[x] A lighter, a fancy looking silver one, with your family name carved onto the back (School: Pyromancy)

[x] A forest, nearly overflowing with mana, you spy some smoke in the distance, as well as sunflowers.

This is in no way a dangerous combination, I assure you.

[x] A tin plated flashlight, completely mundane(School: Electromancy)
Livng taser is go

[x] A garden? A large dead cherry tree stands over it

[x] If you are in a garden or park of some kind, there should be visitors or other people around, and if you find them you should be able to figure out where in the hell you actually are.

Thank you for writing.

[x]Hemomancy

[x] A forest, nearly overflowing with mana, you spy some smoke in the distance, as well as sunflowers.

[x] A tin plated flashlight, completely mundane(School: Electromancy
[x] The bank of a vast lake, with an intimidatingly large mansion on the other shore
[x] Where there's buildings there are people. Usually. Maybe someone there can tell you where you are or, at least, point you toward someone who can.

Looks promising. I'm looking forward to whatever comes.

[x] A tin plated flashlight, completely mundane(School: Electromancy)
[x] An old beaten dirt path, you can see some houses and buildings in the distance. A shrine sits at the top of a flight of steps in the opposite direction.
[x] Head for the town, maybe you can get your bearings there.

Sorry pyro. Lightning and magnetism are just too awesome.

I'm glad people are taking an interest!

As for voting, the first choice to five votes wins.

[x] Pyromancy
[x] In front of a gigantic cavern
Token TD vote

A boxcutter, rather mundane, aside from the shimmering red metal the blade is made of (School: Hemomancy)

[x] A forest, nearly overflowing with mana, you spy some smoke in the distance, as well as sunflowers.

[x] A boxcutter, rather mundane, aside from the shimmering red metal the blade is made of (School: Hemomancy)

[x] A forest, nearly overflowing with mana, you spy some smoke in the distance, as well as sunflowers.

[X] Smoke might mean people. No one here should know anything about you, so it should be relatively safe to see if anyone is there.

[x] A lighter, a fancy looking silver one, with your family name carved onto the back (School: Pyromancy)

[x] A forest, nearly overflowing with mana, you spy some smoke in the distance, as well as sunflowers.

Can't not pick this option.

Forest of Magic choice one, just waiting for a tiebreaker between Pyro/Electro/Hemo

[x] A tin plated flashlight, completely mundane (School: Electromancy)

I'd be all for BLOOD AND THUNDER but if I have to choose, electricity isn't as common as blood magic on the stories of this site.

Alright, votes closed. Writing commencing.

You grip your ancient looking flashlight, it’s plating reflecting the sun's rays vibrantly. You feel a slight jolt of electricity flow from the flashlight and up your arm, the mana from the artefact refreshing your own depleted reserves slightly. After admiring it for a few seconds more, you shove it in a pocket. The pain from your ill-fated escape attempt was nearly a memory now, but the pain from your failed location spell still lingered, you’re sure it’s nothing too serious. Besides, if it was, you’d have worse things than a headache to deal with.

You decide to walk towards the smoke, unless there was a forest fire on the horizon, smoke usually means people, maybe a campfire or something.

You’ve never seen anything like this forest before, the sheer concentration of untainted mana here is astounding. Even though you aren’t able to tap into it, like vivamancers are, simply being in this forest reinvigorates you, and puts a little more spring in your step.

Your walk to the smoke allows you to contemplate a few issues that your mana detection spell asked. Certain beings had much higher concentrations of mana than humans. Is this where all the magus have fled too? If so, you didn’t get the memo.

Well, the forest is still standing, and not a charred, demolished wasteland, which means that whatever Magus reside here shouldn't be a power-hungry and crazy as most.

You pause suddenly when you hear branches snap in half behind you, likely in protest of being stepped on. You also hear a voice, relatively loud, rough, and masculine in speech. A little additional concentration reveals a second one, this one seems more timid, apparently in protest of something. The first voice emits a hearty laugh in response. They seem to somewhere directly in front of you

So that answers one of your questions. The snap of other branches brings raises more urgent questions.

You aren’t at an ideal state to be fighting right now, with your own mana reserves at a less than optimal condition.

[x] Warn whoever’s in the bushes, and act according to their actions
[x] Fire off a quick spell as a distraction, and book it the hell out of there
[x] Run to the voices
[x] Write in

[X] Warn whoever’s in the bushes, and act according to their actions

Sounds good.

[x] Sneak towards the voices and eavesdrop before continuing onto any further actions. Misunderstandings are the downfall of diplomatic relations. If you are caught, explain you weren't sure if you were in a hostile environment.

[X] Consider our current options for Language acquisition. Spells? High-speed reading? Summoning a familiar to translate?
-[X] Lean back against a tree and dip your wizard hat low over your eye, pretend to be asleep as the unknowns pass-by.

[x] Warn whoever’s in the bushes, and act according to their actions

We'll probably get a blast of love to the face, but why not? Good introduction.

[x] Walk calmly toward the voices. Running is just liable to urge whatever it is following you to attack now.
-[x] Be ready to defend yourself from either direction or at least make an opportunity to flee.

>>167949
I don't even.

[X] Consider our current options for Language acquisition. Spells? High-speed reading? Summoning a familiar to translate?
-[X] Lean back against a tree and dip your wizard hat low over your eye, pretend to be asleep as the unknowns pass-by.
Lets see what happens now

I need a tiebreaker between the write in, and warning the person in the bushes

[x] Walk calmly toward the voices. Running is just liable to urge whatever it is following you to attack now.
-[x] Be ready to defend yourself from either direction or at least make an opportunity to flee.

[X] Warn whoever’s in the bushes, and act according to their actions

Sudden exposure best exposure.

>>167963
Sorry, tie was broken by: >>167960

You take a breath to calm your nerves, you’d wager running from the bush would cause who or whatever’s stalking you to either give chase, or, in a worst case scenario, gun you down. No, it couldn’t be one of those mercenaries, a layperson would have been spaghettified by the mana tunnel in short order if they tried to jump in. But what if they aren’t laypeople? They are trained to hunt and kill people like you specifically, after all.

You push thoughts of guns-for-hire out of your mind, and adopt a moderate stroll for a walking speed. Besides, you might not be able to disintegrate someone with a single, sparking bolt of lightning shaped death, but you could throw enough voltage to fry a nervous system for a few seconds.

You try your best to keep a pair of eyes in the back of your head, it’s proving difficult, but as far as you can tell, whatever has hunting you has probably departed in search of easier prey. Then again, it might just be looking for a better angle to tear your throat out.

“Jeez Alice, you’re so slow! C’mon, I wanna solve an incident ‘fore Reimu can steal the spotlight!” yells a girl riding a broom...? If that wasn’t enough, her getup makes her look like a stereotypical witch, complete with huge, pointy black hat. That makes you feel kind of insufficient in the fabulous headgear area.

“Haah, y-you..!” ‘Alice’ complains, a small squad of small dolls accompanies her, fluttering around like mosquitoes, wiping away their master’s sweat. Broom Rider rolls her eyes before flying to the out of breath puppetmaster, hoisting her onto her broom, much the puppetmaster’s distress.

“Now, that disruption should be ‘round here somewhere...” She flies on her broom like a teenage girl drives a car, with a small octagon replacing a cell phone.

Oh no.

She’s coming right at you.

“Aha! Found you-” Her triumphant declaration is cut short by her slamming into you, knocking the wind right out of your lungs, and slamming you into a nearby tree. Broom Rider rubs her forehead, a welt slowly growing.

“What kinda mana disruption goes around knockin’ people off their broom, anyways?” She asks in frustration, the puppetmaster has apparently lost consciousness from her acquaintances excellent driving.

Undeterred, Broom Rider keep looking for a mana disruption, probably your arrival to this strange land. You really can’t do anything if she does decide to kill you or something.

“Ohhh! I get it, hah, it was a mage this whole time, silly me.” Broom Rider mutters as she knocks herself upside the head lightly. She notices your predicament, with her broom lying near your tree, face flushing a bright red. She helps you back to your feet before introducing herself.

“H-heh, sorry about that. A-anyways, I’m Marisa Kirisame, Ordinary Magician!” She states proudly, jabbing her thumb into her chest in pride.

“That there’s Alice Margatroid, she isn’t so good with outdoorsy stuff, like me.” Or perhaps she doesn’t handle high speed crashes as well as Marisa does.

“I haven’t seen you around, who are you anyways? You got a place to stay in the human village or somethin’? I guess you could stay with me for a few days if you don’t. ” You take her up on her offer, considering that you’d rather not sleep on the forest floor, with presumably carnivorous animals prowling about.

[x] Who are you?

Damn this updates fast, no idea what to call him though, a name is difficult to choose.

NAMING CHOICES
I PASS

[x} Martin Detaille

>>167971
>[x] Who are you?
I believe "Blast Hardcheese" is the traditional response here.

[x] Nathaniel Masson

The surname's French!

[x] Anon?

If we must name ourselves,
[x] Michael Faraday

[X] Chase Kirisame
-[X] Big hug for imouto

Welcome to CYoAs bro.

[x] Nathaniel Masson

French Anon in Gensokyo!

[X] Chase kirisame
-[X] Big hug for imouto

This sounds interesting, but honesty, I just dont wanna get stuck being French.

[x] Nathaniel Masson

Anon all the way.

[x] Nathaniel Masson

[X] Chase kirisame
-[X] Big hug for imouto

imputo option !

>>167989
Can you even read? Or do you just copy votes that look amusing?

I need to catch my subway soon, I'll update around 2 PM EST, maybe a little later, if traffic decides to be a bitch

[x] Nathaniel Masson

To avoid the retarded option

[x] Nathanielle Masson

not enough female protagonists

[x] Nathanielle Masson

What a twist!

[x] Anne Dewitt

I miss naming choices based on popular characters of games or series. They gave the MC not only a name, but an established personality.
I know they're part of ye olde THP, with all of those 'Eaten by a grue, THE GAME, jump into the lake' jokes but not all old things are necessarily bad.

[x]Nathaniel Masson

[X] Nathaniel Masson

Nathaniel DeWitt

She plays with the name like a kid plays with a piece of chewing gum.

“Naaa-saaan-ieru?” She enunciates “Auu, what a weird name.” You’d figure, considering western names don’t always translate perfectly into other languages, especially so in the case of Asian languages. You settle on letting her call you ‘Nate’.

“So, you’re a mage, huh? I wanna see what you can do when we get home!”. In a surprising burst of strength and speed, Marisa dumps both you and Alice onto her broom.

“Hold on tight!”

Three words have never terrified you so much.

Her face morphs into a dangerous smile as she kicks her broom off the ground and into life.

The broom flies like a Porsche on steroids. Marisa deftly weaves and bobs between trees and their low hanging arms. You hang onto Marisa for dear life as you zip under and over obstacles like a large wingless dragonfly.

Strange how she doesn’t seem to mind you hanging onto her abdomen for dear life, back home trying something like this would have gotten you slammed with a sexual harassment charge real quickly.

Marisa stops her broom on a dime, in spite of going at 200 kilometres per hour. Your little group stands in front of a cozy looking stone and wood cottage, smoke floating lazily up from a stone chimney.

Marisa sling Alice’s body over her shoulder like a human shaped sack of potatoes, before wrenching you towards her apparent home and kicking the door open.

“Oi, Reeeeeimu! I’m hooome!” Marisa hollars, a girl , probably not much older than Marisa herself answers the door

“Tch, so impulsive. I swear, one da-wait. Who’s that?”

“He’s Nate! A magician like me!” Marisa vigorously states as she leaves to deposit Alice onto something.

What is it with this place and strange outfits? Did you stumble upon some sort of convention or something? First a witch, and now a miko? Should you have brought donation money? ‘Reimu’ stares you down coldly, as if deciding your fate. She mutter something about the Outside, and a Border before whipping out a gohei and a set of paper charms. She’s still attempting to bore a hole through your skull with her eyes.

“So you stayin’ for dinner Rei-” Marisa freezes as she sees the situation.

You’re awfully confused, you’d doubt she’s looking for a fight while holding wood and paper trinkets. Still, you just flew on a broom with a witch, you suppose anything goes from this point on.

[x] Attempt to defuse the situation somehow
[x] Taze her
[x] Write in

[x] Taze her

This is going to end so well I just know it.

[x] Attempt to defuse the situation somehow

I'd advise explaining what led to us being here as fast and clearly as possible. Failing that I guess we can taze our way to peace.

[x] Taze her
Off to a flying start

[x]Attempt to defuse the situation somehow.

Can't we try diplomacy first, then break out the lasers/lightning bolts/ofuda/Shizuha knows what else?

[x] Taze her

[x]Attempt to defuse the situation somehow.

"Um... hi?"

[x] Taze her

[x]Attempt to defuse the situation somehow.

[x]Attempt to defuse the situation somehow.

You quickly dispel thoughts of applying a slight jolt to the miko, when she does wake up from said jolt, you’d rather not have to deal with her wrath, no doubt enhanced by your impulsiveness. You give her full view of your arms in a gesture of peace. Hopefully she’ll get the message that you don’t mean harm, nor have the means to do any. You clear your throat nervously before explaining your presence in this Land of Oz that you’ve been dropped into. She seems to buy it, but doesn't let go of her charms

She questions whether or not those mercenaries you mentioned and their weapons can injure beings other than magus. Considering that you’ve seen them make a bloody mess of human, magus, and demon alike, you’d have to say yes. Her voice and expression change from lazy and indifferent, to grave after this revelation.

Marisa looks as confused as ever, and opts to work at the stove, periodically throwing mushrooms into a large boiling cauldron, again, stereotypically like a witch, she’s just missing the green skin and wrinkles.

“I mean of course, they’re not invincible, per se, if you can hit them in the right area, or somehow render them unconscious, they shouldn’t be too much of a threat.” You add hastily, hoping to assuage the miko’s concerns, she rubs her chin and nods in understanding. The worry leaves her face. Kinda. Her expression drops to irritation when a profane rift opens up behind her, said rift is filled with an uncountable number of unblinking eyes, harshly scrutinizing everything under their gaze. You can’t look directly at it for more than a few seconds without feeling sick to your stomach.

“Oh Reimu~” A voice flutters out, Reimu seems less than pleased with the turn of events.

“What.” Reimu replies to a golden haired woman, who strolls out of the obscene void as if it was a pleasant park. She claps her gloved hands together in apparent joy.

“Ah! You’ve caught out trespasser already! Atta girl, Reimu, now I know why I keep you around.”

“Yeah, yeah, just do what you need to.” Reimu seems to be having second thoughts about this sudden situation.

A second void behind you opens up with a snap of the newcomer’s fingers, black hands lashing out to grab you. Marisa has left her station, probably to check on Alice. Well fuck. You could really use some help now.

[x] Call out for Marisa
[x] Try to persuade Reimu to help you
[x] Write in

>>168065
[x] Try to persuade Reimu to help you
-[x] Offer to track down the mercs

Looking at it I don't see much cause for Nate to stay other than seeking asylum if the mercs/whoever sent them are going to keep hounding him until he's dead.

[x] Try to persuade Reimu to help you

[x] Try to persuade the purple-clad 17-year-old to aid you.

[x] Try to persuade Reimu to help you
-[x] Offer to track down the mercs

She's going to need some help regarding their habits though if they were able to kill demons, I wonder A) what they're packing and B) how strong said demons were.

>>168093
Pic related, generally the same kind of gear as well. Rifles are enchanted to be able to injure supernatural entities, while their armor is enchanted to dissipate mana, as stated above

As for the demons, think stage two bosses, around as strong as a majority of Gensokyo's populace, but in the face of many of the named characters, they'd go down real quick.

Am I correct in thinking that the protagonist is from the Nasuverse setting?

>>168237
No, if anything, the story itself is very loosely based off the Secret World MMO. The protagonist himself doesn't hail from any franchise's universe.

>>168237
That's what I thought at first too, the term Magus is mostly related to Nasuverse. I've hardly ever seen the term used to describe non-nasu mages.

>>168284

Mage: the Ascension? Dunno, to me it's always been a generic term for a magic-user.

>>168284

Seriously? C'mon, the word magus is as old as fiction. Just because it was used by Nasu doesn't automatically make it based in his universe. That's like saying you're me because we both wear clothes I hope.

[x] Try to persuade Reimu to help you

Recruitment begins.

Well, we could say this is...

... the Magus Night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJA_YLSPz0

Please don't kill me.

>>168282
I have to ask: update when? Sorry. Union rules.

[x] Try to persuade Reimu to help you

Those gaps are inching ever closer to you, and the hands it emits are getting more and more accurate with their swipes and attempts to drag you into the pit. The shield of static electricity you produced seems to be working for the most part, zapping away the hands. You’d try to escape, but that might just invite who ever this newcomer is to take more drastic measures in trying to capture you.

Reimu still seems apprehensive to whatever Goldilocks’s plot is, eyebrow scrunched in thought, probably still mulling over what you told her about the mercenaries. You just hope that you’ll still sound convincing with those eyes boring through you.

“Wait, Reimu-look, I can help you. T-those mercenaries would stick out like a sore thumb i-if you know what to look for. Just, get her to let me go, and I’ll be more than happy to help” Reimu glances up from her thought.

Well, that was kind of a half truth, and mostly dependant on whether or not they decide to start trouble here. They could always decide to go the plainclothes and concealed weapons route, which would blow your statement wide open. You’re not even sure IF the mercenaries can get here.

Whatever, you’ll cross those bridges when you get there.

Reimu motions for Goldilocks to call off the gaps, resulting in a frown from the latter.

“Come now, Reimu, can’t I have a little bit of fun?”

“Your definition of ‘fun’ usually results in days more work for me, so no. You can’t”. Goldilocks pouts like a child getting her toy taken away.

“Hmmph. Fine then, I’ll have to steal you for a few questions some time later. Goodbye for now, Nathaniel~”

She just called you by your first name. Weird. Before you have time to protest, she’s already vanished into a gap.

Well, that just confirmed that you’re no longer in Kansas. With some many violations to it, maybe you should just throw away your common sense, for now.

Reimu sighs and lets her shoulders sag a little. You wipe away the sheen of sweat on your brow

“I’m glad that’s over.”

Reimu stretches tiredly before returns to the half cup of her tea

“Yeah, so am I, it isn’t fun cleaning up Yukari’s messes, without getting paid, no less.”

[x] Donate to the miko
[x] Look for Marisa
[x] Check on Alice
[x] Write in

[x] Donate to the miko

The miko is hinting. Do what the miko wants; she just saved your life.

[x] Donate to the miko

Because she Needs donations.

[x] Donate to the miko
-[X] Ask about the history of the land and any important things you should keep in mind while you're here.

Since we apparently don't know about the status quo in Gensokyo, we might as well ask just to familiarize our MC with the land.

[x] Donate to the miko.

Why not?

[x] Donate to the miko
-[X] Ask about the history of the land and any important things you should keep in mind while you're here.

I hope the money we have is good in Gensokyo.

[x] Donate to the miko.
-[x] Ask about the history of the land and any important things you should keep in mind while you're here.

>Should you have brought donation money?

Do we even have money to donate? If not, a donation might not work too well...

>>168311

We have nothing to offer but our body...

Right, I should probably include an inventory system

Nate's current inventory
1x Flashlight (focus for Electromancy)
1x Wallet (25,000 yen, a few other things you won't be able to use, like your credit card or driver's license)

This update was a real bitch to write, sorry about the delay.

So it would seem that Reimu is indeed a shrine maiden, and not just some elaborate cosplayer or something. She must be someone important, or powerful, at the very least, if she can discourage someone with abilities like Yukari’s with a few words. Plus, she did just save you from a presumably horrible fate at the hands of Yukari, the least you could do is donate to her, even if she isn’t being very subtle in her urging.

“Here, a little token of my thanks, for before” You hand her a 10,000 yen bill, she gives you a humorless look, before noticing and snatching up the five thousand bill as well.

You think it’d be best to figure out just where you are in the world, because it definitely isn’t a normal forest. You ask Reimu about this land.

Gensokyo, a region not too far from the city you migrated to a few years ago, to your understanding, it’s a reservation for supernatural entities. So that explains why your transportation spell brought you here, the seal caused all the trace mana emitted by all those youkai to coagulate into this area, with the seal having been up for more than a hundred years, it’s up to the gills in mana compared to the rest of the world.

It would be a goldmine for one of the many megalomaniacs in the arcane community.

She goes on to tell you of who the power players around here are, with Reimu herself apparently being the universal problem solver.

“Oh, before I forget, it’d be a really bad idea to be out in the forest, or outside in general at night, that’s when the really nasty youkai come out. And if you ever pass a sunflower field, I’d watch where you step.”

You take her advice to heart, especially in your mana drained state, you really don’t want to be picking fights.

You hear a crash-thud from the upstairs, and Alice quickly comes running down and out of the house, hair looking more disheveled than before, and looking like she had just seen a ghost, clutching one of her dolls to her chest, said doll in three pieces

“Aw c’mon, Alice, it was just a joke!” Marisa calls after, before shrugging and returning to cook.

The result of her labour is an odd smelling thick soup, with spotted red mushroom chunks floating like icebergs.

“Dig in before it gets cold!” Marisa takes a big spoonful of the material into her mouth, wiping away the residue on the sides of her mouth with the back of her hand.

Well, this isn’t a time to be rude. You carefully have a spoonful, it’s definitely a unique combination of flavors, but it isn’t particularly horrible tasting. You drain your bowl soon after Reimu does, who takes her leave, Marisa waving so quickly you’re sure her arm will fall off anytime now.

“Now, time for magic!” Marisa announces, dumping both of your bowls into a sink and dragging you outside. She produces that octagon from her dress, she smiles, before aiming it at a defenseless tree stump.

“LOVE SIGN: MASTER SPARK!”

The hapless stump offers no resistance as it’s vaporized by a blindingly bright beam of light. She put her hands on her hips, and looks like she just solved a Millennium Prize problem.

“Whaddaya think? Cool, huh? Now show me what you can do!”

[x] Something flashy and extravagant
[x] A pure demonstration of power

[x] Yeah, it was pretty cool
[x] Hair ruffle
[x] No

[x] A pure demonstration of power

[x] Hair ruffle

[x] Something flashy and extravagant
[x] Yeah, it was pretty cool

Showing off, and let's face it, that WAS pretty cool.

Hair ruffle, supposed to go under "Yeah that was pretty cool"

I nearly forgot
[x]Write in

[x] Something flashy and extravagant!

[x] Yeah, it was pretty cool.
-[x]Hair ruffle.

Hair ruffling is mandatory.

[x] A pure demonstration of power
[x] That was pretty cool
-[x] Hair Ruffle

Not sure about trying to outflashy Marisa

>>168320
[x]Yeah, that was pretty cool.
- [x]Hair ruffle.
- [x]Musical Tesla Coils.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v6GAKou7zQ

[x] Something flashy and extravagant!

[x] Yeah, it was pretty cool.
-[x]Hair ruffle.

You monster, playing us like that, how can we resist that choice.

>>168326 here

Altering vote to

[x] Something flashy and extravagant!
-[x] Thor's Sound System,

[x] Yeah, it was pretty cool.
-[x]Hair ruffle.

[x] Something flashy and extravagant!
[x] Yeah, it was pretty cool.
-[x]Hair ruffle.

Prepare yourself, girl, for you are about to be ruffled.

Flashy magic and hair ruffles won, updates coming at 2PM EST

[x] Something flashy and extravagant!
[x] Yeah, it was pretty cool.
-[x]Hair ruffle.
Hope I'm doing this right

>>168370
Please tell me you're writing Surround Sound Powered by Mjölnir.

You have yet to pick your metaphorical jaw off the ground. You’ve been raised, like almost all electromancers, to use pragmatic and efficient spells, something that accomplishes your goal as quickly as possible, whether it be killing someone, or powering a building.

Naturally, the intense multi colored beam, complete with stars flying about was the very antithesis of what you’ve been conditioned to do. Your master would have berated Marisa for having such an unnecessarily frivolous spell in her repertoire, but you’re far from THAT uptight.

Regardless of it’s theoretical faults from an electromancy perspective, the spell looks damn cool, and experience has taught you exposing anything to enough active mana, and it’ll fall apart quite nicely.

Not to mention, the spell that could drain half your mana came from someone who’s easily three years younger than you. And what were you doing when you were seventeen? Hell, you were still convinced magic only existed in fairy tales.

You smile warmly, before ruffling the mess of golden strands under her hat, eliciting a flush of red to rise to her face, and an embarrassed shuffle of her feet.

“Yeah, that was pretty cool”

H-heh, thanks” She replies with a smile that could easily outshine the sun.

Now it’s your turn. You’re fairly certain you can’t try something like that without killing yourself. You rack your brain for something equally impressive.

You have a flash of innovation, while it may not be as flashy and destructive as Maris’s demonstration of her talent, you think it’s pretty cool, not to mention it’s a pretty good show of your finesse and dexterity with your ability.

Placing your focus onto the ground, you alter the charge of a few key circuits here and there, and voila, you’ve got a rudimentary Tesla Coil, with another few charge manipulations, and you have the coil producing tones, accented with the buzz of electricity, your skillful ministrations to the coil wringing out sharps and flats from the coil. At the end of your song, Marisa looks as equally impressed with you.

She examines the coil and arcing lightning from all angles with fascination.

“Bu-but wait, that doesn’t make sense! How did you?” She descends into babble that you can’t understand, you give her a coy smile

“Trade secret” She pouts, and lightly elbows you in the chest.

It’s getting dark, you should probably turn in for the day.

END DAY 1

>Tesla coil music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1O2jcfOylU

The hair ruffle was a big success. I wonder if the ties to Marisa (and maybe Alice) keep growing, would this move to /forest/?

START DAY 2

A shove forces you to the other side of the futon Marisa threw down for you last night. You mumble something incomprehensible, which causes another shove to your ribcage. The second one ushers you out of sleep, and into some sort of half-asleep state. Marisa grumbles something, before presumably deciding to take a more direct approach to rousing you.

“HEEY! EARTH TO NATE! YOU DIDN’T DIE LAST NIGHT DIDJA? WAKE UP!!”

Marisa suddenly has decided to set up a speaker system in your ear canal. She throws open the curtains, letting in searing rays of sunlight through the window. Ugh. Your weakness. The spray of the dawn’s light forces you through the door of awakeness. Seeing that her efforts have succeeded, Marisa smiles impishly before scurrying downstairs. You shake off the grog of the morning before staggering after her.

A pleasant aroma of freshly baked bread entices your nostrils, clearing away the cobwebs rather quickly, Marisa is busy shoving a slice of bread slathered in jam into her mouth with one hand, while hoisting a massive cotton sack over her shoulder with the other. Curious, and kind of cute.

“What are you doing?” You inquire, with a light exhale of amusement

“I’m gonna borrow some stuff from a friend! Wanna come?”

Borrow? With a sack? Maybe she borrows in bulk? Regardless, it shouldn’t be a big deal if she’s just going to visit a friend. It would do you some good to get to know the residents of Gensokyo.

[x] Go with her
[x] Ask to go somewhere else
-[x] Village
-[x] Shrine
-[x] Flower field
[x] Write in

[x] Go with her
We must become partners in crime.

[x] Go with her

I'm curious as to how this'll go out exactly. Will it be the old fanon "sparks a blazing" or canon "walking in like she's paying a visit and walking out with the books in the same manner"?

[x] Ask to go somewhere else
-[x] Village

[x] Go with her

Ignorance shall be his armor.

[x] Go with her

Live in ignorance... die get knifed in ignorance.

[x] Go with her

This sounds very productive and completely innocent.

[x] Go with her

>Maybe she borrows in bulk?
So young, so naive.

[x] Go with her

You grab a slice of bread while it’s still warm and join her on a presumed walk through the forest to whoever this friend is. Maybe Alice? You don’t know enough to say.

Marisa tosses the detritus of her breakfast into a small garden outside, before tying the sack to her broom and flipping her wooden octagon through the air, planting a kiss on it as if were some lucky coin. Her pensive glance shifts from you, to the broom.

“Do you think you can fly by yourself? Not sure if I could keep us both in the air with my books in the bag.”

Flight? Hypothetically, with alterations to your magnetic field, you’d be able to float off the ground, but you’re not sure that you’d be able to achieve true flight.

You decide to give it a go, with a burst of mental concentration, you feel the bulbous shape of the Earth’s magnetosphere blossom around you, with the your magnetic field growing and Marisa’s budding up as well. Initially, the ground stands firm against your attempts to force yourself to levitate. With a bit of coercion on your part, gravity loosens its hold on you. Marisa gives a jovial laugh as you stumble in thin air, attempting to regain some modicum of balance

Once you’ve regained control of your body, Marisa flashes you another of her trademark smiles.

“I’ll race you!”

“Wait, wait, wait! I just figured out to keep myself from ge-”

“Readysetgo!” Marisa zooms off like the Concord, quickly becoming a splotch of color in your vision.

You must look like some sort of bizarre trapeze artist with the way that you’re stumbling and flailing through the air in pursuit of Marisa. Marisa has apparently dismounted her broom, and appears to be...napping? Against the side of a tree. Said tree is overshadowed by that same mansion you saw yesterday

“Jeez, you were so slow, I fell asleep!” She giggled childishly, you can’t help but smile in the face of her mockery. She indicates that her friend lives in the mansion.

“Patchy’s got some books she won’t let me borrow. I figure that they must be good if she’s keepin’ ‘em all for herself”

You approach the entrance of the mansion and Marisa shushes you. A red haired gatekeeper appears to be using one of the stone columns as a bed. Marisa crouches low and approaches the wall next to her.

“HA! I’VE GOT YOU NOW!”

“Wha-oof”- Apparently the napping was a ruse, said gatekeeper had snapped to some sort of fighting stance you’d be liable to see in a Bruce Lee movie, she just sent Marisa reeling into a tree

“Oww, China, I wasn’t plannin’ on breakin’ in I swear!”

“That’s what you always say-” Now it’s the gatekeeper’s turn to be surprised, as Marisa jumps back onto her broom and zips past the gate, colorful bolts of energy trail after her

“C’mon Nate!”

You take to the sky clumsily, those same bolts peppering the airspace around you, lacking the aerial dexterity of Marisa, you catch several bolts with your body, sending you plummeting painfully to the ground. The gatekeeper approaches you slowly, and she does not look happy.

[x]Hi?
[x]Try to recover and join Marisa
[x]Taze her
[x]Write in

[x]Hi?

Hello miss lovely, understanding, good-natured gatekeeper.

[x] Hi?
Maybe she knows where Marisa's friend lives!

>>168527
[x]Hi?
I don't suppose I could convince you this was a misunderstanding?

[x]Hi?

>>168527
[x]"So the first person I end up meeting in this place is a thief? How awkward. Hello, My name is Nathaniel, Miss...?

We cooler than cucumbers

[x]"So the first person I end up meeting in this place is a thief? How awkward. Hello, My name is Nathaniel, Miss...?

[x]Hi?

[x]"So the first person I end up meeting in this place is a thief? How awkward. Hello, My name is Nathaniel, Miss...?

Well this was disapointingly 2006.

[x]"So the first person I end up meeting in this place is a thief? How awkward. Hello, My name is Nathaniel, Miss...?

Just for humor's sake.

>>168558
How so?

Give 'er the truth. Overpowered women love the truth.

[x]"So the first person I end up meeting in this place is a thief? How awkward. Hello, My name is Nathaniel, Miss...?"

Now with closing quotation marks!

>>168560
The whole Marisa blasts her way into things is overdone along with the Meiling cat and mouse game.

At this rate Remilia in this will be of the "Charisma break type" and Sakuya to be concerned about certain... accessories.

[x]Try to recover and join Marisa

The gatekeeper towers over your prone form intimidatingly, not quite glaring down at you, but a disapproving look etched onto her face nonetheless. She displays the same unearthly strength she used to send Marisa into a tree when she picks you up by the back of your shirt with a her left arm alone, muscles clearly defined under her shirt.

She holds you like a bag of groceries before laying you onto the ground. You get up and dust yourself off, pressing the stinging pain in your chest to check for any broken bones.

If you had only know Marisa didn’t intend to return what she had ‘borrowed’, then you wouldn’t have to deal with a few possible rib fractures and singed flesh. The gatekeeper’s face shifts to one of concern when she sees you checking your wounds.

“E-eh, I didn’t break a-anything right?” She goes to massage her fingers into your chest, washing away the pain in your ribcage. You nod in confirmation.

"So the first person I end up meeting in this place is a thief? How awkward. Hello, My name is Nathaniel, Miss...?"

“Hong Meiling, gatekeeper for Remilia Scarlet” She adds an exasperated sigh to the end of her introduction.

“Marisa’s not a bad kid, I could try to describe her, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t do her justice. I suppose younger sister would be the closest term.” She stares into the sky in thought. Before she can rework her sentence to formulate the proper adjective, Marisa strolls out of the palace as if she really were walking out of her friends house, and not the site of a heist. She waves energetically at the two of you, Meiling waving back lazily.

“I guess that’s my cue to leave.”

“Guess so. Hey! You should come over for dinner or something some time, the Mistress always like meeting new people, especially magicians.”

You might take her up on her offer some time later. Marisa tugs on your sleeve.

“C’mon, I gotta go to Kourindou next. I suppose I could take you around the village too.”

[x] Berate her about her theft
[x] Ask to go somewhere else
-[x] Village
-[x] Shrine
-[x] Flower Field
[x] Write in

[x] Ask to go somewhere else
-[x] Village

Eh, why not?

[x] "Could you at least inform me of being tossed by a redhead before we left?"
[x] Ask to go somewhere else
-[x] Village

[x] Berate her about her theft
What, she will try to steal Kourindou next?

>>168583
No, it's more to introduce Rinnosuke as a character. Can't go gallivanting around Gensokyo without having Rinnosuke as your bro.

[x] Write in
-[x] "Are you going to be 'borrowing' things everywhere we go?"

GO TO THE [x] Flower Field

I like this one.

[X] Write-in:
-[x] "Are you going to be 'borrowing' things everywhere we go?"

[X] Write-in:
-[x] "Are you going to be 'borrowing' things everywhere we go?"

Keeping the theme?

I won't be updating for a few days thanks to exams and such, apologies in advance.

[X] Write-in:
-[X] "Are you going to be 'borrowing' things everywhere we go?"

Because if it means we'll get tossed around by more busty red-heads who later has her hands all over you, I'm okay with that.

>>168760
Status update? I know nine days isn't anything unusual; I'm just curious.

>>168980
Update will be coming next Sunday at the very latest.

>>169017
Thanks for the heads-up.

[X] Write-in:
-[X] "Are you going to be 'borrowing' things everywhere we go?"

>>169020
Christ, how stupid am I. I meant the Sunday of June 9th. Sorry for the confusion.

>>169109
Oh. Uh. Okay then.

Wait, so for the votes who didn't include a destination, can I assume you want to go to Kourindou?

>>169615
Go for it, I don't think anon will care. Bear in mind that the majority of the location votes (2 out of 3) thus far are for the village.

>>169615
Yeah, that's fine. It's what I intended when I did the write-in anyway.

Kourindou, huh? Doesn’t sound familiar, Marisa quickly informs you that it’s a shop a close friend runs. You’re content to oblige her, it nice to meet some more of the locals here especially how magic would tie in to daily life and what not. It might be a long shot, but considering that everyone you’ve met has some form of unearthly talent, maybe you’d be able to pick up a few tricks from the whoever this shopkeep is.

You decide to break the awkward silence of the trip to the shop. You aren’t sure how Marisa would respond to bringing up her habit of ‘borrowing’ things, but you might as well nip the issue in the bud before it gets you into more trouble, likely the kind of trouble that doesn’t involve more redheads feeling you up. You step in her way suddenly, her forehead nearly becoming very good friends with your chest, she stops abruptly before that can happen. You cross your arms like a less than pleased parent confronting their child.

"Are you going to be 'borrowing' things everywhere we go?"

Marisa fiddles with her fingers nervously, probably attempting to form some sort of response she thinks will satisfy you. The ‘little sister’ description Meiling provided really seems to fit the bill now

“N-no, eh, n-not everywhere, I swear! Just Patchy sometimes, and Rinnosuke-b-but he’s okay with that!”

You can’t imagine how someone would be okay with getting their belongs pilfered, but you don’t know him, so you really can’t pass judgement. Regardless, she obtains her desired response from you, and what little anger you held dissipates.

Soon after your conversation, you stop at a building, labeled as your destination. Marisa abuses the wooden door until a silver hair man greets you. You can see Reimu inside, fiddling with what appears to be an electric rice cooker in skeptical fascination.

“KOURIN!”

She tackles the man, presumably Rinnosuke, with a hug, causing him to nearly stumble to the floor. He fixes his glasses before righting himself and returning the hug. Marisa joins Reimu in her analysis of the rice cooker.
“Ah, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before, I’m Rinnosuke Morichika, welcome to my shop, feel free to take a look around.” He greets. You introduce yourself as well, firmly shaking his hand.

You patrol around his shop lazily, it seems like less of a shop, and more of a strange antique collection. You spy a broken laptop on the shelf opposite you, and an ancient looking, rusted mounted machine gun sitting in a pile on the floor. Rinnosuke returned to the book sitting on his counter, while the girls occupy themselves with the rice cooker

[x] Talk to Rinnosuke
[x] Some of the junk looks interesting, keep looking around
[x] Dazzle everyone by getting the rice cooker to turn on
[x] Write in

[x] Dazzle everyone by getting the rice cooker to turn on

[x] Dazzle everyone by getting the rice cooker to turn on

>>169621
[x] Dazzle everyone by getting the rice cooker to turn on.
Also you know, cook some rice.

[x] Dazzle everyone by getting the rice cooker to turn on

Joining the bandwagon. Let's impress everyone with our mastery of the ON button.

>>169627
But Gensokyo (mostly) doesn't have electricity yet!

>>169628

Electromancer!

[x] Dazzle everyone by getting the rice cooker to turn on.

>>169628
>>169629
I'm sure we can make money out of this somehow.

>>169639
Rent ourselves out as a recharging service? Might be cool.

We could probably set up a good deal with the kappa.

An idea springs to mind, consider what you’ve seen, the people around here don’t seem to have mastered electricity yet. Even though many of them seem to be either physically or arcanely stronger than you, you’re sure manipulating something they’ve never seen before would be all the more spectacular.

Marisa was already enthralled by your musical trick, you wonder if Reimu would experience the same childlike wonder that her compatriot did. Maybe not, considering she seems a bit more jaded compared to the bubbly Marisa.

Regardless, it’s worth a shot. With a careful prick of electricity to the power plug of the appliance, it jolts to life, it’s buttons lighting up like Christmas ornaments, emitting a loud beep. A yelp comes from Reimu as the cooker hits the ground with a dull thud.

“What in the.” Reimu wonders aloud as she examines the cooker further, poking it periodically with her gohei. Rinnosuke leaves his table to examine the commotion.

“Strange, this needs electricity to turn on, I think this is used for steaming rice”

Marisa rubs her chin in thought for a minute before shooting you a quick look. That tesla coil production must’ve tipped her off to some degree. You decide to come clean.

“That was me, I control electricity”

“Ha! I knew it! I found out your secret, Nate! Normal mana can’t do the thing you did with the flashlight!” Marisa declares.

Rinnosuke and Reimu seem to be thinking through the situation a little more carefully.

“You know, there’s a group of youkai who could use someone like you. The tengu up in the mountains really like this “electricity” stuff”

“The Human Village has been starting to use more of it too, I think they’d need some like Nathaniel more” Reimu interjects.

[x] Help the humans
[x] Offer you skills to the tengu
[x] Write in

Marisa takes the rice cooker with her, as the three of you bid farewell to Rinnosuke. Marisa drags you along the road, to the Human Village. The village itself is an interesting mix of stone cottages and small, relatively modern buildings, smoke and electrical lines crossing through the air in equal number. You spy a few places of interest, a school, some sort of armory, a pub, and what appears to be a food stand, selling, medicine?

“I gotta go buy some stuff, you can hang around, but don’t leave the village!”

[x] Go to the school
[x] Go to the armory
[x] Go to the pub
[x] Go to the stand
[x] Write in

Hmm. School is Keine, Pub is probably Suika, Stand is Reisen, dunno who'd be at the armory though.

I'm a huge sucker for Keine, but I'm also curious. Let's poke over to the armory and see who's there.

[x]Armory.

I bet they'd love to have an electric toolset. Grinders, lathes, etc.

Heck, maybe we can pull off a vortigaunt and be your friendly neighborhood generator. We might not be a powerhouse compared to the Gensokyo natives, but we can make ourselves indispensable.

[x] Help the humans
[x] Go to the school

[x] Help the humans
[x] Go to the pub

The tengu probably won't be all that welcoming. Anyway, we need a drink.

[x] Meet both the humans and the tengu before making a decision for either side.
[x]Armory
Can we make electroplated armor and such?

>>169884
I don't see why not, not sure how practical something like that would be outside of CQC.

Also, choosing to side with the humans or the tengu will have repercussions down the road, so I'd advise thinking it through more carefully.

Going to wait for a few more votes before calling it.

[x] Meet both the humans and the tengu before making a decision for either side.
[x] Go to the stand.

Decided I'd rather hear out both sides beforehand.

Finally, a write-in I can get behind.

[x] Meet both the humans and the tengu before making a decision for either side.
[x] The Armory.

[x] Help the humans
[x] Go to the armory

[x] Meet both the humans and the tengu before making a decision for either side.
[x] Go to the stand.

You wander around the town as you mull over your choices in regards with who to help, you really haven’t the faintest clue about either faction, so it’d probably be best to better acquaint yourself with both before you make a decision. A few minutes of mindless meandering around the town and you find yourself by the armory. People in plainclothes, with a few white haired, armored individuals congregate around the brick and wood building, discussing something rather animatedly.

You sense tinges of mana residing within the armory, not really condensed enough to be another magic user, but undoubtedly something arcane. Piquing your fascination, you decide to investigate.

The armory itself seems like your stereotypical high fantasy affair. Various swords of various make adorn the walls, with a massive, painstakingly intricate painting of some battle covering the rear wall.

In addition source of the mana, you’ve also discovered of the racket outside. A uniformed, rather old looking, grizzled man seems absolutely livid with a white haired woman, similarly dressed like her presumed compatriots outside, an disproportionately large sword leaning on her shoulder.

“And you, tengu, still haven't held up your side of the treaty, if I didn't know better, I'd assume your race is using us.”

The white haired woman seems less than perturbed by the man’s rage.

“Please understand, our guards have been spread so thin already, the ones already here are really all we can spare.” She pauses and her composure wavers “I want to help, I-I really do, but I can’t, I’m sorry.”

The man leaves the place hastily, barging through the crowd of guards.

Huh, so those white haired people are the tengu, you might as well hear them out while you can. You introduce yourself to the woman arguing, she introduces herself as Momizi Inubashiri, captain of the guard for the tengu. You ask what all the commotion is, she lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Ever since the Kappa developed the power plant on the mountain, we've been at odds with the humans. They want more electricity than we can provide, when both factions have so little in supply. Not to mention they want reinforcements in their guards to compensate.”

Huh. You’d have to think this through at a later date. You thank her for the information, and with nothing left to do here, you depart.

To where?

[x] Go to the school
[x] Go to the pub
[x] Go to the stand
[x] Write in

[x] Go to the pub

Because alcohol.

[x] Go to the school

[x] Go to the school

Let's get educated.

[x] Go to the school

Well, I've got some bad news. I seem be having my first run in with writer's block.

Combined with the fact that my muse for this has left me, I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep this going. Hopefully, creativity will return, and when it does I'll come back.

Sorry for having to leave again so soon after I came back.

>>170198
Oh boy, another dying story. I think we need to hire an undertaker, the rate we go through these.

Tip from another writer: There is no such thing as "letting creativity come back." You gotta just bull through it and keep writing. If you take a break, you'll let the routine set in and you'll never write again.

>>170198
Don't worry. Nobody will miss you after a month or so.

>>170198
>Hopefully, creativity will return, and when it does I'll come back.

No, you won't. A shame; this story seemed like it was going places.

>>170210
This is incredibly true.

>>170210
This.
Your mind is like your body, if you don't exercise it regularly it turns into a lump of useless dough.
"I can't write because I have writers block" is like saying "I can't work out because I got out of breath".
You just knuckle down and force your way through it. It's not easy the first time, or the second time, but it gets easier and easier each time and you get better and better at everything else at the same time.