(Very short piece, or rather, chapter to begin with. Maybe the next ones will be shorter in comparison. Nevertheless, read, relax, critique and enjoy.)
[Disclaimer and Warning: This minor work is nothing more but a tribute to Team Shanghai Alice and their Touhou line of games. Any sale involving this work does not exist and should not happen, as it would be an outright breach of copyright laws. In other words, ZUN owns all characters and settings in this fanfiction that is connected to Touhou Project. I intend this to be read for free and it would always be like that.
Also, this work of fanfiction?s themes and content may not be suitable for younger audiences or people with certain sensitivities. Viewer discretion is advised.]
Speculations
Chapter 1: Character Use
The Scarlet Devil Mansion at night.
Clicks can be heard as Remila Scarlet, the vampire owning the mansion, gives all her focus on a bronze-embroidered LED screen placed at the Voile Library in which she plays Phantasmagoria of Flower View. Her character was the doll Medicine Melancholy, against Tewi Inaba, someone she considered as annoying in the game. She especially hated those orbs that the rabbit gives out as a character-specific bullet or quirk, and generally made her too frustrated to focus on the game, as Tewi herself personally played numerous pranks against her in the past, so as result, she?s the vampire?s training dummy whenever she feels like practicing her danmaku-dodging skills in the game. She remembers that time when a jarful of blood was offered to the Scarlet sisters as beverage, only to find out it was rice wine colored with the extracts of red flowers, one of the less cruel pranks she did to the household.
She was concentrating hard on all the bullets that were falling towards her, while generally trying to shoot the fairies coming from all sides of her playing field, in an effort to get more bullets towards the AI-controlled Tewi?s playfield. After a few minutes, however, she began to lose her patience and focus along with it, resulting in a crushing blow, as the bullets began to look like nightmare for her, making poor Medicine dive against the cluster of bullets right in front of her. When the results came up and her character was declared ?Dead Parrot? by the game, Remilia felt embittered by the clear decision. She then just opted to exit from the game to Windows, shut down the computer entirely and approach Lady Patchouli to talk about things like their dinner earlier or Meiling?s complaints about outsiders. While walking towards the table when the lady of the library is, the vampire was then struck by a question, something that bothered her about video games but she always put aside due to it being perceived by her as irrelevant.
The vampire mistress saw the lady of the library seated on a table where numerous books are placed, reading on a hardbound leather-jacketed brown book with the words ?History of African American Music: 1970s ? 2010s? written on it in legible golden letters. The reading woman immediately turned her head to see Remilia approaching, and then she greeted her.
?Good evening, Lady Remilia.? Patchouli nodded at her.
?Good evening, Miss Knowledge. How are you today?? the vampire replied as she takes a seat beside her, resting her elbows on the table and her chin on her palm.
?I?m fine as always, although I could say that my anemia seems to be getting worse.? She answered while having her eyes on the book and then turning to the next page. ?But then again, many of my fans are donating bags of blood for me. I?ve informed them that I don?t need that much blood to survive and most of it will just go to waste.?
?Oh.? Remilia expressed her slight surprise. ?So that?s why Flandre has her daily ration of beverages every day. So these fans do have their practical use after all.?
Patchouli nodded. ?That?s why fame is desired by many people, Milady. Fame and recognition gives you a lot of benefactors. The more famous you are, the more people will rally to your side when you cry for help. They will defend you and your ideals if they think you are being persecuted, and will butcher anyone who you declare as an enemy.? She then picked up a bookmark beside her and wedged it on the gutter between the two pages and finally closed the book, right before saying ?Such are the advantages of fame.? After that, she put the book down on table and pressed a few buttons on her chair?s armrest. The splat of the chair then started to tilt backwards and a footrest rose on her feet as she rested her back on the chair, and it stopped moving at a very comfortable position, somewhat akin to lounging. She then started to call out ?Kaokuma, It?s about time. Two bags for now.?
A girly voice replied from the dark of the library, saying ?Yes, Lady Knowledge.? Then footsteps can be heard, getting quieter on each step.
Remilia then asked her ?Well, speaking of fans, I really have something to ask. It?s not that too important but it does bother me a bit.?
?Go on, Milady. It?s my job in this mansion to solve problems.? Patchouli replied.
The vampire lady then posed her hands in front of her as if she was holding a small but not tiny box. ?You see?Can you tell me, Miss Knowledge: What comes to your mind when then say that a player is using your character in a certain game??
?Well, they are using my likeness and moveset in the game to represent themselves and their fighting style. What of it?? The librarian replied, as she laid herself on the chair to wait for Kaokuma.
?It?s just that?? Remilia slowly answered, then went on in her normal tone. ?It was really analogous with, you know, when married men talk amongst themselves about private matters with their wives and say ?I used my wife last night.? Doesn?t that feel a bit awkward??
Koakuma, a long-haired redhead imp with bat wings sprouting on her head and hips and wearing an office lady outfit, arrived in the scene with an IV stand, a medical bag and a cooler. Patchouli felt pleased as she saw the imp approaching beside her. The redhead then took a chair, placed it beside the librarian and sat on it. By the time that the imp is starting to tie a tourniquet on the librarian?s arm, Patchouli then turned her head to Remilia and answered ?So are you saying that, in your view, a player using me as his character in a game is like him having sexual intercourse with me??
?No. It?s just that it sounded like that and it is awkward.? The vampire cleared her statement up.
?Well, in this case, I could say that the context of using me in a video game and using me in the bed are very different. As I said it a while ago, in a game, you are being used by player as a representation or, more appropriately, an interface between his or herself and the game. He presses a button, and you will punch or fire a shot, depending on his favored control scheme. He will adapt your moveset and fighting style to do certain objectives in the game such as, for example, defeating an enemy. Of course, in choosing a playable character, the player should either choose a character that represents his or her play style well or he will need to study the fighting style of the character he chose. In short, the character and the player should be in sync with each others? styles for a successful and effective gameplay.? Patchouli explained, while baring her scholastic self, as Kaokuma inserts the hypodermic needle on one of her veins.
?Well in that case, it just makes it closer to an actual sexual intercourse, Miss Knowledge.? Remilia insisted.
Patchouli, while watching the whole process of the needle separating from the actual cannula, then opted to listen more. ?Do tell, Lady Remilia.? She said.
?You see, in the actual intercourse, the man and the woman have to be in harmony with each other while doing it. I?m not saying that I already did it and I have to admit that I have zero personal experience with this but in what I?ve read so far, the couple needs to know each other in order to achieve maximum satisfaction and pleasure. If everything that you said about the player needing to know the character?s style is true, then ?using? a character doesn?t just sound like you?re having sex with the character, it also acts like it. You?re making it sound as if millions of players using my character in the fighting games are also like having sex with me, all at once, Miss Knowledge.? Remilia said her argument.
?But Lady Remilia, there is a major difference between the deriving pleasure from gaming and sexual pleasure. You see, in sex, the interaction is between two people, they could adapt with each other overtime and there are no set commands in the act itself, the possibilities are virtually endless. That is the reason why there are so many sexual positions known to humanity. On the other hand, the interaction between the player and the character requires the player to adapt on the character rather than the two of them mutually adapting. The character has a set style and moves and it cannot change overtime, so the possibilities of movement made by this character, as inputted by the player, are limited. In other words, controlling a character isn?t the same as having sex because the two things have a lot of differences when it comes to possibilities.? By the time the librarian has done explaining her position, the blood transfusion has already started. Kaokuma has left the side of her immediate employer to go back to her work of checking the books.
?So that means, using, or rather, controlling your game character is like dominating the character. Is that right?? The mansion owner asked.
?Yes. But only because it will not move without any input.? The librarian retorted.
Remilia, at this point, wanted to argue that dominating the character is comparable to BDSM, but she realized that it would mean she is also arguing that whatever happens to the game character carrying the likeness of an existing person also happens to the person itself. Then, she also realized that it was already the driving force behind her questions, that she was worried that the phrase ?using a character? sounded as if a player somewhere is having sex with the person who the character carries his or her likeness. In other words, Remilia is almost to the point of believing that whatever happens to her character in the games also happens to her in reality.
After realizing this, she just laughed at herself for being bothered by such introspection, which just turned out to be too silly for her liking. However, there is another question that bothered her, which was related to the previous question regarding character use. And then, both she and Patchouli suddenly heard the sound of a little girl?s giggling, which, although sparse in frequency, seems to approach their way. And as the giggling gets closer, sounds of crashing and rock music can also be barely heard. And there it was, a blond haired little girl, with a red dress and a pink cap, with wings seemingly made of iron and colored glass shards. The little girl was playing on her PSP, while flying her way to the library table, which was the source of the barely audible heavy guitar strumming and crashing sounds.
The little girl was Flandre, Remilia?s little sister, playing Burnout Legends on her PSP, in Road Rage mode. She giggled every time she destroyed a car, whenever if it was hers or her opponent?s cars.
?What brings you here, Flandre?? Patchouli asked her.
?Nothing, Miss Knowledge. I just got bored at my cage, so I decided to walk around our mansion.? Flandre answered mindlessly, as she is focused at her game. Again, she laughed in a silly tone after she crashed another car in the game.
?Looks like those games made you cheerful today, Flandre. So it wasn?t such a bad idea to bring them in the mansion after all.? The elder vampire commented on what she observed. She then asked her little sister ?Flandre, have you taken your meds now??
?Yes, big sister! And I feel so much better with those magic pills!? The younger vampire smiled at her elder sibling. ?I want to thank Miss Yagokoro for those medicines.? Then she went back to smashing her virtual cars and giggling. Flandre then sat beside her elder sister, tilting the screen towards Remilia, so that she could watch and observe. She did become a spectator to her game, as Flandre expected or intended. While watching, the elder vampire did immerse herself into the roads of the game, as her little sister drove the sharp-looking car brashly and deliberately bumped it against the other racing cars, resulting in the car?s mangled form.
After a few minutes of her watching the racing game, Remilia began to ask Flandre a question. ?Flandre,? she said. ?What do you feel when someone uses your character in a game??
?I don?t know.? She shrugged while still on her gaming focus. ?What do I know about it? If they think I could make them win, then I?ll be happy a bit, but it doesn?t make a difference since I?m not the character inside the game. And besides, I don?t know any official games I am in as a character, maybe fan made ones.?
?Well, what if they are using your character because of their malicious fantasy?? Remilia asked her once again.
?Then how would we know that? Only Lady Komeji can read minds, big sister. Whatever their intentions for using my character, I couldn?t know and control anymore, so I wouldn?t care anymore too. Right, Big Sister?? Flandre answered as she looked directly at her and smiled sweetly for a few seconds, then she was back to the game.
For Remilia, Flandre made a good point about being used as a character in video games, as if she was told by her younger sibling to calm down and stop asking questions about it. Again, the vampire mistress? inquiries are nothing but questions made from curiosity, so she decided to go for Flandre?s answer and stop there. Realizing this, Remilia simply answered ??Well, yes.? with a shrug.
The young mistress then stopped watching her sister play Burnout and instead picked a book from the table, sat comfortably and started reading on the first page.
