The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Oh hey, this is "officially" started now.

I wanted to talk about Yukari a bit, but everyone ignored me in favor of the hermit. To summerize: Yukari is afraid of Shikieiki due to less the Yama's exact powers, and more due to a past encounter that went bad for her. Also, Yukari is both Mary's future self and her ancestor. I may do a late Yukari write up later? Who knows.

Remember when Marisa's hat was purple? Man those were the days.

More to come as I think of it. I am surprised you guys ended up doing the Lunar Capital long before the Watatsukis. I'd think that'd be a "hand in hand" thing like Cirno and Daiyousei or Patchy and Koakuma.

Kasen interests me, but I know very little about her. I'll be contrary for a moment and say I think she isn't an oni, deva or otherwise. The buns and naming are a red herring, but because of them, people wrongly think she is an oni deva. However, she might be the hermit that Seiga was mentioned to idolize. Also, she somehow knows the Big D, which is how she ended up with a dragon pet. (Little D? D Jr?)

EDIT: Changed the Kasen part a bit. Didn't think it warranted a separate post.

edited 3rd Oct '11 10:23:01 AM by Otherarrow

Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.

We had a concept of doing "locations" which we seem to have mostly forgotten about. Maybe we'll get around to doing more eventually. Although I thought we also did the Scarlet Devil Mansion?

That was way after the first summation. I think it was between Meiling and Remilia.

Heart of Stone

That was just the list of things that were done before the first refresher period, I think.

There's other stuff that we've done. The Mystias and the Prismrivers and the Cirnos and the Wriggles and the Watatatatatatatatatatsukis and the Ayayas.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

And now, I begin my work on the Undergrounders I didn't get to.

All five of them.

Oh dear.

I sure said that!

An Attempt at Magic

A field at night, just before midnight, lit by a full moon. Though the sky is clear, the grass is wet, as it has been raining earlier. The night would otherwise be silent, were it not for two voices raised in argument.

'I still think this is a ridiculous idea, Mary.'

'Well, no one asked you—'

'Actually, you did. You said 'Renko, what do you think about trying out necromancy? Everyone thinks we do it, we might as well give it a go', and I said 'No' and you said 'It'll be fun, I've been reading about it', and I still said 'No'.'

'And then I got you to come—'

'Because you need a second person to help you restrain the spirits you summon, you said. And I came because you being possessed would've been detrimental to our projects.'

'Also because I'm charming and persuasive?'

'Yes, that too Mary. And now we're standing in a damp field in the middle of the night. I hate this field. I'd thought I'd seen the last of this field when we investigated that Netherworld boundary here. And you're painting a magic circle on the ground in what is frankly an appaling shade of yellow. Couldn't you have bought a more restrained colour? Indigo, for example. It's a very fashionable colour.'

'The book said that yellow is the best colour for protection.'

'Well, at the very least any cars will spot it and drive by safely... Mary, I don't like this. Messing with dead things.'

'We map out borders to the Netherworld all the time.'

'Yes, Mary. But this time we're not mapping a border. We're changing it. We're manipulating it. I don't know about you, but manipulating boundaries is the kind of stuff I prefer to stay away from. It's dangerous.'

'If you have misgivings, you really should've told me earlier.'

'I did. You weren't listening.'

'Worrywart. We're not taking the border apart, just pulling it open briefly for a second. Like a curtain. Now, here, I've written a list of questions for you to ask the spirit. Necromancy was originally a way for diving the future, did you know that?'

'Yes. You told me already. Unlike you I listen to people.'

'Good. Here's the spell. I'll be the medium. You ask the questions. Oh, and here are the questions. And a banishment spell. Now, whenever you're ready...'

'Alright... The full moon is directly overhead... the stroke of midnight iiiiis... now!'

The girl in purple strides into the center of the magic circle.

'I summon thee, spirit, to answer my questions. Follow our light spirit, and manifest... at least try to sound enthusiastic, Renko.'

'Ugh... I summon thee... spirit... WHAT THE HELL?!'

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED

'Mary? Oh, right... she's the medium. Right, right... the questions...'

I SHALL ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS, AND NO MORE

'Really? Why is it always three?'

WELL—

'That wasn't a question. Uhh... Mary's notes, let's see... What is my name? Seriously, Mary? That was all you could think of?'

RENKO USAMI

'Knowledge of the present, check. Now, let's see... knowledge of the past. What did I get as a present on my last birthday? Honestly, Mary...'

A NEW HAT

'Right, now for the future. What will the weather be like tomorrow? Well, that's what the weather forecast is for, Mary. Let me ask something useful. What will happen to us in the future?'

''A GREAT MANY THINGS. SORROW. JOY. WEDDINGS. FUNERALS. AND...A BOUNDARY WILL BE CROSSED'

'Really? Unusual euphemism for death, if you ask me'

THAT WAS NOT A EUPHEMISM. I SEE NO DEATH

'What? Oh, Mary, Mary, Mary... you're going to do something, aren't you? I'd better keep my eyes on you...'

THREE QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED. The feel of life, I had forgotten it... perhaps I shall keep this body, as payment. Yes, I do believe I shall.

'Ugh, I thought so... Let's see... banishment... Oh, yes. 'Spirit, thy task is done, Return beyond the boundary of life and death, to the palace of the white jade tower.' Odd name, but whatever.'

The circle flares into light, and fades into the dirt, leaving singed grass in it's wake.

'Back to the world of the living, Mary? That spirit tried to possess you.'

'Really? That would've been fascinating to watch.'

'Mary, please. No more meddling with boundaries. Promise me. We observe them and leave them be. No crossing them or changing them or creating them.'

'...Alright, Renko. I promise. Uuuu, it's late.'

'Yes, it's nearly 1AM. 12:49:17 to be precise.'

The girls slowly leave the field, their voices carrying on the wind.

'Y'know, purple's really not your colour.'

'Really? I like purple. It's right at the edge of things, as colours go. Right at the edge of things.'

'So's red. You don't see me declaring my love for it anytime soon...'

The field is silent, under the full moon, where the boundary lies.

edited 3rd Oct '11 11:21:59 AM by asterism

Heart of Stone

That was excellent. Never really knew much/cared about those two, but I quite liked Renko the snarkfountain.

Philosophy of a Hated Person

Koishi has the unusual standing of being the only Touhou character I've completely forgotten the name of. In retrospect, this is quite appropriate.

For most of her life, Koishi's lived with fear. The fear she could feel in the minds of those who knew of her powers. Her own fear of what those people might do to her. The fear of losing those close to her, especially her sister, the only person who could understand her. Surrounded by fear, one day she decided she couldn't take it anymore and ran away. And that was it. No more fear. No more worries. No more Koishi.

By closing her Third Eye, Koishi became free. Free of everything that had chained her up for so many years, but also free of what had grounded her. She was free of fear, but also free of love. She was free from the minds of others, but also free from her own mind. Free of duty, free of guilt, free of family, free of strangers. Free from the world.

Closing a third eye doesn't just remove the supernatural power of reading thoughts. It closes one's mind completely. This isn't to say she's trapped in some solipsist paradise, as she can clearly perceive the world through her other senses, but she just can't perceive other people. She can't imagine their perspective, consider their feelings, understand them or even understand that she doesn't understand them. And it works both ways: Koishi is invisible. Not to the eye, but to the mind.

As such, she has no choice but to float through life, following the gentle breeze of her whims. She defies the laws of both statute and custom, going where she pleases with no consideration of why she shouldn't. And no one can stop her because they can't realize she's there. Sure, there's a human-shaped blob of color in your vision, and it's making noises that sound like words, but... there's something missing and you're not quite sure what. And, well, now it's gone so what were you doing again? Koishi doesn't notice that her conversations tend to be completely one-sided.

Well, Koishi's not stupid. She knows what people are. She remembers them. They're those things that can make you cry, or make you smile. She's not quite sure how it used to work, but she still seems to get a smile out of them every so often so something's going right. Maybe. Her sister has recently been encouraging her pets to play with Koishi for some reason, and they certainly aren't boring to watch. Until they are. So Koishi leaves to go find something else to pass the time. Maybe she should go to the surface? Haven't been up there in a while. The gatekeepers of the underground don't stop her. Why should they? Koishi vaguely recalls something about a treaty, but it's unclear how that's relevant to her.

Following her whims is all she knows, as there are no other forces that can influence her. It's a lonely world where nothing lasts beyond its direct sensory impression, but Koishi doesn't know loneliness. For that's what it means, to be carefree.

edited 3rd Oct '11 11:46:33 AM by Clarste

There's something about Koishi, after what you and Faw wrote about her (she's one of those I never really considered before) that I find simultaneously tragic and absolutely terrifying. Not one of the characters I particularly like more than others, but certainly interesting.

Also one of those that I don't think I could ever write for. Bit too alien for me.

I feel like I've just been upstaged.

Heart of Stone

Nah. I liked yours Asterism. As Cynic said, snarkfountain Renko.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

I got really confused while writing that. I'm still not sure if it's 3rd person or 1st person.

I liked yours for the amusing dialog. Mine just got all weird and then I hit "send".

edited 3rd Oct '11 11:33:35 AM by Clarste

You guys did notice that Muffin posted a Parsee-story on the previous page, right?

I want to comment on the other ones, too and write down my thoughts about Seiga, but I'm afraid I'm kind of ridiculously tired and exhausted. ._.;

Shhh, why'd you have to say that when I have Clarste and Asterism drawing attention away from the big pile of terribad on the last page?

That's very befitting for a Koishi writeup.

Renko's hat only got mentioned once. Oh well. It's still highly stylish.

edited 3rd Oct '11 11:38:50 AM by asterism

Heart of Stone

I don't know what would happen if Koishi and Nue met, come to think of it. Would be interesting, though. That special kind of "interesting" that I should probably stay veeeeery far away from.

I also liked Cynic's Parsee story. I thought the "self-doubt and/or loathing as a shouty derogatory influence on Parsee" thing was interesting. And although not in any way canonical, Yuugi/Parsee friendliness is always good with me.

I also also liked Clarste's thing. I'm not very critical, sorry.

edited 3rd Oct '11 11:41:40 AM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Not canonical in the slightest, no, but I admit I rather like how it works.

Also, I felt horrible writing for that thing.

It occurs to me that Renko doesn't have a theme. In my head Magical Astronomy is her theme, because the name reminds me of her power.

Heart of Stone

Alice's Playground

Though I personally create all of the residents of Makai, I swore to never influence how they would grow. As such, it came as much of a surprise when I discovered that one of my maids-in-training started asking around about dark magics.

I approached her one day, asking why she wanted to learn the dark arts. I was not opposed to the idea, just curious.

She answered, "I want to be like you. I want to create life, and care for my creations."

I was touched, and also a tad shocked. This little girl isn't a goddess, she would probably never be able to reach her goals in her lifetime.

Nevertheless, I tought her a few basic spells; like how to control inanimate objects through magic. She loved using that one on the dolls she loved so much.

It didn't take too long for me to realise that this girl was absolutely serious about learning as much as possible. Being the goddess of Makai, I didn't have that much time on my hands.

But I knew someone that did.

—-

She was very small. Barely even reached my waist. "Good evening, Miss Margatroid. I am Byakuren Hiriji, and I've been asked by Lady Shinki to teach you the ways of the magician."

She looked up at mewith disinterested eyes. "Just call me Alice, if you don't mind."

I smiled. "Of course, Alice."

As she played with the hair of the doll she was holding, she asked, "So, what can you teach me that our goddess cannot?"

"Very little, I'm afraid. She's a goddess, and has lived much, much longer than I. But you see, because she is a goddess, she's unable to teach you. She has a relm to govern after all.

"So? I don't suppose you know anything about creating life? That's what I want to do. Create life."

I blinked. Lady Shinki never mentioned what kind of dark arts she wanted me to teach. "Admittedly, I know almost nothing about creation. That's a power that gods have, and I'm certainly no god."

Alice scowled at me. "If you cannot teach me what I want, you might as well leave. I'm not interested in anything but creation."

Ohh, this one is going to be a tough nut to crack. She seemed content to just ignore me and braid her doll's hair, so I had time to think about what to do.

And then it hit me.

I discreetly latched onto the doll's limbs with some magic, and lightly pulled away from the shocked Alice. Since we were in Alice's room, which was filled with dolls, I magically grabbed onto a few more of them and lined them up in front of Alice.

And then I made them dance.

I hand't done something like this in a long while, so I couldn't keep it up for long, but Alice's eyes were glued to the show with rapt attention.

As I closed up the routine and placed the dolls back where they were, She walked up to me with wide eyes. "How'd you do that? I mean, I know how to make inanimate objects move, but not that intricately!"

I smiled again. Despite being a resident of the demon world, this little girl seemed very human. "I would be more than happy to teach you, Alice."

The flollowing years, instead of teaching her how to create, I taught her how to animate her dolls. She absolutely loved going into the city and preforming very intricate plays with her dolls. As time wore on, I had to help her less and less. By the time of her leaving, she was able to control every digit of thirty dolls at the same time, without even breaking a sweat.

—-

Makai holds no more information for me to learn. I had said my goodbyes and packed all of my things.

Then they showed up.

Two humans, a simple shrine maiden and a wannabe magician. They were rampaging through Makai, with the shrine maiden wanting to stop our new tourist industry, and the magician was just destructively curious.

I tried to defend against them, of course. This was my home, no way would I let them bust it up!

Unfortunately, I was beaten. Badly.

After I recovered, I was furious. How could two measly humans beat me, the puppetmaster of Makai?! I stormed into my room and grabbed a tome from underneath my bed.

While I owe much of my current knowledge of the dark arts to Lady Shinki and Byakuren, they hand't known that I studied almost constantly in my free time.

I had learned of one specific spell. One that infuses a tome with eldritch power, while keeping the sanity of the weilder in tact. Such a feat was considered impossible to all but the most powerful gods.

I have no idea why, as I managed to do it on my first try. Scholars of the old ages must've been really weak.

I set out from my room, The Grimoir of Alice in hand. Those humans were going to pay for beating up my goddess.

edited 3rd Oct '11 12:06:51 PM by Metaflare

"Seriously, don't eat the mermaid. And not just because it's half cannibalism." ~Otherarrow

I don't think I've ever seen much about PC-98 Alice before (which is pretty much what this is). Nice one. Alice isn't exactly pleasant, is she?

So now that it's a refresher period, I'll pop in! I'm still working on getting through the massive amounts of information here, but I have a write up in the works. Let's hope it's not terrible.

Anyway, on Alice's theme Plastic Mind. I've learned that plasticity is a quality of brain matter that allows the brain to change in response to changes in the environment. I see a connection of sorts?

Sure?

"Seriously, don't eat the mermaid. And not just because it's half cannibalism." ~Otherarrow

So basically, without plasticity, your brain would not go all mushy in response to blunt trauma.

Down with plasticity, I say.

That was remarkably well-written, actually. Maybe it was because I actually spoke the lines aloud and tried to imagine their voices... ah, no, I shouldn't be saying this. It was well-written! The only things that made me wonder: Why does Renko start talking about colors? She doesn't seem like the type who cares about fashion. Okay, she has that amazing hat, but that hat is amazing because it's got the kind of timeless style that defies the everchanging tides of fashion! Also, do they do magic often? Renko seems ridiculously composed about the ghostly possession, all things considered.

I was going to say that it's interesting how your idea of Koishi is so similar to mine, yet you approach it from a different angle. But that's only in the beginning, really. After that, it becomes more interesting to me how similar she seems to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. I think I said this before.

For those who don't know, he's the villain protagonist of the novel Perfume, and is basically a sociopath with a superhuman sense of smell. However, he lacks any smell of his own, causing people to hate him for no readily apparent reason because he lacks something vital that they can't put their finger on, which disturbs them. The novel draws a parallel between smell and emotion, tying it particularly strongly to the notion of sex. And of course, Grenouille ends up killing a bunch of hot redheads to produce the ultimate aphrodisiac perfume.

Well, they aren't entirely similar, obviously, but the similarities are interesting enough to be noteworthy.

... Also she really isn't a sociopath and I identify with her a lot and she's an imprisoned flower that only forgot how to bloom

also that, yes