(in which we 3D print a brain)
Wind whips past our wheelbarrow as we sail through the air…
Renko's crouching as low as she can go before us, one hand on the wheelbarrow's side and one on her hat. "You know…"
Not quite hearing over the wind, Maribel yells at her, crouched similarly. "Wha~t!?"
"You know," Renko yells over the wind! "this adventure's getting a little weird…!"
...Maribel snorts, but we can't hear it! "Nice observation!"
As we soar through the dimly lit air, Orin seems to gradually slow us down somehow. Probably using her flight powers to counteract the momentum-
Fwoa~sh! Zero Gs, yo!
I'm not sure how the physics work out, but we end up going straight forward for a few moments, sailing through the air smoother than previously…
"Oo~kay…!" Orin seems surprised, but not dissatisfied. "Alright, then…!"
...Oo~h, we're spinning now! Is Orin making the cart airstrafe?
I half want to look off the edge, but at the same time, we're going pretty fast…!
I'm forced to stop looking at the cavern walls as we spin about because my head doesn't quite agree with that…
…
Although, with our speed and such, I'm pretty sure we've gone well past and over the oni city. I guess not crashing yet after like a minute or two sorta implies that…
It takes some moments, but we twirl to a stop in the air… not even lowering anymore, just a stop in midair.
"Now…" Orin exhales. "Should- ah…"
We drop abruptly for a second, only for Orin to stop the cart again. "Should be easy to get down now…"
Slowly, we begin lowering! Ho ho.
Renko lets out a breath. "I thought we were going to crash into something…"
Orin shrugs, before grinning. "Nnn… it could still happen, yaknow."
"Let's not." Renko stares back dryly.
"I~'ve had enough of getting thrown around in this cart for one day…" Maribel gives the cat girl a semi-forced smile.
Getting smuggled into the palace, yo.
...Playfully, Orin makes the cart jitter down unnaturally fast for a moment or two.
The girls just stare back at her dryly.
One of these days, Orin should fill her cart with fluffles. Then it could be a fluffload payload. Wahaha!
Clang! The sudden halt of the cart makes us all flinch, 'cept for Orin.
"Wo-woah!?" Renko's eyes widen, as she looks around the now still cart.
"Gee~z…" Maribel tries to crouch down lower. "Cut it out."
"Hehehe! Jumpy like cats!" Orin's sure having fun! "We're already stopped. Unless ya want me ta be like-"
Cla-cla-clang! Orin makes the cart vibrate against whatever we landed on. These noises have less of an effect on us…
"Where are we, anyway…?" Maribel lifts her head up, and looks outside the cart…
Since we have a moment, I do it too-
Oh. We're… on top of some kinda structure. Like, on the tippity top of a particularly flat specimen of rooftop. It's a long way down, yo…
Orin looks out, too. "...Almost there, it seems. Lemme just-"
We hover up a little, and slowly move to the side, Orin staring out of the edge of the cart the whole time.
After aiming it, she makes it drop again-
"Waa~h!" Maribel and Renko start floating up, as do I! Too fa~st!
Thoom! The cart loudly plops on the floor below us, bouncing slightly.
Thu-thu-thud! We manage to not land too awkwardly, the cart's umbrella saving us from getting pulled too far away from it.
"Why~..." Maribel takes a moment to collect herself before getting out of the cart.
Orin just rolls her eyes. "Oh, toughen up, you two. I don't hear space man complaining back there."
I raise my arm as I reply! "Your parking gave me cancer, yo."
Grinning, Orin moves to hop out of the cart- "Oh- woh-"
Thu-th-th-thud. It tips over, spilling us out onto the tiled stone floor beneath us like soft nuggets…
Orin takes the brunt of it though, her botched exit leading to her eating shit. "Nngh…!" Hastily, she scrambled forward with her arms and then her legs, before springing into a standing position.
...She brushes her face for a moment, and then seems to be fine. Freakin' old hell youkai, yo.
The three of us quickly get back onto our legs, having adapted to being freakin' spilled about at this point.
We seem to be just outside the palace, on some stone tiles and stuff. Before us is the main door in- which is nice and big and purple- and some pillars and stuff…
To the right of the palace entrance, between two pillars, is a fluffle stand. They're down here too!
Ignoring it, Orin continues towards the main door.
She reaches for the main handle, and pulls on it-
Crreak. Unlike Remilia's door, this one's not as squeaky. It still squeaks, though.
After stepping back a bit to open it a reasonable distance, she continues in, giving us a brief gesture to follow.
"So big…" Maribel looks around at the exterior walls, before following Orin in…
Renko moves to follow her. "They did call it a palace."
Palace, yo. Pal aces. Pal laces…
Later on, I should bring people I meet down here to the fluffle stand to see what it gives for them. Inquiring minds want to know! That, and I'd like to see what's offered for Renko. Probably scissors…
Inside, the lobby's pretty big! It follows a similar format to Remilia's front lobby, with the big staircase down the middle leading to an upper overhang. Unlike the mansion's, however, this overhang seems to go across the back and sides of the room. Additionally, all the hallway entrances seem to be along the back wall and portions of the upper level side walls.
There's also potted plants in here in little pastel blue and tan jars, which are nice.
The floor has black and white tiles on it!
"Welco~me!" Orin turns around, spreading her arms as she walks backwards into the foyer. "Here's the main room!"
"Does everyone live in a miniature castle?" Maribel takes in the big room! "Aside from Reimu?"
Orin slouches slightly. "Just how many big places have you seen before…?"
At the moment, this front lobby is currently empty.
"Anyway…!" Orin catches our attention…!
…
She does nothing with it, letting her arms drop to her sides. "I dunno. I'm not a tour guide."
Renko snorts. "Good job."
"...Next time I head ta the surface is in about two days." Turning around, Orin idly waves a hand towards us as she continues to the stairs. "You'll be able ta find me around the gate. Have fun exploring or whatever!"
Good tour. "Yo!" I call out to her!
...She pauses, looking back at me.
"Are there any creepy crawlies, yo?" I ask about the potential hazards!
...Orin shrugs. "Maybe?"
Frik. Take two! "I mean, anything we gotta look out for or not do."
...Orin perks up! "Oh. Just don't piss anyone off or jump from any high places and you'll probably be alright. We got a stockpile of healing items somewhere, just don't ask me where." With that, Orin begins to skedaddle again. "I'm gonna go nap. It's kinda about that time..."
Cats have weird sleeping patterns. Also- how does that even work? There's no sun down here…!
…
"Well." Speaking up, Renko walks forward idly. "What… are we supposed to do here?"
Maribel looks away. "...Brad kinda just took us here on impulse."
I clap my space man hands together! "Let's go make some noise, yo!"
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
We took the first hall I saw, yo. We've located some kind of kitchen!
"What is this alien room…?" I pretend to be baffled by the kitchen appliances. Actually, Satori has modern kitchen appliances?
"There appears to be no signs of intelligent life anywhere." Renko plays along.
Walking towards the fridge, Maribel reaches her hand out to open it, and I move towards her to see what's in it, too…
Inside, there are food stuffs. Oo~h, they're keeping chocolate chunks on one of the higher shelves…! Just, like… raw chunks of chocolate.
Oh, yeah. This whole place seems to be lit by modern-ish means… and whatever isn't modern is probably just freakin' magic.
"They have to refrigerate their chocolate down here…" Maribel makes an idle observation.
Renko snorts. "Guess those few degrees this building shaves off don't necessarily help, huh?"
...Moving away from the fridge, I move for one of the shelves…
Crouching down, I open one up!
Pots and stu~ff. Yo ho ho!
I take out a pot-
Cla~ng- bo~ng, bo~ng. A few come along for the ride!
"What're you doing…?" Maribel questions my sanity, as both girls watch me vainly.
Grabbing two pots, I place them on the island in the middle of the room. Taking the rightmost one, I lift it up, and drop it!
Cla~ng!
"Makin' some jazzy tunes, yo!" Wahaha!
Taking the other metal pot, I chuck it at the one I dropped!
Cla-clang!
"For some reason…" Renko chuckles. "I don't think we were invited to make a mess."
Wait. That gives me an idea…
I raise a finger! "Idea!"
"No." Maribel denies me preemptively.
...Giving her a grin, I continue anyway. "What if we all threw a pot towards one point at the same time?"
...The girls both look at me for a moment. A moment later, Renko claims a new pot from the cabinet, while me and Maribel take the two off the floor.
Standing in one of the quarters of the room, we space each other out evenly, and ready to toss our instruments…
"On three, yo…" I begin counting! "One, two… three!"
We toss them!
Claa~ng!
...Afterward, the pots clatter to the floor loudly, causing us all to cringe slightly.
"...Lou~d." Maribel's grinning.
"What did you expect…?" Renko shakes her head, also grinning. "Man, we're bored…"
"Bored, hrm~?"
It's a womanly voice!
I turn towards the applicable doorway, seeing a cat girl there. She's got long, dark brown hair, is tan, and has boobs.
"Uhm…" Maribel scratches the back of her head sheepishly. "Yeah?"
"...I'd agree wit'cha," In spite of her womanly voice, she starts talking pretty informally. "But I'd also like to know why you're throwin' our pots and pans around like it's world war dinner in here." World war dinner.
"...Ah." Renko blinks. "...We- uh- wanted to find out what'd happen if we… threw three pots together at the same time."
The cat girl smirks. "What didja think'd happen? Buncha prizes just start rainin' down from the ceiling?"
She's pretty casually dressed. Seems that Satori doesn't demand a dress code around here… 'cause this cat girl's got a loosely fitting grey hoodie, grey t-shirt, and black sweatpants on. Two of these articles of clothing probably don't make sense for the environment… although I won't know until I take this space suit-
Fwoa~sh!
-off.
Well, we're floating now…!
Maribel folds her arms, her lack of momentum keeping her from twirling or flipping. "...Whoever made that suit needs to be stopped."
"Good luck, yo…!" I'm also mostly safe from spinning, it seems, if I just don't move…
Renko's probably been doing this all along, which is how she's also just floating straight up like we are. "This is pretty cool, though. I'd like to see you walk into a classroom with that on." Wahaha!
That cat girl, though, uh… "Wha- what's- aah, aah…!" As she hovers into the air, she rotates wildly. "Put me down- put me do~wn…!" As she flails her arms, I can see freakin' sharp claws.
And then-
Thu-thu-thud. The spell ends, and we land on our feet-
Rapidly, the cat girl scrapes her claws and legs against the floor, ripping and roaring towards the counter before leaping up onto it with inhuman agility.
...Now on the counter, the cat girl glares down at me. "Why in the hell would you cast that!?"
I shrug. "It's not me, yo. It's the skoolatoon inside 'a me…!"
Maribel gives me a forced smile. "Brad, why don't you equip a less… obstructive outfit for the time being?"
I should take it out when we're in a room full of cat girls just to see what happens. For now, I think I'll abide by Maribel's request…!
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
After walking into the first side room I found in order to get changed, I find some weird shit…
It's a room with a big tub of sand in the middle. It's like an inground pool, except sand. Some weird bars come out of the sides of the 'pool' and go into the sand, like you'd expect for a pool.
...Okay.
…
I don't trust that freakin'-
The sand starts shifting.
Nope, nope, nope! Not about that sand life, son!
Backpedalling, I open the door I came in through, and walk out of the room.
...I give the room one last glance-
A girl of some sort was crawling out of the sand. From here, I could make out these bright ass orange eyes… and everything about her was about the color of sand, including her long hair.
Ohp- she's got a long ass tail- yeah no see ya.
Bam! I slam the door shut.
…
O~kay! Time to take the next door down!
I do a light jog down the hallway, and open the next door I run across…
Inside, there's a few potted plants and things. The ceiling... is tall as shit!
It's just a long, tall room. The right wall has a bunch of blue stone ladders that lead up to a higher platform.
What is this Legend of Zelda temple shit…?
...I reach my hands up to remove the helmet. I gotta like, play tiddly winks with these lock mechanisms… and move my body a certain way-
Click. Fwii~sh…
There we go. Warm air floods my helmet immediately. Holy shit it's hot in Topeka! Oo~h, man. Next thing on my list: heat resistance.
Setting my helmet aside, I start to remove my suit proper. It basically has a zippable part in the front, but it only works if you have the helmet off, and like…
Running my arm along my body, I try to do that thing…
Basically, there's an S-shape on the left of my torso, and it's not visible at first, but it lights up a bit when you run your hand across it. You gotta do it just right to make the zipper pop out and work…
Freakin'... ah! There we are.
Zii~p.
After a few nearly naked moments- you can keep your underwear for the space suit at the very least- I've got my suit in my sack, and my kimono on! I don't got my helmet on, though; wa~y too stuffy for that.
...Also, it's even hotter with this kimono on. How many things down here even use ice shit?
There's a shifting sound coming from that one ladder wall…
As I finalize that I've got all my stuffs, I glance up-
Oh, it's that snake girl again, and she's slithering down one of the spaces between two ladders. That's a lo~ng tail…! It's nowhere near soft looking, either!
...Why is this entire wall dedicated to like, ten ladders?
Well- anyway, time to move for the door…!
As I backpedal for the door, the woman starts slithering faster.
Wohohohoh! It's running time, son!
Turning around, I bolt for the door, and swing it open, and slide through it, slamming it behind me.
Bam! Hohoh! Adrenaline ru~sh!
…
I dunno, for all I know she could be friendly. Still, son… not riskin' it!
Once I get back to the friendly people, I should upgrade some of my stuff with the things I've got…
Click. The door opens as I start walking away.
Oh shit, she can open doors! My only weakness!
Reaching into my bag, I keep a hand in it cautiously as I turn towards the door…
Ain't no way I'm fleeing from a snake woman who can probably slither as fast as the freakin' family van… and my family don't even have a van!
The tan-haired woman slithers out. Her chest is covered by some wrapping, but the wrappings don't really hide much…
"Aww~h…" She tilts her head forward as she slithers towards me, prompting me to gradually backpedal… "Why do you look so afraid?"
I am frightened of the things that I do not understand! That, and I haven't necessarily had the best run-ins with big temple patrons, lemme tell ya…
"Although…" Bringing a hand up, the snake girl starts to- ooh that's a long tongue…! "This would be the first time Satori-sama brought me a human meal…"
Well, son. My fears were founded, yo.
Not reacting at first, I start to draw Bawmber and Million Bucks…
She giggles. "Fufufu~! Jo~king, I'm joking!"
Nah, son. I'm fast as fuck, yo…!
I jump, and crouch as practice. Then, I move towards a wall, jump, and-
Boom! My strike against it throws me back and to the side, causing me to fall onto the carpet and eventually against the opposite wall.
"Ooh…!?" The snake girl seems surprised by this turn of events!
Acting quickly, I roll onto my limbs, and begin sprinting, the leg-electricity from Million Bucks accenting my escape…!
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
"Ha~h, ha~h, ha~h…" This warm climate is not helping any.
Running back through the kitchen's open doors, I see Maribel, Renko, and that kitty girl in there around a half-eaten tub of brownies…
...Maribel eyes me curiously, before ignoring my static-y legs and winded demeanor by raising a brownie. "Ashes made brownies earlier, so she's sharing some with us."
"Ha~h…" I stop fully, still winded. "Ha~h… who?"
...Maribel gestures to the busty tan cat girl.
She waves at me. "...I don't think I know you, either?"
Honh. "I'm the space man, yo. But without the suit that randomly casts Zero Gravity…!" Still need to catch breath…!
Ashes nods. "...Huh. Want some brownies?"
"Sure." I casually strut towards the brownie tub… but before I do that…!
Stopping at the island in the midst of the room- where the brownie tub is- I put away my bomb and running-away hangers, and pull out Tundra Bloomer…
After placing it on the countertop, I dig through my bag for the upgrade components...
Maribel notices me place the enchanted icicle and the dark stone on the counter. "Brad, don't throw that stuff around."
I grin at her. "I'm not throwin' it around, yo. I'm smashin' it!"
"That's even worse." She starts to step around the table to get a better look at what I'm doing…
Let's see~... I'm planning on slapping all these upgrades onto Tundra Bloomer just to see what'll happen. Althou~gh, I do wanna know what a dark stone on Swordbreaker might do. I could just slap all these things onto Swordbreaker...
Tundra Bloomer already has a ton of upgrades… so I'm gonna add more to it! How's about that!?
Where to put the stuff, though...?
Renko notices what I'm doing, too. "Are you playing with toys…?"
I furrow my brows briefly. "...Yes." Caught me off guard, son.
Basically, Tundra Bloomer right now looks like a brown hanger attached to the tip of a brass shaft. There's a blue flower at the bottom, too. Where do put dark stone do.
...I think I'll start with the ice spike first. I dunno how durable it is, so I'll just… place it along the wide side of the hanger part.
Placing it, I see if it'll secure itself-
Fwi~sh! It didn't interact with the brass shaft, but the hanger itself allowed it to mold onto it. Freakin' fluffle bullshit, yo… although if that didn't work I could've probably just molded it on with Flame Salvo.
Since that's how this'll go, I'll just put the dark stone in one of the holes in the design…
Fwi~sh! There we go.
"I have done some chemistry, yo…" I lift up the hanger, and look it over. What'll I call it, yo…?
"...What?" Maribel's not too sure what just happened. "How?"
"I have forged it in fire…!" Wahaha!
From here, I can see that snake girl slither in, eying me as she enters the room. "...Oo~h? A party, is this?"
Renko snorts at her appearance. "...I'm not gonna ask you to put on pants, but…"
"Mmm?" Looking down, the lamia holds her arms under her breasts. "Why is that?"
Ashes strolls around the table, stepping towards the snake. "Ivasa." Ooo, fun name.
Ivasa's grin starts to fade. "...Ashley."
"Satori-sama toldja not to leave your room without guidance, did she not?" Ashes slips her hands into her pockets. "Why don't'cha just move on along, now?"
Rolling her eyes, Ivasa starts to slither forward. "Oo~h, please. You know, and I know, that while she may look out for our best interests…" She glances to the side. "She can be a bit of a bore."
"Yeah, yeah." Ashes looks to the side, herself, before looking back at the snake girl. "And I'm sure we all know why you're here."
Maribel seems to have opened her suitcase, and taken out her new plant hanger just in case…
"Oh?" Ivasa bobs forward slightly, smiling again. "Why am I here?"
"You're here to eat these humans, aren't'cha?" Ashes clarifies the thing I've been wondering! So she is an evil carnivore person…
"Eat them? Me?" Ivasa giggles. "U~fufufu~! Why, that idea is so silly..."
Holding her hands out, Ivasa creates a large, basketball-sized glass orb. That's what it looks like, anyway…
"That idea is so silly that I might just have to put you in your place." Ivasa articulates her hands, and the orb lights up a bright red.
Ashes takes her hands out of her pockets, and they extend into sharp claws. "Oh, yeah? I'm gonna kick your ass!"
"Why~...?" Maribel holds up her hanger defensively, moving behind the table where I was. Renko moved around the table to join us, too…
…
After a short stare off, Ivasa begins slithering forward. "Swath Fire!"
A short-ranged gush of flames flows out, moving for Ashes.
Quickly, Ashes leaps into the air, somehow strafing to the right for the counter as she did so. After landing on the counter, she jumps across the room and onto Ivasa's rigid, rough snake tail.
"Ghh…" Despite her grunt, Ivasa still grins, moving across the room slowly but steadily…
Ashes lunges for Ivasa's body. "C'mere!" Her claws promptly dig into the lamia's shoulders, causing the lamia to grit her teeth…
"You…" Irritated by the claws slowly sinking into her shoulders, Ivasa begins rolling over.
"Woah!?" Quickly, Ashes leaps off of her to avoid being crushed beneath her.
...Once she's back upright, Ivasa focuses on her glass orb, which had lost its color after the fire ran out. After focusing on it for a moment, she makes it light up yellow, and it begins crackling with electricity.
Renko has already moved around the table to adjust to the lamia's new position, and me and Maribel're still probably where she'd move next…
Gazing at us, Ivasa smiles. "Now…"
Maribel ran towards her, hanger raised defensively. Uh…?
Beaming, the lamia snaps her fingers. "Prism Thunder!"
"Reflect!" Maribel shuts her eyes, holding the hanger up with both arms-
Fwish! A reflective sphere of hexagon panels erects around her-
ZaZaZaZap! Four small electrical bolts strike the exterior of Maribel's shield-
Fwa-fwa-fwam! After the attack's over, the barrier shatters, the shards splashing outward and exploding into expanding force.
"What…?" Ivasa looks vaguely staggered, but isn't really affected at all. She's more surprised than anything.
Maribel quickly backpedals, incredulous about what she just pulled off. "Hehehe…!"
Ashes leaps onto the lamia's back again. "Gotcha, bitch!" Quickly, she began clawing at the lamia's back. Cat scratch feve~r!
"Agh- you…!" Again, Ivasa begins to roll over-
Ashes jumps this time, landing onto the snake's underbelly. "Haha! Can't- aah!?"
Curling up onto her tail, Ivasa grapples Ashes. "Out of my way!" Quickly, she reeled her arms back, and tossed the cat-
Bam! Ashes hit the opposite wall. "Guah…!?"
...Rolling back over again, Ivasa smirks. "Now, where was I…?"
I stab my modified hanger into the floor! It's Gaia Seed time, yo!
...The green magical circle forms around Ivasa's torso-
Fwooo~. It initializes fully, creating pastel green, earthy energy at the lamia's position…
"Nn~h…" The lamia doesn't seem very affected. "You think trying to relax me'll work, boy?"
Waving her hands over the glass orb again, it begins to glow white and blue. Ooo~...! If this is an ice attack, yo, this is my shit! One hundred ice resistance robe, son!
I pump myself up using the hanger's self-buff ability, ready to freakin' maul her if she casts an ice spell…
Maribel is by my side again, but I turn to her. "Yo, I got this one."
"Wh- really?" She begins to back up. "Okay…?"
"Don't do anything stupid." Renko cautions me from across the room. "I only have one Mega Potion, you know…"
"Fufufu~..." The lamia rests her gaze on me as I raise my hanger towards her. "I'm sure you've not all such petty spells…"
"She's onto us yo!" I faux-panic! "Aaa~h!"
This brings out a grin from Ivasa. Bringing her arms back, she presses her hands to the back of the glass orb… "Blizzaga!"
A shotgun spread of frosty, magical projectiles wooshes out and slams into me.
Fwaa~sh!
...As the icy magic fades, I run up to the lamia, and slam my hanger down on her glass orb-
Thunk! Wahohoh!
Ah- woah. My arms are surprisingly nimble after that first swing, allowing me to-
Thunk! -get a weaker additional blow in…
Ivasa's eyes flare, and she lunges forward-
"Huah!" I leap back on instinct...!
In my wake, there're some snowflakes and small frost flurries. That's new…!
As I move back, I double jump, allowing my momentum to carry me back further-
Thu-thud. I land on the kitchen counter and promptly fall to the floor, onto my back. Oof...
"Ah…" Maribel moves up next to me, and helps me up. Actual party support!? What is this sorcery?
"Thanks, friend…!" I give Maribel a thumbs up once I'm back up...
"You're really getting on my nerves!" Ivasa's starting to lose her cool! And- her orb's freakin' cracked! Ooo~, I sense opportunity…!
Hugging her orb close to herself, Ivasa flops to the floor-
The room begins shaking as Ivasa spins her body around and moves about the room at the same time. Holy crap…!
Me and Maribel begin running in the opposite direction! "Let's not do that…!"
Ashes has leapt from her indent in the wall, and is now back on the middle counter. "Damn, this is annoying…" Ah, yeah, annoying. S'an apt word for this situation. Attacked by a freakin' anaconda woman, how annoying.
...Eventually, Renko has to join us in our circular retreat 'cause of how that snake's moving around the room.
The three of us finally get to stop when the snake feels like the tactic she's executed isn't working- which is only after like twenty seconds of nothing. In that timeframe, though, she's managed to complete one whole loop around the room, her body now blockading a good portion of previously usable movement room along the edges.
Now she has to move beside her own body. Man, that's gotta be some weird shit...
Positioning herself upright again, she waves her hands across the orb's surface…
It starts to glow red again. Ma~n… fire's the worst one.
"Go for the orb!" I recommend that Ashes hits the weak point for massive damage!
Ashes glances at me, before promptly ignoring my advice and throwing herself at the lamia's body instead again.
This time, Ashe leaps across the room to the wall behind the lamia, and then uses it to springboard onto the lamia's back-
"Ree~r…!" She makes angry kitty noises! She's- ooh, she's also sinking her claws into the lamia's neck…!
"Ah-angh…" Again, the lamia begins to spin over to throw Ashes off…
Leaping off of her, Ashes lands on the central counter again. "Nngh…"
...The lamia lies on her back for a moment to bait Ashes, but the kitty just watches and waits.
...After a moment, the lamia starts to spin onto her stomach again. Her really, really long stomach.
Running back behind the island counter- behind Renko and Maribel- I loop around and end up beside the lamia…
"No~w that you have so few places to go…" The lamia gazes over at Renko and Maribel, not seeing me. "Swath Fire!"
I step up beside the lamia, and give a good, telegraphed shwing into the glass orb just as it starts to spew fire-
Cra~ck!
Fwam! The orb explodes into white electricity, which begins running up the lamia's form. "Ah-aah- you- idiot…!"
Also, a bunch of big, translucent bubbles fly out from the shattered glass orb, dropping to the floor like rocks for some reason. They're like, baseball size to also basketball size. Wat.
...It seems that the lamia's humanoid portion is binded, for now. Her tail body jerks and writhes in response to her main body.
"Quick, kick some ass!" I ask for backup! "Help! Aaa~h!"
"O-okay…!?" Maribel begins to run up to help me!
...Renko seems hesitant, so I name call her. "Renko! Fighty time!"
"Fine…" Cautiously, Renko draws her scissors, and darts up to aid us…
Following our lead, Ashes leaps onto the lamia's back, and starts scratching at Ivasa's back feverishly. "Hehehe~! How's this, bitch!? Feel good?"
"Gr~ngh…!" The lamia's body seems rigidly locks into place…!
Bringing my hanger back, I swing it like a baseball bat!
Bam! Oo~h…! That sounded fun.
"Nnh…!" The lamia's head whips to the side as the result of my first hit.
"Hah…!" Maribel whacks her shoulder. I dunno how much that-
Fwi~sh! ...Her reflect activates on impact, too? Why.
...It doesn't seem to impede much, since the barrier portions that spawned in the middle of me and Ashes didn't slice us or gib us or anything. Barrier magic is weird shit.
...As the reflect spell fades- not sending out a shockwave since it never got hit- Renko sprints in, and starts swinging her scissors around.
Shi-shi-shink! Renko's able to pull off two horizontal slices, and a third upward one.
Reeling my hanger over my head, I bring it down on the lamia's head-
Bam!
"Ow-ow~..." Her head wobbles around a bit from the impact!
…Maribel falls back to grab her other hanger, leaving Renko another moment to start stabbing the lamia's stomach.
Shi-shi-shink! It's pretty much the same combo as before. Each slice opens up a small incision on the lamia's stomach, but doesn't seem to make her react much. That skin's super thick looking…!
Ashes reaches around the lamia's back to help her, scraping her claws across the lamia's ribcage.
The lamia shuts her eyes. "Fo-fools…"
I raise my hanger for another overhead wombo combo…!
Bam!
"A-aah…" The lamia's eyes open again, fluttering.
Maribel leaps down from the nearby counter, bringing Dreamcatcher down on the youkai's head-
Bam! Oo~h…!
"Wo-woah!" Maribel stumbles back, and slides onto her butt against the counter as a result.
"Nnh…"
Finally, after we fucking wailed on Ivasa the lamia, she flops forward, her body still crackling with binding energy from her orb. Considering none of my attacks even made her bleed, and all of the incisions Renko made didn't invoke bleeding, I'm willing to bet she's ju~st fine. The deep cuts Ashes made actually looked like they did dobleeding, though.
The lamia's skin was weird. Every actual meaningful cut on her body had to go like… a quarter of an inch in. That skin's fucking thick. As a result, each actually bleeding incision looked like a massive puncture wound.
…
The fight… is now over!
"Wo-wow…" Maribel exhales. "Brad, how are you not dead yet?"
"I don't know, yo…" Grinning, I shake my head… "It's been an adventure."
Renko's picking lamia skin chunks from her scissors, despite her cuts not making her bleed.
...Ashes stumbles off of the lamia's back, giving us a big grin. "Alri~ght. Good shit. Time to eat those fucking brownies."
...I bring my hand towards one of the bubble things that dropped from the lamia. It fades into my hand, but I don't feel much different…
"What're these?" Renko's experimenting with the bubble things, too.
"Mmh?" Ashes looks over at us, a brownie halfway in her mouth. "...Ooh. Mmphee 'rishes!"
...Renko stares at her dryly. "I did not understand a single thing you just said."
Ashes swallows her food. "Heheh. They're mana prizes."
...Me and Renko are still confused. Help.
Reading this confusion, Ashes continues. "You know? Orbs'a mana, packaged to go. Ivasa there usually makes 'em drop from her orb so she can get all her mana back really fast whenever she sacrifices it. That's why I didn't wanna beat it up, yeah?"
Oo~h. She was supposed to have more bossy bullshit. "...Why'd she not use it in here?" I'd like to know!
"She's used to fighting in her sand room." Ashes explains. "So she can get her body outta the way before she sends that orb out. Basically, what it did ta her, it'd do ta you. I didn't know if she'd use it in here, but whatever."
Ooh. Oof. If it strikes her body, though, that might still bind her, or so Ashes implies. That's interesting…
Mana prizes. Aw, they're prizes, dude.
I have a fun time running around and grabbing the orbs by walking into them and stuff. Ho ho…!
…
Oh, yeah. As for my hanger's name…
Hard Winter. Freakin' icy, and it hits like a truck!
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
After a few moments of brownie consumption and me and Maribel fixing up our mana by picking up the mana prizes, we get visited by a guest!
"I see…"
Looking over at the partially blockaded doorway- as that snake still her her freakin' limp body in it- I see Satori float in…
Ooh. Ho ho! Hello, friend!
...After a moment, Renko and Maribel notice her, too.
"I have to admit," Satori looked over us, "that went better than I anticipated."
...Renko raises a brow. "Hi."
"Hi." Satori's casual in turn. "Enjoying your stay?"
"Mmm. Yeah." Agreeing with that statement, Renko reaches for one of the remaining brownies… "We got attacked by that snake, though."
"I know." Satori nods… "I heard it play out. You three are… interesting."
Aw. People are calling me interesting in maybe a good way, yo. I already feel like your everyday JRPG hero.
Maribel looks up at her, swallowing a brownie. "...You heard it? How loud were we?"
"Well, the room shook, for one thing." Satori-... does actually make a good point there. I'm pretty sure anyone could have heard that, with or without magic powers. "Although, your urgency also made the situation quite prominent."
Ooo. Is that how thought volume works?
Before anyone could say anything to me, Satori turns to me. "In part, yes. It's not the only variable, though."
…
"I suppose I'll clarify this now." Satori seems to read the confusion of the girls. "I can read your thoughts."
"...Oo~h. That makes a lot more sense." Maribel nods, taking this fact in. She looks down at the brownie tray summore…
Shrugging Satori's ability off, Renko moves for the fridge to get some drinkage. Ashes moves to sit on one of the back counters...
Idly, Satori focuses her gaze on me. "I am curious how you know of my ability, although I suppose it's no secret."
Yeah, considering my party members don't. I remember reading up about her on the wiki a bunch...
Satori raises a brow at my thought process. "Now I'm really curious."
I have no idea how much she can read into each tree of thought! I might as well start from the beginning to explain things to her, then. You see, a long time ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth…!
"I know what computers are, if that's what you're wondering." ...I was in fact actually wondering that, albeit not in a way I articulated. "If you want to know, depending on the mind I can do a little digging."
Ah, shit, she knows how much Touhou porn I masturbated to, then. It's probably not a new level of demented to read, though…?
...I give Satori a hopeful grin.
Satori furrows her brows. "...You're not wrong. It's the first time I've witnessed someone's perversion in this context though." Yeah, digital pornography of you and all your friends over a computer screen in a world that thinks you're all fictional characters. That's probably a first…
"I feel like I'm missing something." Maribel notices our back and forth.
"You're not missing anything." Satori just shakes her head.
Oh, man. At least Satori's probably kickass at keeping secrets. Ya'd have to be.
Now I'm reminded about this other anime I watched about a mind reader. Oo~h, memory's one slippery slope…!
"By the way, I hear you, Ashley." Satori glances back at Ashes. "Did you try the northwest cache?"
...Ashes rolls her eyes. "Aa~h… I probably should. Still, ya gotta fill the east one. All it has now are dust bunnies and dust people."
With that, Ashes suddenly dashes onto the snake girl's body and runs across it to get outside the room. Even has the attention span of a cat!
…
"I have a lounge a few rooms from here, if you'd like to follow me." Satori begins floating towards one of the kitchen's other exits, still having to hover over the freakin' tubby snake stuffs.
"Sure." I start meandering after her, and Maribel moves in my wake.
...Renko's got two cups full of milk. "How am I supposed to get these over the snake…?"
I pause, turning to her. A puzzle, is it?
"Here's the plan…" I give her a smug grin. "We're gonna have like, a three-man cup tossing system-"
The cups float out of Renko's hands, and start hovering over the snake shaft. Oh.
"I don't need my cups broken." Satori seems to have saved the day instead. "I'll carry these for you."
...Smiling, Renko starts to climb over the snake's long ass. To put things in perspective, that lamia's snake tail was like, as tall as a person. It's easy to climb though, 'cause it's rigid and almost rocky in a way.
After a moment, we all climb it, and get to the other side. Snuggle climbing, dude…
On the other side, Satori runs her gaze across us…
Ooh, the hallway ahead is green and beige! The other hallway leading up to the kitchen was blue and white. S'curious…
"I can't say I've heard many people think as you do." Satori comments on my thoughts.
...Waddaya mean?
"At a surface level, your thoughts read like… a book, in a way." Satori expresses what she sees, yo. "Of course, looking deeper into the words reveals more usual thought structure, but it's… peculiar."
Aw. I'm a weirdo, son.
"Yeah, Brad's not like many other people." Maribel agrees with that sentiment! "I thought it was a Gensokyo thing at first, but it's actually mostly just a him thing."
Smiling, Satori starts walking forwards. "...I cannot confirm or deny whether or not that's an exclusively Gensokyo occurrence."
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
We're at the lo~bby!
There's some faded blue, leather-lookin' couches around here, some fun looking coffee tables, and more potted plants.
Satori sits on one of the couches, placing the drinks down…
Oh, yeah, this room's got some weird shit, too. For the most part, it's blue and white like that one hallway from earlier, but u~h… the left half of the ceiling juts up awkwardly, leading to a huge expanse where there's some square-shaped holes in the wall to probably other places in the palace.
"Satori," I gotta voice this concern! "Why is half of this place a freakin' Legend of Zelda dungeon?"
...Taking a moment, Satori replies with veiled amusement. "I'm not sure what you mean by 'Legend of Zelda dungeon', but this palace was designed in part for my pets as well as myself. The shaft you see there is for bird access."
Birds. In an underground earth temple. You can't escape them. Aa~h!
"Also, no." Watching Maribel sit down, Satori comments on her thoughts as well. "I don't have too many more pets who try to eat humans. There are some fish, but I'm sure you won't be encountering those anytime soon."
Renko sits to my left, and Maribel to my right. Sitting between girls always feels weird… weird in an 'I-don't-know-how-to-feel-about-this' way. Stupid freakin'... biology!
I wonder… has Satori heard about the fluffle menace?
"Is that what you're calling those dust people?" Satori does indeed know about the fluffle menace. "They've popped up all over the palace. They've only been marginally destructive, although most of the time their mindless endeavors have only led them to attempting siege upon the oni city."
Fluffles versus oni. The most balanced matchup.
…
Renko passes Merry her glass of milk. "I got us some milk…"
"Ooo~." Maribel claims her glass from her friend. "I had a feeling, the moment you went to the fridge…"
...Satori just glances between the two girls, leaning back a little. Then, 'cause of my train of thought, she looks at me! Aah!
"So…" Satori folds her legs. "What brings you three underground?"
...Renko and Maribel shrug at her, before sipping from their milk.
This leaves me! "...I wanted to be really small, and really soft." Complete impulse, yo. Wanted to get down here before the eighty chapter mark!
"...I see." Satori seems to have received no meaningful answers. "Eighty chapter mark?"
Oh, shit. Don't poke the fourth wall, yo!
...Satori's brows twitch for a moment, and she blinks. "I… see. How surreal."
"Is his head really that messed up…?" Maribel makes idle chatter, glancing up from her milk.
"Yes." Satori can see what I've seen, yo, and I've seen some things…!
Grinning, Renko makes a suggestion. "If his thoughts are like a book, how about you read them to us?" Uh oh.
…"Satori closes her eyes for a moment- oh, she started reading them before- oh, fuck this is going to get confusing."
"Satori finishes her sentence- and starts another one. Hello, world! Prose is hard to construct when someone keeps freakin' sayin' it before you can place it…! Aah, aa~h!"
Coughing, Satori stops vocalizing my thoughts.
"...Huh." Renko doesn't seem like she knew what to expect. "That does read book-like. How about you try vocalizing my thoughts?"
Shaking her head, Satori declines. "It's not as easy for yours. More natural thought processes don't follow literary structure, or speech patterns…"
Hoh. I'm an open book, yo.
...Looking at me, Satori allows her lips to curve. She seems to want to say somethin', but relents.
…For awhile, we just relax. I kinda wanna jump around and explore this place's dungeon-like structure, but I also don't want to get the shit kicked out of me by angry anythings.
Renko yawns. "Ha~nh… how long have we been up?"
...Satori tilts her head back and forth. "Well, it's two thirty in the morning right now."
"Really!?" Renko is surprised!
...Maribel turns to her friend with equal surprise!
"Mmm." Satori nods. "You all probably got a rush both from those brownies, and from fighting for your life with my pet."
...Curiously, Maribel gestures back to the kitchen with her thumb. "She's your pet?"
"As are all the animals here." Hoh. "...Barring you humans, despite you technically being animals."
The girls grin at the reference. Getting up- and setting her mostly empty glass down- Maribel stretches… "Aa~h…"
Ti~ng! A barely luminescent, pink light generates to the right of our table and couches…
"This light will lead you to a bedroom, if you follow it." Satori explains what it is! "...Do not worry about being attacked on the way. I know everything that goes on within these walls, and none of my pets would act in spite of me, if they didn't desire to be punished. I'm not typically one for discipline or regulation, but when push comes to shove, I do what needs to be done."
...With that, Renko gets up and moves with Maribel towards the light without hesitation. I'm not tired yet, so~...
I wave at them! "I'll catch up with you guys, yo. I've gotta get into some trouble first."
Maribel snorts. "Alright. Don't get naked and loom over my bed again like you did last time."
...Renko double takes, looking back at me. "He did a what now!?"
"Nothing." Slowly, Maribel struts after the light. "C'mon, Renko-chan."
Reluctantly, Renko begins to follow in her wake, slightly offput by her statement but quick to shrug it off…
After a few moments, the girls are gone. It's just me and Satori, now!
"...You seem eager to talk about something, but don't know what to talk about." Satori reads my social ineptitude! "I do have to say, you know an eerie amount of detail about Gensokyo despite the extent of your stay here."
I wanna know how she figured out I was only in Gensokyo for a month, and the things I know about Touhous…
"I didn't." Satori smirked. "My statement just there was in part a bluff to provoke you into thinking about more details."
...Oo~h, tricky, tricky! Mind reading would be terrifying if the wielder of it wasn't as chill as she is.
"So I've heard." Leaning back further, Satori relaxes on the couch, letting her stiff demeanor go a bit. "...Though, what you genuinely know despite your interactions here seems curious, if warranted by our world here being documented on the outside. Still…" Looking pensive, Satori glances down at the table. "I find it hard to believe, unless Yakumo herself divulged information to the outside."
Or, perhaps, I'm from some kinda different outside. Maribel and Renko seem to be from one where Touhou isn't a thing.
Considering this, Satori looks me in the eyes. "...That's interesting. You don't suppose it's a regional phenomenon?"
I shake my head. "Not how the internet works, yo. Kinda." S'a bit awkward saying words after not saying them for awhile… and having half-telepathic communication. While there are plenty of regional culture things even on the internet, Touhou's kinda transcended its national boundaries and language barriers by some spooky black magic.
...Satori takes this in. "I see."
...I hear thumping behind us!
"Hello~?" Ivasa sounds like she's awake! "Where a~re yo~u…?"
After a moment, the thumps increase in volume and Ivasa slithers into the room, through the door behind my couch.
"Aa~h. I thought I smelled… you…" She trails off, her smirk fading.
"Hello, Ivasa." Satori greets her pet with a single wave from the couch.
"Oo~h…" Bringing a hand to her mouth, Ivasa begins looking around. "...Hello, Satori-sama. How are you?"
"Fine." Satori's givin' her a stare, yo! "Tell me, Ivasa… what did I say about consuming live beings?"
"How could I ever forget?" Smiling warmly, Ivasa begins to trace around the edge of the room… "You instructed me perfectly clearly. No consumption of living beings, youkai, human, or otherwise. Additionally, I was not able to contribute to or be involved in the death of any living being in order to circumvent this rule."
"I also told you not to leave your room during restricted hours." Folding her arms, Satori gives her a small frown. "Do I need to start locking your doors?"
"What!?" Ivasa doesn't like the sound of that! "No- no! I- I was just, ehh... " Setting her gaze on me, the lamia beams. "I was showing those delightful humans around the temple! They were direly lost, you see, and one of them came to me for help!"
"No." I shake my head at her. "You tried to fry our asses with magic. I'm gonna have a wedgie for weeks, dude. You broke my lawnmower." Two of these three statements are false!
"Shut up!" Ivasa's temper flares! "Satori-sama would never trust your kind! Not after what you did to her so many years ago!"
...I look over at Satori, and she just has a droll expression on her face.
Ivasa's probably trying to play to her berserk button or something. Wasn't the story of Satori and Koishi like, humans were super putoff by their abilities so they bullied Koishi into sealing her third eye?
...After giving me a sudden, curious glance, Satori looks back over at Ivasa. "You do recall that I can read minds, correct?"
Ivasa blinks. "Indeed. If you've read our minds, you should clearly see which one of us is correct."
"...Which means you're lying." Satori monotones.
Jerking back, Ivasa portrays faux offense. "Wha~t!? How dare you!? Satori-sama, I would never question your judgment, but in this scenario I have no other choice than to-"
"Sleepaga." Satori holds out her hand.
"Oo~h…" Jerking in place, Ivasa's eyes become uneven. "...Nn-nooh. Th-that wo~n't work on-"
Standing up, Satori swings her arm slowly. "Blizzard."
Fwi~sh! A small chunk of magical ice whirls towards Ivasa, and seemingly passes through her form, frost shaving off of it with every impact it makes. "Aa-aah!? Yo-you-"
"Sleepaga." Once again, Satori holds up her hand…
...Thud. Ivasa was out like a light.
...With that, Satori sat back down again. "She'll be out for another eight hours, at this rate. For a few hours she'll be fine like this, but I'll have to bring her back to her room or cast some sun or fire spells to keep her from getting actually hurt from sleeping without proper body temperature."
Ooo~. Lamia biology stuff…
Sensing my interest, Satori elaborates. "Basically, lamias are cold-blooded. Therefore, it's easier to knock them out if you cast ice spells on them, and they're naturally weak to ice magic. For this reason, many have fire, sand, or sun affinities. There are exceptions, of course, but such is the trait of their general species.
"Ivasa here is more able to sleep without proper heating than most lamia, but when she's artificially knocked out like this, her body temperature could fall to harmful levels if left out too long. Since her body is so long and has that sandstone shell, however, she's more able to keep hold of heat than most lamia, and is therefore more ice resistant. She's an uncommon underground breed."
That's pretty interesting…
Standing up, I stretch…! "Ho ho~... what things are there to do here, yo? Just so I got some munitions for tomorrow's festivities."
"We have a pool." Satori states. "...Separate from the carnivorous fish pool, I assure you."
I hold out my arms. "Can't swim, yo!" Aaaa~h!
"We have a kitty pool." ...A kitty pool, rather than a kiddie pool. Yeah, that's pretty apt, innit?
Standing up, Satori glances me over. "You still seem to have energy to burn."
"Yeah, yo." Speaking and doing things usually keeps me from dying!
"Let's experiment." Stepping away from the furniture, Satori moves to the nearby, furnitureless space…
Yo ho ho~. I follow her over, looking around…
"How many spell cards do you have?" Satori asks about my danmaku capability.
Ah ha, yeah, about that…
...After some moments, she blinks. "Oh."
Holding up her hand, she aims it at the wall, and starts shooting some basic yellow cylinders, which get pulled down to the floor by gravity. "...Ah."
...Turning to me again, she makes her curiosity known. "Your friend was valid in her line of questioning when she asked you how you aren't dead yet."
"I am a danmaku god." I inform her…!
"So, instead of danmaku, you've been…" Furrowing her brows, Satori holds her arms out-
Fwi~sh! In one hand, a sizable, fantasy-like sword generates, made entirely of some translucent purple material. Then, she brings her other hand to its blade-
Shi~ng!
...She's transformed it into a plant hanger! Yo!
"Genuinely…" Grasping the translucent plant hanger, she swung it around. "...Fairy Harp, is it?"
Reaching into my bag, I drew my own Fairy Harp! "Yeah, yo."
"...Not good for much, at the moment." She passed judgment on the weapon. "As far as wind spells go, you might want a few more debuffs." With that, she presses her hand to the hanger again.
Cli-click. The generic translucent hanger shimmers, changing affinities.
...After a moment, the shaft that goes on Hard Winter slowly extends. Aw, that name I chose for it, yo. Can't wait to make all the boner jokes!
...Satori gives me a dry glance. Hyonk, hyonk, hyonk!
"This seems to be your most developed weapon." Satori reflects on its impressive length. "Draw yours. Why don't we spar a little?"
Depends, yo. Am I gonna get my ass kicked?
"If I wanted it kicked, I would have done it already." Satori soothes my soul. "This is more about seeing what you can do, if anything. That, and it should tire you out quickly."
Hoh. Putting away Fairy Harp, I take out Hard Winter, and ready to do combat…!
Holding it up, I apply my self buff magically!
Satori imitates my brief stance, seemingly buffing herself up, too.
…
Instead of starting with a physical attack, I jam Hard Winter into the floor. "Gaia Seed!"
Fwooo~...
The earth green magical circle generates around Satori's form.
Before it initializes, she nimbly slides backwards with little preparation, dodging its effects. Oof, that agility, yo.
Holding her arm up, she casts a counter-spell! "Lucky Star!"
A huge, solid, purple star forms above Satori, and slowly hurtles towards my position. Quickly, I begin to bolt out of the way…!
Fwow-fwow! Seconds later, it hits the floor behind me, shattering into smaller star particles that bounce away at an awkward, inaccurate angle. Holy shit…!
Alrighty then…
Holding my arm up, I cast it forward!
A crusty pillow hurtles towards Satori, but she parries it with her Hard Winter, knocking it aside. "...That spell is bad, and you should feel bad." Wahaha!
Holding her arm up, she casts it forward. U~h-
As I strafe to the side, a pink, round pillow whizzes by me.
Plap! It splats on the stone floor.
Is that a pillow soaked with Satori's…!?
"Makai succubi have had an interesting creation, haven't they?" Satori dryly comments on the spell, and also on succubi from Makai specifically.
Time to rush Satori wildly and randomly! Aa- ah, she'd know I thought that, wouldn't she?
...Looking over her, I see she's now got her Hard Winter up defensively.
Alright, yo.
Crouching down again, I stab my Hard Winter into the floor to cast Tundra, that one freakin' tiny spike of ice…
Kri~ng! Oo~h! It's… not as tiny anymore! That's safely about the size of a chair! Yo!
Satori's avoided it by jumping, though. Coming back down, she plants her shoes on the side of the spike, and rushes forward towards me by springing off of it.
I raise Hard Winter defensively-
Woosh! Dropping low unexpectedly as she comes near me, Satori brings my legs out from under me, causing me to fall onto my side awkwardly. "Oof…!"
Whish!
…
Rotating to look up from the floor, I see Satori has her fake hanger at my neck. Pfft…
"I think I won." Satori allows herself a small smile, before backing away from me. I think you won, too.
Getting up from the floor, I dust myself off…
"...Fortunately for you, this temple is probably the safest place underground, for a human." Satori comments on my complete lack of proficiency in any field of combat! Except hanger combat, yo. The best form of combat. "Just keep your distance from deep water and Ivasa."
Aw, what about the kitties, yo? They're lovable.
Satori grins. "You could probably get away with cuddling with some of them, if you played your cards right. Don't get sexual, though, or you probably wouldn't survive." Uh oh. No sexy cats…
...I yawn. "Haa~uh…"
Next to me, Satori has the pink light fade into existence.
"Here you are." Casting her hanger arm aside, Satori dispels the weapon, letting it fade into glittery particles. "Enjoy your stay."
Satori really knows how to present, yo! A~nd I just thought that on impulse, too!
As I meander off, Satori snorts…
Man, if people had to watch their thoughts as much as they did their words, how would they, like… consider shit? Oof. It's probably possible among the genetically engineered, the trained-from-birth, and certain youkai, but normal people like me would be fucked.
Now, to follow this pretty pink light into these halls…!
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
Speaking of fucked situations…
"Mro~w…" A marble colored kitty cat's following me. Like, not a cat girl, just an actual cat.
…
The reason this situation is complex is 'cause I dunno what to do with an actual cat! Satori has these!?
Idly, I follow the glowing pink orb along the dark hall. Yeah, for some reason it took a turn into a non-illuminated hall.
After a moment, it stops at one of the many generic doors, and floats into it, fading out.
...Now it's freakin' dark!
Reaching forward, I jiggle the-... oh, this isn't one of those doors. It's a sliding paper-and-wood type door! Why's this patch of wall all oriental when the rest's stone and knobs? Oh, well…
Sliding it open, I find a big standard oriental room, although it has some dim lighting and a poofy bed in the middle. Unlike regular beds, it's large, round, and has a cushiony design all along the rim...
Is this a giant cat bed?
The room's also got some big freakin' plush geometry along the edges. Like… essentially generic cat toys, except big.
Poof!
Aight, Satori, what the fuck.
From a thin veil of beige smoke, the cat turned into a tall woman with long, beige hair. She had a loosely fitting nightgown on.
...She gingerly steps over to the big bed, her chest jiggling the entire way… but once she gets to it, she freakin' leaps in with inhuman speed-
Fwoof. She lands on the bed audibly, and immediately curls up into a ball, her chin to her knees. Oh. Good humanoid sleeping posture.
Did Satori actually sign me up for a cuddle session, or something? I was kinda half joking about that…!
…
On one hand, there's no other beds. On the other, I don't wanna get my face clawed off…
Actually, there are those giant plush toys. Hmm.
...Considering the cat takes up like, no room on her huge bed, I think I'll be fine awkwardly positioning myself to the side.
Clambering onto the vacant, right side of the round cat bed, I-... wow, these cushion segments are not good for a lot. Freakin' in the way, more like it! Oh, well. This is better than collapsing on the floor.
…
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
…
It's dark, yo. Somethin's on me. Aa~h…
…
After some shifting, it seems to be Ha-chan! Man, those cushion things around this not-so-huge-as-I-thought cat bed make it hard to lay straight… so I'm just kinda awkwardly smooshed into Ha-chan. It's not a bad situation, though!
That cat girl's hugging into Ha-chan from behind, so we're like a sleep conga! Although I'm facing Ha-chan, so it's more like an awkward three-wheeled waltz.
In terms of height, Ha-chan's like five foot something, probably. She ain't short, but not tall enough ta write home about.
Time to get up!
I start pushing against the bed-
"Noo~..." Ha-chan protests, pulling me close again, her arms around me. She's fully dressed and all, but breasts against chest son. Freakin'- it's too early for this…! "We're gonna snuggle now…" You're more awake than I thought! Also now, of all times…? With this cat? Although, it doesn't seem like the cat's doing anything, so her presence isn't unwelcome.
Aa~h… well, I suppose I could stay like this for awhile longer.
...Ha-chan hugs me tightly! "...You kinda remind me of a fairy." Oo~h, snuggle banter.
"Any fairy in particular…?" Drowsy mornings… or whatever the hell time it is. I can't tell, we're something-something miles down under!
"Nope." Idly, Ha-chan shifts a little bit. The cat girl seems to have her arms around her. "You're just… really light and thin."
Ah, yeah. That's what you get when you only eat waffles every twenty chapters! My metabolism also puts jet engines to shame and could melt steel beams, so I could have a week of just cheese pizza eating and it'd be like dumping them into a black hole. The only downside to that is that it's now extremely precarious to gain any weight and not look like an anorexic all the time… be it muscular weight or just fat.
Considering all the junk food and pizza I eat, I think I've got the better deal compared to most people, honestly! Well, it's kinda a problem in Gensokyo since I don't eat anything, but that's what I got Hard Winter's buff for. Freakin', Hard Winter…
"Nn~h…" Ha-chan almost-stretches as best she can, before bringing her face close to mine. "...Why do humans grow hair on their face?"
You get within kissing distance and that's what you ask me? Solar winds. Evolution. I don't know…! "It kinda happens over time." Best explanation.
Curiously, Ha-chan brings her chin to mine. She's experimenting with how chin hair feels! Ahah…
At this point, my beard is small but exists. In a year it will flourish, but it will need to be nourished by time...
Having my personal space violated is uncomfortable, but it's a good kind of uncomfortable.
Didn't she used to be more shy than this? I remember her blushing and shit- well, she's slightly doing that here, too, but she's kinda sandwiched between me and a busty cat girl so y'know- but-
Someone's legs shift. I move mine a little, but Christ we're tangled. Pretty sure the cat girl's not helping on that front!
…
"I'm stu~ck…" Ha-chan whines, trying to wiggle out of the way of the cat girl, only to wiggle into me. Geez… "Wait, who's holding me…?" Ha-chan, your spatial awareness is astounding.
Struggling further, Ha-chan starts shifting her legs and torso again- woah!? She just brushed my-
"Nn~h…" The cat girl starts to sit up, her chest exposed.
…
Idly, she looks over at us, before proceeding to clamber out of bed, paying us no mind. Somehow, she untangles her legs from us seamlessly, before moving to strut out of the room-
Poof! Once she gets the door open, she turns back into a cat with a simple poof of smoke…
Freakin'... stoic tall cat girl. I bet she's tubby in cat form.
Once she's gone, Ha-chan rolls me onto my back. "Now we can really cuddle!"
"Freakin'..." Drained of my morning-or-whatever-time-it-is energy, I drowsily blink as Ha-chan presses herself into my form…
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
Now I'm all tired waking up again, too…
Stepping out of the dim room, I find that the hallway outside is still dark. Why~ is the hallway still dark? What time even is it…!? Satori: invest in clocks. Call up Yukari right now, eight-seven-seven-I-need-Yakumo-now, tell her to bring clocks.
Ha-chan steps out behind me, and shares similar opinions. "It's da~rk…"
...If I remember correctly though, if I go right and just keep walking, that should take me back to that lit clearing from earlier.
…
After awhile of walking, it does!
No one's here, though. Except for that beige cat, but she's just in cat form and licking her own asshole. At least the room's lit.
Looking around the room she had to have gone through to get here, Ha-chan expresses amazement at it again. "Ooo~! The ceiling's so tall!"
Oh, boy. Finding Maribel and Renko's gonna be a challenge, isn't it?
Well, then. Time to pick a lit hallway and commit to it!
Moving to one of the far ends of the room, I pick a hallway with red and beige walls, and follow it.
"Ah, hey…!" Ha-chan lags behind me…!
This hallway's rather different, with this weird triangular pattern on the walls. There're maroon vases dotted along the sides of the hall, but there aren't any side doors, which is weird.
Eventually, the hall comes to end at a freakin' orange ladder.
...Taking a breath, I start climbing the stone ladder. It feels sturdy, and I got Ha-chan to maybe catch me in case I fall and get fucked up by gravity.
At the top- oh, huh.
Before me is a long, brown tiled pathway. To the left and right are open expanses of a huge, tan room. The ceiling seems to be some kind of shiny tile that gives off overcast-esque sky lighting…
The floor is far beneath the path that's before me, and has what looks like shallow water all along it. There are a few small steps to some doors at the bottom.
Similar to the roof of the lobby from before, there are various rectangles exposed in the walls.
However, at the clearing I just climbed to, there's this grey crystal, just floating in place. It's like four feet tall, but reaches my height 'cause it's floating. Slowly rotates too, yo...
…
I'm not sure what to do with that, so I'll just ignore it, for now.
Fwooo~m!
Oh, shit!
A massive gust of wind suddenly gushes through the room, forcing me to back up towards that crystal to not get flung back down the ladder. That ladder was like twenty feet tall…!
"Ahn!" Ha-chan is slammed into the backwall beyond the ladder's gap by the wind.
I get to see somethin' incredible 'cause of it, though!
The water all along the floor of the room seems to have splashed up into the air, and the room's ambience changed to a autumn amber sorta color.
"Hahaha~!" There's a brown-haired cat girl holding onto… something.
Tactactactactactac…! It was like a giant, copper ring hovering above her, and she held onto it by a stick at the bottom. It reminded me of my flail-o-copter, except not as destructive, and it didn't seem to have any ascent power without wind assistance… but the cat girl was usin' it to glide.
It also made that weird tac-tac-tac sound, which I guess was some kinda inner mechanism.
...Looking back at the giant floating crystal I used to not die, I give it a slap.
It lights up a faded purple briefly, before some mana prizes drop next to me. Oh…?
...Quickly pulling out Fairy Harp- 'cause it's a small hanger- I use it to whack the crystal.
It lights up a bright purple, and a buncha the bubble-like mana prizes splay out around me! My mana's at max so this doesn't help me at all, but that's cool!
Ha-chan comes over to play with the bubbles, stepping on them. "Hehehe~! It's a bubble crystal!"
Tactactactactactac! A different, blue-haired cat girl hovers past the straight, three tile wide catwalk that extended across the room. Gradually, the shiny water particles- lit up by the room's sudden amber lighting- start to descend to the floor again, while the cat girls slowly glide down with their whatever-the-hells…
Slipping away Fairy Harp, I start to take out my good old Yin-Yang Flail-o-copter. That might come in handy really soon…
Man, this thing is clunky. That's probably why I've chosen to walk places more often…! Freakin' rope made out of fairy maid panties. I need to DIY more bullshit. I wonder if the cats here wear panties… and maybe enchanted ones at that. Dude, a panty chainmail would be the sickest shit.
Soon, the room's water is all down on the ground again, and the ambience becomes overcast daylight-esque again.
With my flail-o-copter ready, I march out onto the catwalk, eying the bottom carefully…
Ooo. Now it seems the cats are like, using the disc spinny things to float atop the water. The disc spinny things don't spin in the water, either, they just kinda float. Now that they're largely immobile, I can see that the buoyant copper rings have three thin spokes inside of them…
There's actually like six cats in here. No harpies, curiously…
At the bottom, there's a myriad of other copper discs without any cats attending them, floating on the water.
Woo~sh… A powerful wind blows by me almost warningly.
Raising up my flail-o-copter, I begin spinning it. Ha-chan backs up so she doesn't get freakin' destroyed by it.
...After a moment of spin-up, the yin-yang orb caught in a net of freakin' panties and rope starts to glow, and the Vortex Hanger's effect kicks in, allowing me to jankily float into the air! Wahaha! This'd be the weirdest shit if I had my space suit on.
Fwooo~m!
A powerful gust of wind propels Ha-chan, myself, and the myriad of cat girls into the air.
Bam! My flail-o-copter hits the ceiling, but this just makes me bob back down a little.
The room is filled with the sound of copper hover rings tactactacin' away, and the giggles of the cat girls.
Ha-chan's floating next to me! "Ow~..." She seems to have hit her head on the ceiling, but is mostly fine since the ascent loses intensity really high up in the room… "So pretty!"
Oh, yeah, the water particles got flung into the air again, too, and everything's all warm colors and stuff. This is a pretty kickass room!
...Some cat girls give me a curious glance since I'm not like the other flying people, but I'm mostly ignored otherwise. If anyone wanted to talk from any farther than like Ha-chan's distance, they'd be drowned out by the noise of the copper ring things…
Below, I can see that the other side of the cat walk that spanned the room had a new hallway to explore.
Gradually, I let my flail-o-copter slow down, allowing descent… it takes a bit longer than it does for the cat girls 'cause their rings don't seem meant for outright flight, just gliding. My flail thing's a flying machine, baby!
...Landing on the other side, I let the flail-o-copter hit the wall-
Bam! Honh, honh.
Dragging it along, I quickly move into the hall. There's only a ladder up at the end, here, so if the wind kicks in I won't be thrust down a shaft to a twenty foot drop.
Ha-chan follows me in. "Aww~h… that room looked like fun."
Eheheh. Fun for you, maybe…!
After taking a moment to put away the flail-o-copter, I begin climbing this new ladder. I'd've flown up with the flail, but this shaft's way too tiny to spin anything in.
Another freakin' twenty foot climb later, and I'm at the top…
The walls had transitioned from the red triangular pattern to just grey with ornate albeit not meaningful carvings…
Carefully pulling myself up, so I don't freakin fall and explode, I look around…
Oh. I'm at the base of one of those pointy spires outside the palace…
Taking a few steps out, I find that I'm on the palace roof!
All it takes is some lookin' around, and I manage to set my sights on some friends to my right…
Maribel and Renko are leaning on a stone guard rail, staring at the amber sky. Satori is standing behind them, looking over at me…
"Right on time." She nods. Aw, placin' bets, huh?
...Glancing to see what she meant, Maribel notices me. "Oh, Brad! Where were you all morning? Renko-chan thought you had sex with a cat and died." Pfft…!
Renko dryly glances over Maribel, before focusing on me. "...I don't think I said that."
I raise my arms concedingly. "She's right, yo, she's right. They got me dude. I got better, though."
...Ha-chan walks out from the tower thing behind me, and beams. "Oh, hey~! It's you guys!"
"Oh, yeah." I gesture my arm towards Ha-chan. "She got better too, yo."
...Grinning sheepishly, Renko stepped towards Ha-chan. "Ah- uhm… hey."
"Hi." Ha-chan steps towards her for conversation.
"...I'm sorry about… killing you." Renko looks conflicted. "I can't put it in a better way, but…"
Ha-chan was mystified. "...I dunno what you're talking about."
Renko pauses. "...You know, on the bridge? You were angry at me for getting near Brad, and I uh…"
...Ha-chan shakes her head. "I remember getting all angry all of a sudden, and then I was back in the forest and it was night."
...Renko nods. "Huh. Well, I killed you."
"Oh." Ha-chan doesn't really acknowledge this. "...Are you gonna kill me again?"
"N-no!?" Renko is caught off guard! "I mean, no."
Smiling, Ha-chan is satisfied with that answer. "Cool! Usually people who kill me like to kill me over and over, so I just wanted to make sure…"
…
After a moment, Satori looks over at me. "Your fairy friend is peculiar."
"I think we're all a little peculiar…" Maribel was tired of Satori calling everyone some variant of unique.
The mind reader snorts. "...You're not wrong."
...
Aw, yo. The amber underground sky looks pretty freakin' surreal. I feel like I'm in freakin' Dark Souls or something…
We take in the 'sky' a little more, before Satori begins moving. "I'll show you all the pool, now."
No more skybox gazing, yo. Also, if the pool's that freakin' wind hell room with the copper rings, I'm gonna stuff fluffles down your shirt…!
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
END OF CHAPTER 63
PROTAGONIST: Brad, the Fluffle Slayer, Fairy Slayer, Accidental Human Slayer, Ph. D in Plant Hangers, Scarlet Liberator, Village Liberator, Eientei Crucible, Sinker of the Flufftanic, Assembler of the Legendary Air Ride Machine, Sky Climber, Amateur Espionage Practitioner, Illegal Fairy Harborer, Conscientious Party Member, Winter Warrior, Holder of Too Many Titles.
PRIMARY WEAPON: Hard Winter - A earth/ice-elemental plant hanger made from sturdy rock; has a flower curved around the hilt. Able to be used as a jack hammer for demolition purposes. Strikes can be empowered with magical energy. With the addition of an enchanted shaft, it is able to be used as a warhammer and grant the ability to self-cast attack buffs to the wielder. Allows casting of Gaia Seed. Casts Tundra, a weak spike of ice! Allows the user to cast Ice Shard. Extends combo length by one artificially. Allows the user to jump out out of combos smoothly, and leave frost in their trail.
INVENTORY:
[Bag of Holding] - A small bag that always seems to be conveniently unaffected by whatever weird crap happens to me. Never enlarges, almost always gives me what I need if I remember it's there. Infinite inventory space. I would like to know where it actually puts all my stuff though…
==o==
WEAPONS:
Swordbreaker - Dark elemental plant hanger. Boosts the power of dark skills. Has a curvy, fancy design that lets it easily counter swords! It better, with a name like 'Swordbreaker'. Provides a weak but passive boost to defense, magical defense, and evade. Lowers the attack of foes as its on-impact effect.
Youkai Inconveniencer - A holy plant hanger, which works as a flail 'cause of the cross necklaces attached to it! May cast Flash, an attack that blinds; works best on darkness elementals and youkai. Acts as a flashlight via candles. Converted to a flail with cross necklaces! Can cast Shine.
Fairy Harp - A sand-red, cast iron plant hanger. It was used to hold a generic potted plant before being utilized as a weapon of mass skull-cracking destruction. With the addition of a wind-grate, it can cast Gust. By the addition of a steel block, its attack and magic attack increased slightly. Sparkles in the light due to fairy dust, able to reduce the accuracy of weak, biological enemies by irritating their senses with the dust. Can play beautiful, flat-tone musi~c!
Flame Salvo - A red and crimson plant hanger comprised of mysterious gems and metals. Boosts the power of fire skills. Ignites stuff on impact. Never again do I need a lighter or the ability to somehow rub two sticks together really hard to make a campfire! Has a flamethrower nozzle, allowing the user to cast Flamethrower Plus! Allows the user to cast Fume.
Vortex Hanger - Wind elemental plant hanger currently attached to the Yin-Yang flail as a crafting material. Granted a limited hover per swing when wielded, but that ability is what allows the flail-o-copter to fly now.
Deep Blue - A blue and silver plant hanger comprised of mysterious fantastical metals. Can produce limitless fresh water. Boosts the power of water skills. Allows wielder to cast Geyser. The addition of a valve served to allow control of its water flow. I wonder if you could use this in place of a sink...
Yin-yang flail-o-copter - A flail with a standard, maximized Hakurei Yin-yang orb in the sling of it. Unable to have its powers fully activated, as only Reimu can truly harness the power of Yin-yang orbs. Minor affinities from the base orb transfer over, though! Crafted from a Hakurei Yin-Yang orb, a rope of panties, and two bra cups. Ropes were used to attach the Vortex Hanger to the yin-yang orb, allowing the flail to be used as a flying device, although it's a bit straining on the arms.
Sharper Than Darkness - A dark, runed plant hanger constructed from the shards of a dead man's sword. Dark effects promote a glass-cannon style; physical attack increased, physical defense lowered. User bleeds out faster. Can cast Revenge, an attack that increases in power the lower the user's health is. A scythe edge from a mysterious ghoul was added to let it cut!
Bee-Sheventeen-Bawmber - A mechanical plant hanger enchanted to make big booms on contact. Explosions are mostly knockback based, but I think it could gib particularly weak-willed people… magic is weird. With the addition of a barrel, it can shoot singular, yellow danmaku bullets.
Million Bucks - A basic green cast-iron plant hanger, from the aged cellar of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It's a gift from Flandre Scarlet! Has an obsolete map of the cellar's maze, etched by Flandre herself. Shoddily enchanted to give a speed boost when the wielder is lower on health. Lowers defense slightly. With added electric and holy charms, the hanger is slightly electric and holy elemental. Is able to fluidly chain attacks for stringing together longer aerial and ground combos. Allows the user to fluidly transition from combo to jumping. Allows forced aerial combo support. Grants the user the ability to air slide. Increased jump height when running. Gives motion sickness with avid use!
Market Gardener - Critical hits during blast jumps! Otherwise, it's just a normal, old plant hanger. Named after a very similar shovel…!
NERF dart blaster - Nerf guns are cool and all, but don't try defending yourself with one. Please. Unless you're surrounded by fairies who don't know the difference- but y'know- that opportunity's a freakin' million to one.
NERF longsword - 'CAUTION: Do not jab at people or animals'… you know what that means! Maybe one day this will actually come in handy…
==o==
ARMOR:
Kaguya Houraisan Disguise - Wear to become a NEET! Tons of pockets! Seventy-five percent time resistance on equip. Voice, face, and height specifications not included!
Monk Robes - Wear to become a Buddhist! Actually pretty comfy…!
Remilia Scarlet's Mob Cap - Twenty five percent dark resistance. Lets me be a Touhou, too!
Camouflage Kimono - This kimono means business, son. One hundred percent ice resistance, and as such renders me immune to all magical ice damage. Dunno 'bout icicles and stuff, though. Fifty percent freeze resistance… not that freezing will hurt me with this thing on. Fifty percent dark resistance. Negative fifty percent fire and burning resistance. Hopefully hides me a bit when navigating in the freakin' brush...
Yellow Racecar Helmet - It's like a really knockoff space marine helmet! Fifty percent sun resistance, one hundred percent freezing and blinding resistance. Also gives immunity to electrical stunning. It feels like it's got good physical defense, too… at least for my head.
Lunarian Prototype Space Suit - A suit meant for combat in deep space. So far, it's only got the whole 'exist in deep space' part down…! One hundred percent electric resistant. One hundred percent freezing resistant. Has an oxygen tank, but that's only useful if you wear the helmet to go along with it. Randomly casts Zero Gravity when it feels like it.
Lunarian Prototype Deep Space Helmet - It's a freakin' helmet. Fifty percent blinding resistant! When worn with the Lunarian Prototype Space Suit, it also confers immunity to burning and poison, along with another one hundred percent electricity resistance. Yo…!
Testing Oxygen Tank - The oxygen tank used by the Lunarian Prototype Space Suit. Lasts for two and a half minutes! Not meant to actually be used outside of testing, but it's possible. Refills automatically in breathable air.
==o==
CONSUMABLES/OTHER:
Forty six thousand, two hundred Yen - ...Yeah, just in a bag. It's about time I documented how much freakin' money I have!
Seven Health Potions - They give you youkai-like regen for like, thirty seconds! No chuggin' these babies to indefinitely survive the cold reaches of outer space. Unless the regen outdoes the asphyxiation, but I think I'd rather die by that point…
Four Mana Potions - Restores an average amount of mana, I think. More than enough for someone like me!
Three Panaceas - Cures all status effects. I dunno if it works on debuffs, though...
WebDings Book about Foreign Juices - Wahaha! This better fetch a price on the market!
Akihito's Broadsword - Too big for me to use as a weapon. I wonder if I could use it as like, a tent stake or something.
Butterfly Dream Pills - Makes you dream of being a beautiful butterfly!... now, if only there was a pill for lucid or wet dreams, and then I'd consider Yagokoro the doctor to end all doctors!
PARTY:
London, the Multipurpose Combat Doll - What it lacks in brains it makes up for with a suit of armor and some OP utilitarian spells! Can cast basic fire, lightning, and ice attacks, both the magical and physical variety. Has lance, can shoot danmaku. Variety of attack commands now, including intelligent tracking, trailing, patrolling, and defending. Has mana pool for the stronk commands, though, so those should be used sparingly. I really have to remember to use her, at some point!
PRIMARY WEAPON: Shanghai Lance - Burly lance with jabbing ability. Mostly useful as a blunt object, it seems, and intimidation factor. London really likes it, apparently. London shouldn't have sentience, but I can't help but notice the awkward way which it just pauses before it swings this lance.
==o==
Maribel Hearn, the University Student
WEAPON: Porcelain Mirror - A plant hanger made with curiously chrome materials. Reflects small projectiles it hits. Allows the user to cast Reflect. May cast Reflect with certain skills.
INVENTORY:
[Suitcase] - Holds her stuff. Gives five inventory spaces!
Drawings - Her drawing stuff!
Writing Utensils - Crayons, pencils, pens… hoh hoh!
Dreamcatcher - A holy hanger. May cast Talisman Seal on impact. Casts Talisman Seal with certain skills. Boosts the power of holy skills. Grants fifty percent resistance to syphoning and cursing.
Cast-Iron Plant Hanger - A sturdy plant hanger made of solid metal.
Umbrella - It helps stop the dreaded sky water.
[no space remaining]
==o==
Renko Usami, the University Student
WEAPON: Counterweight - Black and gold scissors, with elaborate handles. Every enemy on the field increases combo length by one attack. Every enemy on the field increases jump height and defense by .3x, starting at a base of 1.0x with one enemy. Twenty five percent space resistance granted. User is immune to shoe-glue status when enemies are present. When equipped with no enemies on the field, inflicts shoe-glue status, preventing the user from jumping.
OFFHAND: Umbrella - It helps stop the dreaded sky water.
==o==
INVENTORY:
Steel Scissors - Sharp, shiny, and to the point!
Sunfire Scissors - Casts Sunfire Flare on impact. Boosts the power of Sun elemental attacks.
Mega Potion - Causes the whole party to regenerate life.
[no more space remaining]
==o==
ACTUAL AUTHOR'S NOTE:
hoh
extended chapter slightly 'cause ivasa fight was lengthy-ish
a~nd that's another batch done!
satori's fun - w - i've wanted to work with her for awhile
HARD WINTER, the most apt plant hanger name, and we could use a few more easy DICK JOKES
pretty abrupt way to get underground but it's more viable than actually scaling the whole way… as it turns out it's a trail full of MOONSTERS AHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
bed scene with ha-chan - w - i wanna get better at romance/psuedo-romance and knowing how to do bed / relaxation scenes in a not super cringey way is a step in the right direction
also yes this place is like mostly cat girls but also harpies and some other myriad friends…
friend times
oh yeah with this batch...
We have hit a MILLION words. Yeah, you read that number on the summary thing and right here correctly, yo.
O== ==O
It's been a freakin' long road, yo, long road.
...With that said, I'm also launching another side fic so I can expand my horizons and stuff; you'll probably see it on the ffnet page right next to this one. S'not so much a comedy, but I think it'll be interesting! I also don't plan on it being extremely long, like this freakin' thing but it should be a good size when I'm done wit' it.
But, yeah. One million. I remember when that mark was just a freakin' joke, Christ. Jesus fuck…!
Incredulity aside, everyone who's stuck with me so far has my thanks once again! I do wish some more of you would share your wisdom with me, yo, but I appreciate your mere presence regardless. - w - If you're happy, yo, I'm happy. Unless it's about the Matt chapters; then if you're unhappy we're happy. XD
So, yeah. I'm not quite as insecure about my writing as I used to be, but commentation is always appreciated. Please thoroughly molest me, yo. It's a shame the Touhou fanfiction section's slower than others, honestly, but I guess it has been an interesting environment for me ta hone my craft. At least it's not dead as a doorknob like the freakin' Touhou / EarthBound section. Ho ho ho…!
i didn't forget about that website thing but considering college and other variables i gotta find a good moment to actually iron that thing out and maybe find a not crap free web host - w -
i did say i wanted to stop a million but y'know for something THIS LONG it needs to end respectably yo... perhaps after another 500 k words of bullshit i dunno XD we'll SEE WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS...
As always, see you all next time!
