Creative Musings and Inspiration (Ideas thread)

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Now I'm trying to look up info on edible Japanese freshwater fish. My theory is that since Gensokyo is landlocked, they wouldn't have access to seafood, but Fish Is Still Important in everyone's mindset given that they've done their damnedest to remain culturally Japanese in every other respect.

On the other hand I suppose they could just eat seafood anyway, and have Yukari say "Arrangements are made" and leave it at that ...

[WRATHIE_Beatrice]

Muffin:
Read nagasarete airantou..
there's a reason they only eat fish =D

and a lack of fish youkai besides iku..

[mad]

I am the wing leader of the 8492nd fairy squadron. We are the best mercenaries around. Hired for over a thousand conflicts. Claiming over 1000 Reimus, 1000 Marisas, and 600 Sakuyas, we have fought in over 3000 conflicts.

There are a few other well-known squadrons: 580, Razgriz, Mobius.

Razgriz: Bah. The only one of them who can fight is as durable as a bombless Marisa.

580: We're on good terms. Wonder why the leader is the thirteenth. Real popular over at Youkai Mountain.

Mobius: Same as Razgriz, only much bigger.

One day, we were approached by Yukari. However, today, the job was an unusual one.

Usually, fairy squadrons are hired for a defensive job such as defending the Scarlet Devil Mansion from outside invasion while the Little Sister is loose. The two sides even have the exact same banter every time.

"Did you call me?"

"Nope, didn't"

"Here I am."

"You are...?"

"Before you ask for a person's name..."

"Oh, me?

Lessee, I'm Reimu Hakurei. Shrine maiden."

They say this every time we encounter Marisa in the mansion.

Yukari had a scout mission for us. We were to explore the world on the other side of this gap for a week and report our findings. The compensation she promised seemed reasonable, fifty thousand large power items and 500 lives, and she also promised a quick extraction at the end of the mission.

We gathered flew through the gap to ended up...right over the lake. We saw Cirno flying about and juggling her frogs.

"She dropped us in our own world? What does she want us to explore? A frozen idiot?" one of the rookies exclaimed.

"Eye'm an idiot! Eye'm the strongest!" Cirno yelled and began to engage.

It seemed that the ice fairy finally stopped thinking in only two dimensions. However, The only made the gaps that much wider.

----------

Reimu seemed to be walking a little funny after I fired some torpedoes(bubble bullets) up her ass. I wondered if she had the flu or something.

[[K]KoaMeow]

Is there anything Touhou CAN'T be crossed over with? I've seen enough stuff to make my head spin....

Try EarthBound.

[Sean]

Try EarthBound.

It's been done, I've seen videos on Youtube.

[Demonlord Pichu]

Muffin:
Read nagasarete airantou..
there's a reason they only eat fish =D

and a lack of fish youkai besides iku..

I was going to remedy that lack with another idea I had in the past, which would be a sort of sequel to Mystic Mutation. It would have basically involved the Ryūgū-jō, or Palace of the Dragon God, which belongs to Ryujin who, just like any other dragon, disappeared from Gensokyo leaving his palace to be cared for by Otohime. There are still alot of things to work out in the story itself, but one can be certain that it will be heavily based on the legend of Urashima Tarō.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Well, I was planning on falling back on my other idea, which was to have Maribel and Renko just going "Hmm. No fish. Oh right, Gensokyo's landlocked" ...

[Hieda no Aya]

I don't know either, but I've gotta say I love the way you put that level of thought and research into your writing. Reminds me of a lot of chats I have with my friends that start out "Hey, do you think they have X in Gensokyo?" and end up just being silly.

I do think there've been a few mentions of fishing in Gensokyo, especially if you count Inaba as canon. The fairies in Strange and Bright Nature Deity got a nice big fish from somewhere too. There's probably a fair bit in the rivers and lakes, but... you know, knowing Gensokyo, they must have their share of fish cryptids and extinct species too. There might be something interesting you could do on that front.

[Demonlord Pichu]

Eh, I would say that Gensokyo's fish exist in the Sanzu River but that's pretty much a 'dead' river (it's stated that the fish living in it are dead), but I've had several (crackpot) theories stating that perhaps the Sanzu River dumps into a larger body of water, or there maybe an Ocean of somekind in the 'Great Beyond' (the area beyond the Youkai Mountain).

[Dan-Heron]

well, there's a large lake next to the Moriya shrine. Moving the lake there could create new rivers besides the ones that already existed in Youkai mountain.

There's the lake from Inaba of the Earth too, you know, the one where Eirin kept dumping her shady drugs that didn't make it to the market.

Hmmm, what would mutant monster fish taste like?

[Demonlord Pichu]

There's the lake from Inaba of the Earth too, you know, the one where Eirin kept dumping her shady drugs that didn't make it to the market.

Hmmm, what would mutant monster fish taste like?

*TATARI grin*

You've just given me a good idea.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I don't know either, but I've gotta say I love the way you put that level of thought and research into your writing. Reminds me of a lot of chats I have with my friends that start out "Hey, do you think they have X in Gensokyo?" and end up just being silly.

I do think there've been a few mentions of fishing in Gensokyo, especially if you count Inaba as canon. The fairies in Strange and Bright Nature Deity got a nice big fish from somewhere too. There's probably a fair bit in the rivers and lakes, but... you know, knowing Gensokyo, they must have their share of fish cryptids and extinct species too. There might be something interesting you could do on that front.

Oh, I know. Half the fun is taking what we're given in the games and the canon stories and saying: Okay, how would this actually work? Given difference X between Gensokyo and Outside (or at least, "Outside circa 1884"), how would this impact the daily lives of Reimu and Marisa and the villagers? If a change were brought in (e.g. electricity as of SA), how would that impact the daily lives of Reimu and Marisa? (I'm assuming that Kanako's motive was in lessening the impact that merely moving to Gensokyo had on the daily lives of the Moriya Shrine crew ...)

I've started poking around at an idea for a story which is ... an origin story of sorts for Sakuya, but which explores the question, given Gensokyo's nature and the plot of MoF, of what exactly life is like for the average non-human living in the Outside, and for the humans who deal with them on a regular basis. (They exist, obviously. Just ask Remilia and Kanako.) I really ought to do a bit more work on my existing stories, though.

That said, thanks for reminding me about e.g. the Inabas stuff. It still leads me back to my original question: what type of fish would they be?

[Hieda no Aya]

Yeah, I remember the dead fish in the Sanzu River, but I'm pretty sure there's more than that. Ah, here we go, this is from Cirno's Perfect Memento article:

"When I reeled in some fish from the Misty Lake, it was already frozen. That was a real surprise, but the fish lasted a long time, and was delicious." (Angler with big appetite)

And here I thought that there was no human fishing in the Misty Lake...

The Misty Lake, incidentally, is where they went fishing in Inaba, the one with the giant monster fish. Apparently a lot of people hope to catch it.

Not-quite-edit: Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten about the Moriya Shrine's lake! Not to mention all that water you go across in MoF. (Apparently that river feeds the Misty Lake.) I doubt most humans would have an easy time fishing on the Youkai Mountain either. Still, I think it's pretty darn reasonable to assume that Gensokyo has more bodies of water around. It's a big place.

Not-quite-edit-2-I-really-need-to-post-faster: Well, I can find lists of freshwater fish in Japan, but generally more with an eye to biology than cuisine. (Like this monstrosity.) I don't know enough about Japanese food or seafood for my own comfort. I still kinda like the cryptid notion, but a lot of those tend to be giant monster fish themselves, unless you wanna import the furred trout or something.

Hmm... it's not exactly freshwater, but I wonder if sky fish is good to eat.

[Demonlord Pichu]

All of a sudden I'm thinking of Sushi-like youkai for some reason.

That said, thanks for reminding me about e.g. the Inabas stuff. It still leads me back to my original question: what type of fish would they be?

EDITO: There's the Jishin-namazu, a giant catfish that is said to cause earthquakes and tsunamis. I recall watching an episode of Inuyasha once (shut up there wasn't shit on that night) where they cooked a said catfish for a Festival or something.

Just thought I'd mention it. I don't really know why though...

[Bad Apple!!]

Hm... anyone else had trouble writing battle scenes for Touhou fanfiction? If so, how'd you overcome it?

[Zer0Axiom]

I find battles to be simple; it the stuf that goes with it that's hard to write.

Battles can be orcastrated several ways.  The question is what nature of battle you(as the author) want to illistrate.

Personal- using character narroration to outline the flow
Direct- having the battle explained as if a by a newscastor(storyteller)
Objective- having the descriptions be simple and nonspecific
Indirect- omnipotent narrorator

Then again, it's all about pacing.  Do you capture the urgency of the scene?  Is it better to describe every vivid detail or skip some?  Does the character's thoughts and emotions matter in the scene?  Which needs more emphasis: movement, placement, exchange, or resultant?

Ultimately, it's a question of style.  Three people can write one scene and capture different exchanges.  One person can write a scene three times and yield different events each time.

Know what you want, find what you need
[wow, I can't spell]

[♛ Apher-Forte]

Hm... anyone else had trouble writing battle scenes for Touhou fanfiction? If so, how'd you overcome it?

It is almost certain I like to make it all a bit simple, I streamline what happens, using as little fancy words as possible.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Yeah, I'm in the middle of a retelling of SA's stage 4 boss battle, and it consists of a basic description of each danmaku pattern, accompanied more or less by "and we dodged a lot" (it's in first-person from Satori's perspective).

The hard part is making Satori come off as badass in first-person ...

[Bad Apple!!]

Well, it's a pretty urgent battle, in this case, because Marisa's life is on the line. It's her versus Patchouli, being told by a third person narrarator who, while omnipotent, follows around Keine, who is observing it.

While it needs to have the tension of the scenario displayed, I think I was able to capture that well enough in the pre-battle dialogue.

And since I've brought Patchouli down from a stage four boss to the midboss of Stage 1 of the fanfic, she probably would be feeling too well today, but not enough so that it makes her too much of a pushover.

I do not intend to use the Master Spark in it, however, even though Marisa is the one fighting - how many times do you bomb against the stage 1 Midboss?

I also have an idea of a more dramatic use of it later, so I want to save it for that.

I would like to describe it well, but I also don't want it to fall into Purple Prose, as well, as that would seem kind of off considering the rest of the story isn't written that way.

"Which needs more emphasis: movement, placement, exchange, or resultant?"

This is the hardest question for me, and I think it could be why I haven't gotten anywhere on it in a while. I can't really tell which one should be emphasized more to show what I need.

The result is important in that I need it to wear Marisa down, but not be too much of a struggle.

The exchange is imortant in that Marisa nad Patchouli have a strong bond, and each for their own reason, have to defeat the other in order to keep the life they know from changing.

Movement and placement, are not as important, but need to be told in order to give the visualization that makes stories good to read. I'll probably put less detail into them as into the other two, though.

[Zer0Axiom]

If you're going to use my system of organizing battles, then I clarify some specifics.

Capturing the tension and maintaining the tension are two different schemes.  Since you'll be using a 3rd person dynamic, I would suggest keeping the empasis on the results of each attack.  Emotional conflict from not wanting to harm her friend but still needing to win can illustrate the point.

As an additional notation, "movement" is the simplest way to demonstrate "struggle".  It isn't that there is movement, it's in the nature of the movements.  The trick is to make passing mention of hesitation and points of reconsideration (doubts).

Just to round out the system: placement is followed exchange (either talking or attacking), that leads to movement (manuveurs or contemplations), then the resultant is shown (damage, fatigue, doubt, or whatever).  Skip steps as needed and the flow still moves along.

Hopefully, that'll offer more assistance without needing to delve into specifics.

[Zengar Zombolt]

I'm no writer, but a small Idea caught up to me, so anyone that feels like taking it, be my guest.
It's pretty much Touhou + Metal Wolf Chaos + GaoGaiGar + Megas XLR + Tomino directing. It was a dream, so that's all I remember.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Yuyuko decides she wants to dine on fairy. Not just any kind of fairy, though -- she wants to eat fairies of light. As a consequence, Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire find themselves fleeing the voracious ghost in ... Tasty and Nutritious Nature Deity!

[M. Burusu]

Yuyuko decides she wants to dine on fairy. Not just any kind of fairy, though -- she wants to eat fairies of light. As a consequence, Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire find themselves fleeing the voracious ghost in ... Tasty and Nutritious Nature Deity!

. . . Why do I get the feeling that this is you're-going-to-hell-for-that-worthy? Not that the idea doesn't sound rip-roaring hilarious (I'm sure that if it DID get written, it's be either a barrel of laughs or up there with Trilby's Notes), but still . . .

. . . And oh god. Chalk up another Crossover That Should Not Be Made . . . Chzo Mythos x Touhou Project. I don't even want to THINK about how that would work out (though I seem to get an unhealthy image of Youmu with a welding mask, apron, and machete . . . or stretched out way too tall; I'm also just now realizing that Mima and the Tall Man share a weapon...). PASS THE BRAIN BLEACH. The only good thing that could come out of that would be Marisa in a Trilby outfit.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Yuyuko decides she wants to dine on fairy. Not just any kind of fairy, though -- she wants to eat fairies of light. As a consequence, Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire find themselves fleeing the voracious ghost in ... Tasty and Nutritious Nature Deity!

. . . Why do I get the feeling that this is you're-going-to-hell-for-that-worthy? Not that the idea doesn't sound rip-roaring hilarious (I'm sure that if it DID get written, it's be either a barrel of laughs or up there with Trilby's Notes), but still . . .

Probably the pun on the "[Noun] and [Othernoun] Nature Deity" naming scheme. Though ZUN seems to have dropped that now ...

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I'm toying with this idea -- I posted a bit about it in the old thread, it's this cyberpunk-style story set 1000 years later, in which the Hakurei border is seemingly gone and youkai walk openly in the "Outside" World (there's nothing for it to be outside anymore). It would open with Mokou, arrested for the murder of Kaguya Houraisan; in the ensuing conversation with her jailers, it becomes clear that she is innocent, but her captors have a marked disinterest in her actual guilt or innocence, let alone the fact that Kaguya got up and walked away right after it happened.

We soon learn that Yuka Kazami basically rules the world from this Shinra-style corporation with a semi-iron fist, not outright beating people up in public with masked troopers, but sometimes, people ... disappear. This and other negatives aren't widely broadcasted, and she isn't feared exactly, but her YK emblem kind of makes people uneasy. It isn't all bad, though. Kazami Co. has completely and permanently blocked off passage to Makai, Jigoku, and other "dangerous" realms (more a PR move than an actual danger), and crime is ... well, it looks like it's down.

The biggest thorn in her side, now that she has captured Yukari Yakumo, is this thousand-year-old youkai-magician named Marisa Kirisame, who's been waging a private little war on Yuka's empire, along with her Kappa Corps (which contains several other youkai and humans -- unlike Kazami Co., it's an equal-opportunity employer). Yuka has been trying to brand Marisa's group as a terrorist, but only half the news stories about her tries to sell it, and only a quarter of the populace buys it. Yuka's defense is usually thorough enough that Kazami Co. and the Kappa Corps don't actually fight very often, but Yuka and Marisa have more intellectual struggles.

Marisa's ultimate goal, her biggest target, is a giant reactor Yuka built. The temperature at its core is usually around 7000 kelvins and never drops below 6561, but remarkably, the central chamber seems to require no coolant beyond low-level regulators. Why? Because of Kazami Co.'s best kept secret -- the youkai hidden inside the reactor's core. It is this youkai whom Marisa intends to free, and this will form the crux of the adventure. Along the way, we'll have a few visits to the moon, a large-scale assault with Makai's doll-army joining the Kappa Corps, a Thirty Xanatos Pileup or two ... The works.

[♛ Apher-Forte]

Just write that already Muffin!

I'D FUND IT

Mine idea:

In the star faring days of the future, when what seemed like the world has finally abandoned all notions of faith and look to science as the new world order, a secret little group of believers gather underground.

Unveiling before them, is Yukari's body.

Yukari in the hands of six humans was divided through separation, using modern medical technique she was disassembled into 6 sacred parts.

Elsewhere in a runic temple, a scientific temple to be exact, with some of the modern miracles all set up for display in the grandest manner, are another group of people, consisting of a human-pretender, a Kappa by the name of Nitori. The oldest of them all and still maintaining the youthful outlook of a girl with blue hair in a completely white ironed suit looks to the other 2 attendees of the meeting.

They are descendants of Maribel Han and Alice Margatroid, both bearing the same name, except for that, they both look very different from their ancestors.

"You are the last hope, restore the balance of nature, bring back the Chalice, bring back Yukari, and we can exist whole again." Nitori says.

Promptly, the two left the room.

In a pressing stage of time, they must reach the Chalice, Yukari herself before the parts are stowed away forever from the prying hands of the youkai.

'Free the Chalice, bring Havoc, bring Gensokyo back to life.'

Will they succeed?

[Apotheosis]

"Reimu Hakurei, shrine maiden. A woman barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild her. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic shrine maiden. Reimu Hakurei will be that woman. Better than she was before. Better, stronger, faster."

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR SHRINE MAIDEN

---

I've also been working on the concept of a Touhou story set predominantly outside of Gensokyo, involving a hit man occasionally hired by Yukari to do her dirty work. The basic premise is that Yukari is a powerful crime lord in our world, with a firm grip on the trade of illicit drugs and illegal firearms. When she needs to rub out the competition, she calls upon the services of her personal assassin. The story would follow his exploits.

I also think it would be cool if instead of one plotline throughout, each chapter would be one story, unconnected to the chapters before or after it, save for a few recurring themes and characters, sort of like the way a TV show is written.

But I still haven't figured out a title.

[Kuma]

Marisa/Yuka is on her period and flys over Gensokyo Fiering bloody master sparks from her vajayjay down at everyone.

[Graph]

So, after playing too much Super Robot Taisen, I got the urge to make a Touhou mecha story in graphic novel form.  As a starting point, I've decided it would be loosely based on the plot of SA, and will add the cast of the other games if it comes to that.  For those of you who frequent the image boards/ Danbooru, I was inspired by the work of yoshi tama, nekoguruma, and others.





Let it be known that I have almost no experience drawing mecha, so I may suck at this for a while... and maybe longer than that.  I'm trying to break my bad habit of getting too precious about things, and improve along the way rather than redrawing stuff tons of times.

I'm still in the ideas phase, trying to map out character relationships.  So far I'm thinking of putting the protagonists in two main crews: the ones originating in SA, and the usual heroine squad.  And again the Moriya group is the donor of power (ass-kicking mechs) with ulterior motives.

Questions, suggestions?

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Hmm.

"The Yama of Xanatos."