What the people wanted, uh, I think. Let's kick it off with Tenkajin Chiyari.
Her species seems to be a little unclear to some, even though it's in her name. She's an obscure type of creature with an affinity for blood. What do you think tenkajins are like? Some people seem to think she's a one-of-a-kind youkai, but do you? And what do you think of her possible affiliation with the Gouyoku Alliance? Just what kind of person does that make her?
(Also, make note of the detailing on her t-shirt.)

Chupacabara! Seems like the Chupa finally gets her time to shine! Although how long that time will be and how brightly that shining is depends...
She's probably THE most popular of the five new 2hus from UDoaLG, at least in my experience, although given that's she's so new she still doesn't have a lot of stuff about her, that being said she still has a surprising amount. She's a member of Yuuma's criminal organization and a squatter in the Hell of Blood Pools in Former Hell which in my mind means she and Okina are probably vaguely aware of each other's existence.
Looks wise I think she's probably the least attractive 2hu in UDoaLG, she's sickly, looks like she smells, is rail-thin, wears an oversized name brand trendy tshirt, and lives in garbage. Although her dopey expression is kind of funny and that big tail of hers is a charm point. Oh and the nucleic sequence on the hem of her dress is also nice.
I've seen her depicted both as kind of a depressed loner and as a total pervert, which I kind of funny but my only ideas really regarding her is that's she'd make a funny one off side character who to appear in former hell.

>>19105
Well, I tend to think she's actually a one-of-a-kind youkai like Nue is, and Nue'a ancestor whatever her name is, banana ears. Although I have seen people relate her to the Hodag of all creatures. Aside from that I don't have a very strong notion of what the Gouyoku Alliance even does, I mostly just think of them as the Yumma fanclub and not actual yakuza.

What an honor it must be, Ms. Chiyari, to beat out the famous Ms. Marisa and take the spot at the top of the thread! Nothing could, RUIN such an occasion – could it?

A Tenkajin is something like a fiery vengeful spirit from Gunma Prefecture that sucks people’s blood. This is not it’s true form however; these are illusions conjured by a yokai marten (a relative of the weasel.) to freeze victims with fear. It should be obvious to anyone with eyes that Chiyari is not marten-like in the slightest, though she is very weaselly.

There is speculation that Chiyari ‘Tenkajin’ is actually Chiyári ‘Chupacabra’, which is a sort of blood-sucking dog-lizard from South America. A fair theory, and one which I believed for some time. I now propose a different theory, though.

The infamous fallen monk Zanmu was said to have transferred the lice between the clothes she wore, in an act of ‘compassion’. In reality, this was to cultivate these lice, as she had at that point already witnessed how her flesh could make whatever ate it [u]immortal with the wolf Enoko.[/u]

I put forth that Chiyari Tenkajin is NOT a Tenkajin, NOR a chupacabra, but one of these lice Zanmu cultivated, an insect. The attached image details my speculation on this matter: the lice (true body) attaches to the anus of the puppet (unknown origin) and controls it from there by sending electrical signals via the spine. Food is passed from the puppet to the true insect body in this way.

Chiyari! After so long we finally get the chance to speak about her (Beating Marisa of all people too). I think she's most commonly depicted as the "girlfailure" in fanworks, and design-wise I think she was meant to be one. I mean, just look at her appearance. Messy hair, oversized t-shirt, and a pair of cheap-looking shorts? How can anyone see her and NOT think that she's a girlfailure?

She seems to be complaining alot in UDoALG, reinforcing her sleazy nature. Zun has said that her body is very thin because of lack of exercise. Her dialogue with Orin also confirms she's a shut-in while her messy hair implies that she barely practices self-care. So, it's safe to say that the fandom's depiction of her doesn't stray away too much from how she was meant to be depicted in the original source.

Her ability is to manipulate blood and fire. In the game, we can see her making will-of-wisps to chase her enemy. I suppose we haven't seen her use her blood ability in action, which is a shame since blood manipulation is one those abilites that can be used creatively. Just imagine what she could be capable of! Perhaps she could make weapons from her blood, perhaps she could raise the blood pressure of her enemies until their heart explodes, perhaps she could just stop blood from circulating in their brains. So much potential! Speaking of, why blood and fire specifically? The only thing I could think that connects the two are the fact that blood carries oxygen while fire needs oxygen to burn. Maybe there's more to her powers? Perhaps her real power involves some kind of oxygen manipulation?

I like the fact that Yuuma wants her to be a subordinate because she simply gets her vibes. Personality-wise, I think it would be interesting to use her as a protagonist in a story. Girlfailures are more grounded and realistic, thus making us easier to relate with these types of characters. Usually, they're already in the bottom of their life, so making them make progress would be easier, even small victories like succesfully doing a social exhange is enough to make us feel proud of their progress.

>>(Also, make note of the detailing on her t-shirt.)
ATCG refers to the four nitrogenous bases that make up the genetic code of DNA: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine. While I don't think this says anything about her character, this does imply that the knowledge of molecular biology in Former Hell is already far enough to the point that these things are included in common t-shirts.

... Or maybe Zun just thought it looked cool.

>>19107
>Looks wise I think she's probably the least attractive 2hu in UDoaLG.

I beak to differ! She may not hold up to the current beauty standards, but that's exactly her charm. She smells, sickly, and looks pathetic just like how an average loser would, and that what makes her more endearing and relatable!

>>19110
I don't know if you've read >>19108 but you should, you're simping for as ass-eating insect parasite you pathetic eagle spirit.
Besides everyone knows a real woman is one who could kick your ass, not some loser like the ass parasite herself.

>>19109
>Girlfailures are more grounded and realistic, thus making us easier to relate with these types of characters.
Hardly so! More often than not, they're just a vehicle for the writer moping about their insecurities. Which is relatable, because most people feel terrible about themselves sometimes and build up an exaggerated image of how much they're failing in their head, but just being relatable by virtue of embodying that image doesn't make the character particularly realistic. Like, yeah, pessimism and insecurity is in vogue now, but negativity isn't necessarily realism.

>ATCG refers to the four nitrogenous bases that make up the genetic code of DNA: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine. While I don't think this says anything about her character
Well, there's DNA info in blood plasma, right? Or something like that. It's tied into her ability, one way or another.

>More often than not, they're just a vehicle for the writer moping about their insecurities.

Reminds me of the whole "She's just like me fr" thing that lots of people implant onto characters. For what makes a character "realistic" or "relatable" should be based on personal experience. The act of writers inserting their insecurities onto a character isn't inherently a bad thing if they know how to interweave it into a character's personality but adding it for the sake of integrating yourself into a story and it barely contributes to anything is shaky.

>>19112
I guess I should've said they are "easier to relate" instead of calling them realistic to explain my point better. I meant it as in these types of characters are flawed, but these flaws work in their favor instead of making them undesirable. While I know flaws is a normal thing to have in characters, the "flaws" in these failure characters are more apparent and often their main appeal, which is what I was trying to bring attention to.

>>19113
>Reminds me of the whole "She's just like me fr" thing that lots of people implant onto characters.

Silly as it is, these projections are the reason why these characters worked so well. There's nothing wrong in putting yourself and your insecurities on a character. It makes you cheer for them when said character tries to overcome that flaw. I agree that leaning too much into it make it shaky, there should be a good balance between the personality and the writing to make it work. Good examples for these characters are Bocchi from Bocchi the Rock, Tomoko from Watamote, and Kobeni from Chainsawman. These characters are popular and gained massive amount of following because they still serve a good role in their respective story despite their personality.

>the "flaws" in these failure characters are more apparent and often their main appeal

I feel like flawed characters are interesting if there is something to juxtapose their flaws, because I'm not going to be enticed by a character whose flaws double as their gimmick. I don't have much to comment on Chiyari, but what I do want to ask is what aspect about Chiyari you can juxtapose her from her flaws aside from her powers? And what kind of storylines would you give her?

>>19116
Let's say the Gouyoku Allience needs to send an expedition team to spy on other factions on the Animal Realm. The team is assembled, including Chiyari as the member. Chiyari, being the loner shut-in she is, refuses to cooperate with the rest of the team. You can put her in a situation that requires the whole team to cooperate, making her team fail horribly unless she tries to overcome her flaw. Or you can also put her with a partner that contrasts her character, someone clean and discipline that could teach her to practice self-care.

>what kind of storylines would you give her?

I'd put her in a slow, reflective slice-of-life story. She'd start off as a shut-in, we'd follow her monotonous life where she would get involved with Yuuma and the Alliance shenanigans throughout the story, putting her in situation that requires her to change. Chiyari would fail several times, but eventually she'd slowly and surely achieve small victories. From leaving a mess to making her bed everytime she wakes up. From leaving her hair unkempt to combing her hair every morning. From a dirty, unwashed clothes into a good enough fashion.

>>19116
Meeeehhhh... I get what you're going for, a feel-good story, maybe even an aspirational one, but those plots feel saccharine and overly idealistic more often than not. Also, when it comes to fanfiction of that genre, it's often rather... Arbitrary, maybe that's the right word, skin-deep, you know. Like, you could get pretty much any character who sort of looks like a NEET-type from a distance, assign them a bunch of standard NEET problems and have them gradually molded into a person-who-got-better, who often hardly has anything in common with who the character was before this change.
I'm pretty sure that kind of plot can be a fetish thing if it's done on an attractive young woman (or whatever type of person the writer is into, but I've mostly seen girls), like reverse corruption or something, and I don't have a problem with people getting their rocks off, not really, but it doesn't make for compelling character writing.
...
Matter of taste, whatever. I do think it's relevant to Chiyari, though, as she sort of looks like a NEET-type from a distance.

idk why but chiyari seems like the type of girl to smoke weed

>>19117
>A positive character arc where a person is bettered is fetish tier
I kneel. Although I'd prefer Arya and Yuiman for that sort of thing.

>>19117
>Like, you could get pretty much any character who sort of looks like a NEET-type from a distance, assign them a bunch of standard NEET problems and have them gradually molded into a person-who-got-better,
I think this example is a bit too basic. There's unapologetic villains who can get reformed over the course of the story, people who lost their hope that can regain it, reckless punks that get their calm and cool over time, pacifists that obtain courage and valor to face their enemies. To consider that and say "oh, how saccharine" is a disservice to the concept.

Hey guys, I have a theory. You know how Chiyari looks like a lizard, with the scaly tail and the horn? What if it isn't her looking like a lizard... but her looking like a dinosaur!

If I'm not mistaken the Former Hell of Blood Pools is supposed to be oil / something like oil. We see how Yuuma changes when she consumes large quantities of the liquid, so we know that it can induce change in youkai. As well as this we know that Chiyari was there before Toutetsu arrived, but not if she was there right when hell was moved. In this timeframe, couldn't it be possible that Zanmu, originally looking closer to her original yokai / form (A ball of fire / Japanese mustelid), after spending so long drinking from the blood pools metamorphosised slowly over time into her current form? Because the oil would contain dinosaurs, wouldn't it? (Yes I know oil is mostly from organisms like plankton, but maybe Chiyari was just discerning with what blood she drank. I would be too if it would turn me into a dinosaur)

>>19120

I think these sorts of 'fix-it' stories get a bad rep because they're too easy. One thing I don't see come up often in them is regression, and certain influences/people that make it hard to let go of bad things. Like, for example Chiyari has a dual loyalty to Zanmu and Yuuma. Out of the two I'd say Yuuma's probably the best influence, given what her eagle spirits say, that and Yuuma's seems to be genuinely candid with her and interested in her as a person. Zanmu seems too unscrupulous and cunning to care about Chiyari, so she'd probably end up fucking her over at some point or only caring about her for her usefulness.

>>19121
True, stories that are just about success aren't interesting. Personally I don't write many positive character arcs, but success should be hard fought for, even in something with lower stakes like a slice of life there needs to be drama if it's going to be in a written format and not something like a weekly manga series. Which often have some drama anyways.

>>19122

Western fanfiction (what I've read, anyway) tends to have trouble balancing between idealism and grimdark. Either everything (And I mean EVERYTHING) can be solved by hard work and effort, and everyone's willing to listen to reason, or nothing can be solved, and everyone's an asshole. Meanwhile in real life a lot of things can admittedly be solved by (demanding, draining) work, but not everything, and horrible shit still happens anyway. I don't think this anecdote is all that good at getting my point across...

Anyway, in Chiyari's case, she's a 'NEET'. But why? I'd say its because the former hell of blood pools is an infinite food supply for her. Therefore I think its a good thing she's not leaving that often, given she feeds on blood and resentment. Imagine if she got stuck somewhere away from the blood pools and had the choice of either starving or drinking blood and causing suffering? Seems to me like staying in the blood pools is the most responsible thing.

Before I begin again, here are the sources to my earlier claim at >>19108

Zanmu’s Wikipedia page (Find it by searching for 残夢 Wikipedia. And yes I know, Wikipedia) mentions this lice story and links it (With no specific page number) to a set of historical documents called the Aizu Fudoki. After searching I found a free digital archive which can be found by searching 'adeac jp city aizuwakamatsu', and attempted to search the volumes 15-18, which are supposedly the ‘temple’ section of the corpus, for mention of the monk. However, the documents were not transcribed, only being photo images of the texts, and any programs I used to try and transcribe them to search for the Japanese characters for ‘Zanmu’, ‘Lice’, etc. did not succeed.

WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY. What I have not seen mentioned is the FACT that Chiyari Tenkajin feeds off of RESENTMENT (See her dialogue vs. Suika at the end of her scenario and her Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost omake.txt, no doubt with 'BIG SISTER'S' wall-to-all surveillance state this will be recorded somewhere). I fully expected this, however, as this thread appears to be filled a combination of remote-controlled shikigami slaves, and her future crop of jilted lovers. THE WOMAN IS A VILLAIN.

Beware! For she might appear to you as a ‘bedrotting girlfailure’ (AN ACCURATE ASSESSMENT), and many thoughts may occur to you, many in the vein of ‘I can fix her'. DO NOT FALL FOR HER TRICKERY. During my time in MAXIMUM SECURITY INSANITY PRISON, I met many victims of this dastardly CRIMINAL, locked away to SHUT THEM UP FOREVER; many told their tale of being suckered in by Chiyari's pathetic appearance, offering hands in friendship, offering employment, or even making romantic advances. After enough time had passed the vile 'Tenkajin' WILL BETRAY the individual, (BURNING house down, stealing ALL money, recording video of herself in bed with LARGER MAN) laughing, howling at their despair!

You may have been told that former hell’s blood pools 'provide enough resentment', which for any normal yokai it might... but not for the AVARICIOUS ‘Tenkajin’, who admires the treacherous Zanmu for ABANDONING her comrades when moving to the new hell!... No, she needs her resentment ‘fresh'...

>>19111

Wolf spirit… the hags of Gensokyo say that this year won’t be the year of the horse, but of GLUE… heed my warning…

>>19124
And here I though you were a loyal vassal of lady Kurokoma! Now, you've had your say, otter but I'll have mine. You're a rascal, a rascal and scoundrel. You're a rascal with no respect for real women. No respect for anything... except your flat chested matriarch!"

>>19124
>>19125
I have absolutely no idea what either of you are going on about right now…

That was a solid amount of posts, the wait was sort of worth it, more or less. Alright, let's select the new girl.

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu
[X] Fujiwara no Mokou
[X] Houjuu Nue

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu
one of my first favourite touhous

[X] Fujiwara no Mokou

M O K

[X] Houjuu Nue

Sexy alien SEX. ALIEN.
I would like to 'pierce' her with my 'arrow'...

[X] Fujiwara no Mokou

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu

[X] Houjuu Nue
UFO!

>>19132
Bold text, how intimidating.

Hey wait a second, where did Marisa go?!
RIP, Chiyari killed her

[X] Fujiwara no Mokou
Firebird

Alright, it will be Fujiwara no Mokou.
A lot of writers use her character to explore ideas of immortality, which is admittedly a pretty intuitive route, as she used to be an ordinary human, so her outlook might be closer to ours, in a sense. Do you have anything to say on her relationship to immortality? Her history with Kaguya comes up quite often too, so if you're into the Moon story line, you might have a thing or two to say about Mokou as well.

>>19136
Not really, despite having a minor and now resolved grudge against Kaguya I son't really think of Mokou as a character who's involved with the Lunrains or moony shit. Probably due to her friendship with Keine I see her more as a human village character, or even a Bamboo Forest character like Kagerou, Tewi and Mystia. Maybe she can have an interaction with Ariya since in the past she was interested in her, but I see Mokou as somebody who's way more peripheral to the loonies.
Kind of like Kanako she'd need a good reason to get involved but is otherwise kind of on the sidelines watching shit go down but not really getting involved. In some ways I imagine Eirin envies her position, not having to solve the problems of those two spoiled sisters.

>>19124
The passage is actually quoted on the Japanese wikipedia entry, it's in book 17 of the aizu fudoki, picrel for highlight https://adeac.jp/city-aizuwakamatsu/iiif/mp400170-100040/aizu_fudoki_017/uv#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=28

Mokou seems like she'd make a great protagonist. She lives humbly, is capable in combat and probably has myriad other skills from living so long, and would be motivated to do plot stuff out of boredom, Keine's insistence, or to spite Kaguya.
There's lots of fics and doujins exploring her psychology. I haven't read any of them. Sorry.
I think she looks best with a flat to medium chest. rule of thumb is the pants should be larger than the chest so they're the center of attention. The pants are the star!

>>19138
Thank you greatly. But beware, now they will come for you.
I will pray for you day and night.

>>19139

>>Mokou seems like she'd make a great protagonist

This is why I'm glad they went this route for FDF part III and Touhou Dystopian. Her untold wealth of experience from living and dying so much just kinda gives the vibe that "she was there to see it happen" without requiring a complex reason or justification.

>>19140
She does seem like a Dark Souls protagonist that was there for all three games. I wonder if she has i-frames on her rolls too.

Time is running out. Maybe anyone would say something at least modestly controversial? I wanted to discuss Mokou but I had absolutely nothing through the entire week to go off from.

I think its cute how she has a phoenix motif. When do you think she learned about them? Was she already proficient in fire magic before then or did she learn it specifically for the phoenix theme? Also, during her ex stage boss fight, doesn’t she literally die? That has some interesting applications for danmaku battling, like how it means that normal, safe danmaku can just be made lethal… Unless Mokou’s just really physically weak?

Anyway, I don’t really have that much else to say about her. I could kvetch about depictions of her where she’s a depressed bedrotting girlfailure, but I’ve only seen that in memes, cheap comedies, and older fanworks, so I shan’t.

I think she’d be very pleasant company. Tomboyish, knowledgeable, very chill. You just have to watch out for the moony that follows her around. On that topic, I don’t think either Mokou or Kaguya would hurt others to get one over the other. It isn’t that kind of hate.

Here is the part where I dump a bunch of reading material. Unfortunately I cannot post links but there should be enough info to search for it.

Cage in Lunatic Runagate has a whole chapter dedicated to the Moker, including a younger Muko with black hair and lovely bare legs. You can find this on the touhou wiki (the en touhouwiki dot net version, not the fandom one, never use fandom wiki)

An English translation of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter can be found on sacred-texts dot com.

I wanna know why people tend to gravitate towards Mokou for H-scene and route selections. I mean...sure the girl has a certain suave-tinged lens cast over her Blasé attitude that's mildly interesting, but it doesn't really get these ol' bones a rumbling yaknowwhatImean?

Isn't it sad then, dear reader...that the only flames she can't spark are those of passion?

>>19145
...What are you even on about? It's not like there is more porn of Mokou than other Touhou characters, not at all.

>>19145
Tomboys are sexy
She's sad and I want to fix her
She can't die so you can be as rough as you want
I hope this explains everything.

How could anyone prefer this smelly homeless bum over a refined and elegant princess?!

Wasn't much. Oh well.

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu
[X] Kamishirasawa Keine
[X] Houjuu Nue

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu

>>19151

I can one up you, bold text tripcode user!

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu
Mine's bigger.

>>19153
Begun, the Shiki Wars have.

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu

>>19154
What kind of a war has every side agree with each other?..

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu

>>19155

Most wars can be characterized by the statement "Both sides of the conflict agree the opposite party/entity shouldn't exist anymore".

[X] Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu

Unanimously Shiki Eiki.
She gets the short end of the stick in many fanworks, being reduced to a gag character - what a disappointment! Her nature as a yama might be a good opportunity to explore buddhist morality, and buddhist influences in Touhou, in a more general/meta sense. For example, do you think an enma's idea of morality is absolute? Also, what do you think other enmas are like? After all, she's only one of many.

Not directly about Shiki but very much related - what if the 'soul' of humans are like yokai / gods / etc.? like, they're the same class of entity, 'fuelled by belief'.
And what about different afterlives? I think it'd be interesting to have multiple souls show up when a person dies at all the different afterlives so there's still ambiguity around it.
Anyway, Shiki Eiki Related. She's often depicted as small and flat. I like this. Imagine her lecturing you, but you interrupt her by picking her up and french kissing her... Resistance giving way to indulgence and then going to find something to bend her over and fuck her on... mmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Doing a story about the office politics of the Ministry of Right and Wrong might be interesting, could be hard to get the Touhou flavor right though.

>>19162

This story might have what you want? The MC is member of the MoRoW at least.

https://www.thp.moe/border/res/31609.html

>>19159
Yamaxanadu, the Yama od Paradise (Gensokyo)
Man, I'm late on this one. Been busy lately, oh well! Eiki is one of those Touhous who I feel like doesn't appear a lot, mainly due to ZUN struggling to write her as a character. You know who I'm talking about, Shou, Kasen...etc. These characters, despite having other sides, all share the traits of being somewhat uptight with both Kasen and Eiki also being preachy. Honestly I'm rather fond of them, although Touhou plots tends to involve a lot of characters being rude, drunk, assholes to each other which is probably why these more straight laced 2hus don't show up much.
Although in contrast to Kasen, Eiki isn't a sexhu while also having a job the keeps her busy like Shou, in fact as the Yama of Gensokyo she's way more important, basically being the boss of Satori, Yuyuko, and Zanmu as well as the overseer of Gensokyo's hell. All apart of some large bureaucracy that exists to purify the soul and which she devotes herself honestly to.
Honestly I rather like her, although not strongly. I often see her used as a stand in for the ministry as a whole and the greater fandom seems to have some misconception about her being corrupt due to her cards un UM and 100th BM. It's one of those cross cultural jokes that goes over peoples heads, Eiki looks corrupt because she's taking money, but that money is evidence of a person's good deeds.
For the other Enmas, I think Eiki is comparatively nice and devoted, she takes a pleasing form to not distress people and she seems earnestly devoted to her job even spending her time off lecturing people what to do to better themselves.
Although you don't see her used a lot in non-SoL stories due to her station, which is a bit of a shame but hey someone has to complain about me plowing Komachi.

>>19165

>>she seems earnestly devoted to her job even spending her time off lecturing people what to do to better themselves

This. This right here is why I absolutely loved Shiki's part in Fantasy Maiden Wars. Seeing a character able humble even the sages of Gensokyo is a refreshing take on the power dynamics at play. Usually observers of politics in Gensokyo are indulged at the whims of the devil-may-care powerhouses, but fanon Shiki absolutely does not put up with that bullshit in most of the interpretations I've seen.

>>19161
Short flat girls like her and Tsukasa do have that appeal, however when compared to the lwed fox I feel like Eiki would be more stubborn and domineering, holding out her resistance longer and afterwards.
Well afterwards you're getting a lecture anyways.

Interesting to note that Eiki is the Yama of specifically Gensokyo. Does the outside world also have a system of having a Yama for specific areas? Are Yamas assigned to specific populations, or is there one assigned to each 'world'? Probably the latter. And are the Yamas appointed by the god Yama, are they fragments of the god, or are they something else entirely? Whaddayaguysthink????

>>19165
>Touhou plots tends to involve a lot of characters being rude, drunk, assholes to each other

Slice of life with the nicer 'hus has proven to have a lot of potential, just look at Mystia's Izakaya. Something like a 'off hours ministry' plot might work for light stuff, but then again the workers probably deal with heavy shit on a daily basis so it might not be as relaxing and sweet as something else. Though who knows, maybe that'd actually be good.

>>19166
>Seeing a character able humble even the sages of Gensokyo

The one time I've seen this in fanfic, Eiki was treated as an annoying short joke, and the big shots all held their mouths just because of her position. I've never seen an Eiki depicted in fanworks that does her any justice. For fuck's sake, she's supposed to be the judge of the dead, not a useless nagging bureaucrat.

On this note I have to consider the point I made earlier, about liking her being short. While a short flat Eiki with a tendency to give well-intentioned but scathing lectures makes me go boing boing, her height is unfortunately linked to her presence and authority. By this I mean the taller the Eiki, the cooler she is, and the more that depiction does justice to her status as JUDGE. An Eiki who's able to lay anyone's life bare and evaluate it neutrally

>>19167
> Short flat girls like her and Tsukasa do have that appeal

I always imagined Tsukasa as being relatively tall, but thin. y'know, like a tube?

One interesting Japanese fanon builds off the PMiSS description of yamas as serving in alternating shifts of two and gives Eiki a twin sister 四季映華 to fill in for her. I've got several VPN IPs banned trying to post the link but you can find an entry on pixiv encyclopedia

>>19168
I imagine that yes Eiki is just the Yama of Gensokyo, although I feel like most stories which don't delve into the politics of the MoRaW just use Eiki as a stand in for all the Yama. But I don't think their fragments of some Yama god, just hus subordinates, for one thing Eiki was just a Jizo who was able to attain her position.

Figured I would move the vote a bit, based on activity patterns... Well, your choice now!

[X] Murasa Minamitsu
[X] Kamishirasawa Keine
[X] Houjuu Nue

[X] Murasa

[X] Minamitsu Murasa

…Alright, screw it.

[X] Murasa Minamitsu

[X] Kamishirasawa Keine

[X] Kamishirasawa Keine

[X] Murasa Minamitsu

Her given name is kind of long, so lot of people call her by her surname, Murasa - it's Minamitsu. Despite her western theming, she's a japanese maritime phantom. A good character for horror writing, don't you think? Sailors have a lot of scary folklore, after all. Also sort of makes you wonder about other (potential/offscreen) sea youkai. An umibouzu... Hm...

Murasa is one of the characeters that got a redesign so good it replaces the standard outfit.

The shorts and coat working as a cape is fantastic.

On her character, uhhhhh, pirate. Yarg???

Was going to write something earlier but fell asleep.

I see Murasa in a lot of yuri doujins, mostly paired with Nue. I think that’s got less to do with character chemistry and moreso that they’re easy to write together because they’re both Myouren temple characters, and their designs complement each other (Murasa is white, read and blue, Nue is black, red and blue, and they both have short black hair). I guess Nue appears on Murasa’s stage in orb form too?

Murasa is also part of the ‘cucked Shou out of appearing in a game’ club, which also includes all other members of the temple except Nue. C’mon ZUN, do the funny, put Nue in the next game!

On the topic of the games, in them Murasa like to attack people with water from her ladle, and big fucking anchors. In both 12 and 17.5, the contrast between these two modes of attack is pretty funny. In 12 her water attacks are super spammy and random, very difficult to dodge, while her anchor attacks are much more manageable. But in 17.5, her water’s easy to dash through while her anchors aren’t. As well as this, when you’re playing as her her anchor attacks are much more effective than her water attack (not least because in order to pick up water as her, you need to stand still!)

I wonder what her ‘power level’ is, or at least how valuable she is to Byakuren. Its said that Byakuren specifically sought out Murasa before she was sealed, sailed out defenseless and alone on a boat, let herself get sunk, and then recruited her by presenting her with the palanquin ship. That seems like a lot of effort to go through for some rando, so it follows to reason that Murasa must be pretty powerful, right?

>>19179

Clearly her outfit upgrade is from her embezzling donations from the crooked Myouren Temple. Just how much rice could that coat have bought for the hungry?... Damned yokai.

>>19178
Murasa, or should I say Minitsu? The lovely and boyish ship phantom really is one of the handsome highlights of the Myouren temple next to Shou. And unlike Shou, she appear way more often like every other member of the Myouren temple. Anyways.
I feel like despite the comical nature of her non-lethal capsizing she's the most tragic member of the temple, unable to escape her origin as a ship phantom. And in that life she was entirely consumed by her grudge, and lashed out at people hoping that would free her only to get pulled deeper and deeper in with her actions more and more restricted. In a way she's sort of like an opposite to Shou, she's still bound to her nature, doesn't want to leave it behind, and doesn't have the right personality or virtues to do so anyways. But since Byakuren saved her she became a monk out of gratitude, even if she's a person who could never reach Byakuren's goal. Honestly she'd be pitiful if she wasn't so fine with her situation, she's not even hiding her true desires like Joon.
I've also seen the sinking of Byakuren's ship depicted various ways, but I think since Byakuren is talking in the plural she did save the rest of the crew. That and it's look suspicious if only she survived.
But for horror, I'm honestly not a big fan of straight horror. It's like how some people can't stand black coffee, it's just not to my tastes. But even at that I think Murasa can be both funny and really scary, especially if she's in a story with someone like Youmu.
>>19179
I'm not a fan of the big coat and hat, but having her skirt changed to a pair of shorts was a drastic improvement. For erotic appeal, I feel like she's one of the strongest contenders in the Myouren temple, tied with Shou and Byakuren of course. Actually now that I think about it, depending on how you consider her, Mamizou, a sex'hu herself might be on that list as well. She does have the upside in wearing shorts and occasionally having an exposed navel to see her tummy, something none of thee above can be said to have. Really it's a highlight.
>>19184
Honestly I just think it's a Yuugi situation, they're boyish/handsome enough where they can perform the role of the masculine girl in a yuri work. After that just pair them with whoever's most feminine and looks best next to her. Which just so happens to be Nue.
I don't think much about her powerlevel, but I think she's a very adaptable and practical fighter, although not as adaptable as Youki and Marisa who just steal other people's techniques and call it their own..

> I'm honestly not a big fan of straight horror.

I tend to see Mina in any genre except Horror but if they were horror stories about her then I feel like they'd touch on her days pre Myouren temple.

>I'm not a fan of the big coat and hat, but having her skirt changed to a pair of shorts was a drastic improvement.

I always thought she was wearing shorts in her UFO sprite, especially when everyone prior to SFW had been drawing it as shorts. I think the Hat and Coat makes Mina's Silhouette more interesting though.

I forgotted. I'm surprised that it took me two threads. Sorry, let's vote (for ten less hours than usual).

[X] Sunny Milk, Luna Child & Star Sapphire
[X] Kamishirasawa Keine
[X] Houjuu Nue

[X] Kamishirasawa Keine

[X] Kamishirasawa Keine

[X] Kamishirasawa Keine

[X] Kamishirasawa Keine

Keine-sama! I've had a hard week, please spoil me!
...What do you mean its only Monday!?

[X] Sunny Milk, Luna Child & Star Sapphire

(Murasa was 64, actually.)
It's Kamishirasawa Keine. Classic-era characters had totally overpowered abilities, didn't they? And her history-altering seems to have been utilized in the construction of Gensokyo, too...

I used to question this ability a lot because I wasn't sure if Keine's ability to Manipulation of History was Manipulating the Event itself or the Documentation of the event but then I looked back in IN stage 3 and remembered that Keine erased the history of the Human Village from our playable protagonists but actually obscured it. Keine literally states this in her dialogue that she made the Village invisible to Reimu. Human Keine's ability to manipulate history is her fabricating not only the Documentation but also the Memory of the event rather than literally erasing history reminds me of Eirin's Spell in the same game where the Moon was obscured and most humans couldn't realize that until it was pointed out to them by those who can see it. I'm still a little confused with Haku-Keine's abilities to create history; Is she Fabricating memories in a fashion that makes it seem like a particular event occured? Or can she actually create events from scratch? How powerful is Haku-Keine?

My interpretation of Keine character wise isn't that different from how she's characterized in Eternity Crying Bird - Moon River (with the only exception being backstory) which is actually the Doujin that made me develop a massive liking and interest to Keine but sadly, I don't think I have much words to describe her as well as I want to because but it wouldn't feel like me talking about my personal interpretation of her but rather me talking about another artist' interpretation of a character in a Doujinshi.

Its said that Keine has a connection to the Hieda family but I don't know what to make of that because I haven't thought about Reading about Akyuu or the Hieda Family. There's a lot to be said here.

>>19194
As the other guy said, I believe her ability to manipulate history to be illusory. History is a record of events after all, not the events themselves. Further more Akyuu implies that her family records are beyond Keine's ability to manipulate. Furthermore with ZUN implying her powers were given to her by the Lunarians, I think it has a similair nature to Reisen's Lunatic Red Eyes, but she can only alter the record of events. History itself is said to lay beyond memory in CoLA, so only the record of events that have passed into history can be manipulated, which we know from other sources to be sixty years. Although the last part is more speculation, I don't think we've seen her modify any recent history within the last sixty years either. Only modifying the history of events that happened in the past, like say the founding of the human village.

For her character, I tend to think of Keine as an ever more stick in the mud "don't change things" centrist then even Yukari is. She's only really interested in maintaining the status quo and making sure the human village is peaceful and sleepy, while having little self interest. She even self-appointedly takes on some of the duties doesn't care for as a Shrine Maiden, and which nobody really tries to get either of them to do. I think that personality is the exact reason why she was given her ability by the Lunarians, she would oppose in change, wouldn't abuse it since she's not self interested, and wouldn't try to instigate conflict. Even if the status quo might cause some people to suffer, Keine is the sort of person who could easily shrug it off and say the other options are worse.

Poor Keine! Oh well. Let's hope the next girl has it a little better.

[X] Sunny Milk, Luna Child & Star Sapphire
[X] Kasodani Kyouko
[X] Houjuu Nue

> Let's hope the next girl has it a little better.

Or hopefully in this case, the next girls!

[X] Sunny Milk, Luna Child & Star Sapphire

[X] Kasodani Kyouko

[X] Sunny Milk, Luna Child & Star Sapphire

[X] Houjuu Nue
Nuenis

[X] Sunny Milk, Luna Child & Star Sapphire

Faenis... Faenises? Faenii?

Sunny Milk, Luna Child and Star Sapphire are the Three Fairies of Light. Kiddy characters, always up to no good, love them or hate them... There's an entire manga dedicated to them, so there's a lot of material to examine. You've read it, haven't you?
I haven't, I'll admit it, but it would be great to hear from those who have, for obvious reasons!

>>19204
I enjoyed their manga for what it was worth although i haven't reread it. I've never actually seen anyone dislike the fairies, as far as the opinions I've been exposed to, people either find their manga cute or they dislike it. Honestly their shenanigans are pretty funny and I think I prefer them to whaletits. Fairies themselves are pretty interesting, having come a long ways for their days of in lore being youkai, like with very early Cirno stuff. Although most works involving their fairies don't have to do with their deeplore but that's not really a problem.
Besides that, Sunny and Star have the distinct honor of being lolis with no hidden side. Yukari's yapped about Luna having high potential, Cirno is an anomaly, Clowpiece is herself, and there's just Larva. Although maybe the trio isn't that lopsided and Sunny and Star have some hidden potential as well, who knows? ZUN doesn't.

Fairies 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

I've read a random selection of the three fairies manga chapters myself. I’ve never seen them star in many serious fanworks – more often they’re just a low level boss in those. The stories secondary creators want to tell are different to those ZUN wants to, so that’s expected – secondary creators generally have different goals when writing to ZUN, and choose different characters according to those needs. I think ZUN likes characters like the fairies because they’re simple, so they’re easier to write and they keep the world open ended for fanworks. ZUN! Bring back the Three Fairies manga!

And hey, what is a fairy anyway? Are they native to Gensokyo or are they foreign? A lot of them have western names, and they dress all weird. I’m not an expert, but ‘yousei’ as a japanese word is a recent one made to translate the european ‘fae’ into their language, right? They have to have been around Gensokyo since at least 70 years before PoFV, because Cirno was present to see the last Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier Incident, so fairies were around in Gensokyo then...

I think Sunny’s my favourite of the three. I’ve grown out of redheads and prefer blondes now, but I still have some fondness for a bit of ginge.

>>19205

> Hey Kasen, that fairy over there, the blonde one... Don't you think she has potential?

> Yukari, what? 'Potential'? I didn't like your tone when you said that-

> I can see it, yes. That fairy has potential.

>>19206
>What is a fairy.
Well the narration has an answer on the page I posted. They are beings that have a similar essence to god, but since they have no faith, and do not dwell within objects or shrines like gods do, they are not very godly. They only have life force, although Yukari has noted Luna having some connection to the moon, and the fairies themselves think Cirno (since ice is closer to purity than the impurity of life) is odd so they are probably a bit different.
But as they composed of nature, as long as it exists, fairies will exist in some shape or form. Thus they have always existed in Gensokyo and everywhere there is nature. It is said that most fairies are rather small and simple, I imagine most of their number, globally, could fit in the palms of your hands or are perhaps even smaller.
Anyways, I think their modern naming scheme is probably because they're children and they picked their names out themselves. Perhaps influenced by modern fairytales. Out of universe I think ZUN just wanted to give them a childish feel, Cirno's name is a refrence, and he didn't think too hard about Daiyousei.

It's spring, by the way, so, maybe...

[X] Lily White
[X] Kasodani Kyouko
[X] Houjuu Nue

Uh, that might be a bit harsh to the other girls...

[X] Houjuu Nue

Its not spring until the equinox, which is on the 20th of March!

Meanwhile, every dog has its day... week... possibly longer?

Leaning towards it too, despite everything.
[X] Houjuu Nue

[X] Houjuu Nue

[X] Houjuu Nue
Nuenis

[X] Nuenis

Okay, let's talk about Houjuu Nue. It's in her name - she's a nue beast. Her ability actually references a certain take on the creature, as it's described in her profile. Even though she's not a very complicated person, her species and origin are rather mysterious, and her past must have been quite eventful. In light of semi-recent developments... What do you think a Houjuu even is?

I'd also like to announce a kind of experiment again. This time, we'll have two weeks instead of one, and if it goes well, we'll probably switch to a two-week cycle, at least temporarily. Let's treat it as an opportunity to take a closer look at her. Do some research on the myths, compare her to other depictions of nues, examine how her relationships with the Myouren girls have been depicted, or something else entirely - take your time looking for something that might inspire a more in-depth post, basically. Good-faith effort is nice to see, after all. Thank you, I hope those who try enjoy it.

One of the cool things I have to say about her design is the fact that if it weren't for the freaky wing scythes/tendrils and arm snake thing, she'd look like just a normal looking person which fits into the whole being hard to recognise aspect about her.

Also the boss she inspired in Bpvz is stupidly difficult on normal despite only being the penultimate boss. (On hard the DETG clone is absolutely the tougher boss.)

>>19221
It is kind of cute, Nue, who always hide her appearance. Isn't ugly, plain, or unconventional. Instead she's almost a Japanese beauty, somewhat fitting I think.
Shy girls are rather cute.

Nue's nueness is not something I see explored often. More often you see her as a playful carefree prankster, or her alien side in gags. Just speaking about the character generally, I’ve never seen her take a leading role in a serious or dramatic work. I guess her surface persona doesn’t lend itself to that kind of thing, and her stated power means that something that’d challenge her would need to be significantly powerful, perhaps so much that it’d be a general threat to Gensokyo and just end up drawing the attention of others. But, don’t you think, it’d be cool to see her ins something like that? I think something set in the outside world, making use of her abilities of unknown form for stealth would be cool. And you basically have free reign over whatever backstory and origin she has!

I think Nue’s incorporation of aliens into her persona is cute too. In Sanae’s fight with her, when Sanae says that Nue’s an alien she responds by asking “what’s an alien”, implying she doesn’t know what one is… but half of her spell cards are about UFO invasions! So she clearly does know what an alien is. Maybe she's trying to hide the fact she's a science fiction dork? In any case, I think the fact that everyone, even Marisa and Reimu, saw the UFOs as saucers must mean that they've watched some stuff featuring them - maybe on a cozy Moriya Shrine movie night?

The design of her saucer is the traditonal Japanese one, with the orbs set in the underside of the saucer – differentiated from western saucers which lack them and are often more disc like. Fun fact, the Japanese saucers are actually the original flying saucer designs from a man called George Adamski, who described the crafts as such. When this meme made its way to Japan, in 1975 two boys in a city named Kofu reportedly saw a very similar craft. They described the occupants as something like red, human sized goblins wearing star trek uniforms – just look it up if you’re interested. In Adamski’s tale, he said that the flying saucers were piloted by attractive blonde people… Hey! Like > said, Nue looks like a traditional Japanese beauty, right? So its another case of a UFO being piloted by someone hot… Uh, anyway, the design of the UFO changed over time, along with its pilots and their disposition toward humans, changing from the blonde supermen piloting bulbous craft and wanting to discuss philosophy, to hairless grey aliens piloting featureless discs who want to probe your anus, except in Japan! Where variations on Adamski’s tale are still the most prevalent to this day.

When I see an artist draw Nue, it's usually because of her striking design or the UFO meme, but when she appears in doujinshi, she's relegated to a background character or a situation where she's interchangeable with another character. I've rarely seen her as a main character.

Also, she's from roughly the Heian period, where myths were more prominent. She probably fought against many samurai or against Yorimasa, aka the Nue Hunter.

Despite that, I really like her playful and mischievous personality.

Okay, let's vote again.
Also, please tell me if you want two weeks this time too - as far as I can tell, it doesn't really affect activity (nyoro~n), so it's a matter of everyone's preferences.

[X] Lily White
[X] Kasodani Kyouko
[X] Doremy Sweet

[X] Doremy Sweet

[X] Lily White

It’s almost Spring, so, why not?

>>19240
As for your question, I’m fine with the two weeks this time. It at least gives people a chance to respond.

[X] Lily White

It seems auspicious to vote for the character with the spring equinox right 'round the corner, but what would we seriously discuss about her?...
I think a better approach for a character like this would be to list interpretations of her one liked (mostly she's a side gag character, but with a healthy amount of variance), some facts about her from the games and (probably the most potentially fruitful) discussion of her mythological basis. Work's going to be relenting for me in the coming weeks so I'll try and set aside some time to dig up some stuff for this cute fairy's sake.

[X] Doremy Sweet

>tell me if you want two weeks this time too
I prefer one week given that there wasn't much activity for Nue week.

>>19243
Sorry forgot to put my opinion for the week time uh. I prefer two weeks because I'm going to be mad busy this week and not the next so I can have a chance to write up a post

wait another idea, what about a system weher at the end of the week people vote whether to extend the time to two weeks or not, so if there's a fruitful discussion we can continue it, and if there's not we can move on to the next character?

[X] Lily White

>>19246
Nice idea.

It's spring, it's been spring for a while now, so it's got to be her, right? It's Lily White, and she would like to announce that it is, indeed, spring.
＿人人人人人人人＿
＞　春ですよー　＜
￣^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y￣
Though... What do you think is the nature of this ability anyway? Do you think it has any actual power, or is it completely arbitrary? And here's another obvious question: what does she do during other seasons? She can't be that one-sided, right?

Lily White, in all of the fanfictions I've read, has been a gag character. I'm easily entertained and I like fairies so I've grown a bit fond of her over time. Characters with very simple goals can be surprisingly interesting to work with, especially figuring out multiple different ways to achieve that goal (announcing spring)
Some examples from this site include Cirno's Perfect Possession Class by LikeMindedPerson (Whom I'm reading but I'm still yet to leave comments on! Sorry!!!) Where she's a side character who can only say the words 'Spring is Here'. Its trope, but its sparse enough to be actually funny and not annoying.
And I haven't read the full work but this one scene with her
https://www.thp.moe/th/res/183417.html#183938
Is very funny too. I won't spoil it.
Other than that, I've only really seen Lily treated as a pest in fan writing (in fanarts and short comics she sometimes gets a warm welcome). Its kind of sad really, Spring is such a beautiful time of year (or it would be, if it weren't when exams were where I live) so i think Lily White is justified in shouting her lungs out over it.
speaking of that, don't you think it'd be cool if Lily did a collab with Choujuu Gigaku? With their audio systems and stage, she could announce spring to a huge amount of people! Repeatedly! To awesome backing instruments and vocals. I think if she showed up and announced spring to me I'd give her a juicebox. all that announcing must be hard on the throat.

The specificity of her gimmick makes her representative of what *isn't* human in fairies.

That's my take at least lol.

I think the reason people treat her as a pest in some fanworks is...

Well, that's her mechanic. Being so full of joy and excitement for Spring that she launches Danmaku everywhere with as much reckless abandon as a tumbleweed spreading seeds.

It's cute, but she also mostly communicates via bullets as a result.

Also, the fandom collectively decided she had a twin sister for awhile, before ZUN had to explain that people can wear more than one outfit, so that was fun. Although it's kinda sad Lily "Black" was never really a thing, as a pair of twin sisters is just a fun depiction, and a lot of cuteness arose from fanart.

>>19250
I have to catch up on CPPC, but I'm glad she doesn't say 'Spring is here' too often in that fic because I find her being able to only say that frustrating in things that aren't gag works. It's like Luke Skywalker being able to understand R2 and hold a conversation with him, but instead it's a character who can speak properly but just doesn't, and yet everyone can understand her perfectly fine. I'd at least want her to change up the wording or only say it one time to each person. Other than that, I completely agree with you. I imagine if she shouts 'Spring is here' into a microphone, a bunch of sakura petals would blast out of the speakers.

>>19252
Great example of fairies being the embodiment of nature. More of a 'pollen is super annoying' fairy than a spring announcing fairy.

I say screw multiple outfits, Lilly Black is real to me! One of my favorite parts of daydreaming about Touhou is coming up with random ideas that have no relevance to Touhou like Marisa's 5 older brothers or Yukari’s messy divorce.

>>19249
I think Lily White is a representation of what a "normal" fairy is like, without Cirno's ambition, Larva's baggage, or Piece's insanity. She's a simple, one note character, but that's okay. There's 100+ other characters to write deep emotional explorations of. Sometimes you just want a gag character to shout "spring is here".

One fun gag was in Zounose's Tricolor Market, where they had her become the herald of Mike's market and turned her into Lily Calico. So if you want to include Lily White in a story, you could try generalizing her "announcing things" nature to something other than spring.

>>19254
>I think Lily White is a representation of what a "normal" fairy is like, without Cirno's ambition, Larva's baggage, or Piece's insanity. She's a simple, one note character, but that's okay. There's 100+ other characters to write deep emotional explorations of. Sometimes you just want a gag character to shout "spring is here".
Kind of yeah! As much as I like giving depth to one-note and superficial characters, they have the right to exist as they are, and oftentimes, trying to give them depth comes out either forced or completely arbitrary. (Not that I don't get the impulse to do it, though. It's one of the more blatantly obvious things to do in a fanwork.)

>One fun gag was in Zounose's Tricolor Market, where they had her become the herald of Mike's market and turned her into Lily Calico. So if you want to include Lily White in a story, you could try generalizing her "announcing things" nature to something other than spring.
It is pretty funny and kind of cute, made me imagine someone switching her hat out mid-announcement and her shutting off for a second and then continuing to shout a different message.

Spring goes on...
(I think that was enough. Uuuh, should I just decide the length of the discussion individually every time? It's not fair, is it...)

[X] Wakasagihime
[X] Kasodani Kyouko
[X] Doremy Sweet

>>19260

[X] Wakasagihime

Fishy time!

>>19260
[X] Doremy Sweet

I think picking a new subject once discussion has died down for a while makes perfect sense.

[X] Wakasagihime

Fish.

[X] Wakasagihime

The marine mammaries mammal

It's Wakasagihime, an unassuming freshwater mermaid and a member of the Grassroots Network. So, on ingesting mermaid flesh... It wouldn't make you immortal, would it?
What an evil question! *tsukkomi fan smack*

>>19265
Wakasagihime is in a unique position because she's the one harmless innocent cinnamon roll in Touhou. Most characters have a little edge, some sassiness, a propensity to random violence. As fun as that is, sometimes you have a use for a guileless, pure-hearted character, and now that the Mallet's power is withdrawn she's a perfectly sweet-tempered girl.

She is a little tricky given that she can't fly or walk on land, though. If you want to use her in a story you have to contrive some way to get the story over to Misty Lake, or else put her in a fishbowl or something. We don't usually think of her among the hikkikomori characters, but she is in her own way homebound.

Sorry Wakasgihmay! You're week didn't get much discusion.!! I was Busy making work...

And I don't really have much to say on the character anyway. Whenever she's presented its as a friendly yokai, to the point where she'll direct humans away from the dangerous wilds of Gensokyo back to the human village. A common thing for her in fanworks is the adjustments and stuff she has for her lack of legs, like the wheelchair you might have seen her in in fanworks (which I find very charming, especially when she's being escorted by her grassroots fellows in it), and some speculation about her living quarters too. Does she live above or below the water?... or is it both? She's also shown as the 'beating heart' of the grassrots network, organising the more reclusive Kagerou and Sekibanki.

She'd be a good choice for the focus of a slice-of-life. More focus on her personal struggles as a community organiser, her struggling with not having legs when tryign to achieve some goal... A comfy character for a comfy story

a bit late but the only thing I have to say is the harsh juxtaposition of her theme and the person behind tickles my brain. If you were to show someone this energetic rock theme with these hints of triumph, the last thing they expect it to represent is a wee fish girl.

Hard work week, forgot this entirely.

I like the funny fish. I find her in a few fanworks to be fun, my favorite is the one where she meets Kosuzu, who thinks she and Sekibanki are dating.

The fact that she's a part of a grassroots information network is funny, especially since it varies from "just her friends messing around" to "actual info network but Wakasagi barely participates because she's limited to a lake."

We just don't know much about her, other than her theme being extremely metal for some reason, but I like her.

Well that was a comeback for Waggysaggy if I ever saw one...

Anyways, I just suddenly felt the need to contribute my thoughts just before her time is up, so...here we go!

I really like her design; it's very cute and pretty! And she has a really good personality. Polite and docile, though also quite shy. She's not as...bold as most of the other characters in the cast, but I do think she bounces off her fellow grassroot members quite well, between Seki's more rough, arrogant, and pessimistic personality, and Kagerou's more composed and collected personality. While I would like to see more stuff with Wakasagihime, you can't deny that she works extremely well when she's with her fellow grassroot members. Though, to be fair, I think we do need more of the Grassroot Youkai in general lol.

>>19271
> She's also shown as the 'beating heart' of the grassrots network, organising the more reclusive Kagerou and Sekibanki.

That's pretty fitting, I'd said. Wakasagi does seem like she's the most empathetic of the trio

> She'd be a good choice for the focus of a slice-of-life.

I think so too. She's a more...slow-paced character, if that makes sense. Like, she personally wouldn't be my first choice if I were writing a more serious or dramatic story, unless it was some kind of backstory.

She does live in Misty Lake, so I suppose it would also be interesting to explore a potential dynamic/relationship with it's inhabitants, like Cirno, or even the SDM's inhabitants such as Meiling, since Misty Lake is near the mansion.

>>19272
> The only thing I have to say is the harsh juxtaposition of her theme and the person behind tickles my brain.

It is pretty funny if you think about. Like, imagine if you knew nothing about Touhou and listened to Wakasagi's theme, only to later realize that the character behind it is a sweet and timid cinnamon roll who wouldn't even hurt a fly, or vice versa. Lol

Long time no see? (It wasn't that long.) How long will the next time be?

[X] Ibuki Suika
[X] Kasodani Kyouko
[X] Doremy Sweet

>>19310
[x] Doremy Sweet

[X] Doremy Sweet

[X] Doremy Sweet

[X] Doremy Sweet

[X] Kasodani Kyouko

Doremy Sweet is tapir you must have seen in a dream before.
She's a dream-maker, and the ruler of the Dream World. There's a lot left unstated about it. Do you think she's the only one of her kind, in species and in occupation, or are there other dream manager baku out there? Is that realm totally chaotic, or would you imagine it to have a kind of structure of its own? And hey, is she able to dream too?

Dormy’s one of those characters who I feel I often have to solve for when I want to write something with dream effects. “Why is the ruler of the Dream world with the power of seemingly-inifinite bodies not able to just solve a dream world incident in an instant? Why can’t she solve ANY incident?”

The usual answer I come to, if it’s not “she got proverbially jumped with an incident that hard-counters her” is that she has dominion over basically the whole dream world. Gensokyo is basically just one town - it’s a tiny fragment of her full domain - so she shouldn’t and doesn’t focus on it specifically.

In the right circumstances, she can even become a problem in and of itself. She could be entirely willing to quarantine Gensokyo’s dream world to Gensokyo if it’s the best way to deal with the problem at large scale.

>>19317
I think you're overestimating Doremy's power. Being the ruler of the dream world doesn't mean she can instantly solve all its problems. It just means she has some nominal authority. And the dream dwellers don't necessarily seem to respect that authority, if you look at her appearances in Antinomy of Common Flowers and Violet Detector. Both of those were "dream world incidents" in some sense, but she didn't just solve them in a flash, she relied on others to help her with both.

I tend to think of her role as "ruler of the Dream World" more like being a kindergarten teacher. She has her hands full just trying to keep her wards from causing too much trouble, it's about responsibility, not dominion. She's ruler by default because nobody else wants to claim that mess. She's shown to be able to reshape the Dream World, but IMO anybody capable of lucid dreaming can do that. Multilocation is a nice trick, but there's several Touhous that can do that, and just because there hasn't been explicitly stated a limit on how many she can split into doesn't mean there is no limit.

To me Doremy is more interesting if she's not super strong, and there's plenty of canon support for that.

>>19318

It's not so much I'm overestimating her power as it is I feel she has the key to a lot of proverbial locks.

For example, her notebook is a dream journal that supposedly has recordings of every single person's dreams. If she has the ability to find someone's dreams in specific time periods - and it's hard to argue she shouldn't be capable of at least that much - that could solve so many problems where the issue is either miscommunication or someone keeping a secret.

I should say, one of the original examples of this thought process came from a persona crossover fic idea where the dream world was acting as the Metaverse-equivalent. The idea there was that the combination of their semi-lucid state and the general emotions that tend to power Persona-style chaos basically turned the dream world stormy, both denying dormy the power to read/control the seized parts and even causing her ability to split bodies to not share one consciousness while she did it.

The other aspect is, yeah, just giving her a limited ability to actually spend either her theoretical power or her focus. I certainly don't see her as someone who'll stick her neck out for Gensokyo if it doesn't affect the dream world - not because she's a bad person, but because she has so much other shit to deal with.

Her smug aura mocks us all, she knows we cannot match the glory of Doreking.

She's a fun concept, and one I see more in fanworks compared to others because... I mean, most people fall asleep, so it's easy to include her.

She's a very smug woman, and that has manifested into a lot of teasing and trolling. Although the whole execution for her is deliberately quite silly, so it's fun rather than annoying.

>>19316
Doremy Sweet is a lot of fun because she's smug and mischievous but in the end she's one of Touhou's most responsible characters. She'll troll you but she stays ultimately grounded in her duty to the Dream World. She's got that "older childhood friend who's already working a full-time job when you're still in school" vibe to her.

When she wins a match she briefly mentions the Dream World version of the character she beat. That means she knows a different, secret side of all the characters, presumably including the ones that weren't in AoCF. That lets you instantly add aspects to a character just by having Doremy go "hey in your dream last night weren't you-". Actually anyone who isn't familiar with the AoCF Doremy win quotes should go check them out now, because there's a lot of characters in AoCF they give insight into.

Okay, Doremy was actually the first 2hu I've done digital fanart of, so I thought it would be cool to redraw it for the thread. It's just an MS Paint doodle, though... And kind of thematically irrelevant...
Anyway, take your pick for the next week. I might just draw her as well.

[X] Ibuki Suika
[X] Kasodani Kyouko
[X] Hecatia Lapislazuli

>>19359
Here's the original pic, by the way. It was a new year's greeting card for my brother, she's his favourite.

[X] Hecatia Lapislazuli

[X] Ibuki Suika

[X] Ibuki Suika

[X] Hecatia Lapislazuli

[X] Kasodani Kyouko

[X] Ibuki Suika

It's Ibuki Suika. Quite an important figure! One of the Big Four, no less. Her personality is much more laid-back than her status would suggest, though.
She's based on Shuten-douji, who wasn't actually born an oni, but became one. Maybe Suika used to be a human too? A priest, even, like in one of Shuten-douji's origin stories? Also, in this case, how should her ability relate to her origin? Or maybe it's related to her Gourd, somehow...

I'm not sure there's anything I'm able to say about Suika as a character (or maybe I can. I'll see), but those her geometric pendants. Thought-inspiring, remind me of suprematist art. It's sad they are one of the often forgotten elements of touhous' design, even by the official manga artists. Apparently they're connected to this buddhist abstract painting, ○△□ interpreted by ZUN as "nothingness-harmony-permanence" and further to her ability as "diffusion-gathering-permanence(? if I'm parsing japanese correctly)", or, indirectly in CoLA, "harmony-finite-infinite" (not sure in what order in this one). What do you think of them, your interpretations, or something I'm missing?
Also, those wooden-looking horns always being coiled around with something, up to a vine in UDoALG, are just funny to me.

>>19372
I'm a little reluctant to write Suika, because I think ZUN has specific ideas for her that I don't understand. She seems like she's one of Gensokyo's mastermind characters, and the one that's quietest about it. She has her own vision for Gensokyo that's not necessarily in conflict with the Sages but not necessarily the same as their vision either. They say oni hate lies, but she's actually a sneaky little fucker, she just hides it with her "drunk as I like" persona. She seems to thrive on being misunderstood, which is why despite her terrifying power she goes around in the guise of a small girl. I don't really get her.

>>19372
After a long hiatus of being busy with other things I've come back to commenting, and on another Oni no less!
Anyways, I really like the idea of Suika being a former human, mostly because of how it changes her relationship with Kasen. And honestly whether Suika is the child of a human woman and an Oni, or the bastard daughter of Yamato no Orochi by the daughter of Lord Sugawa, I don't think the big picture of her origins change that much. She was born with inhuman traits, unwanted, and ostracized from humanity for her differences, eventually choosing to become an Oni.
Although reading her original legend it's not surprising she's so laid back, despite the status of Shuten-doji and what you might assume of Oni, he welcomes his future killers when they're disguised as mountain hermit priests–it's worth noting the founder of the school they pretend to hail from had two Oni disciples–and gives them his hospitality and complains about how they've been displaced again. Only after they drug him do they kill him, the heroes triumph using the power of subterfuge while the villain is only forthright and honest with the supposed monks.
Although I don't really understand why she's given the ability she had, it's a rather strange but powerful choice.
For stories I don't really have much in mind for her, she has her own vision for Gensokyo but that subject is always so vague that I find it uninteresting. At least other prankster vague-poster characters like Tewi or Yukari/marrr more or less have the 'why' of what their doing figured out, but with Suika we don't even know what origins she has that may affect her world view. If I had to say anything, I kind of see her as a shitty annoying in-law, big-sister, or even mother to Yuugi and Kasen who's family but also gets on their nerves with her scheming and irresponsibility, but her ends themselves aren't really interesting to me so i see her more as a side character to spice up other people's stories, rather than someone I'm interested in writing as holding down a story of their own.

i like how she has that "sleepy ojisan" personality that usually doesnt take things seriously, while it seems like she's hiding big things.
but i also think she is underutilized.

>>19166
>>19168

>Seeing a character able humble even the sages of Gensokyo

I'm one of those people who'd love to see this taken to the next level, though I have no idea how that could be achieved without it turning into a power fantasy.

I mean, a dangerous individual where negotiation or the threat of overwhelming force or sealing isn’t a viable option: we generally know that if someone steps out of line, Yukari (or probably Reimu) will always be there to dish out beatings.

But what if that isn’t an option? Let’s think about… a reality warper. I mean, an archetypal one. With few notable limitations, who makes everything around them basically like manipulating clay. No nuances, no nonsense.

They aren’t necessarily hostile, but they have absolute power and are a bit meddlesome, in a way that Yukari might find annoying and might consider “unbalancing” Gensokyo, at least to the extent that her plans get slightly derailed. He’s a dangerous individual precisely because he has all this power to do whatever he wants to an absurd degree, and, let’s say, while he’s intelligent, he’s still a “young” human—immature by Yukari’s high standards and not as careful with his powers as he should be… and he’s virtually immune to the consequences.

How do Yukari or the sages of Gensokyo handle something like this? Do they prevent it from being manipulated by other groups in the long run? Sure, that individual might not be so easy to manipulate, but there are still plenty of centuries-old youkai who could subtly steer him in different directions.

Let’s be honest, if Yukari found a legitimate Reality Warper, she’d want them on her side. It’s not like she lacks countermeasures, but a button with the partial power to fix or screw up reality would probably be a very useful backup plan for Gensokyo if things somehow have a chance of going wrong.

I suppose it has the potential to be a story of intrigue, with Yukari working behind the scenes, moving a lot of pieces and playing 5D chess to put out potential fires while trying to secure this resource. Perhaps planning to train him to be another sage and have him adopt a certain mindset that suits her and is useful to Gensokyo.

But then again, it would probably be very difficult to write.

So, I'm not sure what just happened, but my post appeared twice, and after I deleted it, that bumped the thread to the top. I apologize for the inconvenience.