village's school) is a piece of cake for you.

The phoenix-themed immortal didn't seem happy to substitute for Miss Reiuji at her job for half a day back then, but the arrangement had been taken care of without a hitch, and her worries ended up for naught.

Oddly, you think about the silver-haired girl as you will yourself to slow your descent down the chasm, and wonder if she would ever stop her grudge with that princess... when your thoughts are stopped abruptly as an orange-and-yellow blur speeds by you, a rather high-pitched scream dopplering down the hatch.

Without a second thought, you disengage your hovering spell and dash downward, following the blur. It doesn't take that long for you to fire off a burst of energy from your legs, hit terminal velocity and catch up to what- or whoever that falling, screaming thing or person is.

The chasm is narrow, but wide enough for you to turn, catch it, and reorient yourself in one swift move - as soon as you make the save, you keep up the pace and fly right back up towards the tiny point of light above you that was the chasm entrance.

As you slowly make your way towards the light, you notice that the chasm is roughly twenty feet in diameter and oddly circular. You make a mental note to yourself to look into it later when you have the time, but five minutes later, the light is growing brighter a bit slower than you first
thought.

Hoo-wee, you tell yourself while letting out a sigh. You fell down a pretty deep chasm. By your
estimation, it will take you several minutes at your current speed to go back up to the surface.

What do you do? (Up to two choices are available.)

[ ] Who or what the heck did I catch anyway?
[ ] NOW you can think about how the heck you got here.
[ ] Check your person - you might have missed or dropped something - you never know! But do so without dropping who or whatever you caught.
[ ] Faster, Suwako! Fly, FLY!
[ ] Other (please specify)

[serbii]

[X] Who or what the heck did I catch anyway?
[X] Faster, Suwako! Fly, FLY!

[livilou]

[X] Who or what the heck did I catch anyway?
[X] Faster, Suwako! Fly, FLY!

I concur.

[Nitramy]

After executing a complicated aerial maneuver that you'd seen the black-white do once or twice before, you take a moment off looking up and take stock of yourself and the screaming thing you saved from ending up as a red smear at the bottom of the chasm.

Young boy, teen or pre-teen at first glance. Orange outfit, blond hair, odd accessories. Strange, but the even stranger thing are the whisker marks on his face. His aura... reminds you of Yakumo Yukari's shikigami - Ran, was it? - but that will be for later, as you slowly and steadily pick up speed until you fly yourself right out of the chasm and into a beautiful morning.

You find yourself looking over an expansive forest and a town built near a mountain close by. Looking closer, you see what appears to be carved faces on the mountain side, but first things first!

Carefully, you head to a nearby clearing and set the boy down, who, by some diabolical cue, wakes up as soon as you touch the ground.

The first thing you notice is that his eyes are blue. Next thing, he scrunches up his head, partly thinking and partly trying to remember what had just happened.

"Who are you?" the boy asks.

What do you do?

(One selection from this set.)
[ ] Ask the boy to introduce himself first before you do.
[ ] Introduce yourself to the boy, then ask him to do so.
[ ] Let the boy gather himself first, then answer his query.
[ ] Other (please specify).

(All these next answers - except the last - are compulsory; arrange them in the order you wish.)
[ ] Ask where this place is.
[ ] Ask how you got here.
[ ] Ask about the boy's strange affinity with Yakumo Ran.
[ ] Ask another question (please specify and sort). (OPTIONAL)

[Aldraia Dragonsong]

[x] Introduce yourself to the boy, then ask him to do so.

Do this first (after introductions, that is): Ask where this place is.
Then this: Ask how you got here.
And this last: Ask about the boy's strange affinity with Yakumo Ran.

[ewuvi]

[x] Let the boy gather himself first, then answer his query.

What Aldraia says for the order sounds good.

[Arganaut]

I'll agree with the two above answers.

[Nitramy]

"Who are you?" the boy asks, and the beginning of the thought that you may no longer be in Gensokyo starts to take root within you. The boy in front of you would fit right in with the human villagers, but then again, there's a part of him that just feels like your kind.

It's weird, but you've seen even weirder (goddammit Yukari) - Gensokyo itself is perhaps the melting pot for all the weirdness in this universe - so it doesn't bother you for the moment.

He looks a bit put out from falling from that height, being caught abruptly and going right back up... but you notice that he's almost done gathering himself from that stunt.

You hold the thought about what kind of nimrod would toss a boy down a chasm like this when he finally grins at you, nodding - thus, you put on your most dazzling smile and prepare for your usual introduction when dealing with both humans and youkai.

"My name is Moriya Suwako, tamer of the Mishaguji, attendant of the Moriya Shrine, and Supreme Emissary of the Frogs and Toads," you say, punctuating the last part of your introduction with a curtsy.

"Oh! Well, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, genin, and the most unpredictable ninja you will ever see!"

You nod. Ninja, huh? Explains some of what you've seen, but you'll need to look further.

"About that, would you mind telling me where we are?" you ask.

"We're in the forests right outside Konohagakure!"

"Village... underneath leaves?" you ask, thinking aloud. "Well, that's a pretty good name for a village. Speaking of which, I was enjoying the comforts of home when I woke up falling. What happened?"

The boy gives you a sheepish grin as he scratches the back of his head. "Well, you see, uh, I was training and I used this technique. I thought I'd end up summoning a super-awesome toad, but uh... here you are."

Your eyes narrow briefly at his implied slight towards you, but let it pass - he looks earnest and straightforward. What intrigues you is the fact that he summoned you. History had humankind with the esoteric ability to summon lesser youkai, so for this boy to summon you, he has to have a greater link with youkai than a normal person. Speaking of youkai...

...right now, the two of you are walking along the forest trail. Naruto knows that he's summoned someone rather important, but you sense that he's trying to ask you about what your abilities are in a tactful manner. Judging by his scrunched-up facial expression, he's trying rather hard.

"Are you just like the toads that old perv summons?"

You nod. "Something like that. By the way, you feel different. Have you been in close contact with a youkai or a similar entity over an extended period of time?" you ask.

He freezes for a moment. That question knocked him off-balance.

"Well, uh, I'm the prison for what we call the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox."

You smile as understanding dawns on you. So that's how he summoned you, he tapped into the power of a youkai, or something similar to a youkai.

"You're not freaking out?" he asks.

"Why would I be?" you ask back as the two of you keep walking. "Where I come from, it's kind of mundane." Your line of thought hovers on how you were summoned, though. But, by the time you two get to a clearing, he finally puts a question together.

"So, uh... miss Suwako... what can a Frog Goddess do?"

"Me?" you ask, pointing at yourself.

What do you do?

[ ] Answer as honestly and comprehensively as you can.
[ ] Answer as much as you think he can handle.
[ ] Start small. You don't want to blow his mind completely.

[NotreallyHere]

[X] Answer as honestly and comprehensively as you can.

[Random_fan]

Agreed.

[Nitramy]

"I summon Earth... and as tamer of the Mishaguji, I can call upon them to inflict misfortune on who I choose."

"Misfortune?" the boy asks.

"Say you throw a kunai. I curse you, and you either cut yourself on the next one you'll throw, trip and fall, or the kunai doesn't go where you want it to go."

"Oh. What about summoning Earth?"

You gently and carefully tap a foot into the ground causing trees and rocks in a wide area around the both of you to sink as acres of ground quickly become a marshy slurry. With another tap of your foot, the trees and rocks slowly move back to where they were, the ground returning to its previous state and leaving no trace that anything had happened.

"Cool," the boy says, in awe at your demonstration.

A smile graces your lips as you give him a wink.

"Thanks," you reply, and the both of you continue your walk towards his village.

"Say," he says after a bit of time has passed by, "do you want to have some ramen with me?"

What do you do?

[ ] Sure, why not.
[ ] No thanks, but since you summoned me, I'll accompany you for ramen.

[Wittgen]

Let's pretend not to know what ramen is, with the choice being "Sure, why not." We love finding out new things. Heh.

[LifeOfGesture]

I agree with Wittgen. Freeloader is our first, middle, and last name.

[NotreallyHere]

[X] Sure, why not.