Soshmal

Ah, I always love it when I get the notification about a new GSG post. It's a great refreshing feeling! And it seems like I'm not the newest one here anymore. Welcome to the GSGOoCaOT, @No Account Name Idea! It actually kinda looks like we both stumbled upon this series at roughly the same time. Don't worry about not having much to say! Everyone here has been extremely friendly and welcoming so far, so I think I can speak for everyone here when I say we're just glad to have another voice in the chat : ) Now as for you @Yumetou, I hope you're keeping well (I didn't realize you could @ people here, I'll try not to abuse that). Congrats on a year! You keep apologizing for the delays, but I'd just like to point out that in a little over a year of posting, you've written a total of 42 entries for the GSG. In other words, you have managed to make a weekly post ~75% - 80% of the time. For something you're making as a passion project, for free, to a group of strangers on a small corner of the internet, I'd wager that's pretty good! And on the topic of your posting... My brother in Christ, you have written *checks notes* 130 PAGES worth of fanfiction already, at least according to the google doc I'm using to keep track of it all. I admit I'm very new to fanfiction and so I might just be missing some context, but this is already a small novel on its own. If it isn't a real fanfiction, I don't know what is! As for my last post... I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT ABOUT IT BEING RUMIA!! YOU ALL DOUBTED ME, BUT I WAS RIGHT!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!! ...ahem, uh, anyways... I realize I did a poor job explaining my reasoning as to why it was Rumia. So, here are my reasons: Firstly, Young Reimu seems to be canon in this version of Gensokyo. Young Reimu is nothing if not a story about Rumia's inner-struggle with her nature as a man-eater We can tell it's canon because: There are a couple of times when Rumia calls out wistfully to 'Miko', which is what Reimu's mom was referred to as in the show. I'm pretty sure the black scars from the latest dream sequence were a reference to the darkness from the series end & reireimu IIRC somewhere in this thread Yumetou mentioned that readers would probably come into the story with certain expectations of how Rumia should be characterized because of Young Reimu, and so they might conform to that image. I don't remember exactly though. I haven't slept in 30 hours. After Oscar rescued her, Rumia would get upset each time Oscar showed her compassion. I think this is because she felt horrible guilt after being forced to confront the humanity of the person she was about to kill All of these point to a subtle sub-plot in which Rumia loathes her nature as a man eater and so loathes herself. To be upfront, this is my first time interacting with a forum outside of reddit or steam as well as my first time really engaging with a fanfiction, so I'm unfamiliar with the etiquette. I was worried that - in the case that you guys came to the same conclusions as me - I might have come off as condescending if I tried to argue my case much. Sorry about that . If I do make any kind of faux-pas please let me know, I won't take offence! And yeah, I admit that me thinking "Witches Strings" was Alice was just me going full tin-foil hat mode and reading too deep into things : ) Now as for you @Motaromc, my fellow zoomer... Yeah... sorry about that. I did see this when you initially posted it and was going to reply but ya know one thing lead to another and, well... I forgor Thank you for the compliment! But I'm no professional. Reading stories and dissecting them is a longstanding hobby of mine, and this one just happens to be particularly fun to tear apart. And by the way, the memes you make really liven up the thread! It's not the same, but seeing the effort you put into them inspired me to go into Hero Forge and try to make what I imagine Oscar, Agappa, & Houdini look like, which I attached below. I don't know why, but I've always imagined Agappa with this sort jaundiced, invader Zim colored skin. Ah, just as I'm wrapping this whole thing up Kymoh posts! Thank you Kymoh! The only reason I felt comfortable posting was because you guys were all very welcoming, so thank you for that :D But if me dissecting the story changes how you interact with it, I'm not doing them anymore D:< I'm kidding, but please don't let my little hobby take away from your ability to enjoy and engage with this series. I may have written a bit of purple prose above, and yet I also chose the danmaku option because it seemed like the funniest I think that's enough of my rambling. Hope you all have a good day!

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 : )

Hey hey, been a while. Happy new years to you all, hope you're doing well. Out of any of us, I'M the one that owes the biggest apology here. I know I only talked twice and dipped, but I had meant to be more involved in the discussion here. Illness and a little night parade of 100 paperwork SNAFUs kept me away from it though. I have a lot to catch up on, so please forgive me if this post is a bit all over the place. I didn't know you worked at a hospital, Yumetou. Don't know how much it'll mean to ya but as someone with chronic illness who is a semi-frequent guest at such places, I'd just like to say that I genuinely appreciate what you do. Also, it's no wonder you're tired, I've never been to a hospital that wasn't insanely hectic! Well, I wanted to yap a bit more about the story some tonight, but It's gotten pretty late so I'll hope to pick back up on this tomorrow. I hope my vote wasn't too late!

Great chapter! The flow and framing of it was really well done; the slow build up of tension as the characters start to fight/realize something was… wrong, the reveal of the monster, and the cut back to Oscar reminded me a lot of a Stephen King novel. I’ve been copying this story over to a google doc so I can better take notes on it, and this entry officially makes over 100 pages of written content! It’s currently sitting at about 103 pages, and that’s including some editing I’ve done to make it take up less space. Also, it was great seeing Wriggle finally getting a bit of the spotlight! Of all the misty lake crew, she seems to have gotten the least amount of attention so far. And Rumia got another mention too! I don’t know if I’m reading into things too much, but I feel like she’s had this subtle character arc going on in the background, which I’ve interpreted as her struggling with her (in)humanity. If I find the time this week, I’ll sit down and break the story apart and maybe write a little post about this, as well as some other tin foil-hat inducing theories that I don’t think I’ve seen others here talking about. As for this week’s vote, I went for the intrigue option because throwing his magic at things and booking it seems to be Oscar’s M.O. at this point lol. The other options were all good as well, though I didn’t quite understand what was meant by the intelligence option. I’m no wiseman nor am I your mom, but if you wouldn’t mind hearing out the advice of a ‘professional internet idiot & busy-body™’, I’d suggest you take a breather when you can and weigh out your priorities. Does the value (happiness, stability) you get out of writing these posts outweigh the cost (time, energy) of making them? This seems like a tight-knit community, so while I think I can safely say your work would be missed if you decided to slow down or take a break, I also think that the people here wouldn’t want this all to come at the cost of your sanity. Thanks as always for the story! Wishing you the best, my man.

Hey! I've been lurking here following the Survival Guide for a bit now and thought it was about time I pop in to say thank you for your work, I love it! I've been thinking about trying to get into creative writing for a while now and if you don't mind my asking, do you have any advice on how you structure stories? I know the Guide is a CYOA but it still reads as well thought out. Also, Agappa is definitely my favorite character. She has this dark & mysterious yet also silly and at times even lighthearted energy that really matches with the essence of touhou :)