The Touhou Original Character Compendium

But that goes completely against what I want to do. I already have my own original properties (Full Auto, HellFire Catharsis, F This Shit, Technomage, and Mass Destruction). I have a free right to make something.I want to make a crazy and different Touhou fanfic, and no one has any right to make me stop. Oh and by the way, a few people over at MotK liked Even a Chance Meeting, and more probably would've, if the admin hadn't have banned me (for a ridiculously trivial offense).

But then again, this all boils down to the same thing: Quite a bit of the touhou fanbase doesn't want my OC's "perverting" their precious characters.

edited 5th Sep '10 10:36:55 AM by Chagen46

Can't really add much to that.

Kinda reminds me of my ventures into Dungeons And Dragons. I also want to always do things differently, believe you me. I played several characters so far, all of them trying to be different from the usual archetype of characters that people usually play... and all of them so far failed. I tried to make my own campaign, and wanted to turn it into some sort of point-and-click adventure, and... it failed. Because Dungeons And Dragons is what it is, and not what I want to make out of it. If I was completely unsatisfied with what the system allows, I should play a different one.

In the end, I dug my way further into the game and I think I managed to find something cool and perfectly workable, by working with what the system gives me.

It's great to try to be original, but you have to work with certain elements you're given, you know. You can't just pull something completely out of nowhere. You could add something to the Touhou setting by slapping Master Chief into it. It would surely be something added, but it would pretty much break the entire setting and you'd be left wondering what the hell you're left with, because it's not the same thing anymore.

PS: I never thought there weren't any males, I just wanted to get that out of the way before you accuse me of rejecting your characters for their gender.

Edit: It's not like what you think it is, but that's easy for me to say in my position.

I just think that you're... going the wrong way about your originality. Originality should never be used for its own sake. Else we might as well have our stories be written by random number generators.

Or, I dunno, maybe it works in your setting. Crazy can work, if it's like One Piece or somesuch. But still, that's... within the setting.

edited 5th Sep '10 10:40:41 AM by Fawriel

Oh lord, one of my beserk buttons did get pressed.

To add on, I'll just say that when crafting Even a Chance Meeting, I worked really hard to make it all fit, and I've worked on this for a long time.

Here we have a big ol' fanfic that has been worked for a year and a half, has a cast of over 300 characters, and is ridiculously long, and someone just tells me to abandon it? That's rather hard to not take personally.

Hmmmm, I see what you mean. I should have thought a little more before posting. I edited my post a few times to add thoughts.

I concede that your fanfiction might work in itself. If you want to take the Touhou setting, and turn it all into something different that's still cool, the characters can work. If it's Crazy Awesome like One Piece or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann or Soul Eater or something, that's cool.

The problem with that is that the elements of such a work will only work in their context. Like, Kamina is an amazing character, but in a different setting, he would be nothing but a lunatic, and portraying him positively would be weird. Ruffy, without his crew, is only another hotblooded shounen hero, except he's also made of rubber.

So, the problem remains. Your characters might be awesome in the setting, but they still seem out of place when you take them out of their context and present them to people who have a different setting in mind.

Except that's the thing. The Touhou girls don't accept my OC's immediately—this isn't some Strangled by the Red String stuff. The touhou's  ^*

edited 5th Sep '10 11:06:07 AM by Chagen46

Okay!

But I'm not sure if that changes anything about my point.

Relevant: What sold me on Mr. Tree's dude was the line about him using the PMiSS as a way of life. It's interesting because it takes a strange element of Touhou canon (a decidedly fearmongering book on how to kill the characters, which might have been necessary once but probably isn't anymore), and runs with it.

Of course, that doesn't change anything about your views, I just wanted to say that.

Hrm, I dunno. Tree-san's character will be discussed soon, I think, so let's stop polluting the thread with off-topic arguing now. If you want to discuss it still, I don't know, we can talk via PM? I need some fresh air right now, but maybe in a bit?

I want to make a crazy and different Touhou fanfic

I see. I figured that might be the case.

I wasn't trying to tell you to abandon EaCM. I was merely saying that if you've already got something really different from it's base, you might want to consider going the full monty and making it 100% original. However, I see now, and kind of expected earler, that you want to, to continue my analogy, connect yourself to the Touhou bus with a spiked chain and surf the asphalt, like this guy here. Admitedly, if you can pull it off, that's kind of badass. But just... don't be suprised if not everyone shares your interests, and don't insult them for wanting to stay on the bus with their OC's like sane people. (When you called every other OC in this thread boring & unoriginal, that pushed my Berserk Button.) Be aware that the people in this thread want to talk about Touhou, not EaCM. In fact...

If you want to talk about EaCM so much, why not make your own thread for it? It wouldn't hurt to try.

edited 5th Sep '10 11:44:32 AM by XionGaTaosenai

If you want to talk about Ea CM so much, why not make your own thread for it? It wouldn't hurt to try.

Yeah, but isn't that kind of selfish? And where the hell should I put it? Making a whole thread dedicated to a fanfic seems rather narcissistic, even if I am a narcissist.

Well, I guess you can start by making a bona-fide TV tropes entry on it. We have the Troper Works section just for that reason.

Okay, but since it basically exists in my head and only in my head, should I put in the the Darth Wiki?

According to that link in your sig, it's on fanfiction.net, right? It's your call, really.

Ah, sorry I’m so late, the conversation has grown tense.

Kusari Omoikiru-The Running Man

• Age: Around 300 since creation
• Height: 180cm
• Weight: 52Kg

A youkai born from a kusarigama, he was made when a peasant, disgruntled with his poverty, his life, and the lord who ruled over him, decided that he was tired of inaction and frustration, and in his vengeance would pursue the path of stealth to topple the oppressive systems of feudal Japan, and stir the countryside into rebellion. While he did not have the quality steels made for the higher class, he assembled the steel he could, scavenging for parts until he built his weapon of destruction, which would one day become Kusari Omoikiru. However after he retired from his activities and awoke the next morning, further contemplations revealed to him that he didn’t have the strong steels necessary for weapons, and further more that he was a peasant who had spent the majority of his life farming, while his body was toned he hadn’t studied the martial arts he had heard had given others success in their endeavors of stealth, nor did he have the capacity or experience necessary to begin trying to infiltrate the royal compound.

After stumbling out of his bed (with a mysterious headache no less) he was promptly chided by his wife for staying out the whole night drinking again, and upon further contemplation, was able to pick out the hazy memories of yesterday in which he realized he had spent the whole night drunk, subsequently concocting his plan during his stupor. Upon this horrifying realization he silently marched out to his fields, relegating his “weapon of destruction” back to a simple farming tool, intent on putting the whole mess behind him, while also swearing to politely decline his neighbors requests that they “bond in the summer nights”. It seems though karma would not let him off so lightly though, as in his drunken escapades, he would proclaim ‘’loudly’’ about said escapades, with word reaching back to the fearful warlord, he subsequently issued soldiers to find the heretic, and eventually they were able to trace it back to the neighbors.

To avoid persecution, and to reach fame themselves, the neighbor’s wife crept into the fields and stabbed the “traitor” in the back, severing his spinal cord, in which afterwards the neighboring family was awarded the land, the widow remarrying into the higher class, and the poor, shoddy tool which was made in a drunken stupor being tossed for obvious reasons. And as the passage of time moved, a youkai was born from the discarded tool, and like most superstitions he was born into Gensokyo.

In the early wanderings of his life he was unfortunate enough to come across “one” of the Four Devas, drunk. Still fresh to Gensokyo’s dangers, he could not contemplate the large foreboding woman, especially when she started pummeling him into the floor and whatnot, and it confused him more when, as he was lying in horrendous pain on the ground she began to laugh and tell stories about the conquests and exploits of the other Devas, like Yuugi the Strong and Suika, the whole experience cumulating into one horrific, traumatic ordeal, from which he would always remember the dangers which lurk in Gensokyo.

When he could finally pick himself off the ground, he spent the next few months wandering in a daze, sometimes unwittingly witnessing a discrepancy between two youkai, who like any other responsible citizen of Gensokyo, decided to settle their grievances with danmaku, the fantastical display of magic only solidifying the idea that Gensokyo, and more specifically the women of Gensokyo, were almighty beings capable of moving mountains and tossing lives at a whim, one of which he feared was his own.

Slowly he came out of his daze resolving to learn as much as he could from the land so that it would not kill him, in his time he lurked the forests and hid in alleys of the human village, scarping up dropped change to amasses his “funds” as the humans called them, in particular he was saving so he could purchase a copy of the works Hidea Akyuu, which he heard contained all the information on all of Gensokyo’s main players and notable figures, resolving that such a source of information would be invaluable in his “quest for survival” in Gensokyo’s “harsh landscapes”.

Afterwards he spent the better part of his years making a science out of cowardice to put it in blunt terms. His self fostered paranoia, and obsessive years of research and study have led him to explore every facet of Gensokyo’s changing landscape, power centers, and “horribly angry” women, carrying his heavily annotated and supplemented copy of the Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, which has been rebound several times due to his own additions, serving as reference guide in how-not-to-die. To put it in perspective he has constructed over 876 “paths” form which he can avoid all contact with the significant figures of Gensokyo, and from which he can switch or change depending on if his current path crosses with the daily schedule, overall he has a 63% success rate, mostly never seeing anybody, and being able to change his course should he witness somebody.

He constantly seeks to improve his “contingency” plan, though like many other scholars he has recently been trying to weigh the cost with the benefits, mostly concerning his knowledge and how to beg. As Knowing Is Half The Battle he struggles with whether he should actually explore Gensokyo’s factions and places of residence and risk contact, or even worse notability, to gain further knowledge on how to beg for his life and how to avoid said residents on their daily schedules. Take for example Youkai Mountain, which serves as a “power center” a place where many significant figures have gathered and make their residence, he currently avoids the place like the plague, and has not had much trouble, as the residents mostly stay on the mountain.

But what worries him is the fact that by staying off the mountain, he also consequently denies himself the first-hand information not provided by the P Mi SS, or namely he doesn’t know what to offer them should he ever come into direct contact with them. As per his first experience of Gensokyo, he is under the impression that the only way to remain in good graces with Gensokyo’s powerhouses, and as result not die, is to get on your knees and worship said youkai very loudly while offering an item to “appease” them, this of which serves as the third part of his contingency plan, and practically the only times when he actually uses his powers. Being born from a kusarigama, he can summon other kama, whether they be magically condensed kama or ones lying around, he can instantly teleport one into his being for subsequent use. What he realized early on though is that he must know where said kama is, or make his own, which works out poorly as well, considering they reflect the state of his origin, which needs no further explanation as to why the ability remains useless. However wordplay has not totally abandoned him, as when he summons them whatever they are attached to comes as well, which he uses to summon his various compensations and reference materials, all affixed with kama keychains.

But going back to the Moriya’s currently his “appeasement” for them is simply a sack of yen, which doesn’t work out well considering he could offer that sack to anyone, and he has found emotional of hobby items work better, unfortunately only breeding more problems for him even when he finds them. For example he has determined the best way to escape from Yukari Yakumo is with pictures of the Hakurei shrine maiden, the problem lies in procuring said pictures, as doing so would incite the wrath of the Hakurei shrine maiden one of the few people to outrank the Yakumo family on the “danger” scale. Or rather the items are too expensive or rare, like Nitori’s appeasement of rare parts either exceed his budget, or would require him to go to Yukari Yakumo directly, at which that point he may as well skewer his own guts.

Not only that he refuses to go to Kourindou, mistakenly believing the rumors that the shop owner is a Covert Pervert, only having ever gone in once to procure his copy of P Mi SS, and subsequently running out screaming afterwards. To procure his items, he waits for them to drift into the various shops in the human village; currently he awaits the arrival of the much coveted smoke grenade and the illustrious “flash bang” to aid in his escape methods.

If ever confronted with no escape, he relies mostly on intimidation tactics and tricks to try and get out the situation as soon as possible, although not being able to fake death like the mighty possum (which he truly envies) he prides himself on the fact that, in an emergency he can give himself an epileptic fit on cue. Other methods include exploiting his kama creation ability, in which he creates a giant one which exceeds even the capacity of the Grim Reaper’s scythe, however he rarely will do this as its mostly just bloated magic, and will disperse easily. Despite everything he does have one spellcard as well, Steel Sign – Revolver Chain, in which he shoots out his magic kama, which then expand as chains in different directions, relying on random numbers to guide him through.

While he aims to be the worlds greatest hermit, if one wishes to find him the best chance they have is to visit the dummy address he has set up for his tengu subscriptions, which he uses to keep up with the news (though he also has to spend a great deal of time sorting out the truth form the lies, like in the Bunbunmaru) and from which he stores his various items he does not carry. Also one should make friends with the family who lives there, a simple group of people like anyone else in the human village, with the exception of their “hidden benefactor” of course. And while Kusari does supply them free housing, the family actually knows who Kusari is, the real benefactor is a Nurikabe girl who also lives in the house with them and gives them money every month while also keeping Kusari’s items hidden from them. His theme is -Revelations from the Text- and his favorite food is fried whale.

By the way anyone who can guess the reference in his name will get my vote in the next round!

edited 5th Sep '10 4:32:01 PM by WORLDTree

Well, Kusari is from Kusari-gama, I assume, and "the Running Man" might be a reference to the Stephen King novel, since he no doubt feels like everyone's chasing him...

Would Omoi-ikiru be something like "in assembly?" Is he on a long and circuitous path towards becoming the weapon of destruction his human owner was trying to make?

Oh, and as I wanted this to be a separate post form the profile, Chagen I think what's happening is that you're trying to subvert for subversions sake or to prove some kind of point, which isn't really what Touhou is about, ZUN didn't make the series as some kind of Take That! towards Moe, he made it because they were the games he wanted to make, and while your'e free to have your interpretations, other people can too. Its like those people who want to "fix" JRPGS by going to the other end of the spectrum, which doesn't do anything because you can't just change an idea and it will magically become good, you need to build, and work, and characterize, and look on those flaws and improve.

I remember when you posted your OC summaries on the Interpretation thread, the character ideas weren't bad, but what happened was you built one specifically for every character as some kind of Take That! to Girls' Love, maybe that wasn't your intention, but every one seemed to act as a romantic foil to each character, plus while there were exceptions like Elrich, a good majority of them fall into the Crazy Awesome, Cool Insanity, or The Stotic pile, while I think you were trying to move away from traditional bad OC images, people have already done that, and done it badly, so neither end of the spectrum is good if not written correctly.

Also I agree with what some of the others are saying, you seem to be trying to subvert the canon to your own will, I'm sure you've read stories like that "Mysterious x comes to Touhou is awesome" or any fandom really, and its annoying when the character is just the opposite of the canon character, and it invokes opposites attract, it comes off as pretty cheap, plus try not to bend the characters to match your canon, like I read your Chen and OC summery, which pretty much had Chen suddenly become a Wrench Whench out of nowhere.

^^Ah, close, while I know about the book, "the Running Man" is just to show how much of a coward he is (his first choice is to RUN get it)

Try again.

edited 5th Sep '10 12:53:19 PM by WORLDTree

I dunno what's wrong with me, but out of that whole thing, I honed in on the bit about him being able to force an epileptic fit. I can only imagine that the success rate for that can't be very good...

I'd think with over half the cast, going into epilepsy would be a great way to have some weird shit done to you. Of course that could just be the weird images I have. Stuff like Yukari leaving you in weird places while you dribbled on the floor. You know.

I remember when you posted your OC summaries on the Interpretation thread, the character ideas weren't bad, but what happened was you built one specifically for every character as some kind of Take That to Girls Love, maybe that wasn't your intention, but every one seemed to act as a romantic foil to each character, plus while there were exceptions like Elrich, a good majority of them fall into the Crazy Awesome, Cool Insanity, or The Stotic pile, while I think you were trying to move away from traditional bad OC images, people have already done that, and done it badly, so neither end of the spectrum is good if not written correctly.

Well, they weren't specifically Take That's to Girl's Love. I just don't like Girl's love, that's it; I'm not homophobic in any way.

As for the foil thing, yes, I do love foils. They make for interesting character dynamics—to me, at least. And not all of them are. Schizo/Nitori, Marisa/Tagento, Nue/Nothing, Yuji/Chen, and Yuyuko/Enzo are good examples of not being foils.

Also I agree with what some of the others are saying, you seem to be trying to subvert the canon to your own will, I'm sure you've read stories like that "Mysterious x comes to Touhou is awesome" or any fandom really, and its annoying when the character is just the opposite of the canon character, and it invokes opposites attract, it comes off as pretty cheap, plus try not to bend the characters to match your canon, like I read your Chen and OC summery, which pretty much had Chen suddenly become a Wrench Wench out of nowhere.

First of all, Chen didn't become a Wrench Wench out of nowhere. It was only becasue she was around Yuji so much that she eventually started to like cars. And It definitely wasn't opposites attaract.

But I think this is better for PM's.

(Man, how do I create so much conversation?)

edited 5th Sep '10 1:10:27 PM by Chagen46

@ WORLD Tree: Unlike the other OCs so far, it doesn't seem he would fit into either a fighting or danmaku game. I could see him as being the author of a book, like you said an updated version of the Perfect Memento with comments and observations written in the margin and pages with new information stuck in. I actually like the idea a great deal since it would fit along with the unreliable narrator nature of Akyuu to have Kusari write on one of the Perfect Memento pages "Yeah, except no, not at all. This is how it really is." Of course, given that he has his own skewed view on Gensokyo, you still have that unreliable narrator angle so you don't have to worry about contradicting canon too much.

All in all, its an interesting thought.

edited 5th Sep '10 1:21:09 PM by Bocaj

^^^Hah, I may have written that funny, I meant HE could have one, not make anyone else have one.

^Funny you mention that, I was going to include that but I couldn't find a way to write it in. Namely I find there are three types of Touhou characters, Game characters (danmaku), Fighting (SWR and such), and Book (Akyuu), Kusari fits into the book category, preferring to avoid fighting and such, similar to Tokiko's role in a way, but I did include some combat aspects, you know just in case.

I think this guy could show up as a sub-boss and leave the heroines wondering "Man, what was that guy's deal?" Heck, he could even show up as a sub-boss only to scurry away like Nitori (without reappearing to fight.) Then the players would be left wondering who the skinny dude with the chains was until his annotated PMISS comes out and they see a note about the encounter.

He's like a cross between... Zetsubo-sensei, Rincewind and your standard Robert Jordan character. I think, on the whole, I approve.

^ I like that idea. Have him show up as a midboss, fire a few shots, you fire back, POOF ninja smoke screen and he scurries away. Maybe shows up as a boss later with lots of fanfare and change in music but then he just runs away again.

Actually, its very unlikely he will publish "How-not-to-DIE-in-Gensokyo" as first the few people who HAVE seen the book (characters I'll put up in later rounds) have stated that his handwriting is very messy and in some bizarre code (Vietnamese) and second, if he did it would be because he wanted to die, due to the fact that as part of his "references" he has a full "relationship" chart and added facts to each person's profile, many of which include "likes x, secretly likes to be whipped" or other intimate things he has no business knowing, while it would probably sell well like other tabloids, and in this case a tabloid that's actually RIGHT, it would jeopardize his life.

But then again he is good at hiding...

Your lack of response to the Nurikabe girl saddens me.

^^Actually that sounds like an interesting subversion!

He pops up you expect "Oh, just a midboss, wonder who he's in love with" but then POOF gone, stage moves on.

Then appears AGAIN and you think "Oh, he pulled a Kogasa" but then he leaves again, a double subversion!

...

Hey Bocaj aren't you gonna try the reference game.

It's possible that he didn't intend for it to be published. What if he were frightened by, say, an overly inquisitive Tengu, and dropped the book in his haste to escape?

Alternatively, he could edit it a bit and release it in order to find funding for his appeasements.

And as for the Nurikabe girl, there's always the next round.

I swear, the idea of this guy buying a copy PMISS and then running out of the shop screaming his ass off is making me laugh so hard. There could be so many ways that this guy could be played for laughs.