Ah, but she's only been journalisting for about 200 years. Before that she was, as Clarste says, a ninja.
Ninjas can be as rude as they like, because no-one ever saw them. Journalists can only be rude in editorial columns.
Heart of Stone
Funny but not helpful
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Consistent shit is still shit and not worthy of accolades.
The Aya situation is actually kind of interesting. The tengus buy her paper even though they think its ridiculous just to see what that crazy Aya has been writing and photographing today. And also because exclusives. Everyone else thinks her paper is bad and tells her this to her face.
I now want a sitcom where Aya and Mystia share an apartment and are mutually oblivious to each other's woes.*
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
One Winged Egret
Nvm.
edited 17th Sep '11 4:30:22 PM by Clarste
Whenever they're home together, they put up arrogant, self-assured fronts because they're determined not to let the other know that they're anything but ALL AWESOME ALL THE TIME. Many elaborate Threes Company style schemes are concocted to maintain this illusion, with Utsuho as a cheerful and oblivious lackey.
Rumia is the wacky neighbor. Her gimmick is slamming into the door in an attempt to Kramer into the room and then opening it quietly.
As the saying goes, consistency is only a virtue if you're not a screwup.
Aya is actually writing to entertain and her pretentions as journalism are an elaborate Kayfabe.
One Winged Egret
I think it's more likely that they just don't really know what journalism is.
Far more likely, yes. I still think it's a funny idea, though.
Might be good for a silly doujin or two.
edited 17th Sep '11 6:57:51 PM by Durazno
Funny but not helpful
Hatate accuses her of making stuff up and tells her to stop doing that. There is an understanding somewhere in Tengu society that you're not supposed to do that.
One Winged Egret
Oh yeah, how do we feel about Aya having wings? She seems to have wings in a variety of official non-game art, but never has wings in-game. Does she or does she not have wings? Does she have wings, but hides them for danmaku battles? What's up with that? and what the heck does it mean for her "origin" to be a crow?
Personally, I don't really like her having wings. Seems unnecessary.
I don't think she has them in any ZUN art, so I'd put the wings down to artists taking liberties. Though I like the idea, myself
The Fool
I'm thinking the wings are noncanon. I can't say I really care one way or the other.
Maybe it's a nod to the fact that Aya's a crow and Utsuho's a raven, and are thus different species?
Yes, I know Japanese doesn't traditionally differentiate between crows and ravens.
...Shut up.
edited 17th Sep '11 11:06:35 PM by Pulse
I sure said that!
One Winged Egret
Actually, Aya's a raven and Utsuho's a crow, the translation just confused you.
The Fool
... And thus my point was kinda proven, but in reverse.
edited 17th Sep '11 11:38:02 PM by Pulse
I sure said that!
One Winged Egret
No, that was actually a lie.
The Fool
And thus I discovered that I'm far too trusting.
I sure said that!
It's time... to STOP!
From here
.
So... uh... um... how 'bout that Tengu civilization. I know it's on a mountain, and not really about Aya, but how big do you think it is? Do they have thousands of printing presses all over the place, or is it well designed and organized to allow for easy printing, due to it being the Tengu's primary export? Are we actually told anything about it other than the existance of the Great Tengu, and the caste system?
I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.
The Fool
The caste system seems to be kinda odd, in that, the Great Tengu aside, it seems like each caste is roughly even, if assigned different tasks- Hatate has great respect for Momiji, for instance, despite being two castes higher on the list in Perfect Memento.
edited 17th Sep '11 11:55:40 PM by Pulse
I sure said that!
One Winged Egret
I don't think the castes have vertical hierarchy. They just represent the jobs people will do.
edited 18th Sep '11 12:10:44 AM by Clarste
Funny but not helpful
They're fold-away wings.
◊ Tiny little petite ones.
◊
Remilia's are bigger.
Aya is weird.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Hmmm... random thought while trying to process the discussion so far:
Aya loves taking beautiful pictures, and probably enjoys the thrill of snatching these shots as well. She also likes to freely interpret events she covers to make them more interesting, using her notes much like guidelines...
The obvious connection to our Alternate Character Interpretations aside... that reminds me a lot of Yukari, who, it has been said, prefers an interesting truth over a ... true truth.
Maybe that's just the way ancient youkai think. And Aya wants to share it.
Hmm. Yeah. I think this is going in my head-canon.
"Yeah, I just spent the last hundred years sitting on my couch eating cheetos. No, I'm good for an epic showdown, just let me do some stretches."
Though, is it really certain that that's not just a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, like Cirno laying the smackdown on Yukari?
Though, what is Aya's personality in DS that puts her at odds with your interpretation?
Yeah, definitely a manga. I'm not sure if she's cut out for writing prose.
Though it might as well just speak volumes about her horrible memory, hah.
Come to think of it, for such an ancient tribe of youkai, those 100-something years must've been like 5 years-ish for us. It might just be a little fad for them, like the whole village is suddenly obsessed with Pokemon cards.
Oh, by the way!
... Now I wish for a youkai template in D&D that can be applied to animals...
edited 18th Sep '11 7:16:46 AM by Fawriel
This took longer than I wanted it to. I hope you guys enjoy. Warning, some bits might be considered "spoilers". I kinda don't want to remove the offending content, since I really like where it brought Aya's little thought train. I am very sorry.
Shameimaru Reporting!
Youkai Mountain. A mountain filled with youkai, clearly. On this Youkai Mountain there exists the tengu, mischievous youkai who spend most of their days in this increasingly more modern times writing, publishing, and selling newspapers. With that said, only a select few of these papers are of any quality.
This isn’t about one of those. This is about one of the trashy ones. An amusingly trashy one, but trash nonetheless.
Aya Shameimaru descended down the mountain from her apartment in the tengu settlement with blinding speed, camera in one hand, notebook in the other, and a smile on her face. Then, just as she reached the foot of the mountain, she suddenly turned around and flew back up. A white wolf tengu was making her normal patrols just outside the tengu settlement, and her normal expression grew into a scowl as the crow tengu landed next to her.
“Momiji! Momiji! Thought I would forget about my favorite puppy?”
The tengu pointed her sword at Aya and began to growl. “Begone, wretched crow, before I do something I’ll regret!”
Aya smiled and laughed softly to herself. Momiji was always such a kidder. And she gets so cute when she acts all mad! Aya patted the wolf on the head and took to the skies again, ignoring Momiji shouting curses at her. She had bigger fish to fry today!
Aya just loved the wind beneath her wings! The feel of the air rushing through her feathers. As she flew, she tried to resist temptation to just stop and begin taking snaps of Gensoukyou as it is colored by the rising sun. She had a scoop to catch! She had to be the first to report on it!
Before long she found herself circling the familiar Hakurei Shrine. As she saw the familiar shrine maiden sitting on the steps of the shrine sipping tea, a grin formed on Aya’s face. She drew her camera and took a snap of the peaceful shrine maiden before she was noticed. She could see the headline now:
Shrine Maiden lounges while Taoist Menace still at large! Secret Hakurei-Tao Alliance?!
Of course, even if her “research” were to take her to a better idea, she could always keep that one for her personal gallery. Very nice shot of Reimu in front of the shrine at dawn.
Before her mind drifted completely away, Aya jolted to the ground behind the shrine maiden, causing Reimu to fall down the steps and drop her tea. She angrily leapt back up to her feet and shot a glare at the tengu.
“Geh! Just who I needed to see. The tengu ‘reporter’.”
“Reimu! Glad to see you missed me!”
Reimu just stared at her.
“Anyway, I decided to write an article on the recent Taoist faction that has appeared in Gensoukyou. As my friend and informant, I was wondering if you could let me in on a few facts.”
“OK. One, I am not your friend or your informant…”
“Don’t starting lying because I accidentally knocked you down Reimu. It‘s a bad habit you know.”
“…What? Whatever. Two, I am not the one to ask about those Tao guys. All I know is that they are some old prince and her politician buddies. You’d be better off finding their dojo and asking them yourself.”
Aya smiled as ideas formed in her mind. “Prince? Dojo? Thanks Reimu! I knew I could count on you old buddy! So where is this place?”
Reimu shrugged “Beats me. You can hear the wind, can’t you? Go figure it out yourself, birdbrain.” With this, Reimu turned around and went into her living quarters to prepare another cup of tea. Aya couldn’t hear, (or rather, was ignoring) the scathing insults Reimu muttered under her breath, as she was too busy scribbling in her notebook. One headline idea really stuck out to her:
Taoist Prince trains Army of Martial Artists under the noses of Gensoukyou’s Superpowers!! War imminent?
With a big goofy grin on her face, Aya took to the skies once more! As she reached the clouds above Gensoukyou, Aya stood still and allowed the whispers being carried by the wind to flow through her trained tengu ears. Surely, she could pick up at least something on these Taoists. Maybe not from the Taoist themselves, but at least one rumor was bound to have started up already.
“Seriously Dai, that frog lady had it coming!” …That wasn’t it.
“Greetings Miss Fujiwara! This is Hatate Himekaidou, reporting on the phoenix said to live in this bamboo forest. Care for an interview?” What? Hatate? Ew, no!
“…But Master Seiga! How can I stand guard if no one can reach us on their own? Can’t I just go back to sleep in my grave?” …She didn’t even know who these people were.
Aya shrugged and figured that last one was good enough. Didn’t the Taoists have a zombie gatekeeper or something of the sort? She began to scribble down more “notes”, the idea forming in her head. She could see it now!
Taoist Prince raises Army of Kung Fu Zombies!! Beware, Your Flesh is at Risk!
Of course, what is the point of an article without a beautiful picture to go with it? No point, that’s what! Her camera drawn, Aya took off in the direction of that last quote, hoping to see the zombie in action so she could get a nice dynamic shot for the front page of the Bunbunmaru. Aya smiled at the thought of facing down some undead danmaku!
This edition would sell like hotcakes for sure! Or at the very least, she would print it like hotcakes. Then she would give copies to Reimu and Momiji and Boss Tengu and Rinnosuke and maybe even that no good Hatate! They will be at the edge of their seats! Aya couldn’t wait to be back home at her typewriter, putting her little trashy zombie novel thrilling in-depth report together. But first, she needed the perfect photograph…
I wouldn't be surprised if the ending kinda lost some momentum. As for unused bits, originally the Hatate quote that Aya overheard was going to be in the middle of her interview with Meiling, but then I thought that would just get confusing to try to make this earlier in the "write up timeline".
I think with each article, Aya gets closer and closer to being an outright fiction writer. Little by little.
EDIT: I edited Momiji's one line after reading what Faw had to say about it. I'll be honest, as I said before, the line never felt right to me. Still doesn't, but at least it's a tiny bit more natural. Sorry.
edited 18th Sep '11 1:26:16 PM by Otherarrow
Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.
Funny but not helpful
I wonder how many people have read Terry Pratchett's The Truth here? Because during last night's midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, it occurred to me that there's some possibly relevance there.
The way the Discworld's first paper evolves out of William deWorde's newsletter to several notable rich people reminds me of Clarste's thing that the crow tengu were information seekers and spies first and the newspaper thing came second. What happened in the book is that the introduction of the printing press made it inefficient to only send off twenty or so letters. Much more worthwhile to make several hundred copies. So he starts selling it to anybody who wants a copy. And then the concept of journalism creeps up on him, some conspiracies happen, and it turns out that a lot of people don't like newspapers printing willy nilly. Especially zombie lawyers. I'm thinking that the whole newspaper fad thing started when the tengus invented or acquired printing presses.
See also, the second Discworld newspaper that pops up being a tabloid and outselling the real newspaper.
Also, "a lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on."
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
I know there was a point in there, but you made the mistake of including the phrase 'zombie lawyers'. I am aware of the context, but that doesn't make the phrase any less distracting.
Heart of Stone
When you have gone 1,000 years with people telling you that your work is fertilizer and you should give up, and you just keep writing, then you are a true reporter.
Seriously, in any other situation such dedication would be rewarded. Aya deserves better, people.
That said, thank you for the Unabridged Wind God Girl Tacitus, ZUN should have put the full thing in as sort of a challenge to go 5 minutes with Aya just for that piano.
I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.