The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

She says that the text is too tiny and she's later seen peering closely at the magical legend of bird booze story

She might need reading glasses.

Perfect Memento came out after PoFV, yes? I just wonder what the yama would have thought about Mystia's business. Yes, she's basically scamming people, but she's not using her weird singing power, and you could argue that she's maintaining a properly antagonistic attitude towards humans while still fitting into civilization.

Also wondering what Eiki would think about the punk rock, and what Mystia's mysterious power does to Choujuu Gigaku's audience. Or maybe the punk rock was that mysterious power Yuuka noticed... which would make her a hipster? She identified and liked Mystia's music before Mystia even knew what she was singing?

Maybe because the interview about Choujuu Gigaku didn't have Mystia's input at all but I get the impression that the punk rock is mostly on Kyouko's dissatisfaction with her changing life. Mystia always seems cool with her changing life.

Eiki probably wouldn't mind too much barring the whole hypnosis thing.

Mystia doesn't mind a punk rocker but Kyouko seems to hate her lot in life. I wodner what Mystia does with the proceeds?

What proceeds? They throw surprise concerts in the middle of the night. I don't think they're selling tickets.

They're doing guerilla concerts so they can't exactly charge for admission

You know, the punk concerts are probably also a good way to have an antagonistic relationship with humans (at least some), both for the sudden ambushes with overwhelming noise and for the "screw the system" ethos.

Should have said this earlier, got distracted by the image pickin' thread, but anyway - any last Mystia thoughts before we move on to Kagerou?

Mystia is a Western youkai or at least a youkai with a western theme. Can animals that migrate from another country still turn into youkai?

Youkai is a broad term that applies to all monsters in all countries. Goblins are considered youkai. There's no reason a foreign animal wouldn't be able to become a youkai, whether or not it came to Japan.

It's plausible that different countries would have different conditions for becoming a monster, depending on their beliefs.

Edit: Thinking about it slightly, Mystia is obviously being conflated with a Siren (her name is Lorelei), akin to later characters like Wakasagihime being called a mermaid.

edited 10th Jul '15 9:39:02 AM by Clarste

If she's indeed a foreigner, I imagine she was a youkai before she made the trip to Gensokyo (which isn't to say that it wouldn't be interesting exploring what happens when an invasive species suddenly becomes a youkai in a country that hasn't seen them before). An extra-Border origin might also explain why Mystia is quick to tell the Three Fairies those Japanese bird myths - Immigrant Patriotism.

What this angle wouldn't answer is how a foreign monstrous humanoid found out about Gensokyo, how she managed the trip, and of course where she came from and how her type of youkai are doing beyond the Border. Mystia might have a wealth of fascinating stories to tell, if only someone were interested enough to ask.

As I just said, she's a siren. She has the name of a famous siren, she's a bird, she leads people to their deaths with song, etc. We already know that populations of foreign youkai exist because Yukari abducted some hobgoblins.

Based on her family name, she'd be German, I guess.

But the original Lorelei was nothing but the echo of a dead woman... who became a siren in subsequent works... and the original sirens were the winged daughters of a river deity... but at some point they became bird-human hybrids...

And somehow this confused pedigree resulted in a winged woman whose song could induce darkness. And then she was declared a yosuzume, a night sparrow youkai known for inducing bad luck instead of having any supernatural powers involving singing.

And now we have precedent for occasions when a youkai's powerset doesn't quite match up with their mythology - they might be a foreign youkai of a completely different type being misidentified.

Hey, if she's foreign, that pretty easily explains where Mystia picked up the punk rock, dunnit?

That amkes some sense but I read somewhere that night sparrows aren't native to Japan....I might have to look it up though.

Alright, good bird(?) talk. Next up: the evil tree, Sakuya Izayoi, and... can't quite make it out... oh, it's Rumia! But first, a warwilf.

Kagerou Imaizumi

Appearance:

Stage: Beast of the 15th Night ~ Metamorphose
BGM: "Bamboo Forest of the Full Moon"
Theme: "Lonesome Werewolf"

Spellcard Motif: Wolves, their teeth, and the noises they make
Example Spellcards: DDC
Fang Sign "Canine Teeth Under the Moon," Transformation "Star Fang," Roar "Howling of the Full Moon," Wolf Sign "Star Ring Pounce," Sirius "High-Speed Pounce"

Write-up:
A normally harmless werewolf who lives in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Even when Kagerou gets her wolf on, she remains in control of herself instead of becoming aggressive - the biggest effect the transformation seems to have on her is to make her body-conscious.

Since she lives a quiet life in the bamboo groves, there's not much else known about Kagerou. She's part of some sort of youkai social network along with Wakasagihime (and has a funny story about her), and might know some of the other moon-related youkai in her neck of the woods. It should also be pointed out that Kagerou can only exist in Gensokyo - she's specifically a were-Honshu wolf, which are extinct in the outside world.

Relationships:

• Wakasagihime (other known member of the grassroots youkai network)
• Fujiwara no Mokou, Eientei cast herd (neighbors)

edited 11th Jul '15 10:54:16 AM by Tacitus

"ugh, im so hairy"

#werewolfproblems

edited 11th Jul '15 10:59:11 AM by Bocaj

Kagerou is a were Houshou wolf, I wonder how she became a werewolf.

How does a werewolf patient zero happen in the Touhou setting, I wonder?

"A bunch of people believe in this kind of spooky monster. Hey, guess what, Daichi! You're a spooky monster!"

If I remember my Old English, the correct term would be wifwolf, actually.

Wherewoof? There woof, hiding behind that tree

Hiding behind that tree what do you see

Where are you looking, woof?

BEHIND YOU

Oh, it's just a floating, disembodied head. Nevermind, then.

It's not Old English, it's Fake American English.

The optimistic take is that there is a population of Honshu wolves in Gensokyo, and there must have been some magic in that infectious animal bite.

Here's a wilder theory: Kagerou's profile seems to suggest that something about the Mooninites in the Bamboo Forest is attracting lycanthropes and other such monsters. I posit that this is not quite accurate - rather, the Mooninites' presence is creating lycanthropes. After so many years exposed to the moon's energies, Eientei's exiled residents emit lunar radiation that has transformative effects on certain individuals. Kaguya's beautiful porcelain skin would probably cause Kagerou to wolf out, regardless of what the moon was doing.

edited 11th Jul '15 2:08:24 PM by Tacitus

And with that, a new ship was born.

But no, seriously, a doujin or fic dealing with them meeting would be interesting. Perhaps with Rouru seeking a cure for her "affliction" and the moonies trying to convince her that, in a place like Gensokyo, it's nothing of the sort? (I'm agnostic on the question of whether they'd be right, or whether she'd agree.)

"Look, I just want to be able to wear sleeveless tops in summer!"

Looking at Kagerou's text back in Double Dealing Character, I got the feeling that she was an excessively casual girly girl. I'm not quite sure how much of that was because of the mallet, but either way I like her. The fact that she seems to be feminine along with the fact that she is docile seems to suggest she's more human-like than most of the humans we've seen, despite being and identifying as a youkai.