Touhou: a Glimmer of an Outside World
is a forum roleplay/fanfic with the same general plot as every single Touhou Project game: find out who’s causing the latest incident—mysterious rips in the border between Gensokyo and the outside world—and stop them. Naturally, this got vastly more complicated than it needed to be, with at least twenty different characters—many of them stage 6 or EX-bosses—getting involved. They mostly got distracted.
Signups can be found here and the discussion here.
Tropes exhibited by this work:note
- Beam Spam: Both the Twilight Spark and Ultimate Spark involve this—the latter by firing three Master Sparks and a Final Spark at once, the former by being ringed by crazy, curving lasers.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The fairy Cirno's bones are made of ice.
- Butt-Monkey: Fukakusa. Right after he was introduced, Fuka was attacked by Reimu's Anti-Yukari danmaku, threatened by Momiji, One-shotted by Ranma, and then Shikieiki comes out of nowwhere and starts pulling his ear. All within the span of two minutes.
- Cannibalism Superpower:
- Mokou's powers over fire came from turning a phoenix into yakitori and eating it.
- Utsuho's nuclear power came from eating yatagarasu. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea.
- Cast Full of Gay: Averted, despite this being a Touhou Project roleplay. Komachi is straight and Suwako says she's "Hetrosexual".
- Character Development:
- In her first appearance, Yasora has shown big hatered to "this paedofile and her team of nineballs." But after talking with Yuuka later, she first went for a kiss.
- Shujiko went from a depressed, silent character who only got involved to return shopping, and became a happier, easily flustered person by the end of the day.
- Clothing Damage:
- Keeps happening to Kaguya and Mokou's had no shirt on for most of the story.
- Shujiko's clothing suffered slight damage in her fight with Mokou, but her clothes are still intact and serviceable, at least.
- Colony Drop: Yasora droped a sun on Gengetsu and Utsuho in the dreamworld. While riding on the top of it.
- Combat Pragmatist: After several failed attempts of taking Yuuka's realm by force, Mugetsu tries somewhat more underhanded methods of claiming it.
- Comically Missing the Point: Reimu tells a ghost story. Ghosts are the least scary thing in it.
- Creepy Child: Ranma... when she's not sleeping. and Panko, when you actually start listening to her or when she starts listening to the voices in her head.
- Crossover: Kind of. Shujiko and Yasora are from a fanfic/comic respectively, each set in the Touhou-verse. Fukakusa is from another fanfic
that has yet to be made
- Cute Ghost Girl: Ranma Saigyouji And the Cute Unnamed Onryo (named Panko) Panko subverts this in Ecthel's Battle in the Center of the Mind, where Panko dips right into the Nightmare Fuel as her Onryo instincts take over.
- Daddy's Girl: Implied for Mokou, given what she's been willing to do for him.
- Damsel in Distress: Elly was caught by Gengetsu in a situation, but was released when Chen broke free. Why? Mugetsu let go of Chen.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Vaguely hinted at for Yuuka's back story near the beginning. Plus there's the mentions of her being pretty Ax-Crazy until she 'settled down' in Gensokyo. Suwako also has hints of this as well, just it's never been brought up.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Yuuka's double (Usually summoned when casting Dual Spark) watched Flandre as she was tickled mercilessly in an old torture device lying around Yuuka's basement. While it was only for a few seconds, with no real consequences, the 'original' Yuuka wasn't amused at the inaction, blaming 'Yuuka 2' for Flandre even hiding inside it in the first place, and forced her clone to enter another device that melts bones. Which was considered by her as a better fate compared to playing submissive for Yasora.
- Played With: Reimu's "Anti-Yukari" Defense system. It's a harsh way to deal with a prankster, but she was thinking that Fuka was a killer or a horrible monster.
- Establishing Character Moment: Yasora's statement if she gets to kill Yukari, she doesn't care about Gensokyo's future establish her as Card-Carrying Villain.
- Everyone Can See It: The tension between Kaguya and Mokou is blinding.
- Expressive Accessory: Suwako's hat mimics Suwako's thoughts or feelings with its "eyeballs".
- Fangirl: Patchouli and Koakuma to Mima, with Koa being the more fanatical case. Also the Mishaguji towards Mystia, especially the one that wears a replica of Mystia's hat.
- Friend to All Children: Yuuka. Everyone keeps thinking she’s a pedophile.
- Ghost Amnesia: Yuyuko experienced this upon her death and subverted the trope like in Canon. Panko lost her memory (after being killed as a ghost) and has forgotten so much that she doesn't even understand what food is. After a night of rest though, she recovers
- Going Commando: The Cute Unnamed Onryo is this, not actually understanding the concept of undergarments. Panko corrects this.
- Hammerspace: A few characters have little portable hammerspaces they use to store a silly amounts of clothings, candy and other stuff. Suwako's been storing things inside her hat,
like any good magician Mima has stuff up her sleeves, and Yukari keeps things inside her gaps. - Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Shujiko has to tell herself this quite a few times. Suwako also claims she's "hetrosexual", but seems to take likings to women as much as she does men.
- Hot-Blooded: Another thing that Will-Shujiko can be. Must be all that Shonen influence she was never exposed to...
- I'll Kill You!: While many characters do Badass Boast or Large Ham, Yasora prefers to start a battle with actual life threat.
- Immortal Life Is Cheap: With many of the characters being invincible and able to resurrect, this is exploited a lot:
- Mokou and Kaguya have died several times each and resurrected. In fact, the mechanics of one of Mokou's spellcards works by repeatedly killing herself.
- Komachi has been impaled with her scythe. Being a shinigami, she just didn't die.
- Suwako's had internal brain bleeding, has been impaled, and was Twilight Spark'd by Mima. Each time she either simply split herself or healed her wounds
- The fairies, oddly are remarkably good at not dying.
- Improbably Female Cast: Not only have the male characters merely been referenced—apart from a one-off gag—all the OC's are female, too. Then Averted with the advent of Fukakusa, the (sofar?) only male NPC and then Ecthel, the first Male PC. And now Youki Konpaku has turned up.
- Interface Spoiler: During Utsuho's introdution she spoke normally. After she was hit in the head, her speech text turned gold. It's a major hint to her being possessed even for people unfamiliar with Touhou Nekokayou.
- Limited Wardrobe: Averted. At least half the cast has had a change of clothing, which was lampshaded by Yukari.
- Made of Plasticine:
- Cirno, given that her bones are made of ice, snaps them on pretty much any impact. As a result, ripping her apart would be incredibly easy.
- Justified for Mokou, too. Her health has left her like this in comparison to any normal person.
- The Ill Fairy combines poor health with being a fairy. She's quite possibly more fragile than anything.
- Mama Bear:
- Mima, towards Marisa—so much so that Marisa's father didn't dare do anything to Marisa so long as Mima wasn't sealed. Suwako as well towards Sanae.
- Suwako's Mishaguji perform a total 360 on the trope as well. They look up to Suwako as their "mama" and are very protective of her.
- Meido: Mima likes to dress people asnote maids, to the extent she's got maid outfits in her sleeves.
- Me's a Crowd: Shinto Gods are able to split themselves indefinitely, something Suwako fully takes advantage of this and is multiple places at the same time.
- Missing Mum: Marisa's mother hasn't been referenced, unlike her father.
- Mythology Gag: The first one whom Reimu met was Yuyuko, and Reimu was treating her as stage one boss. Just what Yuyuko was in Touhou: Ten Desires.
- Mood Whiplash: Given the various groups the characters have split into, it's quite possible to go from a battle to a discussion on the stars, to a game of hide and seek.
- Fukakusa's prank. Revealing what seemed to be a serial killer horror story was actually nothing but a "revenge" prank.
- Mundane Utility: Reimu can use ofuda as protection from rain when she doesn't have an umbrella.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Yukari's victory over Reimu depowered the shrine maiden. She spent a day recovering, while incident causer was still causing trouble. That was exactly what Yukari was planning, but she endangered the world will her actions.
- Nosebleed:
- After being soaked in water and having her neck snapped, Mokou's sarashi was in considerable disarray. This was the reaction from Kaguya and Shujiko.
- Koa has had a nosebleed that knocked herself out when she was thinking about Mima in a swimsuit
- Noodle Incident:
- Just what did Mima do to get Reimu to reseal her?
- Aya had to do something for Rin to borrow her wheelbarrow. All we know is that it's embarrassing and there's pictures of it on Aya's camera.
- How in the world did Fukakusa and Aya's Prank War begin?
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Natsumi tried issuing one during the final battle, binding everyone and unleashing a holy amount of danmaku. In response, everyone present during the battle are using their strongest cards on a defenceless Natsumi, essentially giving her the beat down.
- No Name Given: The Cute Unnamed Onryo that's been pestering Mystia and Ecthel (who's name is Panko, she just can't remember. She does recover eventually.)
- O.C. Stand-in: Ranma, as revealed on the discussion thread is somehow the Saigyou Ayakashi. Panko is a Stand In as well, if Word of Nicktendonick is to be believed
- One-Hit Kill: Ranma pulls this off against Fukakusa, killing him with a single punch. The impact and the sheer force of the punch was what killed him, not the fist shapped hole she put through him.
- Onsen Episode: Actually, bath episode: 7 girls gathered to bath together in Yuuka's mansion. With lot of fanservise and girl-on-girl action.
- Playboy Bunny: Suwako got Kaguya to dress like this, before Mokou reminded her that one of her Impossible Requests is a piece of clothing.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Mugetsu is willing to do anything to 'reclaim' her land from Yuuka's possession, even holding Chen hostage. Gengetsu likes to mess around and fight strong opponents other than Yuuka.
- Power Tattoo: Mokou's tattoo, despite being a phoenix and her powers over fire having come from eating one, is actually not one of these.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: I. Am. Gundam!
- Shout-Out:
- Shujiko is supposed to be one to Shonen tropes, although the most prominent examples would be changing her hair colour and drawing upon excessive amounts of resolve and willpower during battles.
- One of Yuuka's wild theories as to what could be causing the incident near the beginning of the RP was a reference to the mind-screwy touhou doujin series, Jasper Star.
- Yasora have made Shout Outs to Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Captain Tsubasa, Sengoku Basara, Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, Disgaea, Army of Darkness and Team Fortress 2.
- Overly Long Gag from Death Note.
- Smoking Is Cool: Mokou certainly falls under this. It's not as if it can kill her or make her health any worse, though. Kaguya occasionally gets in on it, too, which is behind the Noodle Incident fire in canon.note
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: The Panko is a Onryo, a vengeful spirit who returns to the mortal world for revenge. This being Gensokyo And her being a Goddess when alive, she's actually subverts the trope and the usual Onryo nature. Doesn't stop her desires for revenge though. For at while at least.
- The Nicknamer:
- Cirno, since she has trouble remembering names. Examples include 'flower lady'note , 'black-white laser witch'note , and 'the purple lady'note .
- Yuuka delved into this for a bit when she gave titles to everyone in her 'party' at the time. Such as 'Fairy of Hell Fire Resisting Ice' note , 'Prism Vampire of Darkness' note and 'Youkai of Eternally Blooming Flowers' note among many others.
- Also from Yuuka: Yatsuho for fusion of Yasora and Utsuho.
- More from Yuuka. This time, in a reference to a fanfic, always refers to Wriggle as 'Wrigs', 'Bugsy' or any possible permutation of her name.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Panko's pride and youthful stupidity usually drives her to make very life-threatening choices. Despite already being a ghost, her postmortem life has consisted of her getting killed twice (and beaten up by a Youkai Bear) for picking fights she could not win.
- Fukakusa may count too: to start a prank in Hakurei shrine, to scare Hot-Blooded shrine maiden and then to turn his back to her and drop guard. Even though he couldn't have foreseen Reimu's reaction (due to never meting her) she's a Hakurei shrine maiden, he should of known better.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Mokou, ever since she accidentally burnt her own shirt off.
- Wave-Motion Gun:
- The Twilight Spark and Ultimate Spark take the already-ridiculous lasers and turn them up to eleven.
