Leaderboard

The Grassroots Youkai Network An informer affiliation of lesser Youkai, the Grassroots Youkai Network is often used to pass on information between weaker Youkai. Usually as a means of protecting themselves, whether against Humans, stronger civilized Youkai, Wild Youkai, Spirits or other threats. Many of these Youkai act as informal advisors to Otherworldly Ventures, confirming details in this book and assisting in tracking down rumors. Its members are usually anonymous, leading the Otherworldly Ventures team to assume the Network is widespread throughout Gensokyo. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Guessss Whhhooooo? Back again for more of your money! If you had any. I’ll take your jewelry. Don’t give me that look, you’re a Kami. You’ll make it back in donations in a few months...or decades, depending. Now to flip this ring. Heads, Houdini goes to the Stalls. Tails, the Buddhist Temple my loser sister stays at. ...Wellwell, I guess he goes to the stalls. But if you thought meeting the local bunny girls would be that easy, you’re going to be very disappointed. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The rabbit made its way down the cobblestone road with long hops of his back legs. Though as he bounced frantically towards the line of stalls, he could feel his strength leaving his legs. His bones, old for rabbits, ached painfully. Each hop brought him closer to his friend’s rescue, but also towards his own exhaustion. He could see them ahead. The figures were dressed in peasant clothing, one taller, the other shorter. But even his old nose could smell they were rabbits. The two sat around a table, eating. The taller gagging, even as her companion pointed and laughed… ...Why were they so hard to see… The periphery of his vision grew dark. His throat struggling to take in a breath. The two stood, grasping their great bamboo packs before turning to leave… No! The sight brought new strength to his limbs and he bounded forward. But his body failed him. Even as he struggled to catch his breath, he fell forward onto the road. Darkness consumed his vision, and he slipped into a despairing sleep… A pair of red shoes crossed the cobblestone pathway. Their owner gazing off towards the horizon. Dour thoughts clouding an otherwise youthful mind. Even if the basket hanging from the crook of her arm promised some cheer. Her eyes slowly passed the homes that lined the space. Idly wondering if life would be better if she moved out from the Village. It was not easy living in hiding all the time after all. But experience had taught her that life was just as dull anywhere else. Perhaps moreso, as the Human Village was a magnet for Incidents. And it would be lonely without her friends around. Her eyes turned towards the Heida Temple as she passed the road, a voice in the back of her head wondering if Keine would try to rope her into going back to night school. Before she stopped in mind stride. In the center of the road lay an elderly rabbit. Breathing heavily with his eyes closed. The day was still early, so no humans had seen him, but he was sure to be a lucky hawk or dog’s lunch… With a soft sigh, she turned. Changing her path to walk towards the wheezing creature. Stopping in front of it to set her basket down. The cloth over the top rustling as a pair of red eyes peered out at him. Crouching down, she studied it for a moment. As though rethinking what she was even doing. “Hey.” There was no reply. Only more ragged breathing. “Hey. Wake up.” Her words didn’t seem to be helping much. But at least he opened his eyes to that. A hand reached into her basket. Ignoring the feeling of hair and the odd nip of teeth against her arm. “Ugh, you’re in a rough state...I’m not much of a pet person. So sorry if you don’t like it or whatever.” Her slender hand emerged. Offering an Onigiri to the exhausted rabbit. For a moment, it could only sniff at it, before slowly nibbling at the offering. “Wonder what you are doing here...this is the worst place a rabbit could be. Did you come here with the rabbits from Eientei?” Only the sound of munching met her ears. “Not much of a talker, are you? I think we’ll get along.” Gripping the exhausted rabbit by the scruff of the neck, the young lady awkwardly lifted the fluffy creature. Dropping it into the basket. Its food soon following. “You just get some sleep. We can sort out introductions later.” The basket began to sway again, drifting from side to side as Houdini caught his breath. The basket itself was half stuffed with Onigiri. Cooked rice, plums, fish and other fine foods mixing in the space. But he could pay no mind to that. Nor to the one he had already been chewing on. For across from him, was a human head watching him. “Hey.” Oscar would probably have startled at that. Houdini however, was too relaxed at his age for that. He was just grateful he had dinner and a ride. A pleasant enough thought, as he returned to sleep. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Well. You found someone at least. What distant dreams does your Patron share with you? = Wait, and Dream of your Best Friend. = Wait, and Dream of a Witch's Strings. = Wait, and Dream of an Afflicted Soul. = Wait, and Dream of Stranger's Self-Loathing.

You know, I always tried to provide an educated guess and a complete review whenever I appear here but MAN, Have you guys seen Soshmal above me? An entire essay just to analyze a few choices and very organized too, with a few emotes and expressions there just to make our reading a bit less dry. I tip my hat to you, friend, masterfully crafted I say! Perhaps I have always tried to be a "Soshmal" myself but seeing a professional at work is enlightening. Maybe I'll keep being the funny guy then or at least try to be one. Still, you won't escape from this little debate though. First of all, while I agree with most of your observations, I must point out that Ozzy and Houdini both have yet to meet Alice, so it might be impossible to dream about her unless a bigger player is at work... and considering this is a dream then I already have my suspicions. The second is about Rumia, why her? I can't rule out this possibility since we had already talked with her before, it's literally the first plot we stumbled upon arriving here but I have some other ideas that might be acceptable too. Mainly Sekibanki herself, Houdini just met her and she didn't really introduce herself to him, which already paints her as a "stranger" and the "self-loathing" part could allude to a future plot that Yume might be working on for her, from the little we saw in the recent chapter, we know Seki dropped out from school and is apparently unsatisfied with her current state of life, considering she mentioned about how living while hiding is bothersome, nothing straying too far from what we about her so far. Oh, while I was busy thinking, Master Gri went ahead and already posted a reply right above me, I had completely forgotten we had a "shinigami" dream before, I probably wasn't part of the party here yet. Now that I think about it, maybe the dreams aren't just an in-universe "skip" of sorts, it reminds me of a quest I read once about a kitsune guy who worked for the Moriya shrine I believe, and had some interesting dreams from time to time. I never got to read everything in that quest, maybe I should go search for it one of these days. Still, like Master said, there is no need to worry too much here in particular, I decided to go with the stranger option in hopes of being either Rumia or Banki but best friend is also a solid option. Hello there Yume! Glad to be talking to you. So, I liked this idea so far, it gives us, your local "Yappers" more ammo to keep yapping and it's always funny to see how much we missed the mark. With that said, this is probably my FOURTH WIN in the coin toss and I'm also on a winning streak by the way, without counting my victory from Nyoko's side. It's a shame I failed my ultimate goal for the last chapter which was making Eientei known but I still leave victorious today, Sexybanki just happens to be my favorite Grassroots member not only because I think her name is funny but also because Dullahans reminds me of an old anime I watched as a young teen, a quick google search said the name is Durarara!! I won't go into details but I used to be quite a big fan of that headless biker girl, hehehe. However, now that I think about it, the coin toss is rather interesting, I didn't care back then but you mentioned we were the "Kami" once right? And Jo'on is currently taking everything we own to decide for the next draw. Can we run out of things to use for the coin toss? I remember someone losing a Kimono before and now someone else has lost some jewelry. Have I lost anything to her? I have a feeling we won't be seeing Ozzy for a while. Poor guy. I hope he can find something edible inside Saddam Hussein's hiding place. Also, I have a feeling that he will probably end up leaving on his own, and we'll get to play both Houdini and Oscar at the same time. I just hope we won't keep those two separated for too long.

Greetings, First of all, congrats Yumetou . It's been 1 year since you've started posting this story (Time sure flies). Thank you for keeping this going for so long. Here's to more adventures. Now, for this week chapter, while some intros spoil a little what will happen in the chapter, I feel the one for this week ruined the twist a little. Still, I am happy about the result, and so far I like what little insight we got for Houdini's rescuer (good timing too, I just finished Kubinashi Recollection for the 2nd time). In canon, we mostly see Aya and Mamizou going in and out of the village as they please, and both belong to very dominant youkai species, so seeing the perspective of weaker youkai living in the village could be refreshing (although in your story, we already saw Team9 studying at school, but they are kid, so I don't expect them to do much else in the village compared to an "older" youkai). Also, yet why is there a head in there exactly? To keep watch on the food in case someone tries to steal it ? Or maybe to give a passerby a good scare there's a quick opportunity to get "faith"? Anyway, the choices: I like the choice presented: more consequence-free than usual, so we can choose what "vision" we want to learn more about the past (dream of best friend), the present or the future (all the other options) . Despise this opportunity, I am drawing a blank here. The "best friend" option seems the most straight-forward one, so I would go for one of the others to learn more about what is going on currently (or what could happen). Pretty similar to what I would have written, so I won't bother detailing my theories. I wasn't sure what "Afflicted" meant at first, but my hunch was Wriggle. While I would enjoy seeing Team9 again, I don't think it will move the plot forward a lot. We know that Team9 is in danger, but we are powerless to do anything other than watch the situation gets worse (unless Keine notice something's wrong, but I wouldn't bet on that). I would avoid that one. Its sad we only got one choice, but those are the rules. As for "Stranger's Self-Loathing", I got nothing and haven't though of Rumia. I am really not sure about what this choice could mean (somehow, I have some doubts it concerns Rumia), but it sounds grim (I am most curious about that one). "Witch's strings" does sound like Alice, but she wasn't introduced yet. Like you said, it could be a change in perspective, so we could see Marisa talking about the stranger she met at the village. Yet, if it's really about Alice/Marisa, then this feels like another the start of another plot thread. I think it's better to keep it simple, so I would avoid this one too So either "best friend" or "stranger" .... As you said, "best friend" could be an opportunity to learn more about Oscar previous life. I would go with this one for now. Oscar already had a bad dream last time (meeting the Shinigami), so I would spare Houdini and avoid it getting a bad dream about "someone self-loathing". Vote for whatever you wish. My vote this week is not one of confidence.

As of today, I've been here a whole year now! Woooo!

I shoulda known it was too easy! While I'm admittedly a little disappointed bnuny didn't get to meet up with the other runny babbits, Sekibanki (I think) is definitely an interesting option for saving Houdini nonetheless. She doesn't appear all that much in canon or fanon, so she's somewhat of a blank slate and I'm excited to see how she's handled. The basket full of food she's carrying could imply that she's on her way to a meeting of the Youkai Grassroots Network, which may take them as far away as the misty lake. Poor Houdini has a rude awakening and a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to get back to Oscar! On the topic of Houdini, what I wanted to discuss last time (before I ran out of time) was the possibility of them turning into a youkai. For one, Houdini is old. Probably very old, given how Oscar referred to him as being "...as old as [he] was when [they] met". I can't recall if we have an exact age for Oscar, but he must be in his 20's at least. This would indicate that Houdini is at the very least (but likely more than) 10 years old, which is also the maximum of the domestic rabbit's average lifespan. Animals in Gensokyo that well exceed their expected longevity have the tendency to transform into youkai. There is also the emotional distress that poor Houdini must be experiencing; knowing his best friend is in mortal danger, getting so close to people who can help and yet ultimately being rendered powerless by his old bones and rotten luck. Extreme emotional distress is another path via which animals can become youkai, a particularly relevant example of this being in WaHH, when Tewi sets up a bunch of pet rabbits to be abandoned so the distress would turn them into youkai she can command. That was another one of the reasons that I was hoping for Houdini to reach the Eientei crew, but that's enough of that. Let's move on to discussing this entry's options. All of them are interesting, if a little cryptic (in a good way! no need to clarify, Yumetou!). Anyways, my personal interpretations and thoughts on them are as follows: As context, I'm writing this with the assumption that this entry's options will lead to a perspective change as opposed to a dream sequence like we've seen before, but I'm willing to be wrong. "Best Friend": Oscar Diggs I think my reasoning for this is pretty self-explanatory, given how Houdini and Oscar seem to share a deep bond. If this is a perspective shift, going back to Oscar could be interesting. If we're lucky, it could lead to Oscar escaping on his own and maybe getting some character development as well. If we're unlucky, this could be a game over. IMO, the time Oscar's spent trying to fend for just himself (or him and Agappa) have been some of the highlights of this series. While this option is definitely high risk, it could also be high reward. If it's a dream sequence, we could get some more context on what lead up to Oscar's spiriting-away. While not absolutely essential, it could still provide some interesting perspective on our protagonist. "Witch's Strings": Marisa (or Alice?) While this option almost certainly refers to Marisa, which I'll assume to be the case, the 'Strings' part makes me think of Alice the puppeteer. I'm definitely overthinking this though . Whether this is a perspective shift or dream sequence, this option could give us vital information on one or two of our main quests We could get more information on the meaning behind Agappa's prophecy It could also reveal some sort of connection between Marisa and Oscar. Remember when Marisa freaked out when she opened Oscar's wallet? I NEED TO KNOW WHY, DAMMIT!!! This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the situation at hand, however. Doesn't mean it's not viable, just that we would be delaying our current quest (not dying) in favor of another. "Afflicted Soul": Wriggle I'm pretty sure this option is in reference to Wriggle and her possession This option is the one that most makes me think that this time the dream will be a perspective shift, as my smooth brain can't see what wriggle would have to do with a dream sequence. Could lead to team 9 saving Oscar, but given that it's the "Intrigue" option, it could be more sinister. Who knows, the inugami might just win out and bring Oscar further from rescue. Either way, this is one of two options that deal with the situation at hand, whereas the Marisa and Rumia options deal more with other quests Agappa, due to her ability to see the curse and her connection to the afterlife, would definitely feature heavily here. Agappa is probably my favorite character in this series so far, so getting more characterization for her would be pretty cool : ). "Stranger's Self-Loathing": Rumia This option is by far the most cryptic, and potentially very interesting. I personally think it refers to Rumia due the hints I think I've picked up on throughout the story that Rumia is facing an inner-struggle in regards to her nature as a man-eater. There are several different ways I can see this going. Most likely it'll just help us resolve one of the first quests we got, find Rumia. It could also bring Kimiko back into the fold, but I don't know how (I had a whole train of thought on how this could happen but the moment I sat down to write it out I lost it...) There is also the potential that this could resolve both the current situation and the finding Rumia quest at the same time. With both her and potentially Houdini out in the wider world, there's always the chance that they could bump into eachother, and maybe he leads Rumia back for help. Anyways, you guys are probably tired of listening to me ranting by now, so I'll cut it off here. All of these options seem pretty interesting to me, so I think I'll hold off on voting until I get the chance to hear some more of you guys' thoughts. Hope you all have a wonderful week and that Yumetou can finally catch a break : )

the sequel

We will be no longer offering torrent files for all of the official works. This will be "fixed" shortly.