Line #106 Fanfic/BeingMeiling


1	''[[https://www.touhou-project.com/sdm/res/54956.html#54956 Being Meiling]]'' [[note]]In case that link doesn't work anymore, [[https://dry-water-e911.ao365.workers.dev/works/37794298 here's an archive of the story]][[/note]] is a ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' {{Gamebook\|s}} fanfic written by Keymaster on the Touhouproject.com forums which ran for ten threads. Keymaster had originally wrote two one-shots, called ''[[http://www.touhou-project.com/th/res/161976.html#162111 Being Meiling]]'' and ''[[http://www.touhou-project.com/th/res/163837.html#163853 Being Meiling at Christmastime]]'', with the same general theme: [[AnimeChineseGirl Meiling]], gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, contemplating over her life. This fic, however, branches out from that into a more general Meiling-focused romance/slice-of-life story that explores what goes on behind the scenes in Gensokyo.
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3	After the first story ended, Keymaster wrote two sequels: [[https://www.touhou-project.com/others/res/51333.html Pleasant Meadows]], and [[https://www.touhou-project.com/youkai/res/22769.html#22769 Tengu of (Mis)Fortune]], the former a murder/kidnapping mystery from the perspective of a human man OriginalCharacter, while the latter focuses on Aya Shameimaru after her judgement sets her with Hina.
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5	----
6	!!Tropes:
7	[[foldercontrol]]
8	[[folder:General Tropes]]
9	* ADayInTheLimelight:
10	** Pleasant Meadows, the second story, is basically this: Hina, Shikieki, Suika, Parsee and a few others go to the Outside World for some companionship, and then shit gets nasty as people get kidnapped [[spoiler:in a rather sloppily laid-out brainwashing plot ending with Snark and gap-beasts.]]
11	** ''Tengu of (Mis)fortune'', the third story, is basically Aya picking up the pieces by helping Hina pick up the pieces, and the Aki sisters play a secondary, although major, role. [[CutenessProximity And Sukuna becomes the new shrine's miko.]]
12	* CanonWelding: The PC-98 era of games, of ambiguous canon to the main games, is more directly linked in the backstory of this portrayal of Gensokyo. In particular, the events of ''VideoGame/TouhouKaikidanMysticSquare'' is how the Spell Card system came to be, with Reimu wanting to avoid a repeat of Makai's destruction after the battle with Shinki.
13	* BarelyThereSwimwear:
14	** As a method of {{troll}}ing her sister throughout thread five, Flandre of all characters wears this a few times. Then she ropes Reimu in...
15	** The PoolScene in the last post of ''Being Meiling'' ends with most of the cast wearing skimpy swimsuits, with the Watatsuki sisters getting roped in for further humiliation.
16	** Yukari has assembled an impressive collection of this kind of swimwear for the... festivities at Pleasant Meadows. Notable for being equal-gender, judging from what Eiki threatened Alfred with.
17	** Also a common object of fantasy for Aya.
18	* ButtMonkey:
19	** In the first few threads, Marisa is humiliated by Meiling twice, which culminates in her being forced to marry Pameel, one of the SDM's fairy maids.
20	** Nitori, to a lesser extent. First clobbered by [=DyCirno=], then pressed into building [[HumongousMecha mechs]] for Cirno's friends, with Cirno an unwelcome taskmaster. And unlike her fellow kappa, she's not happy about that.
21	* TheDreaded: Poor Yuuka just wanted a friend.
22	** Yukari has a similarly daunting reputation. She also is much less terrifying in person.
23	** Kanako looms over most of the plot of Tengu of (Mis)Fortune as the Mikami's biggest worry. She's defused by ''affection''.
24	** Add in the Oni to the Tengu and Youkai in general to humans. Keymaster's Gensokyo is just full of people with scary reputations who are far less scary in person.
25	* DrowningMySorrows: Tenma, ruler of the Tengu, has been doing this for centuries. In fact, it's a common problem for older Tengu in general, due to the awful things many of them have done in the past.
26	** More amusingly, this is a common response to both nonexistent love lives and unruly subordinates. There's a reason Gensokyo goes through so much alcohol, and it's not just because of the Oni.
27	** Less amusingly, Suika does this constantly in Pleasant Meadows [[spoiler:after being depowered]].
28	** In ''To(M)F'', Nitori has been doing this ever since she found out [[spoiler:Rinnosuke used her technology to MindRape the victims of the Pleasant Meadows incident]].
29	* FlatWhat: Frequent, both in dialogue and narration.
30	* GiantBoardGame: In the third thread, Flandre Scarlet gets the idea of recreating the board game of ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}'' at a larger size, bringing that idea to life with the help of Sakuya's space-warping ability and with various fairy servants standing in as the game pieces. Further into the story, she does the same with ''TabletopGame/{{Catan}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Battleship}}'' for other celebratory events.
31	* HeroicBSOD:
32	** Aya fainted when she met the Oni gentlemen (although that's more of HeroicRROD.) She comes close when she meets a familiar face in Big Papa, but hangs on that time. Sukuna also blacks out at seeing Hina in her new dress.
33	** A semi-inversion pops up at the end of ''Being Meiling'', [[spoiler: where after the Watatsukis have been utterly shamed, the forest fire fairy Malla goes a tad loopy after donning the Robe of Fire Rat.]]
34	** [[spoiler:This is part of what kicks off Aya's [[GoMadFromTheIsolation madness.]] After realizing her banishment from the Tengu Village wasn't going the way she thought it would - that she had spent decades alone with no one to talk to and was going to be alone for several more after being denied re-entry into the Tengu Village - she broke down in tears. Probably several times over the years.]]
35	** [[spoiler: After the Tengu warriors slaughtered a village full of innocent humans thinking there were hunters there (there weren't), Lord Tenma and likely several other Tengu elders fell into one that lasted centuries.]]
36	* HiddenDepths:
37	** The reason Aya's been stalking people and taking indecent pictures? [[spoiler:After nearly a century of solitude with both humans ''and'' youkai unwilling to give her the time of day, it's the only way she knows how to socialize with or get close to anyone prior to Tengu of (Mis)Fortune.]]
38	** The oni in general. Still the boisterous, hard-drinking hard-fighting maniacs everyone knows; also excellent craftsmen who basically rebuild their city daily, and much more decent and self-aware.
39	** Patchouli, despite her weak constitution and hermitage tendencies, is both a surprisingly good dancer and is really good at picking up guys.
40	* HollywoodBoardGames: Flandre's canonical GenkiGirl personality and the [[MasterOfAll versatility of her powers]] are highlighted in this fanfic by Flandre deciding to create life-sized BoardGames. She even uses fairies as units.
41	* INeedAFreakingDrink: A frequent response to the antics of Gensokyo.
42	* NoodleIncident: No one ever figures out how the laughing Oni statue ended up in the Laughing Oni inn. The doors aren't big enough, the walls weren't broken...
43	* SerialEscalation: A little out of order. Being Meiling lasted ten threads. Tengu of (Mis)fortune? TWENTY.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:''Being Meiling'']]
47	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: One of the problems with the fairy maids. On the plus side, this means a few minutes of understimulation make for a very good punishment.
48	* AuraVision: Meiling has the ability to sense whoever is on the premises of the mansion when she's around, allowing her to know when someone (namely Marisa) is intruding.
49	* AuthorTract: The outcome of Meiling's attempt at getting a man results in the one guy she talks to overlooking her in an insensitive fashion by asking about possibly having a shot at one of the other Scarlet Devil members, despite Meiling initially trying to have a shot a ''him''. As confirmed by his response to a few posts, Keymaster takes issue with how often Meiling gets neglected on the thread site this fanfic was posted in, with any chances of getting votes often overshadowed by the other cast members.
50	-->"Bottom line, Meiling needs a lot more love."
51	* AxCrazy: The French general clone of Flandre. Her basic strategy? "KILL EVERYTHING!"
52	* BadassNormal: Albrecht the bartender, who solves most of his problems by shooting them in the foot.
53	* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:The entire reason for the Hakurei-Scarlet wedding.]] Everyone involved knew that Aya would never be able to resist showing up to cover such a grand event, which will draw her to a specific and well-guarded place to be recaptured.
54	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Why [[TheDreaded Yuuka]] falls in love with Meiling. Most other people are too busy running in terror in the other direction.
55	* BeyondTheImpossible: Sakuya's attempt to reprimand Meiling for her work ethnic (ie sleeping standing up) getting met with the latter grabbing Sakuya's wrist quickly seems like a straightforward reflex on Meiling's part, but Sakuya also notes she had her time stop enabled when she tried to wake her up, meaning Meiling couldn't have been able to perceive or sense her until they undo their ability, but she still did anyways.
56	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Koishi; she's an unrepentant pervert who only follows her impulses, but her ability to read the subconscious of others and knowledge of how sexuality works helps her to give Meiling some valuable advice regarding Sakuya and Yuuka.
57	* ButForMeItWasTuesday: As she vents her frustration about the citywide destruction of the Underground that disturbed her peace, Satori notes how the Oni's treatment of said destruction is regarded as just another day in their lives. The way she phrases this may be in reference to [[Film/StreetFighter the Trope Namer.]]
58	-->'''Satori:''' You know what they would call this in any other city in the world? They would call this a calamity. A disaster of unprecedented proportions. Do you know what the Oni call this? Tuesday.
59	* CantHoldHisLiquor: Everyone in Gensokyo seems to resort to DrowningTheirSorrows away, with some having a particular problem keeping themselves in check.
60	** Flandre can at least stay upright when intoxicated, and her antics in this state consists of philosophical rants, destroying walls, and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech scathing speeches]] for certain individuals. But being a PersonOfMassDestruction with an unstable personality, who's power is plenty dangerous whenever she's in one of her "moods", drunk Flandre is cause for concern all the same.
61	** The satori don't take being drunk too well, as evident by Koishi having accidentally [[spoiler:married Shou in a drunken spree because they suddenly wanted tacos.]]
62	* ChickMagnet: With his physical attractiveness, bartender-granted ability to listen and dispense sage advice, and proven ability to defend himself, Albrecht would be a prize even without [[ImprobablyFemaleCast Gensokyo's female-skewed gender ratio.]] With it? [[spoiler:Let's just say it's a good thing Yuugi, an extremely strong Oni, is his girlfriend, and can handle the stick-beating.]]
63	* ClothingSwitch:
64	** Meiling and Sakuya exchanged clothes for when they both SwappedRoles for a day; Meiling in Sakuya's blue and white maid dress, and Sakuya in Meiling's cheongsam attire.
65	** While largely a result of [[WhatDidIDoLastNight an alcohol-induced incident]], Meiling wound up in Yuugi's kimono and Yuugi vice-versa, while Shou and Koishi respectively end up each-other's lion robes and green plus yellow clothes. The latter duo naturally got their clothes back after meeting up, while Meiling warmed up to her newfound clothing, asking Yuugi to exchange dresses.
66	* EpicFail:
67	** The ''other'' problem with fairy maids is that with most of them, this is what happens when they try to do anything other than some very specific tasks. More often than not, they'll trash the place in one day.
68	** Also, Sakuya's "attempts" at gardening when she and Meiling swap jobs for a day. It starts with getting caught in a thorn bramble, but her repeated attempts at stopping time somehow results in her getting more unkempt and scarred each time.
69	* FlashbackEcho: An InnerMonologue variant; as Meiling deals with [[spoiler:Malla wearing the fire-rat robe, from talking her down to getting her to relinquish the artifact]], she recalls a memory from long ago having to deal with Flandre, [[spoiler:a similarly innocent yet unstable girl who doesn't understand what she's doing is wrong while going through emotional turmoil]], in a similar manner with [[spoiler:the forest fire fairy]].
70	* ForgotAboutTheMindReader: As Meiling thinks to herself about what happened on the night out while drunk, Satori questions her priorities about winning the fight against Yuugi over all the other problems that have possibly happened.
71	* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: It takes a lot of force, and application to the right spot on the skull, but it turns out this is a (semi)-reliable way to get Flandre out of one of her "moods".
72	* HateSink: Aya. She's a ImmoralJournalist like her {{Flanderized}} depiction, but she also develops an unhealthy obsession with Cirno since the latter's [=DyCirno=] debut, to the point of outright ''lusting'' after her. By the end of the fanfic, she's considered a wanted, unstable criminal. It took another story along with some major CharacterDevelopment for Aya to redeem herself InUniverse and out.
73	-->'''Anon:''' Good job making me want to use [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Power#Balefire balefire]] on Aya. It takes skill for a writer to evoke emotions in their readers.
74	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Meiling does this frequently in dialogue and her internal narration as [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Sakuya and Yuuka]] continue to try and gain her attentions. And the more she does it, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial the less convincing it becomes.]]
75	* HopeSpot: With several other of the Scarlet Devil group's efforts at finding a man going south for several reasons, Meiling's attempt with a guy might've bared fruit, due to her more down-to-earth approach and said guy seemingly shows interest. But then the problem arises when the guy she meets proceeds to ask for a meeting with all the present Scarlet Devil members, [[InnocentlyInsensitive leaving Meiling out of picture despite being the first to talk to him]].
76	* HumongousMecha:
77	** In the first thread, Cirno is introduced with a mech made out of magic and ice.
78	** A thread later, she goes up against five Kappa mechas.
79	** After the Kappa's defeat, she shanghais them into making four mechas for her friends. Which can ''also'' [[CombiningMecha combine]] with [=DyCirno=].
80	* HypocriticalHumor: ''Tenshi'' telling the other five girls in their party to the underground that they should be more responsible. Keep in mind, this is the same girl who started a Gensokyo wide incident ''out of boredom'', and at the moment is engaging in a risky game of improvised baseball with her sword and Utsuho's explosive fireballs. Iku does not appreciate this, having needed to be restrained by the others to prevent her throttling the celestial.
81	* IndyPloy: A variant; Meiling's advice to Cirno against the Kappa mechas right before their fight: "It's time to use... THAT!" Meiling herself didn't plan anything for "that" to mean anything, at most banking on Cirno knowing what to do in response.
82	* InnocentlyInsensitive: The first guy that Meiling talks to during a girls' night out seem to show interest in Meiling, even buttering her up with what he knows about her. But then he had to give Meiling's hopes up by asking her to introduce the Scarlet Devil group to him, as if he only talked to Meiling to date the other girls instead. Meiling naturally closes off the conversation with "You're gonna die alone and unloved" after being shafted.
83	* InsistentTerminology: Big Papa's preaches the tenets of looooooove. Not "love", ''"[[MelismaticVocals looooooove]]"'', with seven "o"s.
84	* KiManipulation: Meiling's use of ki is not just for her martial arts; it's also useful for forcing the body to purge toxins (typically alcohol).
85	* LargeHam: Big Papa, who spreads the word of LOOOOOOOVE (and Tacos!)
86	* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: After finally getting a boyfriend, Koakuma indulges in this quite a bit. How much? Well, let's just say she gets a lot of mileage out of her ability to fly.
87	* MistakenForPedophile: Yukari takes interest in [=DyCirno=]'s efforts and sends her a letter to her of using her for reasons beyond her understanding. Though, because of the language of the letter (being 'special friends'), Cirno assumes she's talking about in the same manner as Aya, which prompts Yukari to write another hastily-made letter denying that assumption and insulting the tengu for good measure.
88	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Flandre creating life-sized boards games as her projects, complete with fairies to assist as the extra units.
89	* MundaneUtility: Sakuya's timestop, unsurprisingly. As Meiling discovers, it's a necessary skill for keeping the Scarlet Devil Mansion intact. It's also handy for quick-changing people.
90	** Conjured fusion bombs + legendary sword = kickass baseball game. It's also a good way to cook steak.
91	* NoodleImplements: In Thread Three, Cirno comes up with an idea on how to defeat, of all people, '''[[RealityWarper Yukari]]''', and drags Meiling along to pick up various things, making Meiling wonder what she needs them for.
92	** This in turn inspires Meling's assault on the Watatsukis, complete with flammable foam!
93	* OhCrap:
94	** Meiling (and Sakuya), when [[TheDreaded Yuuka]] shows up at the mansion at the beginning of the story.
95	** Marisa, when Meiling and Sakuya show up at her house, hours after she humiliated the latter.
96	* ObsessivelyOrganized: When Malla, the marshmallow fairy, is tasked with replanting a chunk of forest she burned down, she plants the trees in neat rows, each with the same tree. All the trees are the same distance apart. Each tree has the same rock patter buried at its base. Her campsite is precise and immaculate. Considering how [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny fairies normally act]], the entire thing is rather disturbing.
97	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Albrecht will be forever known as the man who solves all his problems by shooting them in the foot.
98	* OnlyHasSameSexAdmirers: Poor, heterosexual (at first) Meiling has this problem.
99	* PlayingWithFire: Malla has an affinity with setting things on fire, all for the sake of cooking [[TrademarkFavoriteFood marshmallows]].
100	* PowerPerversionPotential: Implied in Meiling's monologue about her sexual activities with [[TimeStandsStill Sakuya]] and [[GreenThumb Yuuka]].
101	-->'''Meiling:''' ''Apparently, stopping time lets Sakuya do some very interesting things. As does Yuuka's plant control.''
102	* RelationshipUpgrade: Remilia, after spending much of her life since meeting Reimu holding a strong crush for the shrine maiden, finally closed the gap after a successful date/get together. Unfortunately, they now have to contend with Flandre wanting nieces[=/=]nephews.
103	* RoomFullOfCrazy: Aya's little "shrine" to Cirno. While the exact extent of the pictures isn't detailed, the implications are... disturbing.
104	* RunningGag: Drunk Flandre. At first, it was just the young vampire getting into an alcohol stash, but it later developed into a go-to method of dealing with immoral individuals like Aya; Flandre giving them TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
105	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When Sakuya sees Yuuka in the mansion's front yard with Meiling, she makes a break for it in frozen time. [[SubvertedTrope Later, we find out that she was going to get help.]]
106	* ShoutOut:
107	** Meiling advises Cirno to make [[MiniMecha DyCirno]]'s FinishingMove the "[[PunnyName Coldion]] [[Anime/GaoGaiGar Hammer]]."
108	** The board games Flandre likes to play in live-action with fairy maids as units include ''TabletopGame/{{Catan}}'', ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}'', and ''TabletopGame/{{Battleship}}''.
109	** While trying to stop Flandre [[LeaveTheTwoLovebirdsAlone from interrupting Reimu's and Remilia's private time]], Meiling uses a modified version of the [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam Shining Finger]].
110	* SingleTargetSexuality: [[PlayingWithATrope Something like this]] applies to Aya when she gets obsessed over [=DyCirno=]. With seemingly no self-awareness she openly expresses lust for Cirno in front of Meiling. Meiling tests her by asking how she'd treat an injured child found in a forest and by bringing Scarlet Devil Mansion fairy maids in front of her, both of whom look as young as Cirno does and one of whom shares a similar hair color. Aya answers positively that she'd help them just like "any decent person would do" and politely treats the fairies like children (and they [[TheCutie react appropriately]]). Meiling follows these respectively by asking if Cirno was the child in question and by showing her a photo of Cirno, and her responses quickly change for the worse (with the fairy maids again [[SecurityCling reacting appropriately]]).
111	* SwappedRoles: For one day, Meiling and Sakuya takes up the job, duties, [[ClothingSwitch and even clothes of each-other]]. Naturally for Meiling, she finds herself struggling with keeping the maid fairies, cooking, and clean-up in check -- daily tasks that Sakuya could take care of no problem with her time-stopping capabilities. Funnily enough, Sakuya has had her own struggles with Meiling's job as a gatekeeper and gardener, particularly the latter [[EpicFail with the use of her time-stopping powers]].
112	* ThrowTheDogABone: In contrast to her common ButtMonkey portrayal established in the prequel story, Meiling herself gets the opportunity to defy said portrayal by getting back at Marisa via snatching her trinkets to turn the tide.
113	* TookALevelInBadass: Cirno all the way. From a mid-level annoyance to a top-tier enforcer of Justice throughout Gensokyo! Hell, even her presence takes a few levels in Intimidate.
114	* {{Troll}}: Flandre increasingly becomes one with her personality becoming more stable. Poor Remilia...
115	* {{Tsundere}}: Discussed by Pameel about Marisa, recalling some other fairy maids describing Marisa's attitude toward Pameel as such, which is a fairly accurate assessment by the latter half, considering how she doesn't resort to Master Spark-ing the fairy away and is outright averse to getting rid of her when Mima offers.
116	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: What Meiling's girls' night out in the underground with Koakuma, Reisen, Shou, Tenshi, and Iku inevitably ends in. The girls spend a good chunk of the fifth thread piecing together what happened.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:''Pleasant Meadows'']]
120	* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler:Rinnosuke, the half-youkai human shopkeeper, who's crime in canon consists of being a CollectorOfTheStrange who operates on InsaneTrollLogic, is responsible for the horrendous events the girls go through.]]
121	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Direct from Pleasant Meadows: "Naturally purple hair? Next to cloning yourself and pulling swords out of thin air, that's positively mundane."
122	* AndThenWhat: Asked by Alfred while demanding answers from [[spoiler:Rinnosuke.]] He simply remarks that he hasn't decided yet, and will probably just use the brainwashed women to live a comfortable life.
123	* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the lighthearted romp of ''Being Meiling'' and the more bittersweet ''Tengu of (Mis)Fortune,'' ''Pleasant Meadows'' is anything but pleasant, standing out as the darkest of the three.
124	* DidntSeeThatComing: [[spoiler:Rinnosuke was not expecting Alfred to be there, and badly mishandles his response to this unexpected variable.]]
125	* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:Even more than Alfred being a SpannerInTheWorks, this is the main problem with Rinnosuke's plan: how is he supposed to fool the many friends and allies of the women he's attempting to brainwash when he gets back to Gensokyo? Which includes Yukari's servant Ran, the Tengu, Reimu, the Goddess of Makai, and the entire goddamn CelestialBureaucracy.]]
126	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Alfred lets loose an absolutely blistering one on [[spoiler:Rinnosuke at the climax of Pleasant Meadows, tearing apart his plans and outlining in great detail how badly the storekeeper has fucked up, all in a bid to make him BlindedByRage. It works.]]
127	* SpannerInTheWorks: Alfred. He wasn't supposed to be there and [[spoiler:Rinnosuke's]] responses to his presence are largely what causes his plan to fall apart.
128	* TemporalDuplication: Due to [[spoiler:Rinnosuke's]] abuse of Yukari's powers, two versions of Alfred end up in the same Gensokyo.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:''Tengu of (Mis)Fortune'']]
132	* AintTooProudToBeg: This is what Aya's reduced to [[spoiler:after her exile finally becomes too much to bear. After already being denied re-admittance into the Tengu Village once after several decades, she spends thirty more years alone before her will finally crumbles, leading her to grovel to the elders to let her back in.]]
133	* CharacterDevelopment: Aya, from a perverted MistakenForPedophile reporter to a humble tengu, shrine maiden of Mikami Shrine and a seeker of Truth.
134	* ChivalrousPervert: Aya, once she starts turning her life around. Alongside helping to solve disputes, bringing other characters out of whatever funk they're in, and [[spoiler:convincing the ultra-conservative tengu elders to start opening up]], her narration will ''not'' fail to mention how good a character looks in a particular outfit.
135	* {{Doublethink}}: A problem the tengu in general are facing given they staunchly refuse to recognize their history. At the beginning, Aya thinks she left her village willingly (while this may be true to a point, the fact is she was ''exiled''), and Ichiro feels proud of his accomplishments as a scout in the tengu military, but once he forces himself to think about the consequences of his actions, only crawling into the bottle can hold back his self-loathing. Once Aya fights this tendency and forces herself to acknowledge reality, her devotion to Truth very nearly causes a civil war to break within the tengu.
136	* TheFogOfAges: Aya explains to Hina and Momiji that it's difficult for her to remember anything from over a thousand years ago, largely due to being feral and her mind not having fully developed yet, similar to an infant or a toddler.
137	* FreakOut: Momiji explains this was part of the reason she burned Aya's home in ''Being Meiling'' - seeing Aya, who was once among the most respected tengu, basically crashing into full-blown insanity with her Cirno obsession, she could only think of destroying what she thought was the root of the madness and hope Aya managed to piece herself together after being cut off her madness.
138	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: A large chunk of Aya's current issues can be traced to several decades spent alone with no one to talk to. Not only did it leave her a bit [[AttentionWhore desperate for attention]], the story all but states she forgot how to properly socialize. The Tengu elders exacerbated the issue by dangling the promise of interaction to Aya like a lure, which she ultimately refused and successfully stuck to her principles... but this had the ''other'' negative consequence of turning her from one of the more respected tengu into a buffoonish CloudCuckoolander pervert. A horrified Momiji realizes she ''did'' go insane after being alone for so long, since both wolves and crows by nature are social animals.
139	* HatedByAll: Aya's status after her Cirno obsession comes to light, on top of her previous behavior. It takes a lot of apologies, explanations, soul-searching, and hard work supporting Hina to reverse it.
140	* InnocentlyInsensitive: Futo thinks all youkai are savage beasts who don't know any better, and all but tells Aya this to her face. That aside, she doesn't hold it against her, exactly, taking it as a simple fact of life. Not only that, but [[CondescendingCompassion she's very polite, even bordering on friendly towards her even as she insults her to her face.]] She can't imagine why Aya would be so angry over, from Futo's perspective, just stating how things are. Fortunately, she gets better.
141	* InsaneTrollLogic: Being narrated from Aya's point of view, the early parts are chock full of this. It gets better.
142	* MadonnaWhoreComplex: Aya has this in regards to Hina and Yamame. On the one hand, Hina is the one Aya has real romantic feelings for due to helping her get her life back together, but Aya can only see Hina as a pure girl and is afraid that trying to get intimate with her would ruin their relationship. On the other hand, Yamame and her flirtatious nature sets Aya's lust on fire, but she doesn't have the emotional connection with her like she has with Hina and she's afraid that giving into the urge to sleep with Yamame would hurt Hina. Both Satori and Big Papa tell her that this categorization is inherently flawed and she should really just talk about her concerns with the both of them to sort things out. When Aya does, she finds out that Hina has no problems with satisfying her urges in private, and that Yamame has genuine feelings for Aya since her first impression of the spider youkai wasn't abject terror.
143	* ManipulativeBastard: The tengu elders begin trying to take control of Hatate with visits to her family, encouraging her and gently trying to convince her to change her paper to suit their standards. Aya is horrified, especially since that was the exact way her own madness started - allowing her allegiance to Truth to be compromised by politics and pageantry, and this means the Tengu elders ''know'' what is going to happen to Hatate, ''and they don't care''.
144	* MasterSwordsman: Aya, once upon a time. Her passion for her art eventually curdled into utter hate for the blade after acknowledging and attempting to record the dark side of her race, eventually pushing her on the path to madness.
145	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Ichiro, Aya's overseer, meets her the day after she confesses the entire reason for her exile to Hatate, and rather than the scolding she is expecting, the dignified tengu arrives ''blind stinking drunk'', and confesses ''he'' was the sentry tengu that reported the human village whose destruction Aya tried to record, directly making him responsible for the village's razing. He got the recognition he wanted and successfully swallowed his guilt, but Aya's confession has destroyed his ability to doublethink the problem away.
146	* [[invoked]] NightmareFuel: An in-universe example; after Futo and Aya make up, they decide to watch ''Film/{{Alien}}'' together, thinking it's a documentary. It turns out to be an utterly horrifying experience. According to Keymaster, this was based on his experience watching the movie for the first time.
147	* NoodleIncident: Shanghai Doll takes on the prior personality traits of Alice Margatroid, which result in the former going {{Yandere}}, like how Alice is characterized in certain {{Fanon}}. According to Alice, she was once like this for Marisa long ago, with no other specification about her her prior characterization and interaction.
148	* TheDeadHaveNames: [[spoiler:When forcing the tengu to confront their warmongering past, Aya yells at them that they destroyed a particular human village and killed its entire population without bothering to know their names, and after a moment Tenma confirms the account by saying he does remember the names of each and every villager. The story ends with "an unknown stranger" having erected a stone pillar where the village used to be, engraved with a depiction of the village, a wedding celebration conducted there, and a complete list of the villagers' names]].
149	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Akyuu, Futo, and Tenma all get these from Aya. They reconcile afterwards each time, though.
150	* TheSocialExpert: Aya is this even when she is at her craziest. Momiji admits to finding it very disturbing that she can be simultaneously extremely perceptive of others and a total blockhead when thinking of herself.
151	* TookALevelInBadass: More like Lost Several Levels in Suck. Aya was once the premier tengu badass, to the point of even exceeding ''Lord Tenma'' - but eventually, she grew tired of the wanton slaughter and tried to record her race's atrocities. However, by this point, the tengu had begun developing into a more human shape and mindset and found anything that reminded them of their horrid past utterly distasteful and clashing with the image they had developed, so when Aya refused to sanitize history for them, she was exiled and very nearly went insane. At the Trade Expo, Aya finds the tengu elders trying to keep their people under their thumb and deny them the truth of their history, so she rushes to her blade and reminds everyone that in the end her ultimate devotion is to Truth.
152	* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: The tengu have stagnated into an utterly static society, contrasting with the development of the Underground into a dynamic, functioning city of oni. Part of Aya's ultimate redemption hinges on finding a way of getting them out of it.
153	* WhatIsThisFeeling: Two for Aya within the same day:
154	** She feels a "strange twinge" in her heart when she watches Nitori and Hina reconcile, which isn't directly identified.
155	** When Hina breaks into the bathroom and starts taking pictures of her in the bath (after she'd unhesitatingly declared she'd proudly pose should that exact thing happen) she's genuinely shocked by her feelings of shame and violation, and has to berate herself into actually posing to avoid being a {{Hypocrite}}. [[note]]Posing was a write-in option from readers who felt being openly ashamed would be OutOfCharacter for her at that point.[[/note]]
156	[[/folder]]

Context Fanfic / BeingMeiling