-  [WT]  [Home] [Manage]
[ gensokyo / i / at / words ] [ th / eientei / forest / border / shrine / sdm / youkai / underground / others / shorts ] [ blue / rs ] [ Story List ]
[Return] [Entire Thread] [Last 50 posts] [First 100 posts]
Posting mode: Reply
Name
Email
Subject   (reply to 24891)
Message
File
Password  (for post and file deletion)
  • Supported file types are: GIF, GIF, JPG, JPG, PNG, PNG
  • Maximum file size allowed is 2048 KB.
  • Images greater than 200x200 pixels will be thumbnailed.
  • Currently 3297 unique user posts. View catalog
File 123021381154.jpg - (78.78KB , 1024x731 , IcebergCirno.jpg ) [iqdb]
24891 No. 24891
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

========================================

The sound of crackling dirt echoed through the long tunnel, stretching for miles behind the few workers who labored tirelessly. How deep were they underground, anyways? One hundred feet? Two hundred? No one had cared enough to take depth measurements when they began, but for this endeavor it didn’t matter. If Daiyousei’s calculations were correct, and everyone prayed to whatever gods they could that those calculations were, the only thing that mattered was that this tunnel was as straight as an arrow. If they screwed up anywhere, even so much as a single degree off, they could overshoot the target by miles, and all this would be for naught.

The tunnel was barely tall enough for a small child to stand up straight in, and the narrow walls would make this passage a claustrophobic’s worst nightmare. But that didn’t matter. As long as Cirno could work in it unimpeded, it wouldn’t make the least bit of difference to anyone if the tunnel smelled of rotting carcasses and was lined with razors all the way down. She labored without sleep, sixteen hours of every day she was right there at the front of the tunnel, digging ten times faster than any of the others could manage, and out on guard the other eight hours. It was quite a shame, really, that their fearless leader was both their strongest warrior and their fastest digger. Any day now, that double-edged utility would have to be split one way or the other, and no matter which side she chose, their progress would be sorely diminished.

Cirno crouched in the center of the end wall, hundreds of rotating ice chisels in front of her working better than the world’s best auger ever could. Whatever dirt she herself did not freeze to the walls the two fairies behind her quickly packed in tight as she drilled. They had decided days previous that they couldn’t possibly carry all the dirt and rock out of here, not when they were so pressed for time. The only option was to drill a giant hole, shred the soil as fine as they possibly could, then pack it into the surrounding walls for support, using whatever magic they had on hand. They had only experienced one cave-in so far, and Cirno was so furious at herself for letting it happen that she worked twice as hard as before ever since.

A light at the other end of the tunnel started to approach the three diggers, growing slightly larger with each passing second. Aside from the glowing blue crystals that were Cirno’s wings, it was the only light to be seen. As the illumination approached, a figure formed out of the blackness, a small fairy not even two feet tall, carrying before her an immobile sphere of danmaku energy as a lantern. Dressed in white and pink, she was a stark contrast to the earthen tones of the other two workers, and Cirno was so encased in dirt and grime that the other survivors had almost started to forget what she once looked like clean. Realizing the additional luminescence, Cirno halted her digging and turned to face the new arrival. A pair of goggles fashioned from ice were the only distinguishing feature on her otherwise dirt-covered face. Spitting a stream of sand out of her mouth, she spoke.

“What’s our current length, Sophia?” she asked authoritatively, not wasting any time. Her voice was cheerful, but hard, as if the weight of the world had started to crush her spirits after a long string of misfortune.

“I didn’t come to measure length this time, General Cirno,” Sophia replied in a scared little voice. “Daiyousei wants you topside right away.”

“We’re behind schedule as it is,” Cirno answered. “I can’t just stop now. And please, no ‘General.’ This is no army, and there are no ranks here. We’re all exiles right now; I don’t want things made worse by introducing things like rank into our midst.”

Sophia nodded, but her next phrase was much more serious. “Daiyousei insists. She says…Says that Gensokyo has arrived.”

If Cirno hadn’t been wearing those goggles, her eyes might have either grown wider, or narrower, depending on how she choose to express herself that day. “The good Gensokyo or the bad Gensokyo?”

“I think it’s the bad one.”

Cirno scuffed the ground with a muddy boot, or perhaps a shoe encased in far too much dirt. “They’ve finally found us,” she whispered to herself. “All right, I’ll go take a look. Terria,” she focused on the fairy to her left, almost as tall as she was, with long brown hair, “you’ll be digging until I get back. Sophia, take her place on the walls. If anything happens, never stop digging, no matter what.” She floated into the air and seemed to encase herself in thin sheets of shimmering ice until she looked like a silver bullet, then shot off down the tunnel faster than even a real silver bullet could.

Leagues of tunnel passed by in the blink of an eye as she accelerated herself down the narrow tube. One of the fairies with stronger danmaku had placed rings of light every half-mile, and larger rings still every five miles. In retrospect it didn’t really matter—Daiyousei was one who knew all the length calculations—but it was nice to let everyone else know just how far they had come in just six short days. Twenty miles…Forty miles…Cirno lost count as she slowed her speed down and broke out of her icy shell just in time before the tunnel curved sharply upwards. The ice seemed to have cleaned her somewhat, but her skin and clothes were still covered with streaks of black and brown, and her hair was a tangle of mud; hardly what anyone would call “pretty”, but she had stopped cared about appearance ever since they had resolved to dig.

She had traversed this tunnel so many times she needed no light to fly upwards to the surface. The surroundings slowly changed, transitioning from pitch black to hazy black to a very deep blue. Cirno accelerated herself even faster. No time to waste now, not if “they” had finally found them. This would be a very long day for her, and wasting time flying through the tunnel wasn’t something she’d tolerate of herself.

As the tunnel leveled out to a more calm grade, shimmers of light began to run through the walls and ceiling. She must be in the ocean’s portion of the tunnel now, where the walls were made of her own elegant ice rather than the dirty rock and soil of Japan’s underbelly. She ran a hand across the wall as she flew, probing every cubic inch of the structure for any impurities or cracks, and reinforcing them all with just a subconscious thought of the mind. This was her creation, her magic, and it needed to be as strong as she herself was if they were to survive the impending apocalypse. Slowing to a walk for the last few feet of her journey, she ascended the few steps upwards and entered the main room of their fortress.

It wasn’t much of a fortress, really, but at the same time it was a stronger fortress than any before it. There were only two rooms: an outer circular common area, and the sleeping quarters inside of it. Not that anyone really had any desire to sleep, for fear that they would never wake up, but Cirno insisted to them all that they needed to keep their strength high and their spirits higher, and that meant giving their frenzied minds a break once in a while. Everything was cast in the frosty light-blue of Cirno’s hand-crafted ice, save for the few perfectly clear portions that served as magnifying-glass windows. While anyone else would have laughed at the thought of an ice fortress, the few fairies here knew better than any how powerful those walls were. A foot of Cirno’s ice was worth more than it’s weight in steel, and the walls of this freezing monolith must have been at least fifty feet thick, if not more. From the outside it was nothing more than an unassuming iceberg, but woe betide anyone in this world or the next that tried to break it.

(Little Cirno is preparing…)
11 posts omitted. Last 50 shown. Expand all images
>> No. 24905
File 12302355994.jpg - (17.78KB , 244x320 , manly tears.jpg ) [iqdb]
24905
>> No. 24906
This was marvelous.
>> No. 24907
Excellent work. My hat's off to you.
>> No. 24912
File 123024201661.jpg - (167.00KB , 695x1949 , 1230188172785.jpg ) [iqdb]
24912
Happy it didn't turn out like this.
>> No. 24913
>>24891 >>24892 >>24893 >>24894 >>24895 >>24896 >>24897 >>24898 >>24899

I see what you did there. And I liked it.
>> No. 24914
I've got nothing clever or witty or silly or solemn to say. It wouldn't feel right.

This was good.
>> No. 24918
File 123025209794.jpg - (126.54KB , 460x1280 , CirnosLastStand.jpg ) [iqdb]
24918
U.N.Owen, this was amazing.

As a thank-you and late present, I give you this.

I hope you like it as much as we liked the story.
>> No. 24920
>>...the one experience in life which should be the greatest thing anyone should ever experience.

You want to make Mr.Farmer like that don't you U.N. Owen? Don't you!?

*sigh* It's a good thing I love Cirno so much.
>> No. 24921
That was superb.
>> No. 24923
File 123025597012.jpg - (28.86KB , 500x282 , ocelot.jpg ) [iqdb]
24923
SPLENDID, BROTHER!
>> No. 24924
Meanie. You made me cry.
>> No. 24926
Absolutely magnificent, thank you sir.
>> No. 24927
File 123026266410.png - (34.22KB , 700x700 , OHNO.png ) [iqdb]
24927
SUDDENLY
>> No. 24928
File 123026526250.jpg - (270.41KB , 595x731 , 2507344.jpg ) [iqdb]
24928
Manly tears were shed in abundance; undoubtedly a new high water mark for Touhou Project literature. This is the best Christmas ever.

I am now officially excited about ２００⑨
>> No. 24929
U. N. Owen, I must offer my congratulations. You are the first author on this site, as well as the first author in several years, to truly move me to manly tears.
>> No. 24930
File 123026798248.png - (348.66KB , 640x451 , 1197161522450.png ) [iqdb]
24930
>>24918
Oh my god... it's too awesome...
>> No. 24937
File 123028844970.jpg - (44.27KB , 673x365 , cirno_kaminaglasses.jpg ) [iqdb]
24937
Great story, I loved it!

"Row Row Fight the Power" is now playing in your head. Manually.
>> No. 24939
Fucking incredible.

I haven't been reading your main story, but I think I'll be starting now.
>> No. 24940
File 123029155720.jpg - (9.49KB , 212x238 , 1228807573415.jpg ) [iqdb]
24940
>>24939

Forgot my reaction image.
>> No. 24945
File 123030205668.jpg - (28.05KB , 438x308 , You lose more.jpg ) [iqdb]
24945
>>24918
>> No. 24972
The joy is mine as much as yours, when I see people enjoying my work this profusely. A writer can have no greater gift then when he sees his work being appreciated. The honor is mine, good sirs, to write for you.

>>24901
I approve of Patchcon Cirnos teaching people how to celebrate.

>>24913
I didn’t catch that until right after I posted it. Indeed, nine. Funny how random chance just happens to work that way, isn’t it?

>>24918
A…A picture? A picture for…for me? Drawn for my story? In…one, one day? I, I…th-thank you, thank you so very much! I don’t know what…what else is there to say? It’s…It’s beautiful. I can’t thank you enough!

…I thought I forgot how to cry, but…

>>24920
>You want to make Mr. Farmer like that don't you U.N. Owen? Don't you!?
Do I? Do you?

>>24924
Then my work is complete. I have attached you to a character, made her come alive for you, and you have cried for her loss. I pray that my skill may continue to do such things as this. Do not weep, but be joyful that you have a heart with which to weep.

>>24929
Perhaps I succeeded more than I thought, then.

>>24937
>cirno_kaminaglasses.jpg
You haven’t seen anything yet…

>>24939
Don’t be taken aback if you find the tone of writing to be a little different than this. You’ll probably be reading with your brain more than your heart in A Scarlet-Stained Memoir.

>>24945
I could see this becoming a meme. But I wouldn’t be worthy if it did.
>> No. 24973
It's...

Beautiful.
>> No. 24976
File 123035716342.jpg - (652.01KB , 1025x778 , CD.jpg ) [iqdb]
24976
Amazing.

Thank you, U. N. Owen.
>> No. 25003
>>24972
I am speechless, in the face of the amazing work that this is...

Words cannot describe...

I have to leave it at that. Any attempt i could make at leaving a worthy enough comment to this would not hit its mark.
>> No. 25046
File 123053528495.jpg - (48.76KB , 208x163 , All that she left behind.jpg ) [iqdb]
25046
 
 
 
                                SEE YOU, ICE COWBOY...
>> No. 25563
...And this is why it is nice to be literate. Cirno was always one of my favorites. My hat is off to you, sir, you deserve nine bottles of aloe vera for this.
>> No. 25564
File 123224063783.png - (134.45KB , 320x240 , vlcsnap-77310.png ) [iqdb]
25564
This is the best Touhou related thing I have ever read.

I feel somewhat bad that I was mildly turned on by Yuka's rape, and that I was pleased by Marisa dying first.
>> No. 25567
>>25564
Scratch that. This is probably one of the best literature related things I've ever read.
>> No. 25568
>>25567
And once more: I actually feel really fucking bad for being aroused then.
>> No. 25570
Call me crazy, but for some reason I really wanted to see Cirno fail spectacularly. I enjoyed reading it, have no doubt, but felt absolutely no empathy for the fairy's plight. Guess I'm just weird.

I do find it funny how Meiling still gets reduced to a joke, but that's just my personal bias talking.
>> No. 25573
I wonder. When this was first being proposed,

Did anyone else read "Stand" and think of JoJo?
>> No. 40036
Wow such a great story. Pretty much left me speachless after finishing it.

Great work.
>> No. 40037
Woah, it was a shock seeing being bumped up to the top page.
Not that you're wrong, but...
>> No. 40038
Yeah sorry bout necroing it. Came from an external site (with a direct link to this story) and didn't noticed the date of the last post.

So again sorry.
>> No. 40042
Well since it has already been bumped and I haven't commented on it yet... Great short Owen! Absolutely fantastic. And it's long as hell too! Good job!

>Yeah sorry bout necroing it. Came from an external site (with a direct link to this story) and didn't noticed the date of the last post.
Do I maybe know you? Youtube?
>> No. 40043
Not (>>40036) here, but my introduction to THP was via being linked to this thread.
Can't remember where from, but I was looking up the Strongest Day, having learnt about it too late.
>> No. 40044
i read it some time ago, and i loved it, now that it has been necro'ed i too can say "Incredible job Owen".
From time to time i open it and start reading at random just like i do with a good book...
>> No. 40050
@40042
Well yeah i have a channel/account there with the same name; its pretty much my standard posting name around the internet.

@40043
This thread is my first time here at this site too. Came across this story while reading about touhou at Tvtropes.

A shame i didn't read it sooner.
>> No. 40060
>Well yeah i have a channel/account there with the same name; its pretty much my standard posting name around the internet.
Huh? Are you sure? I just sent the link to the archives to a hlpb -something guy a short while ago on youtube. He wanted ASSM but the first page seems to be missing... I thought he wandered in here instead...
>> No. 40064
@40060
No youre right, i forgot my youtube account was made before i changed my default name to "deathcaster" (where it hasn't been taken) at youtube i have my old nickname "legolas66106".

Heh should really type in my usernames once instead of relying on those auto-login cookies.

So no that deathcaster ins't the same as this one, sorry.
>> No. 40068
>>40064
Yeah, you know. You don't need to make @ here. If you want to get the attention of people just click on the No. 40064 or so in the post.
>> No. 44000
I was referenced to A Scarlet Stained Memoir, and read to Chapter 14 in 5 days, including this short. U.N. Owen, you did an epic job and should feel proud.

I finished it two weeks later, having been forced to be a counselor at a camp with no internet. I despaired while waiting.
>> No. 44116
Having just had the luck to stumble over this, I just wanted to thank for your hard work in this Owen. I've always had a soft spot for Cirno which made the story even better to me. The ending manged to be both heart warming, and damn sad at the same time.
>> No. 44117
Glad you enjoyed it. I agree it is a great short. Please, do sage next time ok?(just write sage in the email box) Some of us have the thread on our watched list so we're still gonna see your comment.
>> No. 44118
>>44116

You brain-dead fuck.
>> No. 44119
>>44118 You don't have to be so mean. Yea sure bumping, but some people don't know how to use sage. Though I guess learning the hard way is the best way...
You see >>44116? This is what happens when you bump a story as old as this one. Try to be more careful next time~
>> No. 44120
I miss Owen. We really drove him crazy with our votes.
>> No. 44122
I think he said something about still being around a while ago. I miss him too.
>> No. 44123
>>44119
When posting, type "sage" into the Email field, but without the quotes.
>> No. 44136
>>44120
>>44122
Indeed yes; I still poke around from time to time. I miss you guys too, but I’m just too busy to write much these days. And actually, you guys drove me more sane with your votes; it just didn’t feel like it at the time. Looking back on it all has given me perspective on what I did right, what I did wrong, and how I can improve in the future. So thanks for that.

>>44000
Thank you; it was definitely hard work writing that much that fast. I’m glad you enjoyed it, as well, though getting stuck in the middle couldn’t have been fun. My condolences.

>>44116
You’re very welcome, stranger; more people need to try and break away from fanon Cirno in my opinion.

And apparently bumping this sparked discussion about necrobumping and such on the main board, sooo… hooray, I guess?
[Return] [Entire Thread] [Last 50 posts]
Delete post []
Password  
Report post
Reason  

[ gensokyo / i / at / words ] [ th / eientei / forest / border / shrine / sdm / youkai / underground / others / shorts ] [ blue / rs ] [ Story List ]

- + Took 0.12s -