[x] Check on Mystia and the music club

I don't like how possessive Shiki is. Wanna see Mystia and Cirno instead, but I expect the vote will placate her.

[x] See if Aya has learned anything

>kipnap

I tried to do something weird in that last one, sorry if it didn't come across well. I love it when things like visual novels break the fourth wall ever so slightly, like in Cross Channel where the main character says "There was only one choice. To look at her panties." and then a choice comes up, but all of the options are to look at her panties.

I'm trying to experiment a little more with this story, because my other one is pretty standard.

[X] Walk home with Shiki

She wanted to spend time together, and if she has more confidence in the relationship, she might get less possessive. She's probably just uncertain about things, having never been in a serious relationship.

[X] Walk home with Shiki

[x] Check on Mystia and the music club

Come on Shiki, she's just a zombie. Or, well, close enough. She should be able to understand.

And we should go to the music club. We may not have committed explicitly, but we should. We did enjoy it. Besides, we really haven't done anything with her since we got together with Shiki. We also need to nip the feelings she has for us in the bud, and make sure she knows we want to be friends. But in order to be friends, we should make an effort to hang out with her.

Besides, Shiki should understand this. She's been lonely, without many friends. Shouldn't she understand that we want to keep ours, too? (Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous that sounds. Still, we should hope for the best from her, aye?)

[X] Walk home with Shiki

However the voting goes, we may need to have a heart-to-heart with Shiki over this matter. Assuming we're not reading into things too much.

[X] Walk home with Shiki

We did say we'd hang out after school didn't we? Starting off the relationship with lies and cheating already? Save that for after we get married

[X] Walk home with Shiki

We did commit to the Shiki route, no backing off now.

[X] Walk home with Shiki

Still though, need to iron out any jealousy issues early. This will give us the opportunity.

>>158173

Agreed. If we wanted to get together with a jealousy moe, we'd have gone after Parsee. Let's just hope that Shiki shows good judgement.

Actually, that might be an interesting twist. To counteract the friends that the bad guy might potentially develop, the designers of the illusion would have made it so that anyone he does have a relationship with will also develop an equal amount of jealousy to match their like of him. Therefore, ensuring that even if he does find friends, they will end up fighting each other over him, and depriving him of support.

>>158173
Yep. She'll wind up having an aneurysm if she gets like this every time another girl touches him at all.

[x] Walk home with Shiki.

This? This presents a good opportunity to have that talk.

[x] Check on Mystia and the music club.

[x] Walk home with Shiki.

Walk home with Shiki it is. However, I'll take the chatter into account.

----------------------------

I ask Shiki if I can walk her home before I head to meet with Yukari. Something needs to be done about her recent jealousy. Especially considering my friends are primarily females.

Er, I guess they all are. Does this make me a popular guy? Or is it just a coincidence?

That's the least of my problems. Breaching this topic delicately is going to be difficult..

"Hey..Taku?" Shiki says quietly.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for being a jerk lately."

Or not. It could be really easy. "You mean being jealous? That doesn't make you a jerk. Its gotta change, though.."

"I know." Quietly, meekly. "Its just hard to do. You're surrounded by girls. And I know at least one of them is attracted to you the way I am. I don't know how many others are, but you're important to me.."

We near her apartment. "And you are to me. I'm closer to you than to them. I promise that you won't lose me."

"I believe you. Still, it might be hard..I've never been this close to anyone." Her voice goes from sad to seductive in a few seconds. "It'd help your case if I had some evidence."

We kiss, lightly, and I wrap a hand around her waist, pulling her close.

"I still want to punish you for earlier.." She says, looking up into my face with alluring eyes.

Typically, that line would seal the deal and I would excitedly rush in to spend time with her...but my phone alarm goes off in my pocket, vibrating against my thigh, and, at this distance, hers as well. She gives off a surprised yelp, and jumps away, blushing.

"Ah, its time for me to go. I gotta meet up with my therapist. I have a lot to tell her.."

"Y-yeah..can we meet up afterwards? I'd like to, um..continue.." her face is bright red.

"Of course we can. But we gotta talk about-"

"I know, I know. This whole ordeal with the beast and all that." She sighs. "I love helping you, but I wish this was over. Now more than ever. I finally have someone else to talk to besides Komachi, and we have to worry about being in mortal danger all the time."

"I understand. I'm sorry. I wish it was different too."

We part with a slight peck.
----------

The same light haired woman from last time is speaking to Yukari when I enter. Her elegance is of a different sort than the playful blonde, a calmer, cooler air surrounds her. In contrast to Ms. Yakumo's cleavage-revealing suit, she wears a simple black dress, stylish in it's simplicity.

"Hello." This time she greets me with a sad smile instead of leaving. "You must be Kenzo. I've heard much about you."

My eyes lock on Yukari as I shake hands with the new woman. "Who is this?"

"This is someone important to your predicament."

My body tenses. It is illogical, but could this woman be the culprit?

"Please, have a seat. Relax. I won't hurt you." I take a seat and she sits at Yukari's desk. Yukari leans on the edge of the couch I sit on.

"How is she related to this whole thing?"

"I'm someone who wants to keep you safe. But to do so, I was wondering if you could answer some of my questions."

"And those are?"

"I want to know what the rabbits told you."

How did she know about the rabbits? Who is she? She's with Yukari, though, so she's gotta be an ally...right?

[] Tell her honestly about the info the rabbits gave
[] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is

[x] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is

>>158166
*crickets*

>>158195
Yeeeep. Ah well. I don't mind if people just vote, that says I'm doing something right, in its own way. Feedback is nice though, since I'm planning on sticking around with other stories after this, I'd like to get better.

[x] Tell her honestly about the info the rabbits gave

[x] Tell her honestly about the info the rabbits gave

[X] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is.

I don't think so Eirin. Yes, we may be some sort of Eldritch Abomination or Demon Overlord, but maybe we're not. We need more proof that you're here to help us.

[X] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is

Works for me~!

[X] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is.

we should play our cards close to the chest on this one and not give too much information don't trust this woman

>>158196
You'll probably have better luck posting an excerpt in the writer's advice thread, honestly. Most readers don't know the first thing about how to help a writer improve.

I will say that the gimmick you used there would probably be better used on something very important that the audience doesn't want the character to do. Or something. I'm not an authority here.

[x] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is.

Those rabbits that tried to blast us? So she knows the rabbits, or managed to make one of our friends talk. Just who does this lady think she is?

[x] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is

[x] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is.
[x] Look around for escape routes in case you need to leave in a hurry.

We didn't tell Yukari about the rabbits. Betting this is Eirin.

>>158203
Ah, but I'm not looking for advice on something specific. I think the readers know best! Pleasing the audience is all I seek to do, so I would rather seek the opinion of the readers over people offering advice.

[X] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is

Is it really Eirin? Well, the fact that she knows the rabbits is still suspicious.

[X] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is.

It's polite to introduce yourself first.

>>158199
>>158204
>>158207
>>158209
The image kind of implies that it's actually Keine we're dealing with here.

[x] Refuse to give any info until she says who she is.

This is just too sudden and a bit too suspicious to just spill the beans without some sort of knowledge of who we're dealing with.

"No offense, but I'm not going to tell a complete stranger who suddenly says she is on my side about something that could hurt me in the end. How did you know about the rabbits, anyway? I haven't even told Yukari about that yet."

The woman sighs. "Understandable. My name is Keine Kamishirasawa. I'm your ally here. I can't prove that any more than Yukari here can, but you seem to trust her well enough."

"She's my therapist, and my first ally here. I can't afford not to trust her."

"So you are convinced of my innocence merely by my station?" Yukari speaks up suddenly, her voice intrigued. "Then why can't you trust someone I say is a friend?"

"Because she suddenly appeared and asked for information without saying who she was, or how she knew to ask about the rabbits."

"Good answer, I suppose, but Keine and I agreed not to play dumb here. We know more about your activities than we've let on so far. I know it is rude to keep you in the dark about things like that, but it was necessary."

Keine picks up where Yukari left off. "We were trying to protect you, in case something happened, and to flush out the one behind this."

"You say that, but you didn't stop the rabbits from putting me in a hole, or from shooting me with those weird bullets. You didn't stop the shrine maiden from-" Oops. I shouldn't have let on that I knew that.

"So they told you about Reimu, huh?" Yukari giggles. "Well, there is a reason we didn't step in to protect you from her. She's actually one of my allies, though she is a bit misguided currently."

"As for the rabbits..I apologize, the person I had following you lost track of you during that. Its odd, they seemed to vanish without a trace after that. We couldn't find any evidence of them leaving the scene."

"The shrine mai- er, Reimu, did the same thing. And why would one of your allies attack me?"

"She seems to think you are a monster. You aren't, right?" Yukari's smile seems terrifying.

"You knew all about this, didn't you? And you still know more than I do. Why are you toying with me?!" My anger trumps my fear. "Why won't you let me help you? I might just be a regular high schooler, but surely there is something I can do too. Why are you stringing me along?"

Keine keeps quiet, shocked at my outburst. Yukari's smile never wavers, though. "I want you to come to your own conclusions. You might see something we don't. You already have done something very helpful. You've revealed an opposing party."

"So I'm bait for your enemies? Am I going to be monster bait as well?"

"Perhaps." Yukari answers in her usual teasing manner. She stands, and begins to pace in front of me. "You know, you don't have to be our ally. I won't consider you an enemy either. I'll write to your parents saying that everything checked out, you are fine, it was just stress from moving that caused your episode earlier. You can leave right now, no catch...or, you can continue to let me pull your strings, and perhaps learn some things you wouldn't otherwise. I leave the choice to you, since you've been such a good boy." Her hand rubs my cheek sensually, and she narrows her eyes and flashes me a slow, devilish smile.

[] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge
[] Free yourself from Yukari's strings

[X] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge
-[X] Clarify that you will still have the option to refuse to do something.

So far, Yukari hasn't explicitly ordered us to do anything. In fact, her advice about the border has helped us further the mystery and gained Aya as an ally. Not to mention her apparent connections might be inadvertently protecting us. And given how this all could be a test of character or something, it would be good to get on Yukari's good side so she vouches for us as an "ally". Besides, if we refused she would probably spy on us through her gaps/accomplices anyway, meaning it doesn't make much of a difference.

Yukari has only suggested, not ordered, things for us to look into. We shouldn't be willing to surrender our sovereignty, but should be willing to listen and consider her advice. While assuring her that we are, of course, her puppet and that there's no need for her to think us a force she doesn't control.

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.

Seriously now. You're only restricted if you think you are.

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge

[x] Free yourself from Yukari's strings

Fuck you Yukari, I'm signing on with Tewi's group.

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.
>>158213
going with what they said agree while maintaining we have the right to refuse to do something we are not some mindless drone or pawn to be sacrificed

besides it would be good to have someone powerful like Yukari to stay on our side

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.

For now she seems to be the best bet of getting to the bottom of this and that's what we need to do. And, as far as he knows, the faster this is over and done with the faster he can get on with his life and spending time with Shiki.

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.
-[x]"But could you at least knock it off with the teasing? I mean, I have a girlfriend now."

[x] Free yourself from Yukari's strings

Screw the gap bitch.

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.
-[x]"But could you at least knock it off with the teasing? I mean, I have a girlfriend now."

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.
-[x]"But could you at least knock it off with the teasing? I mean, I have a girlfriend now."

While she hasn't been straight with us, at least Yukari and her allies didn't seem inclined to murder anyone. The same can not be said for the rabbits.

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.
-[x]"But could you at least knock it off with the teasing? I mean, I have a girlfriend now."

Best option is best

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.
-[x]"But could you at least knock it off with the teasing? I mean, I have a girlfriend now."

Rebelling without a clue as to what's going on is suicide. Well, maybe not literally, but with a big scary mystery monster on the loose, you never know.

[x]Call her out on unanswered questions.
-[x]As she knows about and is allies with Reimu she knows about "powered" individuals. She also knew about the boundary of the school, in which students seem to gain lesser powers themselves (note the blondes strength, Aya's speed and Cirno's ice lance). Yukari knows more then she lets on. much more. Press her for info about Reimu's escape, the nature of the school's boundary and what she knows of the "powered" people working behind the scenes.

Damn I wish this wasn't effectively tide-pissing. While the assumption Yukari's running a plot is possible meta-knowledge, she left a big hole in her therapist persona by admitting an alliance with Reimu, this proves she knows about the powered individuals. combined with her initial belief and the boundary hint, we know enough to suspect she knows alot about this incident we don't.

[X] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge

Works for me~!

[x]>>158238
If she doesn't answer everything then:
[x] Free yourself from Yukari's strings
else
[x] Be a puppet for etc etc.

[x] Agree to be a puppet for the sake of knowledge.
-[x]"But could you at least knock it off with the teasing? I mean, I have a girlfriend now."

"I'll stick with you. You haven't steered me wrong thus far." I concede to her, but my pride forces me to tack on a bit more. "I'm not your slave, though. If I want to back out at any time, I reserve the right to. I wish you'd approach me as an equal, but if that is impossible, at least know that I have free will."

"Oh, good boy~. You impress me at every turn." She laughs, and starts to pat my head. I quickly shift out of the way. "Also, you'll have to stop patronizing me. I have a girlfriend." I blush at how childish that sounds coming out of my mouth, but I mean the words.

"Fair enough."

Keine gives me a smile. Is she happy that I made Yukari back off? I don't understand their alliance.

"Tell me about this Reimu girl, if she is your ally."

"Reimu is something of a peacekeeper. She's got a bit of a short fuse though, so she lashes out at anyone she thinks is behind anything." Yukari gives a grim smile, as though she speaks from personal experience. "Right now she seems to think you are behind everything. But both you
and I know that isn't true. If you can convince her of that, she'll be a powerful ally."

"Well, first I'd have to find her. She vanished like the rabbits. How do they do that?"

"I'm not quite at liberty to reveal how Reimu did, but believe me when I say I'm surprised that the rabbits could. I'm not sure how they are doing it. They can't possibly be using the same methods as our dear shrine maiden."

So many secrets, even from me, a supposed ally. What kind of person is this Yukari? I highly doubt she is really a therapist. More likely she is someone who has the kind of money or power to pose as one to intercept me and any information I might have.

A knock comes at the door. "Come in." Yukari says without any thought, and a tall, attractive blonde woman enters, and a cute kid follows behind her, clinging onto her dress.

"Lady Yukari." The motherly woman bows. "I apologize for interrupting, but someone has come to see you. She has made quite a journey from the underground, so I could not turn her down thoughtlessly."

Underground? Like...gangsters? What kind of people does Yukari deal with?

"Ah, I was wondering if they'd make a move as well. I'll talk to them." She stands, suddenly all business. "Takumi. I have to go, unfortunately. We can talk more later. I'm sure you want to know more from me, and I know you'll have more to share with me soon..However, my guest is something like royalty, so I must go entertain them."

She leaves without further discussion. Keine pats my head as she starts to exit, but it feels far less demeaning than Yukari's touch. "Chin up. This will be over before you know it." She gives me a smile before exiting. I don't know if it was her plan to do so, but now I'm feeling I can trust her more than Yukari..

I have the office to myself now. I would love to snoop around, but there doesn't seem to be much to do. The computer has a password to log in, and there don't seem to be any books besides psychology texts that I doubt anyone has read. The room seems to be what someone would expect a psychologist or psychiatrist's office to be like, and nothing more or less than that.

Clues are not exactly piling up. They are being scattered around like papers on a desk, as some are revealed, others are covered. My trust in people is going about the same way. I do know one person I can trust though, at least.


I give Shiki a call and start to head over to her house.

"Yello." Comes the answer.

"Komachi? I thought Shiki and I were going to-"

"Hook up? You sound disappointed." She teases. "Actually, I'm headed out now, I'm just copying some of her homework. I'll let you love birds get your groove on." I hear aggravated yelling in the back again. "You can't hog Shiki all the time, though. I want a piece of that too, y'know?"

I start to answer, but she stops me. "Hang on. Someone is at the door." She covers the mouthpiece on the phone, but I can still hear her clearly. "Shiki, go get it. I want to gossip with your boyfriend some more. Ow! Don't throw things at me, woman!" They sound like a married couple.

I hear something else in the background..glass shattering?! I'm not far from her place now, so I pick up the pace.

"Komachi, what's going on? I heard something."

"I'm sure she just dropped something. I'll go check. If she's hurt, I'll give her all my tender love and care, so you don't get to play nurse. I'll see you soon." She hangs up before I can beg her not to.

My feet move as fast as they can. I don't bother using the elevator to get to her apartment. Too slow. I rush up the stairs instead, and see an unwelcome sight when I open the stairwell door..

Reimu is standing in the doorway, just a few steps away. Ducking back into the stairwell, I have to decide..I can't see any further in, so I don't know if Komachi and Shiki are okay, but I heard that glass over the phone. I need to choose what to do now, before anything else happens..

[] Rush Reimu. She hasn't seen me yet.
[] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki
[] Stay hidden and keep watch

[X] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki

It's a long shot, but maybe we can talk to her?

[x] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki.

He can't just leave her to do whatever to people he care about, but assaulting her when she already believes he's the "bad guy" seems like a bad idea.

[x] Stay hidden and keep watch

Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

[x] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki.

Shiki overrides all other priorities, including self-preservation.

[x] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki

If nothing else, we still get the respect for the stupidity bravery of standing up to an unknown foe for Shiki, right?

[X] Rush Reimu. She hasn't seen me yet.

Eugh this is rather tricky, sure it won't be a good first impression but some one's got to settle her down before she seriously starts attacking actual support.

[X] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki
>>158269
makes a good point, given Reimu's already bad impression of us. We just need to convince her while simultaneously negotiating the release of Shiki.

[x] Rush Reimu. She hasn't seen me yet

Tackling the miko in charge of protecting Gensokyo? Tackling the miko in charge of protecting Gensokyo.

[X] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki.

[X] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki

[x] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki.

[x] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki.

We don't know Reimu was the one behind the glass breaking and it's foolish to just bum rush her especially after what Yukari just told us about her.

Hey, everyone. Sorry for not updating as planned. I'm a little under the weather. I'll try to update again tomorrow, hopefully I'm feeling a little better.

[x] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki.

We are temporarily inocent!. We must convince the shrine maiden!

[x] Jump out and make myself known, hoping to distract her before she hurts Shiki.

I decide to do something that is either very brave or very stupid. While I am sure it is the latter of the two on my part, I hope Shiki thinks its the former.

"Hey!" I jump out of the stairwell and wave my arms. "Its me you want, right, Reimu?" I make sure to use her name, and do my best to become a large, tempting target.

Reimu turns, but her face isn't one of anger or surprise. Its blank, as though asking "Why do I deal with idiots like this all day?".

"Taku, its okay!" Shiki approaches the doorway. "I'm fine. Believe it or not, she just came to talk."

"Actually, I think what I wanted to know was pretty much proven right there." She smiles warmly, an odd action for one who was just an enemy. "I'll be going now." She turns to Shiki and wishes her good luck, and starts to walk away.

"Wait. I have a lot to ask you!" I shout after her, but she doesn't even turn.

"A friend of mine would say 'leave this to the heroes of this story'. For once I'd agree with her. It is my job to handle this, and finding out more might get you and your loved ones into trouble." She doesn't even stop as she continues. "Don't dig too deep. You might not like what you'll find."

She descends the stairwell, and there is a brief but heavy silence. How can someone say to stop everything I've worked for, just like that? I start to chase after her, but Shiki grabs my arm.

"Taku. Thank you. You were very brave earlier."

"Yeah, not bad for a wimp." Komachi sounds impressed, in her own way. "Guess you get a seal of approval from me."

"What happened? I heard glass breaking over the phone and thought she attacked you or something."

Shiki blushes. "I opened the door with a glass in my hand and dropped in surprise..I thought she was going to do something crazy too, but she just asked me a couple questions about..stuff.."

"She was asking about you!" Komachi smiles, throwing her hands behind her head. "She wanted to know if you were a nice guy, and we both said yeah."

"She asked a bit more than that, but basically.." Shiki fidgets slightly. "I think she's on our side, just hasty." She grabs my hand gently. "Lets not worry about her right now, okay?"

I begrudgingly agree. I've had enough today, and I really just want to sit down. I do so on Shiki's couch with a sigh. She takes the seat to my left, and Komachi to my right.

"So.." Komachi asks happily. "What's the plan?"

"The plan is...I don't know. I need to relax. Its been a long day."

Komachi gives me an affectionate, honest hug. I return it hesitantly, but Shiki doesn't seem upset at all. In fact, she looks as worn out as I do.

"C'mere." I hold out my arms for her and she willingly enters, squeezing me gently. "This will all be over soon. For now, we should do something to relax. What do you guys normally do together?"

"Well, Shiki is usually on top, believe it or not."

The fearsome class rep turns bright red and starts to shake. I rub my hand down her back gently, and she seems to calm down.

"Ah, but seriously..we usually just do homework or watch movies. She won't let me go partying or anything. Oh, we talk about you sometimes too."

Shiki starts to shake angrily again, but it soon passes.

"Ah, sorry. I'm probably not helping by being here, am I?"

"No, its okay. You are a good friend to both of us..we're not gonna make you leave. Right?"

"Yeah.." Shiki says quietly. "Let's just relax.."

We talk quietly for a few hours, Shiki not saying much but sticking close to me. Komachi does most of the talking, but none of us are unhappy with that. It is nice to forget about things for a while. We wrap up as it gets late, Komachi heading out first and me following right behind her after waving goodbye.

Shiki takes my hand and looks up at me. "Takumi, things will go back to normal, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

"After we bring this person to justice."

I nod, but she seems unsatisfied with my answer. She's been quiet all evening, and I'm not sure if she is suddenly shy, worried about something, or what. But I can hear sorrow in her voice when she asks her next question.

"Will you stay here tonight?"

[] Decline, but try to find out what is wrong.
[] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

Something feels off with this update. Probably because its hard to focus right now. I'm still a bit under the weather.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

But keep it chaste; it's still a little early to take things to the next level. Be there for Shiki when she needs support, but don't take advantage of her uncertainty.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

I guess it feels like it lacked focus? I dunno.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

If it'll help her feel more at ease we should stay.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

[X] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

Get better soon writefag.

>>158308
Adding [x] Keep it chaste to my >>158307 vote.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

You guys are assuming too much. If there is something like that, we can deal with that when it comes up.

[x] Agree. Hopefully your presence comforts her.

Debating on whether or not it's worth adding the chaste vote option, but eh.
Personally I think Taku is too much of a nice guy to try something like that, anyway.

"Yeah." I try to make my voice as comforting as possible. Hopefully just being around her eases whatever worry she is feeling. I let her lead me by the hand back inside, and as soon as we shut the door, she is on me, pushing me against the closed door with a kiss. This doesn't feel like her...it is a desperate kiss, too forceful.

Like an idiot, I give in. I even make it worse, but slipping my tongue against her lips, and this time she makes no move to resist, instead taking the initiative and pushing her own warm tongue around mine. Never having done this, I can't compare her taste to anything, but I know the feeling of being inside her warm and wet mouth is certainly turning me on, and likely the same for her, by the way she is pressing her body against me.

The last bit of reasoning in my head cries out, and I push her away. She looks hurt and confused when I do so, and I can tell by her misty eyes and red cheeks that she is on the verge of tears.

"Sorry. I didn't push you away because I wanted to go or anything. I just don't want to make a mistake right now." I hold out my arms and she leans into me, letting me hold her as she clutches her chest.

"I'm sorry. I'm just...scared." She shifts in the grip and looks right up at me with her large, teary eyes. I would probably die from how cute it is, if I wasn't so overcome with worry for her. "Reimu said that we should all enjoy this while we can, because who knows how long it is going to last. She said we should stop investigating and let her take care of it, and just live the rest of the time we have in peace.."

"Do you believe that?"

"I.." She says weakly, unable to answer.

"I'm not pressuring you. I just want to hear your opinion so we can talk about this."

"I don't think we should stop. My morals are telling me that we need to see this through, because we need to protect who we can and put the one behind this to justice." She shakes her head slightly. "But I want to stay with you. I want to have time to grow slowly closer to you, to have you hold me more, t-to even doing other things.." Her face turns red as she keeps stuttering out words to justify it to herself. "Maybe..someday..not now.." I give a bit of a chuckle, and she glares at me, puffing out her cheeks cutely. "Don't laugh at me!"

I can't help but laugh again and I pat her on the head. "Sorry, sorry. You were cute. Do you still want me to stay here tonight?"

"..Yes.." she answers in a muffled voice, burying her head in my chest so I can't see her face.

"Alright. We should get some sleep."

"Y-yeah."

I let her go, and she backs away just a step or two. "I'll be on the couch if you need me. Will you feel better with me here like th-"

She shakes her head quickly. "N-no..I want you to stay WITH me, silly.." The word silly seems so out of place in her mouth. It fits someone like Komachi much more, but I don't tell her that. "Is that okay?"

"If you are okay with it." The words come out stiffly and I follow her mechanically to her bedroom, which is more or less how I'd expect it, pretty plain and not very girly. I smile at the stuffed animals on her bed, though. She has quite a few, and some of them are a bit worn.. I can imagine her sleeping with them every night.

"Look away." She gives me a stern look, and I do as she changes. I'm tempted to look, but..surely the punishment for that would be greater than what she does to Komachi...come to think of it, I have no idea what she does to her.

As I'm entertaining the idea of her and Komachi doing some...interesting..punishments, she gives me the okay to look over. I do so, and get an eyeful of her. She's just wearing an oversized t-shirt and (I assume, and hope, for my sake) underwear. My eyes go straight to her legs, but I quickly chastise myself and look at her blushing face. "N-now you get whatever you need and come cuddle with me."

I take off my shirt and undo my belt, but decide to leave my pants on...normally I wouldn't, but I don't want to get too excited, and I don't trust one layer of cloth to keep me from doing that.

I climb in behind her and we spoon. It is...nice, to say the least. She is soft and feminine like this, and I'm glad to be able to see her at her most defenseless. I'm glad she trusts me enough already for this kind of thing. She isn't squirming away or anything as I pull her closer, my arms around her stomach.

"Taku?"

"Yeah?"

"If you try anything, I'll kill you."

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Good." She takes a calm breath. "Goodnight, Taku...thank you."

"Goodnight." I say, and we are silent until we drift off to sleep, together.

I wake up to a pair of eyes, and breasts, staring me in the face. Shiki is asleep next to me, drooling slightly with a happy smile on her face as she clings to a stuffed bear. "Mmmnn.." She moans in her sleep. "Taku~.."

"Mornin, Takumi."

"Morning, Komachi."

...

"How did you get in?"

"I've got a key. I thought you knew that. I usually have Shiki text me to wake me up, but she didn't, so I came to check on her. You guys are, like..an hour late."

I'd do a spit take if I had anything to drink.

"Shiki, wake u-!" Komachi covers my mouth. "Why don't we all play hooky today~? We can wait a bit before waking her up, and then tell her school was cancelled for the day or something and we didn't want to wake her."

"Um.."

[] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.
[] No, she'll be mad..we have to go.

[X] No, she'll be mad..we have to go.

As much fun as running around unsupervised in Shiki's house would be, I'm more afraid she'll suddenly wake up to us running off with Komachi.

[x] No, she'll be mad..we have to go.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.

Komachi has the best plans.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.

Normally, I'd be against this... but who knows what we can discoer when we're out of school?

[x] No, she'll be mad..we have to go.

[X] No, she'll be mad..we have to go.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.
-[x]But I'm not going anywhere until she's awake.

Yeah, I know, this is probably gonna backfire... but she's just so cute mumbling our name in her sleep. It would be a shame to wake her up.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.
-[x]But I'm not going anywhere until she's awake.

Better to miss a whole day, and have everyone assume you're sick, than miss part of it and have everyone know you were skipping.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.
-[x]But I'm not going anywhere until she's awake.

[x] No, she'll be mad... we have to go.

Don't ditch school, you bum. There's an investigation to undertake!

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.
-[x]But I'm not going anywhere until she's awake.

Eiki showing up an hour late with a boy? How scandalous.

[x] No, she'll be mad... we have to go.

Lying is very, very bad for a relationship. Especially with a person who is intrinsically a judge.

Do not be swayed!

[x] No, she'll be mad... we have to go.

[x] No, she'll be mad... we have to go.

Shiki wants a return to normalcy, so we should go.

[X] No, she'll be mad..we have to go.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.

This is a setup for a Fate/SN free day you jerks.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.
-[x]But I'm not going anywhere until she's awake.

[x] Sure. We all need a break and maybe we could find some clues elsewhere.
-[x]But I'm not going anywhere until she's awake.

Yeah, I know, this is probably gonna backfire... but she's just so cute mumbling our name in her sleep. It would be a shame to wake her up.

[x] No, she'll be mad... we have to go.

[x] No, she'll be mad... we have to go.

Stay in school, kids. Also rampaging monsters.

>>158429

Hi, this is >>158358 reminding you that, if you're going to copypaste someone's vote, you probably shouldn't copypaste the reasoning along with it. Identical reasoning lines look... suspicious, to say the least.

>>158437
Hope you arent dead yet.

>>158490
I'm not dead, but..I think this story is. I don't know. I brooded for a long time on what to post next, and nothing seems to come. I even have the events planned out, but when I try to write, it doesn't come out.

I'm sorry everyone. Its been a lot of fun. I'm still going to work on my other story, and I hope to see some of you there. But this one was doomed for a lot of reasons anyway, I suppose.

If you want to know the conclusion, keep reading...

You aren't the monster. Duplicates of people were going to start showing up. Marisa, the real one, was going to show up at the same place as the one of this world. Eventually you'd realize that people aren't who they look or act like. Even the Shikieiki you were with. The monster was a classmate of yours. I planned on two possibles, in case you guys wanted to date one of them: Cirno and Yoshika. Yoshika had the monster's hunger, and Cirno needed to be entertained constantly.

Your identity? You were a ghost, eaten by the monster. Your job? To decide if it can live in Gensokyo or not. The final choice would be if you wanted to forgive the monster after getting to know it in an enviornment where it could interact with you without attacking you out of fear. If you forgave it, a new youkai would enter gensokyo for better or worse. If you didn't, it would be dealt with by Yukari.

I learned a lot with this story. I hope everyone who read it had fun. I certainly had a lot of fun writing it.

>>158557
Oh boy. People aren't going to like this at all. Major shitstorms incoming.

Are you sure you can't reconsider? Delete this before too many people see it and take a break for a bit longer, everyone has slumps.

Regardless of what you choose, I'd recommend deleting that post and at least spoilering the reveals. (If you don't know how, it's {spoiler}text{/spoiler} with square brackets instead of curly ones.)

If it's too much of a bother to continue with this, dropping it's probably the right decision.
And if this really is the end, well. Sorry to see it die, though I'm glad you learned a lot, and I'm glad I could at least enjoy it while it lasted. Thanks for writing.

>>158557
Well that sucks.

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I'm finding out about the conclusion in this way or not but it seems pretty lackluster as far as Takumi himself is concerned. In the end he's invested himself in these fake people and - to a lesser extent - fake world only for, in the end, him to be in the exact same situation as he was before - murdered. After everything he's gone through during this little test if that's not getting the shit end of the stick I don't know what is and speaks somewhat poorly about the inhabitants of Gensokyo that supported this plan.

I don't, however, have any problems with the rest of it. It seems perfectly acceptable to me.

I so hope you do recognize that by dropping this - a well-liked and followed story - people are going to be more hesitant in the future when it comes to anything else you write.

>>158557

It was fun reading this story. We'll all miss it. :O It's sad that it couldn't be finished, but it was quite a good run. Good plotline though.

Well damn this seems awfully familiar. Wonder who else does this?

Other then little shorts, does anyone here ever finish a good story around here nowadays? I'm starting to think it'll be a sign of the apocalypse when someone does...

Next time just put it on hiatus for a bit if you can't think of any ideas in a few days. Don't just give up

>>158696
Nowdays?

>Next time just put it on hiatus for a bit if you can't think of any ideas in a few days. Don't just give up
>implying that most authors who hiatus actually come back

As a writefag myself, I'll say that there's a huge difference between the "I have no ideas for now, but I want to keep writing this" and "gg wp no re" feelings. You know which one it is when you feel it.

But to be fair, I think MegaSen's /forest/ story is more mature and has more promise in the end (which probably explains his shift of focus) so as long as he doesn't drop that one too, I'm not losing faith in him just yet.

...I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I was really enjoying this story. Any chance of you changing your mind, Megasen?

But as others have said, if you can't write it you can't write it. It was fun while it lasted. Thanks for writing, anyway.

I dont want to sound like a douchebag when I say this, but you burned yourself out, and you were warned beforehand. You updated rapidly, and regardless of if you want to believe it or not, there is a limit to all writers. Honestly, for your story in /forest/ take your time. You shouldn't rush yourself, even if you want to get the update out today, wait until tomorrow. You've gotta have patience.

>>158696
FoM has basically finished, TiiTS concluded a few days ago.

>>158700
MegaSen, listen to this.

After some time on this site, you get used to the majority of the stories dying off. The signs are easy to recognise: Update speeds slowing down, or simply stopping out of nowhere as the writefag in question finds that writing isn't enjoyable anymore or that he has no time to do so. This story dying is not why I'm mad.

What has me mad is the way this story ended. You evidently aren't strapped for time or have found writing to be a chore, given your stated intention to continue with your other story. Those reasons would at least be understandable. What happened was that you got a bit of writers block, and then went "haha fuck this and all my readers, I'm done here." You didn't even give the readers the option to vote on if they wanted to wait for inspiration to strike you, instead throwing the rest of the plot in their face and slamming the door on them and this story.

Now given that you ended this so adruptly on such a whim, what's ensuring that the same thing won't happen again with your other story?

Nothing. Unlike most other stories where whether the story ends up with the other 90% of dead/hiatused stories are up to chance, you've provided evidence that none of your stories will ever be finished, and are liable to be dropped at any moment just because you hit a block for a bit. I can't speak for any others and it's possible that said others will see my ranting as coming from a self entitled douchebag who is alone in his opinion, but this stunt has basically cost you a lot of goodwill with me, and it seems all but guaranteed that the same thing that happened to this story will happen in any other stories you deign to write, due to how casually you threw this away.


TLDR: Yes, I mad.

...Am I mistaken, or are threads 2 and 3 missing now?

Well, the rich kid just picked his ball and went home.
No fun allowed.

>>158721
I second this opinion.

>>158721
This is about how I feel, I just never bothered to type it up. I compare it to how I feel about the developer of Terraria just giving up out of nowhere. If this is how easy it is for you to drop an active story with tons of readers and in-depth discussion, how much easier will it be to drop your next one? You have no sense of responsibility towards your story. I suggest you fix that if you want to keep writing. Quickly.

Man you guys are jerks. He doesn't have a responsibility to the story.
No one bought a contract, he didn't make any promises.
This is hobby, not a job.
Its like some one treating you to lunch couple of days

>>158762
While I disagree with your last example, you are right. But I will not respect a writefag that drops stories like this.

But whatever, some anonymous person on the Internet doesnt respect you, boo hoo.

>>158763
>>But I will not respect a writefag that drops stories like this.

Personally, if all the stories I've seen dropped on here over the years were dropped like this story was, I would not have been nearly as bothered by those other stories being dropped as I was.

At least this way, there's no ambiguity. No room for false hopes. No building you up with the notion that they might start it up again, only to disappoint you when they don't, and then doing it again, and again, and again. Best of all, the writer actually explained what was going on and where he was going with the story, rather than leaving everyone hanging because he might start the story again, or might use those elements in another story on the site, or whatever other reason he could have given for keeping a lid on everything, even though he probably isn't going to do those things anyway.

Enjoyed while it lasted bro.

Eagerly awaiting more works from you.

>>158762
I'd love to tell you how stupid you are, But I'm pretty sure other Anon's will do that for me.

>>158768
Agreed.

Oh, I should mention, you can always take a new name if you fear backlash for whatever reason. It worked for Owen after Scarlet-Stained Memoir won him some notoriety.

As far as reputations go, there's no shortage of blank slates around here.

>>158721
entitledreaders.txt

Are you that guy in Spacebattles who whined when you discovered that Deme is actually Planefag and he's writing SWQ instead of A Wizard Is You?

Still being a douchebag even though we already threw your so-called "arguments" to the trashcan?

Megasen has no obligation to write for you, so stop being an asshole and do something productive like writing your own goddamn story for example, to see how hard it is to be a writefag.

>>158777
This thread is going places. Nasty places.

>>158768

Rant-anon here. I completely understand where you are coming from, and I too wish more stories would provide proper closure. However, several key factors are at play here that lead me to rage at this development:

First is the time he took to give up. Six days. Some of the regular writers don't even have an update finished in that time span, and he gave up after that. If his block lasted longer, like several weeks to a month, things would be more understandable, but six days? Really?

Second was his decision. Or rather, that he made the decision independent from anyone else. We have a writing thread in /blue/ to ask for advice to overcome a stumbling block. We have IRC, where many writers hang out (and don't start with that cabal bullshit) where writers can again ask for advice. He could have hiatused this while working on his /forest/ story and came back to it later to see if anything fresh came to mind. There's even precedent for a writefag quitting his story asking if their readers wanted to give up and have closure, which he then provided. MegaSen did none of these, figuratively slamming the door in our faces like I said before.

But we've seen some of these before: Stories dropping randomly out of nowhere, writefags never to be heard from again. What seals the deal in here is that this clearly isn't the case: He's stated that he still will continue writing. Just not this one, but the other one instead, the one people were advising him not to start. Maybe it's just me not being here from the site's beginnings (only been here for 2 years or so), but this is the first case I've seen of a writefag so casually dropping one story while going "oh, no, it's cool guys, I'll still write! JUST NOT THIS ONE!"

By all means, it's his time, and he's entitled to do whatever he wants with it. But frankly speaking, when we take all of the above into account, it seems that he doesn't really care about his stories or readers. If he was willing to do this to what was literally the most active story on the site in a long while, why should we in turn care about anything he writes when it'll inevitably be dropped whenever his attention gets grabbed by a passing butterfly?

It's not like there's no precedent for writers juggling multiple stories or story ideas at once. Owen managed to juggle Derp Wars and AFT simultaneously. Lion did the same with Border House and FoM for a while before putting the later story on hiatus while he finished his main one. Treia's update pace is glacial, but at least he's still updating them all (for a certain definition of the word updating). The difference between them and Megasen is that all of them didn't just cancel their main story just cause they started other things, and they especially didn't drop their stories on something as whimsical as a 6 day block without attempting to seek help through channels designed to provide said help.

>>158777

You must have me confused with someone else. Incidentially, who or what is Planefag and SWQ? The story list turns up nothing for either.

In before he accuses me of lying to save face over him misidentifying and raging at the wrong anonymous poster.

I'd like to take a look at your proposed counterpoints, if you don't mind: Does there happen to be a link to the source? But in any case, you're right in that he's not obligated to do anything for us. But on the flip side, he's given us a very good reason to not care about anything he does write. And on a board where stories are driven by reader input... well, I don't think I need to spell out why that is a bad thing.

>>158768
I disagree. You're free to stop here or to read why:

While closure is good and all, canceling this story was obviously a whim. He didn't even bothered to ask for help or to think about it for some time. His sudden decision reeks of ADD.

He's free do so though. As we're free to ignore each and every story he writes from now on. People in THP 'invest' emotionally on stories they like, sudden cuts are a dick move.
Yeah yeah: he was new here and didn't know that. Welp, he should've lurked more.

Maybe it's our fault. We were too kind to the new kid: he got a decent amount of notoriety and respect easily, so maybe he didn't appreciate it enough. Perhaps he thought his case was common? Anyway, I think this calls for a change in my attitude towards newcomers.
Time to join those I constantly complained about.

God damn it, and here I was rooting for you, too. This was going so well.

Sage for tripfagging.

>>158791
Hey. You. Update something.

Another dropped story? Well gee, it's not like we already have a hundred of those.

I always encourage fellow write-fags to keep writing as long as they want to, but I hope you pick up a bit of sense about things. Your voters naturally feel certain ways about things. Screw with them too much and nasty things can happen (worse than these sunshine and rainbow rants).

>>158791

MegaSen a relative of yours? The resemblance is uncanny."

>>158796
Taisa had considerably more understandable reasons for stopping GH than MegaSen did EH. Taisa had to deal with the ridiculous shitstorms, plus he was/is suffering from depression (I know people won't consider this as justified, but it still bears mentioning).

>>158802
>depression
>not justified
Seriously? 'Some people' are assholes.

So this is the end of MegaSen, huh? He's going to go Taisa-mode now.

Hope you're happy, >>158791.

>>158781
>When you post your damn stories on the internet, you are basically outright stating that this is, in no way, an official work; you are under no obligations, you are not being paid, you are doing this for purely your own reasons. Maybe you want people to see it, maybe you don't but either way they can see it because it is there.

>And if you decide that you've fucked the story up beyond repair, or that you simply don't want to continue it any more, you are under zero obligation to finish. If you're a good writer, this will dissappoint a lot, and if you're a great writer than you'll have assholes all over the internet demanding you continue it.

>And you know what? You -don't- have to. It's the fucking internet. If they want more, they can either look for any other stories you have, convince you to do more, or can go write their own damn continuations. Any which way, you have zero responsibility.


>Fanfiction is a gift from the author to the reader. They are not getting paid in anything more than their readers' intererst. They are investing immense amounts of time, thought, and effort into things that have no tangible return at all. How do you expect them to prioritize fanfiction over their own lives, or expect them to finish it after they've lost interest and writing becomes utter tedium?


>http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

You're the proof that THP is full of entitled pricks. No big surprise there, considering this site spun out of /jp/'s asshole.

>>158819
He's not sayin' he's pissed just because MS stopped writing. He's saying he's pissed off because of how he did so. And frankly, I agree with him. Spoiling the entire story because you hit a block? Now he couldn't finish the story even if he wanted to. Now some sufficently interested fan can't get ahold of him and get the plotline, and then write it themselves.

TL;DR: Whiteknight not applicable.

>Now some sufficently interested fan can't get ahold of him and get the plotline, and then write it themselves.
Has this ever happened?

>>158828

Only story I can think of off hand, in my zombie like state of no sleep, is that one Ace Combat/Touhou story. Wanna say there was another one or two stories that were, but can't think of them right now.

>>158828
There was this story, probably in /sdm/ but maybe /th/, where the protagonist was a book (or a ghost possessing a book?) in the viole library. I think the original author did one post, an anon called him out for it being low quality, and rewrote it. I think he also did a few more updates, but I'm sure it didn't last long.

Unless I have writers horribly mixed up, a new guy started writing Ace Combat in /shrine/

There's also >>/at/16548, where a new author hijacked the story after 4 months of no updates, but no official hiatus or anything.

>How do you expect them to prioritize fanfiction over their own lives

Except, you know, I never said this. In fact, I acknowledged that it was his prerogative to do so. I'm starting to think you never read my post.

Again, though, why should we bother to read his stories when they will inevitably end in an adrupt cutoff and the rest of the plot hastily thrown in our faces again? If he was writing shorts, maybe, since he'd have no chance to drop them. But with proper length stories...

As I've said before, his dropping the story is not the issue, as I do understand when it no longer becomes fun or when it becomes too difficult to write. It's the manner in which he did so that shows that no story of his is worth getting invested into.

>or expect them to finish it after they've lost interest and writing becomes utter tedium?

>I'm still going to work on my other story, and I hope to see some of you there.

Sure sounds like writing has become utter tedium to him, doesn't it?

Not that it matters. It's beginning to look more and more like he's abandoned his /forest/ story as well, given that there's been no more word from him in 3 days.


Also, why so mad, bro? I've kept my tone mostly civil.

>>158832
I don't understand, man. So what if he gave it two weeks instead of a few days to decide to drop this story, he still would've come to the same conclusion that he didn't enjoy writing it anymore.
>He dropped this story, so that means every thing else he writes is doomed to be dropped, and it's not worth reading it because it'll never be finished!
That's not entirely inaccurate, and it seems to be the case at this point with the other story, but you really do seem dead-set on being as pessimistic as possible.