Nyoko

“Well, would you like your dignity still intact, or shall I reveal your darkest desire?” I respond to her ultimatum. “Wha’ kinda threa’ is tha’? Now I’m curious wha’ you can re’eal, miss”, that leader of the bandits says. Which is amazing, because that means I get more perspective on the vindication. But it’s still easy to underestimate the scale of the vengeance… Entering what I call the Abyss, a black expanse stretching out to infinity with flames of one of three colours scattered around the landscape, I see eight flames. The heat coming from all of them are enough to cook me, though I don't plan on staying here for much longer. A red flame appears to be the vengeance of the leader of the bandits, so I touch that one to see who she despises. Shortly after, a cell lays before me. That person is locked inside the cell, while one who I can only assume to be the victim stands just outside the cell with a parchment in his hands. “Nelly of York, I needn’t remind you why you are here, do I?” The human says with a piercing stare. Nelly merely grunts in response. “Good, then allow me to finally give you your final sentence as decreed by our Queen and saviour of Gensokyo: You are to be put to death by virtue of a spear”, he relays. “When?” Nelly asks. “According to the sentence, in four days,” the victim says as he phases through the bars of the cell, a sure sign that we’ve diverged from what actually happened, “But I can hasten that, if you so wish.” Nelly proceeds to knock him out as the cell transform into that torture chamber I have become all too familiar with. She begins by not nailing, but screwing him to the Scarlet’s family insignia. Two screws in the palms and two in the farthest reaches of the feet, so he has to stretch for as long as he will be alive in this vision. Next, she beat him, barehanded, while saying: “The Queen is more forgiving than that, I just stole a dozen apples.” I could ascertain how much of that sentence is true, but that would be a waste of mana. Also, those blows reverberate across the room three times, as she picks up a pot, throws some mice in there, presses it against his stomach and sets the pot ablaze. Which is a form of torture I don't typically see in these flames, as they're either too weak to warrant a death or too strong to allow people to die. After the mice dug their way through the poor soul, she commits her last act of vengeance; surgically removing his heart before throwing it into a dump. It is that corpse that I show to the bandits, who are rightfully disgusted by what just appeared in front of them. “Who is… wait, him?” Nelly, taken aback, proclaims as she struggles to understand her emotions upon seeing him. The other bandits look at her in disbelief, which is my chance to escape. Bye-bye, whatever happens next is not my problem. Now to find the carava– “Hey, you, the lady in black!” Or it can find me… “I’m someone from Otherworldly Ventures the ruler of these lands hired to help refugees. So, is there something I can help you with? Especially because you just ran a good 500 meters.” the merchant on the caravan greets. Otherworldly Ventures? I don’t have the employee card with me, as I left it at home, but they’re usually a trustworthy bunch if you’ve proven yourself. Well, I’m actually pretty close to my destination, just two more kilometers further, but a ride wouldn’t hurt and we can utilize the caravan to speed up should bandits approach. “While I can march the distance, may I take a ride to my destination?” I ask. “Is it to Scarlet Castle Town?” “No, but it is in the direction of that place.” “Then you’re accepted, as long as you tell me where exactly it is you’re headed.” “Underground, towards what used to be Hell.” “…Come sit with me”, he commands, intrigued. Considering that the other nation responsible for the Nuclear Reactor does not have a good relationship with Otherworldly Ventures, at least from what I can tell, I should make it seem like I used their services out of necessity. Though… Satori’s going to get a visit from them sooner rather than later, now that they know it exists. “May I know about that place?” he asks when I sat down. “Well, the fact that it is my home should be enough to compensate for the ride, no?” “You know of that axiom?” he says with a curiosity that cannot be fake. “You’re not the first OV person I met, that’s all”, I answer, calmer than him. “Then who was the first employee? Was it the CEO of the company?” he pries with an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm. “…Information is a resource like any other, treat it with the respect it deserves”, I eventually articulate, though I nearly said the truth out of wonder for his absolute wonder at everything. “…Right, you may ask a question, then”, he gives as a form of apology. What’ll I do with that question, then? \------------------------------------------/ HP: 144 MP: 26 (-22) No crippled body parts New Items and/or Equipment: Nothing Ask about the land. → A healthy exchange about Gensokyo goes plenty far and keeps his nose out of the business of the Underworld. Query about Otherworldly Ventures and the Scarlet Empire. → Dig for information on them. Appraise him. → Let us see how much value he places on himself compared to what he is actually worth. pry about the CEO of Otherworldly Ventures. → He certainly idolizes him, but how much does he know? A catnap won’t hurt, now would it? → Though asking for a rest must have some good reasoning behind it.

And/or make sure people need to pay attention to his spells to see which of his bullets are fake. We had this question asked specifically in the context of Danmaku games in my topic to ask for spellcards of people's OCs, Which you answered to with Oscar Diggs' character in what was then still Illusionary Nirvana's iteration of him. I believe part of the reason for that is writing convention. What interesting story can you make with a normal (and thus not important enough to mention) human that would not include the question of Youkaihood? (Disregarding Reimu's ruthless extermination of villagers turned Youkai, that is.) It is much easier for the average Touhou fan, who know more about the Youkai part of the Gensokyo equation than the human villager one, to empathize with the Youkai. Though I feel like they've overdone it... What's also noted down is that the Villagers are meant as sheep to fear the Youkai to exist out of their belief: so giving them a vehicle to become powerful enough to not fear Youkai is... well, you get the point. It is this strange dichotomy - Youkai in the human village, yet forbidden from entering in the first place - that gives us a conflict that is being used by everything that even touches upon the village. Most people simply don't read that far into the situation to understand the concept and the reason why ZUN made that decision. Also, what counts as a true human to you? One who can't use magic; or one who uses magic that does not require turning into a different being? Because one actually can't partake in battle and the other has to use magic that barely exists. Even Christian witchcraft can be argued to slowly turn you into a demon or an angel depending on what flavour your magic is. And then the part actually directed towards me; I truly do enjoy putting my long nose into other people's business. Well, you could've at least spent a line making it clear that he shares inventory, then this misunderstanding would not have happened. (But who am I to talk?) I assume you haven't heard of the spellcard: 'Gun sign: "3D Printer Gun"' then? I don't exactly care whether or not a person seems like a good gal or not, and considering the amount of knowledge Oscar had about her he would have gone along a similar line of reasoning as what I stated. Both my and Oscar's line of reasoning mixed into each other, which led to that very suspicious attitude I wrote in. As for her other methods of being an omen of the destruction of his less than ordinary but still cozy life, she isn't in direct contact with anyone threatening aside from Reimu. Given time, she would be able to utterly crush any chance of a normal life Oscar has, but that time won't exactly be given without a good reason, and anything concerning the Hakurei miko will involve useful explanations to weaponize later. Oscar is an anomaly, which is enough to get him on the bad side of nearly everyone who actively cares about the balance of Gensokyo. Though there are more reasons than that as to why she wouldn't like him. On a side note, Yukari must be interested in this random human who wandered all the way from the furthest corner of Gensokyo to the human village in a day and seemingly recruited a Youkai as a helper.

I assume he's American, which has a gun culture where not owning a gun might as well be tantamount to a social crime... so of course he would have bullets. Taking into account a Shinigami likely brought him to Gensokyo on orders from somewhere, she either made sure he would be harmless and stole away the gun, or he did not have it on his person. I believe the latter to be more likely. Marisa might get into a lot of fights, but there is not going to be a master spark coming for people she believes to be your regular human or an Outsider. So I was not worried we'd get 'Magicannon: "Final Spark"'ed here. As for the theft: even though Marisa has fought the Yamaxanadu of Gensokyo and lost, she still shows no signs of repenting for her kleptomaniac tendencies. Still, getting in more hot water than she already is would be inadvisable to her, especially in the middle of the Human Village. You got caught up in the tension of the moment, and made a decision without a cool head... something that Oscar here would have learned to keep in the profession of magician. The village is going to be his home base for a while, if the Hakurei miko doesn't drag him all the way to her shrine; so yes, this is only the beginning of the dangers in the village. We still have those scheming Youkai to meet, after all.

Sanguine Rose came from these lands. While Queen Remilia seemed honourable and a decent ruler for a land… Her people seem less than honourable, so I should watch my back. Even under the cover of the sun, this black uniform grants a kind of camouflage in the shade of the trees. I should still watch out as this is not a perfect camouflage like certain bugs or insects have, but it’ll have to do. I follow behind the caravan, sneaking across trees, arches and grottos so I always know where it is. But after about an hour or five of this sneaking around, something peaks my interest. The sweet stench of blood fills the air around me, and I can’t help but investigate where it is coming from… It appears to be from a battlefield, though I can’t figure out who won and who lost from the bodies I can see. It does appear to be a fight between the Scarlet’s military police and some bandits… which is probably why the Empire is known to be the safest place in Gensokyo. A little further, the bandits who seem to be primarily made up of Western Youkai, catch me off guard. Some are wearing garments worthy of a commoner, others wearing hastily-made clothing likely because they have no money. I guess they did not have time to loot the corpses on that battlefield earlier for some better clothes. “Ye mone’ o’ ye li’e!” the one who seems to be the leader shouts in an accent matching her position as a criminal. Well, antagonizing them for their lack of time is going to end very poorly, so I’ll keep my mouth shut as I think about how to escape this predicament. They have completely surrounded me, all five of them, and something tells me they won’t take ‘I have no money’ as an answer… There is a hill behind me that drops down to the road, but I would most certainly get caught by the caravan I was following as I hear it coming… When did I get in front of it? Also, what do I do with those bandits? \------------------------------------------/ HP: 144 MP: 48 No crippled body parts New Items and/or Equipment: Nothing Attempt to find a fault in their encirclement. → They’re exhausted, and some are even bleeding. Give them their own money. → Perhaps their exhaustion makes them less vigilant. Give something else away. → Substitution is the primary skill you must learn on the Plains, but it is surprisingly useful outside of there as well. Jump off the cliff. → I’d rather be horribly maimed than give criminals a chance to kill me! Make them witness their own horrors. (-22 MP) → Laying bare their hearts should confuse the enemy enough for me to dash. Some Military police barely clinging to life provide a distraction. ...Are those more bandits on their way here?

I would honestly not know the answer of exactly when, but I remember that I got into Touhou through the music before Covid. Then I branched out to the games after Covid in I believe it was 2022, and then I joined this forum's consistently laidback energy last year. And now, well, I have firmly planted myself as a regular here, despite the initial hesitation hidden behind theatrically written comments and honest philosophy seeping through the cracks.

Welcome back, I see that you've taken my advice regarding signatures. You got the part about the apocalypse right on, but I must tell you it is a crazed Fairy warband, the actual Fairy state exists and likely won't be important for Mina Katt 'till she deals with other, more pertinent stuff. As for her personality, what else do you think someone who can stare directly into the abyss of one of the darkest desires humanity can have and understand it would have? At least Satori have to see what the person on the other end is currently thinking; this poor Nekomata would have to see how she has been impaled and getting cooked alive, while understanding where it came from... Which is not guaranteed to be proportionate to getting boiled alive.

Fairies usually disappear instantly when they are killed, but the low magic of Gensokyo during the magic crisis made fairies’ bodies stay as ‘corpses’ for a bit. Like they were in some kind of purgatory for a week. - Fairy Retrospective \------------------------------------------/ I should go back to my small camp and see if I can steal a weapon from the battlefield it should already be. Though the difficult terrain I traversed was not exactly terrain I hoped to have to cross again, I don’t think Sanguine Rose let me off just to get rid of a potentially deadly vengeful spirit… While the way back went without incident, save for your occasional detour to avoid ravenous Youkai or a trap set by some warband, what I found at my camp is much more alarming than just your common denizens of the Plains fighting for loot big and small. It is namely fairies, likely from a warband as they like clinging together, and humans in what I first assumed to be Hakurei military attire, but on closer inspection is a uniform I don’t recognize. They’re all human, though, and I don’t need to use my ability to feel the vengeful feeling coming from them, so these people must be the Purification Brigade I heard about recently… fighting a Crazed Fairy warband… Well, This looting is an inherent part of life on the Plains. I just need a weapon and some food to last me a day, thus I’ll just get near the battle– Someone already threw a corpse at me, because it was in the way of the enemy. This body belongs to a fairy, and the ‘sword’ she is holding on to could better be described as a dagger than a sword, but I’ll take it. I’d have preferred a human body as they would have also had food, but I’ll take what I can get. I leave as quickly as possible because I don’t like being near an entity called the ‘Purification Brigade’ for any amount of time longer than necessary. Especially if they have so much vengeance I can feel it without having to actively use my understanding. As the lush green rolling hills of the Fantasy Plains make way to the Scarlet swamplands, I hunt some fish with my bare hands while also being paranoid that those vengeful humans are after me. A lot of those fish escaped due to that paranoia, but I should have enough for a decent meal. I find an alcove to spend the night in and drink some water from the ponds in the area. It seems like none of those humans followed me, but the amount of vengeance I felt there was truly destructive. Do humans always have that much potential for vengeance stored in their bodies? I wake up sometime after sunrise and begin my journey to the cavern I came out of, when I spot a caravan heading the same way I want to go. Now, travelling with more people is usually safer… Yet how am I going to ‘join’ the caravan? \------------------------------------------/ HP: 144 MP: 48 (+4) No crippled body parts New Items and/or Equipment: A dagger Follow it. → A trading caravan so close to the Plains must be prepared for ambushes, better play it safe and keep my distance. Create a roadblock. → If I stop the caravan, I might be able to bargain my way on it. Act like a poor person. → Maybe by appealing to the merchant’s humanity I’ll be able to join the Caravan. Bargain with the merchant directly. → I don’t have much to offer, but extra protection in these outskirts of the Empire wouldn’t hurt, now would it?

To be perfectly honest, I was thinking of placing a comment redirecting you here, but decided against it as Yumetou would have better judgment than I do and I wouldn't have wanted you to feel demoralized by an honest mistake that is easy to make. You also just so happened to come in at a time when there is not much speculation or just general discussion to be had here, so this place wouldn't have been in the recent activity board on the homepage. (Like, the only thing I think we can talk about now is who the word 'Doom' is referring to, which is a discussion that can either last an eternity or the span of one post, neither of which seem enticing, to be honest. i'd have voted for a riskier option if I did not have a 7 in my days won category, for my luck seems to be so bad it underflows.) As a 'little' side note, if you are going to insist on having that 'With Love, Yer frend, Good and Ol' me', may I suggest taking a look at what a signature is? It never hurts to at least know more about the place you're going to start visiting consistently and it should save you some copy-pasting if you do utilize the feature. Though I will stress that you should take your time and not feel obligated on my or anyone else's part to know the ins and outs of the shrine as a new person, for that is an impossible request that Kaguya would make, but not any of the shrine denizens.

Short answer: there'll be a spotlight so I don't have to think about every interaction that happens in between the Nations of Gensokyo at all times, but they all exist to a certain extent. Long answer: For this first 'arc' it'll mostly be the Scarlet Empire and the Underworld taking the spotlight, as they are the most important and the ones with the most lore to utilize (as well as the ones who would have a decently unbiased and complete education). But I have plans for almost all of the factions to make them important sometime in the future (except for the Garden of the Sun, they've been willingly vassalized.) but I'll let you in on the starting line of thought for the two you seem to want me to discard for my own sanity. For the Hermits (which I assume to be Senkai): That Mausoleum has to have appeared or will appear somewhere due to the waning magic, the question is how long can those hermits last before they realize they have to exist in the physical realm? Also, where will they appear? For the Netherworld: The Yama have lost new hell and most heavens as well as 冥途 (Meido) [which functioned as a court]. They're going to want those facilities back. All in all, just one realm outlined in the RPG has been slightly changed and even then they might become important down the line, likely diplomatically. But let us first get back to the country Mina is a citizen of so she does not have to go back to the Sanguine Warband and risk her life again.

Mine would be Orin, if it wasn't already obvious from the profile picture. Though I will note that Chen and Goutokuji Mike are close, as all three of those cats actually touch upon different facets of my life and ended up about the same as I would given their situation (and I survived through it...) It's just that I feel the most connected with Orin at the present moment and will probably stay that way for a while.

I should've probably created this right after the IC... Welcome to the OoC of WP&V, where general talk about the story is appreciated and where I'll put out general news regarding the IC. Feel free to speculate, post fanart about my fanwork if you so desire, post critiques, et cetera et cetera. Basically, anything even slightly related to the story goes. I'll also get this more involved later, but I feel like I should get the setting correctly introduced before I'll start diverging from typical storytelling methods. What I have in store for you all who can wait, I won't say. But know this: playing the long game requires both patience and consistency in equal quantities. Well, enjoy your stay here and hopefully make it flourish every once in a while.

Well, I won't stop you from trying, but you can see what happened the last time someone tried to RP in Eientei... I feel like my impostor syndrome (Which I won't hide that I suffer from it a lot) had something to do with that. You can't improve without failing, so I'll keep that critique in mind. just a little note, because I feel like I did not explain it correctly: the arrow is Mina Katt thinking about the option with risks and potential rewards to be gained (but mostly the risks, that's just the person Mina is). But I won't talk about that anymore here for this is for the Survival Guide and not my story. I would feel bad if I hijacked this topic any longer than necessary.

“Who are you affiliated with: the Hakurei, the Scarlets or the Moriya?” Rose asks her captive, namely me, with a commanding voice. Depending on the answer I give her, I would be ruthlessly annihilated, or left alive long enough for me to make my case for being here. I speak: “I am affiliated with none of those three, for I come from underground in search of a vindictive spirit.” The commander stands still, looking at me with eyes that wish to kill, as if to intimidate me into slipping the truth. Now, I swear upon my name Mina Katt that everything I said is the truth. “You seem to be telling the truth”, she states, alleviating the pressure, “But why are you here then? Would you not find your spirit faster in the area around the prison for such spirits?” “Reliable sources have told us that the vengeful spirit I am hunting has infiltrated your camp to kill someone in here”, I explain. Well, the person on the hitlist is you, Sanguine Rose. “Can we catch it?” “Will you release me to bring it back to where it belongs if you do?” “Yes, we will.” I explain what they require in order to capture the spirit and who it is that the soul possessed. Predictably, the victim falls to the ground the second the spirit is captured. Yet the poor soul was possessed for too long and fell to the ground, unconscious. Which has the small side effect of nearly getting executed, but after they confirmed the person is alive, I am let go, with nothing but the clothes on my back and the spirit capturing device that was already a pain to drag here. Yet now it is even heavier with the vengeful soul inside of it. Now, how should I get back to the Underground? \------------------------------------------/ HP: 144 MP: 44 crippled body parts: none Items & equipment: A filled spirit capturing device and a uniform from Former Hell. Search for a path in the plains → I know these plains well, but they are inhabited by danger and I already got ambushed once on these plains… Follow tracks → Tracks lead to civilization or trouble, as they can belong to a trading caravan or a wandering band of mercenaries looking for a fight and/or food… or both. Take the same route I took to get here back → In these fields camps left out in the open attract pillagers of all kinds, but perhaps we can scavenge some spoils from the inevitable brawl and dash? Pick a direction and walk → All Caves lead to Chireiden. Or we find a checkpoint of some kind after walking for a bit. \------------------------------------------/ (This is actually my first piece of fan-fiction and it is of fan-fiction, funny how fate works out...) As this is a CYOA, mostly for plans far in the future you needn't worry about now, a small explanation of what is what is in order. This means that our Nekomata uses her perception to solve a problem or find a hole in the enemy's defence. This means that the Nekomata uses her knowledge of the area and/or person to get out of a predicament. This means that Katt uses subterfuge or gets ready to perform trickery of any kind. This means that Mina uses her diplomatic skills to get through checkpoints and such, or attempts to head towards a peaceful or less bloody solution. Those four will always be there, being the core skills of the poor soul. With those four also comes three sub-skills, noted down here. This means using her Understanding of Vengeance to solve a problem, including orientation. However, as the magic of Gensokyo has dissipated, so too has the usefulness of this skill. This means that she will take a break, recuperate and heal. These are your luck choices; good and bad luck, respectively.

I decided to take a break from here at the singular point in time when I would be most interested in how the story progressed... Well, no use complaining about rotten eggs (If that is how the idiom goes...) I see someone has been listening to my ramblings about thinking in character, though the metaphorical scale here is even in this regard. Also, wasn't a line in that cut from perspective "in a few days" as in not right now but not a month later? Let Oscar rest for more than a night, please. That is my understanding as well, knowing from my network of slightly related topics which somehow makes everyone thinks I understand the lore of Touhou deeply despite only knowing hearsay and using plausible conjecture to structure an argument that A is indeed A... Though even just welding the Dream World and the World of Fantasies can guarantee a substantial amount of OCs. Those two options are not strictly opposite to one another. Whether it is a good idea to use both of them at once is another question that you have to answer yourself. Me being part of said failed revival (Being the twintailed Nekomata who chose the constitutional monarchy of the Underworld, and being the last call for help before it died out) I enjoyed that fleeting time and would like to try again if we can find enough support. With that stipulation being the problem. As for my choice of extra fanfiction... The vampire one sounds intriguing. It means you have to get put in the mind of tricksters and sentences with double meanings, which I find is always a great writer exercise. (If a little draining, as I have come to know with my own side hustle of a completely original story.) Well, despite my obscure knowledge about many details of a lot of subjects, I have not a single clue as to which one I have a preference for. I believe Yumetou has more of a situation as the fairy tale "The Emperor's new Clothes" in store for us. Sure, Oscar could attempt to blend in, but he has enough knowledge about Gensokyo to know the difference between a 'Youkai' and a 'Human' while also having the knowledge of costumes to see through most of them (I think, we know jack about Oscar's past other than he's a magician). This would certainly spice things up for the first few interactions, until he wises up, that is. So we would certainly not be having 'normal human villager simulator' for at least the first day or three. As I have already stated, but in case you forgot while reading through the above wall of text, I was in one of them (Specifically the one where Oscar Diggs, the President of Otherworldly Ventures was about to be introduced) The main problem I see is that there are few consistently active members with enough of a drive to create an OC and follow through with it for an RP to work. My character had a distant relationship with mister Diggs, being the cat of one of his employees who died when he attempted to form a trade agreement with the Lunarians. (Though my impression from everything I read about that Oscar was that he was about to put on an opening ceremony for the first store in the Human Village, not a magician in the Outside World sense.) I still hate that last post I wrote in the IC, but I'm not going to go change the history of that thing now, as it has become something of a landmark in my brain of what to not do. Now then, I know my signature will say it, but this is a special moment, so... May Gensokyo bless you~

1. When did you get into Touhou? Around late Modern Era. Touhou 17 was already out but Touhou 17.5 was not even announced yet. When I started being part of the community and not lurking around like I usually do would be firmly in the present Era. 2. What made you first interested in Touhou? I believe that would have to be music, though I'm not exactly sure. That's the problem with living from day to day in transience, you tend to forget a lot of quite important trivia of yourself. *Quick addendum, I believe it was primary source material that made me interested in Touhou, so stuff like Flowering Night. 3. What made you stay with Touhou? The music continues to draw me to Touhou, as does the gameplay itself. What also keeps me invested in Touhou is the constant new takes on characters, setting, et cetera that people come up and make into some quite stunning games. And, of course, the knowledge I gain from the community cannot be discarded as a reason not to stick with Touhou, as compared to everywhere else, because Touhou brings people from all walks of life together, somehow. 4. What level of fanbase do you like to interact with? B. This website specifically, because my small group of friends don't know what half of the games I have in my catalogue even are and the large ones are great for information gathering but nothing really more for me. 5. How familiar are you with Touhou lore and story? Average to little, the only thing that drives me to a correct answer is the information I already possess from other people talking about it and the rest is my own insight into human psychology guiding me to what I believe to be a somewhat correct reading of the character. 6. Do you think Touhou is the hardest bullet-hell game? No, but it is the one to introduce me to bullet-hells. Games like Suguri and Last Command are more unforgiving than Touhou but I've not played any of them on the hardest difficulty. Touhou's difficulty comes mostly from its length, while the other two are less lengthy but does not pull their punches. 7. Do you think Touhou Gacha harmed the franchise? Yes, it absolutely did. It changed a core part of Touhou, at least to my understanding. That being the understanding of Characters in Touhou being very influenced by the Gachas, which will eventually cascade into a whole new loop of Flanderization which only the community before the Gacha can guide towards a more desirable result. I am not going to say we can prevent it, because that is setting my ambitions too high and might scare off perfectly reasonable people to join, but I am wary of every change. Well, less so "harmed" than "will harm" the franchise, but the clockwork has already been set in motion. 8. Is piracy within Touhou good or bad? Piracy is inherently about people wanting to rebel against certain groups of people who they believe are exploiting them (mostly), and I am no different. A general principle of mine is that if I pirate a game, I put a price on it that I want to pay for it and if that price I set exceeds the price of the game, I pay for it as soon as I am capable. But if the price is below the price I set on it, I wait for a sale to see if it is below that price then and if it is still below that price then I do not pay or touch the pirated copy. For Touhou, it is generally a good thing because you cannot get certain games otherwise, but there are bad sides to everything. Two sides of the same coin cannot be seperated from each other no matter how much we pirates with a decent moral compass try to disassociate ourselves with the other side. 9. How flanderized do you think Touhou characters are? Five or higher, depending on the character. And It'll only get worse with Gacha. 10. Overall, which era(s) did you like/dislike the most? The new Era is more blatantly experimenting with ideas than the last three combined, while the early windows and especially the pc-98 suffer from the fact that ZUN was still developing the Touhou formula, so I find the second windows Era the (current) peak of Touhou as a franchise. Some are difficult, while others are easier but more flashy to make up for it. But I haven't played all of the games in every Era to their completion, so take this insight with a truckload of salt.

Simple would be a wrong descriptor for what he is going to say, I'd say its more the usual humorous greeting he is used to saying to children... (which is going to have terrible consequences, as calling yourself a magician, while true, has a different meaning in Gensokyo as opposed to the Outside World...) Then again, his one strong point is how much he can lie (by omission) his way through Gensokyo. It is also night, people are generally more suspicious at night (even if they would act exactly the same as in the day, there is just that aura of mysticism at night that makes people distrustful.) But this Narumi is his best lifeline other than Agappa the cyclops behind (?) him; who does not seem the most sociable person in existence and is thus someone people are automatically more cautious around. (The book of punishments is definitely not helping her case, either.) People tend to be creatures of habit, which is why they're afraid of the unknown. So if a tie were to happen and you had to disable an option, would you flip a coin or roll a die to see which one should get disabled? The stat system would be a great addition because I have already caught myself scrolling up to see what happened last time a similar situation happened to see just how much knowledge I have to temporarily delete from my brain and more parameters to have an easier time slipping in and out of that would be a great boon. I'd use vague wording for things you can't immediately count or get a grip on yourself (with it also being affected by the mindset of the character so you can manipulate people to be more boastful when Oscar wants to boast) while there is specific numbers for things you can count (円 being the prime example, flares too.) So, yes, see you people next week when my exams are over. It's weekend now, so a little more time is on my hands.

That's certainly a daunting task you've given yourself. Please don't overwork yourself, as you have already piqued my interest and it would be a shame if you suffered from self-induced burnout. While I assume you already have a general plan for the project's side stories, I would advise to follow the Youkai food chain (strength level) up from Orange, who would be near the bottom, and eventually learn all the intricacies of the Reshined Project as you go up the chain and meet people more acquainted with the predicament of... Shining Gensokyo. This would allow us to compare and contrast the differences and similarities of the Touhou Project with the Reshined Project. Also maybe, if you've been doing this for a while, maybe be open to suggestions on completely (or not so completely) original characters, though that is just hope that's speaking through me because god knows I can't share nor continue my own writing for more than two sessions, sigh. I'd also quite enjoy a take on the moving of Hell and thus the creation of Former Hell, which could function as a bundle of origin stories, an incident of the past, or the history behind a new incident, or all three together. There is quite a lot of story to be fished from there, to be honest. Though this entire tangent is something you shouldn't think about until the 11th Project Reshined Shrine Maiden and have a decent grasp of your own worldbuilding. Work on some of the things you already have in your head while you wait for suggestions, to then use those suggestions to deepen yourself in your own world. The daemonic war you outlined would be more so written as a bloody refugee crisis rather than an actual revenge war, if it is set between touhou 5 & 6, a while later, like Touhou 14 abouts, I could see a revenge war working like a revenge war instead of a mix of refugee crisis and revenge war. I'll save the rest of my recommendations for later, when asked and I have more time to write these bloody massive essays. Good luck and have fun!

I find that it is best to choose depending on the characteristics of a person. This takes into account his background, his current situation and how much Gensokyo is cooking him alive in order to find the right state of mind you'd feel you're in and then pick a choice. Sure, the best option might be to swallow your pride and ask Agappa, but that is for Oscar, to my state of mind, too honest, too vulnerable to be safe from another Rumia situation and he still has his pride as a person to keep. Now then, I'm a trickster first and foremost, so my own votes tend to skew to trickery or assuming that trickery is going on and acting on that assumption, but Oscar has plenty of reason to fall back to the tools he is most familiar with to try and ward off the unfamiliar and definitely dangerous Gensokyo. A flare would allow you to see something as a human, at least; and I don't think Oscar knows whether the plants are sensitive to light at this point in time. even though he is trying to find the Sparrow of Night-Blindness he should probably not go through the forest effectively blind, now should he? he'll at least know when he's running straight into a Youkai's mouth before the final judgment is laid upon his soul by the Yama; if he is lucky. Just a night without his usual tools can also spice things up, as he is now out of familiar items other than a magician's set of clothes to fall back upon. He would also have been taught to call for help if he ever got lost in a forest with kids, and the best way to do that and entertain the children is to flare for help.

As someone with an unhealthy fascination with unlucky numbers, and also jokingly saying that my luck is so bad it underflows to being good again, Seeing the number 4 show up makes me happy~. Welcome to the Moriya shrine, we have everything from choose-your-own-adventure to just some casual chatting available to enjoy. We also have someone whom I consider to have gone completely mad...

This bothered me enough to make me spend enough time mulling it over that my tea is too strong for me now, and I drink them fairly strong already. It's not that it is the most dangerous place in the entirety of Gensokyo that gives the forest the air of danger, but rather where it is placed on the map of Gensokyo. Surrounding the Human village we have three major locations: Youkai mountain, the Forest of Magic and the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Now, assume you're a normal human in the human village; Would you go anywhere near Youkai mountain? Of course you wouldn't, that place is named after Youkai. At best you'd use the lift to Moriya to pray to the Gods. Next, would you go to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost? No, there is a reason not a soul who does not live there never returns without help from one who does live there. That leaves the Forest of Magic as our only major location that needs to dissuade a run-of-the-mill human from entering out of curiosity and likely getting enough people to notice the lie that holds the entirety of Gensokyo together... but the place is relatively harmless compared to everywhere else, so how do we persuade people to leave that forest the Hell alone? Who are our information distributors again? Who holds interest in keeping the lie that Youkai are scary intact, either to save themselves or to save face and the reputation of the clan? We don't need to lie about the threat level of other places because they are either threatening enough on their own to keep people away or are far enough from the human village that the powers that be genuinely could not care less about how Humans view the place.

First of all, welcome to the Moriya Shrine, tea is on your left and coffee is on your right. As a fellow lurker, at least most of the time, I understand your problems with posting. I do not want to convey more information about myself than is strictly necessary and even one step out of bounds would require rewriting an entire paragraph to avoid that problem. Yet I believe there are two (correct) solutions to this dilemma: work fast as if you have just drank a can of coffee or work meticulously slow like you're drinking tea. I tend to choose the latter option, as I find about the same amount comfort in each of the small steps of writing as the big finale of the process. Something tells me we're going to enjoy each other's company, as our interests mostly align. It is just that I use a lot more comparisons and idioms in my sometimes imposing walls of text that likens more to spinning the water in the tea than drinking it. It's basically does nothing to the flavour but makes it tastier to some people. Even when people drown in the sea of idioms and comparisons I prepare, they usually arrive at the destination I want them to arrive to... Or at least I think that is the case and they did not just guess correctly all those times. Don't worry about how you write, as it is a type of accent that would be a shame to see disappear into the eternal void of getting demonized out of existence itself. Even if it does not read as fluently as "when it rains and the sun shines there is a fair going on in Hell" (Dutch idiom translated into English for your convenience) it still has a charm in and of itself. My own read on Yuuka, the limited knowledge that I own of her, is about the same as yours: someone caring for something so much she has essentially shunned any other interest of hers to protect that one thing she holds sacred above all else. A truly kind person who uses an aura of death around her to protect those she wants to associate with. At least, that interpretation is one I find most correct from having played through the story mode of the Prismriver in PoFV. So please, enjoy yourself, relax, drink some tea and watch the cherry blossoms bloom in a week or two.

I've seen people ask for recommendations on anime and gacha games; but as far as I care to look, which is not very far, mind you, there is not a thread asking for recommendations on Bullet Hells... You know, the very thing Touhou is known for? So I decided to remedy this perceived problem by asking the Moriya Shrine in general: What (hybrid) Bullet Hells do you recommend that you have played and, if applicable, what (hybrid) Bullet Hell you playing now? I myself am currently playing "Last Command", which combines snake with Bullet Hell elements and a story that hits way too close to home for me in the three hours I've already played. I haven't been that emotional for as long as I can remember, but i digress. The game follows a program called Python as it explores the world of programs and computers in a post-human era. It must fight programs in a bullet-hell like fashion in order to not get deleted. (Or at least that was the reason the four bosses I have fought in 3 hours of playtime had.) For recommendations, I'd give "Bullet Heaven 2" the (dis)honour of my recommendation. Half because it is the only non-Touhou Bullet Hell I have played and half because it is at least a decent Bullet Hell in my experience. It follows the misadventures of Matt, Natalie, a fascist, Anna and a cat without legs capable of shooting stars as they go across their globe on the whims of fate. Though I'd be happy with any recommendations for more 'modern' bullet hells, as I believe there exists three in semi-popular conscience if you don't count Touhou.

If I may but in and give a Gacha game recommendation, CountVonNumeror, Then allow me to recommend Limbus Company by Project Moon. I'll use your structure to give my own arguments as to why I believe it to be a good fit for you. 1) Dailies What counts as dailies could be completed in 15 minutes of actually seriously playing the game tops. If you don't even have that much time you can still do two of the five dailies in less than a minute. Autoskip is also available and gives you more resources for using it at the cost of using more of your energy. 2) Writing All of the playable characters are literary references, and it shows. That includes you, the executive manager named Dante. Speaking of them, you get zero input into their actions; thus you are playing as the protagonist, and not something more akin to a player avatar. Assuming that is not enough, one of the first stages is spent explaining how your bus runs on humans like it is a Youkai. Intervallo's (Events) are replayable (just without the event rewards) and even mandatory as they technically serve as extra story between the Canto's (chapters) and as of now have ranged from violent chicken to a beach episode to being abducted to make Christmas presents out of your flesh. While the hardest events (Namely, Refraction Railways and technically Hard Mirror Dungeons) are a separate screen. In-story your people go through them, but they are not mandatory. Characters undergo development, though they are very slow in doing so. Still, you'll definitely notice it by the time you reach Intervallo 2, named the Magic Hellbus S.E.A. (They even had time to provide fanservice for the fans of their previous game.) 3) Challenging Content Any time you read "Proelium Fatale: lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate" prepare to get absolutely annihilated; Or at least a very difficult fight. Except for maybe the first two time. They're also unskippable as they're related to the story, so I hope you've learned the mechanics and have Identities that counter it (Well, the base Identities can hold their own as well, but it is going to require some planning and grinding.) But the absolute worst is kept in the Refraction Railways, which is not mandatory and the rewards are given for just beating the railway, not how fast you can do it. 4) Gacha Rates If my spending habits could veer farther away from the bloodthirsty sadist that would be great, but the Gacha (and the currency used for it) is very liberal. with a conversion rate of 130 Gacha currency (called Lunacy in the game) for one pull, it is more generous than the typical Hoyo game. And if you pull enough you can literally buy the identity you want at the dispensary with enough bad luck later. (They don't appear there immediately for reasons you can probably guess.) Also, once you have the identity, you have the ability to make it the best it can possibly be. (Your bad luck can be used for this too!) As for the chances of getting a character you want, my last ten pull had two of the lesser 00 and one guaranteed 000. 5) Sexualization You have to actively search for it, even though it has more content warnings than side effects on your average painkiller (that was a sentence someone actually said once.) Though you are going to find a couple. (even though lust is a sin type, those that use it typically have bloodlust, and not the kind of lust most associated with the word.) 6) Gameplay And while I'm at it, how friendly it is to people who come back after being away a long time. Team building is sort of the main reason to even pull for identities (though my own lamentation earlier says that you can get pretty far being a Waifu hunter.) and strategy on a turn-based scale (though the word turn-based is half-correct, as speed die are a thing.) are at your disposal, though you get the explanation in a fight you're expected to lose (the very first one), so they're not exactly the best at explaining things. You're going to be doing a lot of reading, that is for sure. You do not get a welcome back package of any kind, just what everyone else gets, and people get enough for one ten pull doing absolutely nothing except claim maintenance with five of those, and the seasons for the battle pass take a long time, so missing a couple of weeks of dailies and weeklies will not shoot down your chance of getting a max level battle pass. Also, there are mechanics in place to facilitate both team-building (the way the developers intended) and Solo (the way some hardcore players wanted) teams. So you can take your pick. 7) Peculiarities There are only 12 people in the playable roster. And that is never going to change, as far as we know. Well, except for allied combatants, maybe, but twelve people, discounting Dante because they do not actually fight, in a Gacha game is very small. Instead, you get alternate versions of those twelve to build your team from, with each sinner only being able to take on one identity at a time. In this sense, it seems like Lost Word, but that is it. This isn't about Touhou anymore, now is it?

I could not have come up with a clearer warning, but seriously, did you have to take that jab at people!? I'll have you know that the abyss of the heart is not for the faint of heart nor is staring at it for too long recommended for those without an iron will or experienced at the hobby... Okay, maybe not that extreme. Yet, for me who is a 'veteran' of the field, it is relatively tame. (Note that there are different areas of that abyss you need to become a veteran, with just a few transferable skills.) It is mostly a case of not wanting people to run headfirst into something horrifying that traumatizes them to the core of their being; that they'll never forget; than discouraging the general populace of ever interacting with the abyss. it's my first time watching, so I estimated it to be about something me from 4 years ago could handle. You've either proven that estimation wrong, or sent inexperienced people to an abyss that will change them forever... Let's hope it's the former.

I'm currently watching Madoka Magica from beginning to end, Though I wouldn't recommend watching it without being mentally prepared. A much lighter recommendation would be Reincarnated as a Sword, though an arachnophobia warning is in order for the second half of season one. I could spend a while gushing about it, but I won't... yet.