(Mystia) Murrrr.... I guess we lost.
(Wriggle) We had a home.... We HAD it! (Cries)
(Mystia) There, there... We'll find another chance.
(Wriggle) I TOLD you we should have tried the lamprey stall! With this moon going off, people will be staying outside all night, we coulda made thousands!
(Mystia) But wouldn't we be under the spell too? Might preclude thinking of making a buck.
(Wriggle) ... True. (Deflated)
(Mystia) Either way, I'm not sure their tastes will be effected by this sort of thing.
(Wriggle) Yet no one's tried a grilled lamprey stand before. We could have like offered Kaguya a cut of the profits for her letting us free to sell or something...
(Rumia) (Shows up out of nowhere) Grilled lamprey. Sounds delicious. (She drools a little...)
(Mystia) ... Let's go mess with the random people who're under Kaguya's spell!
(Rumia) Yay!
(Wriggle) ... You always go mess with the random people as a way to relieve stress...
(Mystia) And it works, too.
(Wriggle) Point. Those three back there look good.
(Rumia) The doll lady, ice fairy, and drunk... Thinger?
(Wriggle) Yes! The drunk... Huh, what type of youkai is she, anyhow?
(Mystia) ... Does it matter?
(Rumia) Well, I don't want to get beat up or anything...
(Wriggle) She's too drunk. If she tries to beat you up you can just fly away.
(Mystia) ... Works for me. Let's go already!
Hakurei Shrine, thirty minutes later...
(Cirno) ... Coming up with praises for Kaguya's getting boring now.
(Suika) Ka~ya~gu~, gu~ya~ka~...
(Alice) It shows just how incomparably small you are compared to Her greatness that you run out of ways to sing Her praises!
(Cirno) But Alice, you surely don't mean to say you're large compared to Kaguya!
(Alice) Why, of course not! Only larger compared to you, but still so tiny as a bug beneath Her glorious shoe!
(Mystia, Wriggle, and Rumia all show up at this point)
(Wriggle) Hey! I'm larger than THAT! So mean, saying I should be crushed under someone's shoe.
(Alice) But if it's Mistress' shoe, it's perfectly okay, right?
(Mystia) Of COURSE it's not! That's like saying I'm nothing more than food for some hungry ghost just walking around at night!
(Suika) Shilly~ Kaguya's not a ghosht~ (hic!)
(Rumia) The way you three are talking about her, she may as well be a myth! We met her face-to-face, she's not all that and a bag of potato chips.
(Alice) But what are you talking about? Kaguya is the most beautiful and omnipotent being in all Gensokyo! Of course she's-
(Mystia) And why is that, hmm~?
(Cirno) ... These people are crazy. Like Reimu and Marisa were. Where'd they go, anyhow?
(Suika) Ohff to the crazeh people'sh corner! (hic!)
(Cirno) ... Yeah! You three go join them there! Crazy people go to the crazy corner!
(Cirno and Suika) Crazy people! Crazy corner! Crazy people! Crazy Corner!
(Wriggle) How immature.
(Rumia) Think they're so superior just because they're from higher stages than us.
(Mystia) Actually, the blue one's a stage 2 just like me-
(Alice) Like you're much better on the maturity front, going out openly questioning her greatness.
(Rinnosuke) Hrm... (Quietly) I should just watch this... Not sure about the two idiots, stupidity has a way of slinking around all logic, but with Alice, enough logic and maybe she'll break out of the spell of her own accord. If that's the case, then I can head home safely as long as she and I keep talking sense to each other, right?
(Mystia) *Looks at Rinnosuke* Whoa. It's the male.
(Alice) Yeah, he's just been sitting there quietly this whole time. Guess not everyone worships Her greatness the same way.
(Wriggle) Except, as we're trying to tell you, we don't worship the girl at all! Fair, perhaps, but she can't see or do anything to us right now, which means she's NOT omnipotent, and how can ANYONE who sits in a Castle so far out and never communicates with the outside world be of importance to all Gensokyo?
(Alice) Easy. She doesn't have to communicate with the outside world, for her glorious moon does it for us! She can instruct us however she desires from it's beauteous light.
(Rumia) *Looks at Mystia* ... I dunno, she's starting to have a point there-
(Wriggle) How on EARTH can simple rays of light send any message of competence?!?! THAT'S the REAL crazy talk here!
(Meanwhile, on the other side of the barrier, Renko Usami flashes a morse-code message on a wall out of boredom, using a penlight.)
(Alice) Light can carry more meaning than it's simple presence! Why, we could easily just learn some code from birth that the moon's light can carry to us by changing color-
(Mystia) HOLD IT! Yes, you COULD memorize such a code, but that'd mean she'd have to go out to TEACH it to you! We've already established that she DOES NOT GO OUT. That's a contradiction!
(Alice) Gack! (Shakes as if hit, an image of a lock breaking appears on the panel) ... But surely her omnipotence isn't questionable-
(Wriggle) If that were the case, why isn't she smiting us blasphemers right now?
(Alice) Gurk! (Shakes again, another lock breaking animation shows up) ... Why are you going like this, anyhow?
(Mystia) It's very simple... She's not communicating using the moon at all! She's communicating by magic laced into the moon!
(Alice) ... Aaaaaah, that answers my own question, then, doesn't it? (One of the locks is shown fixing itself)
(Rumia) 'Cept one thing... What if the message of her greatness, omnipotence, blah blah blah, is the only thing the magic's communicating? The right spell, and your mind sees it, and it just sorta passes through, overriding your natural thinking patterns.
(Wriggle) Wow, how'd you figure that one out?
(Rumia) Wriggle, you need to work on your memory, silly. She explained that part to us herself.
(Mystia) ... She's right, you know. Maybe you need some more iron in your diet?
(Alice) GACK. (Falls over, the lock breaks again) ... So you're saying that...
(Wriggle) I need more nutrients, yes.
(Alice) ... No, not that! What Rumia was saying!
(Mystia) You're enchanted into worshipping Kaguya, just like the two idiots in the corner? Yeah, that's what we're saying.
(Alice) ... Unless She lied to you. (Alice grins evilly!)
(Rumia) (Awestricken) Eh?!?!!
(Alice) Well, it's easy. If she has the kind of power to make all Gensokyo worship her, which we're both accepting, if you've spoken to her about this... Then it goes to reason that she'd have the kind of power to make you three THINK all Gensokyo's worshipping her, right?
(Mystia) The inconsistencies' already there! The idiot said it herself earlier! There are at least two others not behaving as if effected! We beat the both of them up already, in fact!
(Alice) Reimu and Marisa? You could beat them up about as well as they could beat Mistress up, bird-brain. (Alice laughs a little.)
(Wriggle) She's getting scary... She predicted us perfectly there!
(Mystia) Victory or not, they weren't effected, and we attacked, per Kaguya's orders!
(Alice) That doesn't change anything, actually, for such a spell, it wouldn't be difficult to throw in a wrinkle making you perceive certain people as unaffected. It could be random, or maybe Mistress picked certain people to be in on the act and attack you. For all you know, all of this is going to go on the front page of the Bunbunmaru tomorrow! "Three Idiot Girls Get Pranked By Elaborate Scheme Of Moon Princess" sounds like fun reading to me. (Alice laughs again, a little more maniacally)
(Mystia) ... But is this actually true?
(Alice) Well, there's no way for me to tell you THAT, now there is there?
(Rumia) What do you mean?
(Alice) Simple. If you're the ones enchanted, and I say as much, Mistres's mighty spell on you would presumably be well-written enough - given she made you perceive behaviors pretty finely, indicating her beautifully delicate touch - that you'd perceive me as saying this wasn't actually true. If I'm the one enchanted, then you'd see me saying as much; why would I care to lie about Her power over me?
(Mystia) ... There's one way you could answer perfectly, such that Kaguya's spell wouldn't break it.
(Alice) Hmm~?
(Mystia) Dispel Kaguya's spell on us. If we're the ones enspelled, Cirno'll stop thinking of us as crazy.
(Cirno and Suika) Crazy people! Crazy corner!
(Alice) The hole's already there. Twofold, actually. First, for me to dispell Mistress' magic, it'd have to be the same sort as my own... If I could enchant the moon to make everyone love me, don't you think I'd have done so?
(Mystia) That's not consistent! Enchanting three minds would be a smaller task than the entire moon!
(Alice) I don't think that counters the point... Especially when you consider the second. What if I'm in on this whole prank? Then I might claim to be casting a dispel but actually do something entirely different to you instead! (She laughs insanely.)
(Mystia) ... (Crashes, defeated) We lose.
(Alice) Mistress Kaguya wins! (Begins to laugh maniacally and louder and louder).
(Cirno, Suika) Alice goes to Crazy Corner with the Crazy People!
(Alice) (Crashes, defeated)
(Wriggle) All that, and she lost instantly to Cirno.
(Meiling) Isn't it sad, sacchin?
(Wriggle) ... Why am I sacchin now?
(Rinnosuke) Damn. Shoulda known. She figured it out and wasn't effected.