[!/] Wash your hand on this whole business and go back to Eientei.

This bad end, it was made for me.

Wait. Why are we going to do work for Marisa and hunt down Alice when we turned down a free ride on easy street to do precisely this not even 2 updates ago? Are we fucking mental? Maybe we should start acting the part.

[x] "HOLY SHIT YOU'RE DRESSED LIKE A WITCH."
[x] Burst out in hysterical laughter.
[x] Pause, glance at her broom.
[x] "AND YOU EVEN HAVE A BROOM AND YOU USE IT TO FLY!"
[x] More hysterical laughter.

But no, seriously.

[x] Wash your hand on this whole business and go back to Eientei

Fuck this noise. We're going to wind up wasting the day doing an obscene amount of manual labor only to find out that we either didn't have to, or Marisa doesn't know as much as she lets on. Why bother?

[x] Wash your hand on this whole business and go back to Eientei

[X] Leave this hellhole and hope Mokou can help you

I'm tempted to write off Marisa as simply saying Alice is mad at us and is really just venting her frustrations at no longer having Alice to herself and whatnot onto us, but then again we DID sort of leave her to ultimately wind up back at Eientei, failing not only to go to our job but also meeting her back at that house again. Mind you, this is all after she expressed how worried she was about us disappearing and what danger we were in due to our hosts that it compelled us to make sweet, sweet whoopie to her, and we basically disregarded it to spend time watching Kaguya sleep and having...whatever the hell it was that we did with Eirin. And then, Marisa comes to find us, possibly after Alice expressed concern for us, only to find that not only were we apparently fine, we didn't even want to go with her.

Of course, I don't know how much Marisa's heart was in it, or whether she didn't "enhance" what she told Alice about us. I would think if Alice were worried, and Marisa was acting in her friend's best interest, she might have not given up on busting us out as easily as she did.
I mean, really, since when was Marisa ever one for giving up? Or subtlety, for that matter?

Still, Alice probably isn't too happy with us, either way. After expressing her worries to us, we completely disregarded them and continued acting as we pleased.

It's not too surprising, though. After all, we've done something to piss off pretty much everybody else that we consider our friend at one point or another. After all this time, Alice was probably starting to feel left out.

I can't help but wonder if Kaguya knew things would turn out like this somehow. We lost our job. Our girlfriend is quite possibly mad at us. And the only other friends we have on the outside tend to cause us pain and trouble, and we wind up having to do things for them to stay on their good side. Our reasons for straying from Eientei seem to be decreasing by the minute.

After all, did Kaguya demand we give her some token gift to earn her forgiveness after the Bible Black incident? Did Reisen beat the tar out of us or attempt to work us like a dog for violating her privacy by barging into her room and going through her things in our search for clothes? NO. We worked through our conflicts by talking with them, by explaining our respective sides and working through our differences. Unlike some other people we know, they have never conditioned their forgiveness of us on our ability to do something for them. Despite all of our idiotic and downright self-destructive actions, they have never rejected us or made us to feel unwelcome there.

Still, I want to try at least seeing if there is any help at all we could hope to get from Mokou. The way things have been going so far, I somehow doubt it, but if that's the case that's just one more reason to just forget all about this and resume our NEET lifestyle at Kaguya's side.

As for Marisa, the only thing she shall be getting from us is a hearty "Fuck you, and the broom you rode in on."

So we choose to leave Eientei and the talk with Kaguya just to now go back to Eientei?

[x] Wash your hand on this whole business and go back to Eientei

Fine with me

>>12445

I have no idea what's going on anymore. I vote we just walk back and forth between the village and eientei until we pass out and die from exhaustion.

I mean honestly? We've wasted potential either way. We should never have gone to the village after turning down Marisa's offer. If we wanted to go see Alice, that was the time to do so. Wasting time with Marisa isn't going to get us anything at this point. Our option to seek out Mokou is no better. In fact, I'm sick of both of them. Every time we interact with either we wind up losing a shitload of time for nothing.

That's why I voted to just say "Fuck it" and go home. Even if we eventually meet Alice we have no pressing need to do so. We SHOULD check up and such, but if we were at all worried about maintaining a relationship with her, we've done a piss poor job at showing it. (surprise)

>>12447
It's like I said before, we royally suck at committing to a particular course of action.
If we were serious about sticking to Alice like glue, like we apparently were when we opted to go with her back to Marisa's, we would have headed straight back to her the second we found out Mokou basically got us a day off from school, not spent the rest of the day hanging out in Kaguya's room, followed by spending the rest of the night with the good doctor.

What's most amazing to me is that so few have apparently caught on to the fact that this half-assed flip-flopping we've been doing for much of the story has never worked to our advantage. I mean, I know Anon is generally a slow learner with the attention-span and memory of a goldfish, but REALLY now. Even a mouse eventually learns to stop doing something if they get electrocuted every time they do it.

[] Do what she asks of you

Bridge mendan gaems. Besides, it's time Anon learned to go with the consequences of his past indecision.

>>12449
To be fair, in this case it feels less like a consequence of Anon's indecision, and more like a consequence of Marisa being a petty bitch.

Her supposed friend is worried for the man she loves, and rather than help her by getting them together she's wasting time by trying to force him into doing some menial task to make up for some perceived slight that she didn't even seem all that bothered by when it happened.

In fact, I don't think it's even about us refusing to go with her. I mean, really:
>>?I'll pass."
>>?Wha- pass?" She shows a bit of confusion on her face for an instant before returning to her usual confident expression. "Are you sure?"
>>"Yeah."
>>?Suit yourself then. Can't say that I didn't try."
>>Without even even saying goodbye, she turns tail and leaves just as quickly as she came.

Seriously, is there even the slightest indication that she even gave a shit about us turning her down there? Yet suddenly it's now some grave insult. She doesn't care about making things "good" between us, she just wants us to jump through her little hoops.

To hell with mending this bridge. She seems to want it to fall apart, so I say just let that fucker burn.

[x] Wash your hand on this whole business and go back to Eientei

I'll pass on being her merry little maid despite our namesake. Also don't feel like being Mokou's chewtoy for now.

>>12444

Forgot your trip, Teruyo?

>>12448
I think the biggest problem is that NOTHING seems like a good idea at this point. Go talk to Alice about what she found out? Whoops, she doesn't have her notes and is exhausted from making love (which she really needed). Try to get somewhere with Kaguya? Whoops, she passed out. Go back and try to wake her up? Oh hey the whole substitute teacher deal was pointless now for unexplained reasons and you should never leave Eientei again. Go talk to Eirin? Whoops, she just wants to have some kind of insane drugged-out sex that takes the entire rest of the day somehow (wasn't it still before lunchtime when we went there?) and leaves us with no time to see Alice.

Going with Marisa should have been obvious, but unfortunately the voting was open for an hour and 4 of the 5 voters around at the time were fucking idiots. There wasn't even any reason given for declining, did you dumbshits even THINK? And now the other voters try to do damage control and go see Alice anyway, and we run into this bullshit.

Not going with her should've been a BAD END somehow. When's the last time you bad ended this shit, Teruyo? About 50 bad decisions ago? It's no wonder they never learn.

>>12454
>>Not going with her should've been a BAD END somehow. When's the last time you bad ended this shit, Teruyo? About 50 bad decisions ago? It's no wonder they never learn.

I'd like to believe that, despite what we might think at times, that it means we haven't screwed up badly enough to warrant getting Bad End-ed.

As for those other things, even if Alice didn't immediately yield much information, don't you think we might have actually learned something if we could have bothered to stick around and waited for her to wake up? If thing were still unclear after speaking to Kaguya, don't you think we could have either been more insistent when talking to Eirin, or actually LISTENED to what the moon-doctor told us and went back to talk to Kaguya again?
For that matter, if we didn't want whatever happened with Eirin to happen, don't you think we could have opted to NOT egg her on?

Face it, whatever poor luck we may have had in the past regarding things not yielding positive results, in this case I think much more of the blame falls upon us for not bothering to wait long enough for the results to even turn up. As has been said in another story, patience IS a virtue. One that too many of us here sadly seem to lack.

As for the attempt at "damage control," despite what you seem to think the best way to do such a thing most likely is NOT to immediately perform a full 180 and go the opposite way.
Think of it as like a skidding car. The most effective means of regaining control is not to turn away from the skid, as someone might be naturally inclined to do, but to turn INTO the skid. In other words, rather than attempting to nullify whatever vote you found undesirable, a more effective method of "damage control" would be to go along whichever track it set you upon and try to glean whatever information you can from that until the next ideal opportunity to shift gears arises.

All this immediate shifting from wanting to do something to not wanting to do something to doing something that accomplishes exactly the same thing you said you didn't want to do a minute ago accomplishes is making Shirou the indecisive, attention-span-deficient idiot he has become known as.

>>Not going with her should've been a BAD END somehow. When's the last time you bad ended this shit, Teruyo? About 50 bad decisions ago? It's no wonder they never learn.

I'm convinced at this point that I don't even really care anymore. A bad end would be preferable to the endless indecisive wandering that we insist on doing, and that Teruyo insists on supporting/encouraging. At least a bad end indicates progress was being made, even if it was negative. As is, we just keep running into speed bumps, and each time we lose huge amounts of time, ultimately resulting in some time-sensitive issue (Like being with Alice, or going to teach) going sour, which then requires us to waste EVEN MORE time trying to repair those, and then someone else will become angry with us and this whole thing just fucking snowballs into one spectacular out of control flaming trainwreck.

As is, this story is just so long and meandering that I'm hard pressed to remember what we have to do or why - and I can't be alone in that regard.

In before Teruyo blames us for not being able to prioritize, even though we're given no pressing incentive to do so. (i.e. there's no premise here, the world's not ending and we're given no reason to move towards one goal. 'figuring things out' doesn't count as a goal when we don't care about what is going on.)

>Go talk to Eirin? Whoops, she just wants to have some kind of insane drugged-out sex that takes the entire rest of the day somehow

I can't see anything bad about this. Become her test subject should be the goal.

Or maybe we just need a flowchart so that we know what route to take. But even then we will screw up.

tl;dr
The BAD END is shaping up to insane proportions. Kira is gonna be proud.

>>12455
>even if Alice didn't immediately yield much information, don't you think we might have actually learned something if we could have bothered to stick around and waited for her to wake up?
Hey, that's a good idea, I would have voted for that if WE WERE EVEN GIVEN THE FUCKING CHOICE. >>12112

But no, we have to keep trying to be responsible and going to our job which it turns out doesn't even matter. Or maybe it did matter, but we missed whatever vague unknowable good thing that would have occurred had we shown up every day, rather than trying to also pursue opportunities to find some kind of answers to the vague conspiracy that wants to do something vaguely bad to us in some vague way. Not like we'll ever know, unless Teruyo comments on it outside of the story like he did with the whole hallucinations and sick rabbits thing that also doesn't matter at all anymore.

>if we didn't want whatever happened with Eirin to happen, don't you think we could have opted to NOT egg her on?
I think anon's grasping for whatever pleasure they can get out of this story before SNOW END. Of course, this is punishable by making us lose an entire day and missing even more appointments/opportunities.


At this point I can only think of two things that might be constructive:
1. Find out what Alice knows
2. Talk to Kaguya again and again and again until we somehow get her to tell us what the fuck is going on, because she's the only one who's ever told us anything that came close to seeming like some kind of IMPORTANT FACTUAL INFORMATION RELEVANT TO THE PLOT. And the only thing I can think of is the existence of this bullshit job sidequest. Which may have been a lie anyway.

Do we know anything at this point? Anything at all? Do we have a single goddamn solid fact that we know is actually true, an axiom that we can build our knowledge from and plan our future actions around?

CURRENTLY RELEVANT FACTS:
? Kaguya, our internet friend, brought us to Gensokyo somehow. (self-evident)
[a dozen threads of wandering and befriending later]
? Some mysterious power in Gensokyo is demanding that we find something constructive to do. (Kaguya) (may be a lie)
[two dozen threads of confusion and paranoia later]
? Kaguya and Eirin have "some sort of agenda" that involves us...probably. (self-evident, also confirmed by Alice)
? We no longer have to worry about doing our job (which we were fired from anyway) to please this mysterious power, as long as we stay in Eientei. (Kaguya) (may be further lies)

Am I missing anything? If you can add to this list, please do. Any other clues I can think of (Kaguya's story, the thing in the lake, etc.) have been vague and possibly irrelevant. Everything else we've ever done has only seemed to serve the purpose of changing people's opinions of us, if anything. Usually for the worse.

What are we doing? What are we supposed to be doing? What is this story even about?

>>Hey, that's a good idea, I would have voted for that if WE WERE EVEN GIVEN THE FUCKING CHOICE. >>12112

You mean like we were given in the VERY NEXT POST? >>12146
And the one after THAT? >>12184

We were given not one, but TWO chances (in a row, no less) to go back to Alice after we went to see Kaguya, and as far as I can tell there was not a single person who voted for such a course of action.

It's fine if you don't like the direction we've taken, but don't go misplacing blame and complaining about not having a chance to change things when we clearly were given chances to do just that.

>>Talk to Kaguya again and again and again until we somehow get her to tell us what the fuck is going on, because she's the only one who's ever told us anything that came close to seeming like some kind of IMPORTANT FACTUAL INFORMATION RELEVANT TO THE PLOT. And the only thing I can think of is the existence of this bullshit job sidequest. Which may have been a lie anyway.

There's this too, I feel that whenever we FINALLY get around to talking to someone who SHOULD be able to answer our questions they give us some vague and meaningless banter. Either that, or something else entirely comes up.

"Oh hey Alice, I'm seriously freaking out and shit. I think you can answer a lot of my questions and maybe set this story back on trac-"
"Please, make love to me"
"[x] Make love to Alice"

And that's just one of the more recent examples.

Kaguya has proven to be nothing but a worthless plot device, insistent on making us do things without any good god-damned reason. I have no idea how to deal with her because she makes no sense at all whatsoever. We don't know why she brought us here, why she told us to get a job, or why she told us to quit our job. There are countless other moments where she's been incredibly difficult to read in general, but I'll be damned if I can remember them anymore.

Half the time I can't tell if she's being tsundere or just a manipulative bitch.

>>Kaguya has proven to be nothing but a worthless plot device, insistent on making us do things without any good god-damned reason. I have no idea how to deal with her because she makes no sense at all whatsoever. We don't know why she brought us here, why she told us to get a job, or why she told us to quit our job. There are countless other moments where she's been incredibly difficult to read in general, but I'll be damned if I can remember them anymore.

>>Half the time I can't tell if she's being tsundere or just a manipulative bitch.

Uh? Hello? Princess with a history of showing her lack of interest in her suitors by sending them off on impossible tasks that ultimately wind up destroying them rather than simply saying "no" to them?

Being a manipulative bitch is pretty much her "thing". Why anyone should be SURPRISED by this, I do not understand.

>>12466
No shit. The question is, what do we DO about it?

>>12467
Who says we need to do anything?
If she wanted us out of the picture, there are no end to the ways she could have done it. Hell, if anyone there wanted to harm us, there's not a damn thing we could hope to do to stop them. But so far, there's nothing to show that anyone there has tried to do anything to hurt us, least of all Kaguya.

In fact, the only sign that something potentially sinister is even going on is the fact that Tewi hasn't been seen by even Reisen after she had agreed to do some recon for us, but for all we know she may have somehow been caught by some of those nutjobs from the tavern. Oh, and possibly that bit with Patchy where she flat-out said we were being manipulated, but as she couldn't even speculate as to how or why we were being manipulated, there's no telling if it's anything truly harmful to us or not.

For all we know, this whole thing might just have been a ploy by Kaguya to keep us to herself by forcing us to venture away from our past NEET lifestyle with the full expectation that we would bomb horribly and not want to so much as set foot outside again, least of all in a land full of creatures that could easily kill us. Just as she had become a shut-in to hide from anyone from the moon who would have come looking for her, we would become a shut-in hiding from a world that we had no place in, with her the only one in this strange land who cared about us and understood us. But then we just HAD to go and pooch the whole deal by not sucking at our job, making new friends, and even finding a girlfriend. Or I could be horribly off the mark, as I tend to be. Who knows?

It's a shame that we'll probably come to an end without fully grasping Kaguya's motives behind all of this, but then there's always the next round. Assuming there even is one, of course.

Hi, I just blew in from /th/. Since the pond is drying up there, I thought I'd go out, for once, come here, and see what's good and cooking.

I read the OP, Teruyo, entry above and think it sounds good, that Anonymous hasn't goldfished this story, and that it wouldn't be too stressful to vote alongside the people already involved. Then I read everything that's come after that post. I mean, dear god, people ...

>>12469
You've just got to take it in stride. All discussion is healthy in my opinion. Who knows? Maybe, as unlikely as it may be, anon will reach an understanding.

>>12460 (I'm assuming you're >>12465 >>12456 >>12454 and maybe others - Just lumping together a partial reply)
I think I'm entitled to occasionally express that it's less than ideal that you keep flip-flopping around. You complain about lack of choice and dialog and instead 'losing' most of a day. But whenever it's time for dialog, discussion, or whatever, I always give multiple choices and encourage write-ins and combination of votes. If you don't believe look at the last conversation with Eirin, Kaguya, even Alice. It's been like that since, well, always (or recent memory at least). The fact that you're satisfied with a vague answer (at the time), refuse to go have a follow-up convesation, ping-pong between people is not necessarily my fault. That isn't to say I'm blameless either. But when you vote to not go with Marisa, then not see Kaguya, and then not try to see Alice - all in a row - it's hard to place the blame on me.

Yes, I believe that you ought have stuck with one thing, be it talking to Alice, or Kaguya, or squeezing the truth out of Eirin. But, ultimately, in spite of your indecisiveness, things will at least sort of fall into place (as evidenced by the next scene, which I'm still writing).

Not every choice ends up with half of the day gone. Especially not dialog choices. It's just the choices that do (BECOMING A PLAYTHING FOR EIRIN IS ONE OF THOSE). Just what's wrong about losing a day anyways? It's not the end of the world. Sure the story may be ending relatively soon but that's not tied to day x. A single day can be stretched out or compressed as much as I need for narrative purposes. Some of the earlier days were stretched out a lot.

And as for the point of this story. Well... most of the other routes have much more marked goals and objectives. I guess an abstract objective would be finding happiness and peace of mind (without spoiling anything). But it's always going to be more about interpersonal relationships than, say, finding Yamashita's gold (turns out it was buried in Gensokyo instead of the Philippines - that's why no one has found it yet). Quests and all such. And if you don't like how the story has essentially become a chronicle relating coming to grips with existing in Gensokyo, well then at least the characters should be interesting. You can see different facets and motivations that may tie in to other routes. Insight, if you will.

Damn, I've babbled on much longer than I planned to originally. I dunno what else to say to you. Convince others to push from the same direction as you and I guarantee most of your complaints will be gone. Well, steering the story at this point can only lead to very few different places. But it's advice for the general attitude.

And as for long-winded anon, I'll skip on replying to your posts. Wasted enough time not writing and there's nothing that crucial there.

>>12470
I was two of those, I didn't reply to my own posts.

>The fact that you're satisfied with a vague answer (at the time), refuse to go have a follow-up convesation
Because it feels like we aren't getting anywhere with anyone. How many times do we have to vote to talk to Kaguya before we find out something instead of her just falling asleep or kicking us out of her room? Would that time have been better spent with Alice, or Mokou, or someone? There's no way to tell. Nobody can agree on a course of action because we have nothing to go on but vague hints and theories, and everyone is coming up with different answers on what the best course of action would be.

>But when you vote to not go with Marisa, then not see Kaguya, and then not try to see Alice - all in a row - it's hard to place the blame on me.
Stop letting it happen! You shouldn't even give the voters the opportunity to constantly contradict themselves. It's completely insane and it deadlocks the story.

The best way to deal with this (besides giving us any solid information at all about what the plot even is, so we can figure out what the fuck to do next) would be to make choices more about strategy. We're voting on tactics now, this is like an army platoon lost without a map or a radio taking a vote every half-hour on whether to go left, right, or straight. Of course we're going in circles. We need to come up with a plan.

>I guess an abstract objective would be finding happiness and peace of mind (without spoiling anything).
See, that's ridiculous. We have no idea how much danger we're in from Kaguya or a mysterious power or anyone, and we can't even agree on what would make us happy. The goal can't be that vague, we need something tangible, we need purpose.

HY just set ADP aside for the exact same reason, we had no real goal in the story and the voters were trying to head in every direction at once. We've been doing that for 34 threads here and we've gotten absolutely nowhere plotwise. The only goal we've ever been given - find and keep a job - has just been negated. What the hell should we do now?

>>Stop letting it happen! You shouldn't even give the voters the opportunity to constantly contradict themselves. It's completely insane and it deadlocks the story.

But if he did that, wouldn't people start complaining and accusing him of railroading us? We'd be going from people having a problem with being given too many choices to not having enough choices.

The problem isn't the person giving the options, it's the idiots who keep picking them. If we want to drop a particular line of inquiry with a certain person in favor of pursuing a different one with someone else, we should be able to. So long as it's done only occasionally, and we take the time to actually going down whatever path we switched to, it shouldn't be a problem. The fact of the matter is that we do it far too much, and so it is a problem.

It's like we keep making right turns because we can't decide which direction we want to drive in, and so we ultimately just keep going around the same block over and over without getting anywhere else. It's our own fault if we can't pick a way to go and stick with it, and I don't think closing off avenues until we have no choice but to go one particular way is the best way to fix things.

>>We're voting on tactics now, this is like an army platoon lost without a map or a radio taking a vote every half-hour on whether to go left, right, or straight. Of course we're going in circles. We need to come up with a plan.

Generally, the first plan a platoon would come up with is how to figure out where they are, and gain any intel they can so they can figure out which way they need to go. If they can't be bothered to try to pursue even that much information without a map and someone to guide them, they pretty much deserve to be lost and wandering aimlessly.

For instance, if we had really cared about however much danger we might be in from Eientei, then for starters we might have wanted to take one of the two chances we were given to go back to Marisa's and see Alice after we had gone to visit Kaguya and finally find out what she knows. Or gone with Marisa when she had come for us.

Frankly, I have to question just why on earth we went back to Eientei in the first place, since the whole point of going with Alice was we'd rather deal with Marisa making fun of us than risking death by going back there.
...and then we went right back there. To a place that Alice had expressed she was worried for our very life just by being there.

If you want a strategy, I can think of two particular good ones. Either:

A.) We stick with Eientei, poke around in every nook and cranny we can find, and pump everyone there for whatever information we possibly can, and perhaps get Kaguya or someone to spill the beans on whatever they've been up to, no matter how many tries it might take.

Or:
B.) Stick with Alice, find out what she knows, what she thinks we should do, and stay the hell away from Eientei at all costs unless absolutely necessary. If we have to jump through a few hoops due to our indecisiveness to get back to her, then so be it.

It's time to either shit or get off the pot, folks.

>>12478
That "let the voters dig themselves into a hole" attitude just gets you another MiG. That isn't satisfying for anyone involved.

>It's like we keep making right turns because we can't decide which direction we want to drive in, and so we ultimately just keep going around the same block over and over without getting anywhere else.
You have 4 people in the car. Each person wants to go to a different place on a different side of the block. Every time you reach one of the destinations, you take a vote: 1 for staying there, 3 to keep going and turn right. Turning right always wins.

We have it worse - more voters, secret ballot, different people voting at different times of the day. Nobody has a good argument to convince other voters to agree on one path, because we don't have enough information to even establish an argument. You tried to make a suggestion, and even you can't decide between two alternatives. How can you expect varying selections of voters to do any better?

We're deadlocked. The writer has failed to give the story any discernable direction and the voters are unable to provide one. You can't just blame the voters for that.

I have a goal, plain and simple. Kaguya, Kaguya, Kaguya and more Kaguya. And sometimes Eirin.
Whenever an option is for going in that direction i vote for it. But i am the only one. And when there is no vote for that i just don't vote, like with the Alice faggotry.

[x] Wash your hand on this whole business and go back to Eiente

"I'll be going now." You tell Marisa. Enough is enough.
"Gosh, you're an idiot."
"I hope you have a nice day too." You wave and turn your back on her.
"You're going even though you'll miss out on Alice?" She mumbles loud enough for you to hear.
"..."You wait for a moment in on her front step, waiting to see if she'll add anything else.

She doesn't say anything else. You shrug your shoulders before deciding to leave for good. You close the door behind you and don't look back. You do wonder if she's maybe looking out through her window. Or heck, it'd be nice to understand once in a while just what goes on through her head.

You think about if you made the right choice all the way home. You did want to see Alice, but by having your time squandered by some insane girl beforehand. You'll think of something later.

Back at Eientei, you find yourself huffing and steaming by yourself in your room. It's too early to have dinner and you can't find anything to distract you. Even your usual pastime of playing with Albion doesn't seem very appealing. The doll makes you think about Alice, so you leave her stowed away somewhere where you can't see her. Not being able to bear the entrapment of your quarters, you eventually go think out in the courtyard.

Staring blankly at the somewhat cloudy sky, time passes by. When you look to the side you discover that you're not alone. It startles you a bit, just a moment ago you were sure that there was no one there.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you?" It's Kaguya. She half-smiles, obviously having expected you to have become startled.
"Not really. I just didn't expect anyone to be there."
"I've been here for a while, you know. You've just been staring at the sky for a while now."
"Is that a fact?" You half-mumble, lazily turning your look skyward again.

The sound of footsteps on gravel. Kaguya sits next to you. You're in no mood to talk to her. You're in no mood to talk to anyone.

"..."Neither you nor her say anything.

You take a glimpse at her from the corner of your eye. She's not even looking at you. She's looking at the sky. You try to ignore her the best you can, but eventually you become too self-conscious to remain silent.

"What do you want?" You sound as about as grumpy as you are.
"...Can't I look up at the sky in my courtyard in my home whenever I want to?" Her answer bothers you.

You start to get up.

"Oh, don't be like that," She stops you from getting up, "I just happened to pass by and saw that you were moping about."
"Alone."
"Yes, alone." It sounds to you like she's chastising you a bit. "It'll do you no good to keep everything to yourself. Now come on, tell me what's wrong."
"...fine." You had contemplated acting like a difficult child. But you doubt Kaguya would play the role of the doting mother. She knows you too well.

She listens to you silently as you sum up your feelings. You start with how Marisa just burst into your room in the morning. You tell her about school and how you're no longer a teacher. You expected some sort of comment from her, instead all you get is a sympathetic nod. You continue, finally relating the immediate events that led to the present. You anxiously try to get her input.

"So?" Fair is fair, you blabbed, you want her opinion.
"We all have days like these." She offers the most generic support possible.
"That's it?"
"It made you feel better just sharing what happened with me, didn't it? Does it really matter what I have to say?"
"I guess I do feel a bit better." She's right, you do feel a bit better. "But I'm still upset."
"It's understandable. Just vent and I'll listen."
"Well, I think that that stupid magician finally got to me. I can see her stupid grin every time I close my eyes. I honestly don't know what her deal is. Does she just hate me? Or does she just really like toying around with me?"
"Well, I think that it would be very clear to you if she hated you."
"And you say that from experience?"
"I guess you could say that." Kaguya looks at you. "But I was thinking more about you. I don't think you'd associate with people that hated you. You'd definitely pick up on the clues."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better." In this context, it almost feels like she's somehow insulting you.
"I was just telling you that your gut feeling is a good indicator." She looks up at the sky again, almost sighing. "I suppose trustworthiness and such are more difficult to categorize than by how your gut feels."
"I suppose that's why it's hard to decide what her angle is."
"Angle...?" Kaguya asks herself, letting out a soft sigh.

You take the opportunity to question her. It's obvious that she has something on her mind. It's not fair that she interrupt your sulking. You should at the very least return the favor.

"Does that, for some reason, remind you of something?" You ask.
"Nothing important."
"Come now, that's not fair. If you don't tell me, I'm going to go to my room and feed off of my despair." It's not a good threat, but you're not sure how to wrestle this out of her.

She looks at you for a moment. Her bottom lip quivers and she frowns for an instant. She decides something in her mind and then begins to speak. Her first words show just the slightest bit of hesitation.

"Well... this is actually related to your magician. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring it up. Still, I can't help but to bring it up since you mentioned something about an angle. So I'll ask: has she ever expressed interest in lunarian culture? Asked you questions?"
"Eh? Marisa, lore? As in mythology and stories? No never."
"Asked about anything related to Eientei or Lunarians?"
"Not that I can think of... why?"
"This morning, one of the items in storage went missing. Eirin told me that the room it was in was broken into."
"And you think that she might have done it?"
"Well, it just seems awfully strange for it to be a coincidence."

You've seen the black-white devil in action. A little breaking and entering is nothing for her and her horrible kleptomania. It isn't that far-fetched.

"What went missing?"
"A small container. From what Eirin told me it probably held diagrams or schematics of sorts."
"Of what?"
"I'm not too sure, truth be told. It could be anything from a common lamp to something magical in nature." She places a hand on her chin. "And in any case, this is all just hearsay. We have no evidence. We've never had anyone steal anything before. I shouldn't imply that that girl had anything to do with this."
"Oh, it's understandable. Don't worry about it."
"Well I do. I really wouldn't enjoy seeing you being toyed around with just so someone else can profit."

You sit up. You're trying to think what Marisa could want with anything from the moon. That is, assuming it was her.

"Are you sure it wasn't a book? I've seen her swipe those en masse. Anything related to magical knowledge?"
"I really don't know. It could be something like that. But, there's something that you should understand. Lunarian magic isn't really copied down into books - that would be mostly useless. At most only catalogs are made. For all effects what's written down is practical applications and how to make things. You know, power sources, automatons, and the like."
"I see. Then she really wouldn't have a reason to steal anything like that."
"Perhaps I'm not explaining properly." She closes her eyes. "I think Eirin is better at this sort of thing. Let's just say that there isn't really a fixed line in between magic and technology."
"...It's hard for me to imagine."
"It's not just you." She laughs softly. "I would like to ask something of you though."
"Yes?"
"If possible, don't associate with her any more. She's nothing but trouble."
"Marisa?" Well, yeah. But... ?Is being that radical about it necessary."
"Has associating with her thus far brought anything positive? Just think of it as a precaution."

Well, she is a connection to Alice. And that's something.

"You don't have to commit to anything right now." She tries to seem like she's putting zero pressure on you. She somehow pulls off not overtly applying pressure. "It's just something to think about."

She stands up.

"Listen, I've got to do something now. But come to dinner and we'll talk more afterwards." She shows you a warm smile before she walks away. "Okay?"
"Okay."

You watch her as she goes back inside and disappears into the building. Talking to her has improved your mood vastly. You get up and head back to your room. Damn stones were hurting your rear end anyhow.

There's still a lot of time before dinner and you've got to waste the time somehow. You'd need to focus in order to play with Albion. There's quite a bit on your mind.

[] Take a quick nap until dinner
[] Focus your energies into playing with your doll
[] Think about and analyze the last couple of talks with Kaguya
[] See if you can't investigate more about the stolen item
----
This is an admitedly pretty worthless (plotwise) vote. I mean sure, it can add some flavor, but it's just here mostly because I'm too tired to write more. Anyway you go, I'll try to make it interesting. And it'll all lead to dinner.

>>12477
>>12478
I think that not much else can be said without falling back on the same points. So I'll just say that I'm a very flexible person. I learn and adapt, catering to the crowd, fixing things, etc. I can't apply all of the lessons learned right now since it'd be a bit jarring but they'll definitely be included in the future. From experimenting with the writing style to tailoring a custom experience. So I'll ask that anon trust me either way and bear with me for now. Things can only improve.

>>12481
Harsh. I'm afraid that if you're going to assume that position nothing that I can say or do will make it better.

>>12482
Well, you must understand that there's 0% chance for a romantic ending with either at this point in time, don't you? There's nothing wrong with enjoying interacting with them but I just hope you aren't misled. They'll have their moments in other playthroughs.

[] See if you can't investigate more about the stolen item

HEY MAYBE THIS IS OF SOME IMPORTANCE?

I reckon Alice swiped it as Marisa made a distraction and the item in question would've revealed a great deal about....something.

[X] Think about and analyze the last couple of talks with Kaguya

>>You tried to make a suggestion, and even you can't decide between two alternatives.

Excuse me, but did I ever say anything about being unable to decide? I merely was pointing out what I considered to be the two best courses of action for the sake of narrowing down our options. Just something for others to consider, not a suggestion that we go one way or the other.

As for myself, I have already decided. Whether anyone else goes along the same lines is out of my hands.

[x] See if you can't investigate more about the stolen item

[!/] See if you can't investigate more about the stolen item.

[x] Focus your energies into playing with your doll
It might not be good to bring up the stolen container incident from such indirect information.

[X] Think about and analyze the last couple of talks with Kaguya

[x] Think about and analyze the last couple of talks with Kaguya

We have to concentrate and think about what we talked about with her if we want to have the upper hand here.
Maybe we can find out clues or whatever that can help for the next time to get more infos out of her.

> Well, you must understand that there's 0% chance for a romantic ending with either at this point in time, don't you? There's nothing wrong with enjoying interacting with them but I just hope you aren't misled. They'll have their moments in other playthroughs.

We could always go for PLATONIC MARRIAGE END...lol.

>PLATONIC MARRIAGE END...lol.

?_?

>>We could always go for PLATONIC MARRIAGE END...lol.

I'm sorry, but if we can't get a pure NEET LOVE END from this, the only other end I'll be satisfied with would be a Heaven or Hell LET'S ROCK END that has the two of us engaging in an epic duel on the roof of Eientei.

>>12510

This. This is great.

>Well, you must understand that there's 0% chance for a romantic ending with either at this point in time, don't you? There's nothing wrong with enjoying interacting with them but I just hope you aren't misled. They'll have their moments in other playthroughs

I don't care, i am voting to get a bad end or End as fast as possible now so we can get some real /eientei/ story here.
I think >>12477 is right with

>HY just set ADP aside for the exact same reason, we had no real goal in the story and the voters were trying to head in every direction at once. We've been doing that for 34 threads here and we've gotten absolutely nowhere plotwise. The only goal we've ever been given - find and keep a job - has just been negated. What the hell should we do now?

I have been reading your story since the beginning and i think you do a great job and it's not your fault that it's going in that direction. But i am plain tired of it all now.
You NEED to do something like HY did in /sdm/. Lock us into Eientei with a few times going outside. I know it's way harder here than over there. And maybe some route lock or whatever.
You need to revise and reform Deluge of a Lunar Fantasy, it went on for too long with the same concept.

>>12513
I've already got something figured out. Without compromising freedom as well. I'm not completely satisfied with a lot of things myself, and there's a lot I can do on my end about it. But I believe in seeing through things to the end, and this is what this is. You shouldn't vote for a BAD END because you won't get one (well, nothing like dying or being kidnapped by a cicrucs where the animals are the ringleaders and the humans the spectacle).

There's not much left and if you somehow bear with it, it'll be over all the sooner. Yeah, I'm asking anon to trust me.

That said, I'm not writing right now due to various issues not limited to the acquisition of new games. The lack of a majority vote is coincidential and if it comes to it, I'll roll a die (since this is an admitedly unimportant choice). So sage for that. There will be something later (as in the next twelve hours), how soon is yet to be seen.

Also picture not at all related to our situation. Well, come to think about it...

>>12516
Allright i trust you. I will bear with it. And i won't just abandon the story like this. Just wanted to tell you that you need to do something to get back on the right track again. It's been going on for too long.

Come to think of it, you've been writing for 6 months now non stop. Since YAF quit, this makes you the only long time writer on Touhou Project.

>>12510

As awesome as that could be, it would still be a BAD END. Regardless of the outcome.

Still alive Teruyo? Touhou Project got really quiet since YAF quit.

>>12534

Well, it is/was Black Friday.

>>12534
These last five days seem to have been slow for every board here. Chalk it up to thanksgiving/apathy/etc. I myself am barely functioning and have been feeling really sick for the last two days. I'm pretty sure that I have a fever right now. I'll post an update whenever it is that I feel better.

...And well before being sick there was the aforementioned festivities and an onslaught of games (worth mentioning Valkyria Chronicles - that's been a timesink). But I'll try to have something up during the weekend and from there proceed as normal.

>>12536

>worth mentioning Valkyria Chronicles - that's been a timesink

Fuck win is not enough to describe this game.

>>12536
Better heal up first and stuff yourself full of food before you start to write.
We can wait.

There's still quite a bit of time before dinner, and you opt to spend it checking out this whole stolen item business. You find the storage chamber by just walking around for a bit. The door's open and there's someone else inside. You can tell from the sound of sweeping.

Peering inside, you discover a medium-sized room with stacks of boxes reaching up to the ceiling. There's several large items that can't fit into boxes such as a gong, what seems to be a clavichord, and Romanesque marble mini-columns. In the middle of it all stands Reisen, casually sweeping a messy area with several overturned boxes and containers.

"Hey." You greet her.
"Oh hello." She greets you while continuing her sweeping.
"Mind if I take a look around?"
"Not at all, I'm just cleaning up this mess."

Leaving her to her sweeping you take a look around. You realize that the whole place is poorly kept and really dusty. You better just ask her.

"Say, do you know anything about the item that was stolen?"
"Hmm, not really." She replies casually. "I just found the door to this room open earlier today and noticed how all the boxes here were thrashed. I told my master and she came here to take a look. She told me not to move anything until she verified something. And about ten minutes ago she told me that it was okay for me to clean up."
"And she didn't say anything else?"
"I'm afraid not. I asked if it was important, and she told me that it might be." She goes into a small aside on the storage methodology. "I really wish that they'd let me organize everything here, it's shameful how everything is kept. It's so easy to not find what you're looking for..."
"Uh yeah..."You take a look at the contents that have spilled out of the boxes. It's mostly papers written in lunarian and occasionally pictures. Oh, that's kind of neat, there's a small whittled wooden statue of a bear. So life-like.

Not finding anything obvious here, you help Reisen clean up. It's no work at all to put everything in boxes and then stack them. You notice that most of the boxes have indecipherable labels. What could be numbering has faded away on every box and container. With no exception as far as you can see. How anyone looking for anything in one of these could find something is beyond you.

Reisen excuses herself after you're done. She claims that she still has a couple of things to do.

You take another look around the room. There's nothing here indicating a culprit. Well, the mess they left probably means that they were in a hurry or didn't care if everything was left a mess. It would be nice if you knew just exactly what was stolen.

You swing by the clinic, in hopes of catching Eirin (very reluctantly, but it had to be done). To your disappointment (and relief), the clinic is closed for today and there are no signs of Eirin. You sit down in the waiting area and try to think more about this deal.

The only thing that you're certain about is that you should ask Marisa next time you see her. She seem the kind to be proud of her crimes. Like a badge of merit or something. You wonder if she was maybe dropped on the head as a child. Her behavior just isn't normal.

Time passes by, faster than you had anticipated, and it's now dinnertime. It's just you and Kaguya sitting in the dining room. She doesn't say much, instead urging you to eat the food. It's a bit different than your usual fare - less variety - but no less tasty. The fact that it's basically all noodles tips you to the origins, something which you bring up in conversation.

"By any chance did you make this?" You ask.
"You can tell? How perceptive." Her lips curl to form a slight hint of a smile.
"Well, it doesn't taste like usual, plus there's the fact that it's all noodles. But yeah, it's good despite that."
"You say like you expected me to be terrible at cooking."
"No, not at all." Well, given what you've seen of her eating habits what she said is sort of right. "I've just seen you make instant noodles, so this kind of thing with fresh vegetables is unexpected."
"Fair enough." She helps herself to another serving. "I must confess though," She tells you her secret while adding a conspicuous amount of soy sauce, something you hadn't seen her do ever before, "I did have a little help. I'm no good with knives and utensils, so I delegated all of the chopping and mincing."
"Ah."

The food really is good and you eat as much as you can. You spend most of this time listening to Kaguya tell you about her cooking technique. It's nothing esoteric, but you're a bit surprised at just how thorough her ideas on how a meal should be made are.

Keeping her initiative, Kaguya ushers you out of the dining room once you're done. She takes you back to the courtyard, for ?a bit of fresh night air?. It's there that she opens up an unexpected can of worms on you. She eases into it innocently enough.

"So I asked Eirin a bit more about what was taken."
"You mean the contents of the box?"
"That's right." She sits down on the edge of the wooden floor. "I was told you went to investigate the scene as well."
"Yeah, I decided to kill some time by looking into it."
"Did you find anything?"
"Not really." You're no Sherlock Holmes. Any evidence would have been found by Reisen or someone beforehand. "So what was in the box?"
"Eirin checked against an inventory list." She taps the floor next to her inviting you to sit. You do. "She can't say with 100% certainty that this is what was in the box, given that we have so many things in storage. But she said it was most likely a set of outdated instructions and manuals on robotics."
"Robotics?"
"Well, something like that, anyways. That might be a bit misleading. You see, a lot of the menial labor and tasks are usually performed by intelligent robots and automatons on the moon. So I guess it's more like getting the blueprints to a butler or personal maid."
"I see." You can see why anyone would want to build something like that, but you doubt that anyone in Gensokyo is capable of getting the materials, let alone have the knowhow. "What do you figure someone here would want with that."
"Honestly I don't know." She turns to you all of a sudden, eyes strangely determined. "And I don't care."
"Eh... you don't?" A foreboding feeling washes over you.

Kaguya grabs one of your hands with her own. Her touch is alarmingly cold. It almost makes you want to recoil in surprise.

"Listen good." Her voice matches the lack of heat in her touch. "I can't prove anything, but I'm afraid that you've been used. And you'll continue to be used if you keep associating with those people. I know it's tough, but just stay here. It may be boring, but I guarantee that you'll come to enjoy yourself. I'll... make sure of it."
"I-" You're cut off before you can even say anything.
"Don't speak. Not now anyways." She lets go of your hand. "Just spend this night thinking about your life here. There's a guaranteed place for you here ? as there's always been. If you want, we can talk more tomorrow morning." She stands up. "Judging by the look on your face, I'd say you have plenty of questions, some of which I might be able to answer. But you might benefit from answering some of those yourself."

Watching her leave you try to say something - the first thing that comes to mind.

"This is getting really old, you know."
"What is?" She stops right in her tracks.
"Putting things off and getting only scraps of information at a time."
"And that's my fault how?" She turns back to you. "You know, all you ever had to do was just ask or say something. I've always been available for discussion or comment. I enjoy ever so much having conversations."
"Well, then you wouldn't mind answering a couple of interrogatives here and now, would you?"
"Not at all." She smiles. "Just ask away."
"Well, for starters. What's the deal with asking me all of a sudden to stay here? I get along just fine with the world beyond Eientei."
"Ah..."She lets out a sight. "I'm afraid that you misinterpreted my words. I suppose there's nothing really wrong with you going out and doing whatever you please."
"Then?"
"I'm just saying that it'll only lead to you ending up being hurt and disillusioned. No one out there cares about you that much. To them you're just a random outsider that's managed to do a couple of things worth mentioning in passing over a glass of ale."
"So... you're just basically being extremely cynical?"
"Not quite how I'd put it, but that may be so. I'm just trying to hold your best interests at heart." She then adds, with a slightly bitter expression. "But that's just talk. I want you to think things over, try to get some perspective. I'm sure that you'll realize that I'm right. Of course, you're entitled to pass."

Sounds reasonable. When she puts it that way, it does seem like she does consider you input to be important. As it should be.

"So I guess it's just all up to me." You conclude.
"As it's always been. It's your life after all."
"Well, good night then. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Alright. Good night." Kaguya nods her head slightly before turning back around and heading inside.

The rest of the evening is spent in silent reflection. You move to your room when you realize it's late. Not that it matters. You no longer need to get up and go to school. Despite the circumstances, you still feel a bit bad about that whole ordeal. Anxiety manifests itself in the form of stomach cramps. Think happy thoughts. Like Alice. Oh wait. Not exactly a happy thought. You haven't seen her. And if Marisa is to be believed, she's upset with you. Your gut feels like it's tying itself into knots now.

Every time that you try to think of nice, positive things you end up feeling worse. Like this whole stolen item ordeal. You can almost taste Marisa's sticky little fingers all over this. And you can't help but feel that she somehow involved you - obviously to no benefit to you.

Damn it. You end up counting sheep (despite the fact that they occasionally change to mini-yous jumping over a fence in order to escape a certain pointy hat-wearing magician) and sleep with much difficulty.

That night, even your dreams are marred with aggravating imagery. To be succinct, a therapist would have had a field day helping you work through all that you dreamt.

The next morning is no good. Think, get changed, eat. You're back on square one - nowhere. It's amidst the internal confusion that you somehow gravitate towards Kaguya. You've sat down and she's talking to you again before you even realize it. Stupid feet. Taking you to Kaguya even though you don't know what to say to her.

"Thought things over?" She's quietly sipping a cup of tea. You have no idea how you ended up in her room, but here you are.
"Well, about that..."You'll probably have to wing it.
"Let me guess... couldn't figure anything out and entered an anxiety spiral?"
"Uh, yeah, that's about it." You let out a small nervous laugh.
"Figures. Even over the net I could tell that you behaved like this."
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about." She smiles. "I'll just have to take the lead here."
"Be my guest."
"Did you make up your mind if you would rather stay here all day? If you stay we can draw up plans on entertainment. There's a lot to do. Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier, but I can restrict access to Eientei, making sure for the most part that only the right people come here.."
"To be honest, I haven't."
"Well, you don't have to fully commit just yet. But I'd like to hear your general inclination. I can also persuade you more if need be."

Crap, it does look like she expects something at least remotely solid. You think she'd even be willing to accept something aqueous. Even though she's just leisurely drinking her tea, you can feel a serious aura about her. Just like you felt last night while she held your hand.

[] "I think I'd be more or less willing to stay around here."
[] "I'm not sure that I'd be willing to stay all of the time here..."
[] "Before I answer, do you mind telling me something?" (Write-in question/s go here)
---
I'm still a bit sick, but I think I can manage. Updates should flow regularly given enough votes.

>>12538
Indeed. I haven't so thoroughly enjoyed a game in quite a while. Character design is great, not to mention the fuckwin seiyu, and fun gameplay.

[x] "I think I'd be more or less willing to stay around here."

[x] "I think I'd be more or less willing to stay around here."
[x] "But if my thinking and memory continues to be as unreliable as it has been recently, I'm worried someday soon I'll be waking up in a cornfield a million miles away from here with no idea how I got there or how to get back."

Translation: Okay I'll play ball, just get whoever is fucking with my head to stop.

[X] "Before I answer, do you mind telling me something?"
[X] "What was the whole 'get a job and prove yourself' thing all about? Why did something so apparently important become a non-issue so suddenly, and why was it important at all to begin with?"

It might be a non-issue at this point, but that's exactly why there should be no reason to keep the specifics secret any longer. Unless, of course, there wasn't really some third party that put her up to this, and it wasn't just Kaguya jerking us around.

I just need to walk through this real quick.

So basically she doesn't want us to go outside because of her own warped views on what people outside are like.

However, at the same time we're constantly getting beaten up and otherwise given a ton of grief whenever we do go outside, so maybe her view of things isn't so warped.

But the people giving us shit also seem to genuinely care for us, at least in Mokou's case and possibly Marisa's.

Kaguya thinks we're being used, Alice thinks we're being manipulated, and Marisa thinks we need to be rescued from Eientei. (Additionally, someone thinks we're being raped, was that Mokou?)

And now we need to decide if we want to

1. Sit around and watch anime/play video games with Kaguya all day, everyday.

or

2. Ignore her seemingly kind-hearted advice, become even more distant from her and go outside anyway.

To me, #1 is fucking awesome, but isn't very exciting to read about. Additionally, we probably should have spent more time with Kaguya throughout the story if we intended to 'go for her' or whatever. It also just reaffirms her views on humanity. Think back to that story she told in addition to her comments about us being used. She's got no faith in people, and we seem to be an extremely rare exception.

I don't know where to go with this but at the same time this is an extremely rare chance to spend a large amount of time with Kaguya.

Hmm...

[x] "Before I answer, do you mind telling me something?"
[x] "Why do you distrust "those people" so much and more importantly, what sets me apart from them? Why am I the exception?"
[X] "What was the whole 'get a job and prove yourself' thing all about? Why did something so apparently important become a non-issue so suddenly, and why was it important at all to begin with?"

[x] "Before I answer, do you mind telling me something?"
[x] "Why do you distrust "those people" so much and more importantly, what sets me apart from them? Why am I the exception?"
[X] "What was the whole 'get a job and prove yourself' thing all about? Why did something so apparently important become a non-issue so suddenly, and why was it important at all to begin with?"

This.

I'd generally write something like what >>12557 has, but I'd rather think over the choice more first. Most CYOA tough decisions end up sounding like route direction, or how not to die, whimsicality, or attitude; this one actually sounds more like a life-choice.

>>12560

I have to wonder whether Kaguya's own experiences have contributed to her views in this. A bunch of guys she didn't know would come calling wanting to marry her just because they heard she was hot. Her best friend tried to protect her by putting up a fake moon that she would have taken down after that one night, and a bunch of people stormed her home and beat everybody up as a result. Hell, if you go by her chapter in CiLR, it's possible that the kindly old folks who had taken her in and cared for her when she first arrived on Earth were only doing so because they were secretly getting paid by the Lunarians for doing so.
Her "parents" viewed her has a payday, her suitors viewed her as a trophy, and various people in Gensokyo viewed her as a nuisance just because someone was trying to protect her. Hardly surprising that she would develop a rather bleak view like that, I think.

>>12565

If we go by her chapter in CiLR, Kaguya loves Gensokyo and all its inhabitants because they don't put her on a pedestal or treat her any differently than they treat each other. She sings praises of Gensokyo because of how the people there don't give two shits about her "status" as princess, and would treat her "authority" as baseless. She likes them because of how they treat her as a normal person, and then goes on to acknowledge her own faults and try to better herself.

Canon Kaguya is friendly, hopeful for the future, and determined to improve herself. Canon Kaguya is nice.

>>12566
Also in CiLR/SSiB, Kaguya and Eirin are appreciative of Reisen and all the work she does for them. They're almost like family to her, and she seems happy with her life in Eientei.

Which isn't at all like Inaba of the Moon, so I can only assume that's just non-canon joking around.

>>12573

Inaba is crazy non-canon. The story is credited to ZUN, but he admitted outright at one point that he has hardly anything to do with it, and certainly doesn't script it.

Although, I like Inaba's take on Kaguya. She's cute in an oblivious sort of way.

Also, that electric fan scene had me falling in love.

>>12573
Inaba of the Moon is told from Reisen's perspective. So, asides from exaggeration, it may demonstrate that she feels either overworked or overwhelmed by the work she's given to do.

>>Also, that electric fan scene had me falling in love.

You, too?

>>12574
>>12576
That makes three of us.

Waiting for another vote or two, by the by. Just giving a chance to stuff since not all of the votes are the same and some build on each other. Of course that's not a bad thing, but maybe someone else wants to add something (or alternatively remove somthing). Or maybe go in another direction. It's hardly an overwhelming sentiment I think.

Oh, and every time I think of the rabbits at Eientei I think of the rabbits in that comic (and how they appear in CLiR to a lesser extent). Lovable hyperactive critters <3

[x] "Before I answer, do you mind telling me something?"
[x] "What was the whole 'get a job and prove yourself' thing all about?"

If we move past/ignore that question in the next update ...
[x] "I think I'd be more or less willing to stay around here."

Oh, I forgot to ask. Does either a "Yes" or a "No" answer to this question, with no other commentary, impact our opinion regarding Kaguya's opinion of others?

Get your spirits up, work Teruyo work.

Those red eyes...

That long black hair...

>>12587
>>12588
>>12589
>>12590
>>12591
>>12592
FAPPI-ERR WORKING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT.

No, in all seriousness I was being lazy (can you blame me? Those games aren't going to play themselves). But I will write, not that fast I think because truth be told I am trying to decide something about the story/scene.

>>12593
Yeah i had to stop posting Kaguya.... need to save them for later use.
>I am trying to decide something about the story/scene.
Now i am curious, have some more Kaguya to help you.

>>12589
Queen of NEETs, why are you so healthy?

>>12596
Lunarian Pills.

"There's something I'd like to know, if you don't mind my asking." You think up something valid to ask.
"Go right ahead." She nonchalantly yields the initiative to you.
"One thing still bothers me... this whole business with having to 'prove myself'," You use air quotes to emphasize, "I still have no idea what that was all about. Was it really necessary? And why doesn't it matter anymore? You seemed to make a big deal about it."

Kaguya sips her tea a bit, as if thinking. She puts down her cup and gives you a polite smile.

"I suppose that you wouldn't be satisfied with me just telling you that that's just the way things are, now would you?"
"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want to know."
"Of course. Let's see, how can I explain this without going into too many boring details?" She ponders out loud. "While there's no actual law governing what I can or cannot do, it's always expected that one should abide by the customs of where one lives. And pay respect to the powers that be. And this is what this was." She looks at you, explaining with a flat voice. "A favor for a favor, that's what that was about. Have you ever thought how it was that you ended up here?"
"Well, a lot has happened since then." You think back. One moment you were in your own little world and next thing you know you're in this little world. "I didn't give the how much thought. Given that, you know, everything seems to be possible here."
"Well, even in a land where things may seem all strange and mystical you can find certain universal laws at work. To get you here I needed some help; Help leads to favors, and in a small closed-off world they're swapped like currency."
"So who wanted me to fit in anyways? Sounds like a weird favor."
"It is certainly strange. But like I've said before, all of that really doesn't matter. The point is, I was able to completely null any leverage against us. And that's why it really didn't matter all of a sudden."
"So you really didn't care if I got a job?"
"Well I cared that nothing happened to you. What kind of friend, let alone host, would I be if I let some bored and uninspired yokel mess around with you on my watch?" She smiles a bit awkwardly; It looks off center and slightly crooked. "To be honest, I thought that it was an interesting idea, but I knew that you'd probably not like the idea much."
"The idea - I'm not that crazy for, but I had fun." You think back on the good times you had with Keine and co. "I was lucky to find such a rewarding activity."
"It was a lucky break for you. But quite the far cry from how your life used to be."
"That it was..."You think fast. "Still, is that all there is to it? I'm trusting you on this one."
"That's all there is to it. I've tried my best to keep your interests at heart."

Well, it's been like that for the longest time, so you don't see any reason to object. As a friend she's proven herself time and time again.

"Say, what do you have against the others anyways?"
"Where did that come from?" She asks, a bit surprised at your sudden change in focus.
"I was just thinking... you don't seem to care much about the people outside of Eientei."
"That's not true." She rebukes. "I might not concern myself that much with their affairs, but for the most part I can relate in a positive manner to them. They've treated me as well as they'd treat each other, so I can't complain. I guess you might mistake my general lack of involvement for lack of approval. But let me reassure you that that's not the case."
"Then why suggest that I'm being used? Or well, suggest that I disengage them?"
"I'm just watching out for you, that's what friends do." She states simply. "I wouldn't want to see you get hurt."
"That's nice, and I know you've watched out for me in the past..."No need to bring up her often pragmatic support via the web. "But, you can tell me, are you sure there's no antipathy here?"
"You should know better than that." She shakes her head side-to-side a bit, smiling all the while. "Last time you invited these people over, I received them more than happily. That was a fun evening for all."
"That's right. Then why suggest something as bad as being manipulated?"
"Would you be satisfied if I just told you it was my feminine intuition? I'm afraid that I can't say for sure why I said what I did. It just felt right that I should warn you."
"Fair enough.? I guess

You watch as Kaguya calmly picks up her cup again and takes another sip. It's a natural and fluid motion; It sets the peaceful mood for this talk.

"So," She places the now empty cup on the table, "now that we've cleared that up, do you think you can tell me what it is that you plan to do?" She looks at you with one eye close. "Or maybe, you happen to have something else that you want to say? Some things that go unsaid sometimes needs to be said - and the reverse is true as well."

You're at ease, but you can't stay silent forever. Even if the peaceful morning ambiance seems to invite you to lie back and forget all of your worries.

[] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here."
[] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."
[] Yet another write-in question/topic(s)
----
That took longer than expected, no thanks to real life intruding and tearing me away from working. Sorry about that. Also decided on that previous quandary.

[x] "I have no regrets. This was my only pa--"
[x] "What I mean to say is, I think I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here."

[] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

{X} ?I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

[x] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here."

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."
[x] "I'm not the same person I was when I first came here, Kaguya. I was content to maintain a quiet and isolated life before because I never thought that world had anything to offer me, but with Gensokyo's seemingly limitless possibility that's changed. I don't think I can live a life of isolation once more, even if it is ..... with you."

Feel free to edit that, but I'd say it expresses pretty much Shirou's situation and his feelings about it.

Sorry, Kaguya.

>>12602
>>12603
>>12604
>>12607
I don't like where this is going, not at all

[x] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here."
It's never that easy. Oh, sure, you say it now, but ...

>>12609

You had to have seen this coming, I know I did.

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

[] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here.."

Best friends forever! ;_;

>>12611
I only read two things on here, too bad now it's only one.

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

>>12609>>12614
Yeah, deciding to spend time outside of Eientei is a really huge change in direction here. The story will never be the same after this.

Are you one of the retards who voted not to go with Marisa? You are, aren't you.

>>12616
I only vote for Eientei choices

[X] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here.."

Do you honestly expect you can just moonwalk your way back to Alice and things will be perfectly fine? You saw how well that sort of thing went over with Marisa, and she doesn't even really seem to care about us all that much.

You slept with her to (supposedly) reassure her in response to her fears for your safety, and then went right back to Eientei to spend the day and night there, completely disregarding those same fears, declined going along with the person who was likely SENT by her to pick up/rescue you, and then refused the help of that same person in finding Alice and patching things up, despite being told that she was NOT happy with you. Along with whatever spin Marisa put on her account when telling Alice all of this, and I sincerely doubt this is one burning bridge you can put out, not with the track record we've established for ourselves.

Really, the only way you could possibly make things worse with the doll-maker at this point is to track down Shinki's remains, dig them up, bring them back to Alice and attempt to reconstruct them with your special brand of "hot glue", then launching into a perverse puppet show with them and Albion that involves performing various lewd acts before you throw them to the ground, stomping on them repeatedly before vomiting and defecating on them, and then setting the whole mess ablaze while laughing and jacking off into the flames.

Really, this is for the best. What has the outside given us, really? A job? As enjoyable and rewarding it may have been in its own little way, we couldn't properly commit to it and were justifiably fired from it. Romantic prospects? We either try too hard (and promptly abandon when called out on trying too hard), don't try hard enough (or at all, really), or do whatever the hell it is we're doing with Alice. Friends? All our friends are either inclined to beat the shit out of us when we inevitably piss them off, or are a bunch of drunks who wouldn't hesitate to teabag us while we were passed out and choking to death on our own vomit.

Meanwhile, Eientei has given us free room and board, quality medical care, and the company of some lovely ladies who DON'T seem inclined to (intentionally) inflict harm upon us, no matter how much we might have deserved it. We've worried them, insulted them, invaded their privacy, and even technically assaulted them (even if we thought we were saving their life at the moment), and yet through it all they have shown us nothing but patience and concern for our well-being. So long as we have their trust, we are safe and need not fear or want for anything so long as we live.

The rate things are going, there will be absolutely nothing out there left for us. We'll have no way to reconcile with Alice after screwing up so many times, all our other friends either avoid us because they're tired of our bullshit or we're avoiding because we're tired of all the internal injuries they cause us. With nowhere else to turn, we will have no other recourse but to drink ourselves into oblivion all day and night at the tavern, performing various shameful acts just to keep the booze flowing, and waking up every day in a pool of bodily fluids of various types and origins, surrounded by numerous men in various states of undress, and stuck with a strangely vinegary taste in our mouth that no amount of brushing and mouthwash can seem to rinse out.

>>12618

"But...I'm not dead."

>>12619
Oh, that's right, my bad. Sorry, not "dead". Retconned.

Can't dig up a corpse when they never technically existed, after all!

>>12620

I'm sure she has her ways around that.

[x] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here."

feels good man

>>12618
After reading that, I went back and, with long review, started thinking that we really haven't been showing any real concern over our lack of success or our failure. Almost everywhere. Instead, we've done a sufficiently apathetic job at acting like anything was a big deal - including getting fired from our teaching job. How can a place of comfort and placidity really be that much more meaningful? What the hell is this? The Stranger in Gensokyo motif? maybe we're channeling The Sun Also Rises, as well?

But, after all that, I have one bit of beef: this decision is leading to a pigeon-holing of some kind, and we haven't even managed to adopt an in-game attitude that would justify whatever our decision would be. Trudging back out into the night makes a sort of sense, but we don't accomplish anything and we just run around annoying people, if our actions just aren't inane. We spent the night counting bad memories and withstanding restlessness from the inability to find comfort either with our surroundings or with our situation. Meanwhile, trying to stay mostly to Eientei might be a good way of figuring out what of what we did was meaningful - in the chances it would chase us back there for confrontation - but it doesn't seem like this extreme branching we'll be doing next update has any room for retrospection and redirection in that manner. (Or, maybe, the branch actually leads down an inversion: trying to "stay at Eientei" causes what happened beyond its walls to become more prominent, while "roaming" leads to Eientei becoming more significant.) Maybe we should resign ourselves to the thought that nothing we've somewhat almost ever-so-slightly accomplished in this "former part" will help us with the "latter part." Probably.

The only thing it will determine is whether we have a bed and a meal and a shoulder. But haven't we always had that since Deluge started?

Will we still, afterwards?

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

Shit is finally up again, time to write Teruyo

[x] Declare your undying love fo-

No, no, no, hold on. While that MIGHT sound good on paper...

[x] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here."

I can't say this is the wisest choice, but I also can't say our protection is guaranteed if we tell her we can't commit.

...then again, Shirou is ADHD in this story, whether he commits or not, he'll likely be happily skipping and hopping into danger anyway.

Do i need to post Kaguya pictures again before Teruyo writes again

>>12634

Can't hurt.

>>12635
Allright.
Later in the night Kaguya/Eirin or CG posting.

[x]?I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here."

Hm, is this playthrough coming to an end? I want to read the next one, hoping it will be more /eientei/ centered.

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

We do have friends outside of Eientei.

I'd like to apologize for not updating. This is primarily due to massive failure on my part. The downtime a couple days ago threw me off, accompanied by an exceptionally hectic schedule of RL stuff. Not to mention that two of the last three times I sat down and tried to force myself to write I kept going in a direction I wasn't sure I wanted to take. In short, what's keeping me right now is that I'm not in the right frame of mind. A lousy excuse when it all boils down to it, I'll admit. But well, we'll see if we can't finish once and for all sometime this week.

>>12648
Sounds like you need a pause to get your creativity back.

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

>>12648

Are you SURE you and Sukima aren't the same person? Seems odd you two would have a similar problem at the same time...

UPDATE

The sooner we can get to the next play-through the better, I just hopped on board and read this whole story from post one, and I must say, without anon's faggotry and ADD, this could have been a dang well decent CYOA. Let's just hope Teruyo doesn't lose steam, because the next play-through could be enjoyable, provided that we don't screw it up again.

[x] "I can't commit to staying here all of the time."

You think that you've got your answer.

"Regrettably..."You tense up while the words leave your mouth. "I can't commit to staying here all of the time.."
"I see." Her reply is almost silent, something which makes you anxious. And that anxiety leads to overstating your position.
"I've grown and gotten a lot out of the outside. I don't think I can promise to stay here all of the time, even if it's with you."
"...That's understandable." Her perfect stoic demeanor prevents you from getting a read on her.

You wait, to see if she is going to say anything else, but she doesn't. You think she mutters something just under her breath, but that may have been wishful thinking.

Having cleared up your business with her, you leave. She does say goodbye like normal, meaning that you probably haven't upset her or anything.

Back in your own room, you just lie around a bit. It's hard to read the people here, you don't know half of the time whether you're annoying them or amusing them. In that regard, the people in the outside have them beat. Sure they have their own shortcomings, and it usually involves corporal punishment for you, but it's... different.

The rest of the day is marked by an overreaching laziness on your part. You laze about in your room, daydreaming and taking short naps, only stopping in order to go to the bathroom or grab a bite to eat. Your on your own for lunch, but come dinnertime you're joined by Kaguya and Reisen. The meal is observed with little silence - smalltalk is the order of the evening. No one says anything remarkable, and that's just fine with you. At the very least it's tranquil. When you go to sleep later that evening, it feels like nothing could ever go wrong.

The next few days are remarkable for being... well, unremarkable. You don't take the time to talk to anyone at Eientei about anything really. And they don't try to talk to you. It's just the occasional meals and fleeting remarks when you pass each other in the hallway. Everything has just become so routine to you. Faster than you would have imagined possible.

To break the monotony, you start to go out. The destination is always the village. There you wander around absent-mindedly, checking out the local wares and talking to the occasional loiterer. You try not to go to the school. You've become a bit self-conscious about the time spent there. And out of respect you don't want to disturb classes.

The other option is to look for Mokou. But you turn up almost every stone and go to all the places that your remember her being at and you can't really find her. Well, it's likely just bad timing on your part. She probably has better thing to do than be randomly in the forest. Part of you thinks that you don't want to find her. That's just silly. You're sure that you'll run into her some other time.

You end up frequenting the tavern more often than not. Drinking pretty early in the day. The people there mostly keep to themselves, to your surprise. Sure, talking to the tavernmaster yields some local gossip, but he has to run the place and doesn't really chat much. It's uneventful, save for the occasional drinks and food that certain repeat customers send your way. You get a wink and the occasional pat, but not much else. And to think that you know that every last one of them is married. Some even have kids. Ah well, you're not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

And so this goes on for a couple of days. You blend in naturally before you know it. Some of the fellows even ask you for your opinion. The flamingo-colored earmuffs were definitely the way to go. Much better than that horrible teal.

It goes without saying that this sort of lifestyle is detrimental to your already tenuous standing and conviction. At night, your acquired momentum translates into generalized apathy. An honest disinterest in the things that are happening around you. You do think about going to see Alice, but anxiety, shame, and self-loathing squash that prospect. What you'd have to go through is probably not worth it. Hell, that's reading too much into it. It's more inertia than anything else.

Life, amusingly enough, seems to be eerily similar to how it was before you came here. You get up when you want and do what you want. The difference is, of course, that you have no computer and you're basically going back and forth between the tavern and your bed - with the occasional extended break somewhere halfway. You can't help it, it's easy to get lost in the forest when the world is spinning around you.

One particularly bad evening, during which you can't tell whether you're strutting like a person with a knee brace or it's just everything else shaking, you find yourself sitting on your butt in the middle of the bamboo forest. You think you're going back to Eientei. You remember drinking, and judging some sort of wet t-shirt contest - except without any girls.... and then now. You flop an arm around, trying to get it to move as you want it. It feels like a stranger's arm is moving, you can't even feel it. Funny. Real funny.

This isn't that bad. You stare up at the sky. It's a clear night. And it doesn't feel very cold. In fact, it's a bit hot. It doesn't make sense though, your skin feels cold. But it's hot. You can't be bothered with that now. You open up your attire and lay on the dirt, face up. Not bad. It's almost good enough to sleep on. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. It's not like anyone would miss you. Oh, maybe that guy who you told to meet you out back. He seemed eager. Little does he know that you never planned to meet him to begin with! Genius. Good job, Shirou.

Your body decides to celebrate by shutting down most of your senses. No biggie, this is fun.

Several loud profanities and a different kind of spinning are the next things that you're aware of. You don't understand what happened. You can't breathe properly and your mouth tastes like dirt. A throbbing sensation spreads across most of your lower left side. You don't even have time to nurse it.

"Get up!" A loud voice commands you. God that hurts. It's like a bunch of hippopotamuses are having an aerobics class in your skull.

Your motor skills are still shot. You have no coordination. Not that the voice cares.

"Come on, don't waste my time!" Whoever is yelling at you shakes you up real good. You can't raise a single objection. You're flipped over.

It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the night. You slowly focus on the contours of the face above you. Wow, she looks pissed. Real pissed.

"...Hi?" You groan when you realize that talking hurts.
"That's a start." Mokou's calm voice startles you. "Here," she offers you a hand, "get up."

You stare at her hand for a moment before taking it. Even though she uses a considerable amount of strength, you almost don't make it up. Everything is wobbly and your body feels like crap. Your first instinct is to find something to lean on. Unfortunately bamboo stalks tend to bend, making you stumble. It's a miracle you don't end up kissing dirt again.

"Come with me." Mokou represses a sigh and grabs you by the arm. You're tugged along quite easily, your mind unable to think more than a few strings of coherent thought at once.

You're not sure if you fall asleep again while being herded along. The earth is dark and each step you take seems like part of a dream. You're let down on a hard surface. You look up to see Mokou staring intently at you, trying to figure something out. What the hell is it? Does she want a piece of you, in that case, let's dance.

A blur of a motion executed by Mokou later and you're soaking wet. You let out a whelp - more of a feminine shriek.

"What the hell-?!" Your head's pounding and you feel most of your body now - it's really sore.
"Best reaction I've gotten out of you tonight so far." She says it like it's no big deal to drench you.
"If my head weren't killing me, I'd show you a thing or two..."
"On what? How to trip on yourself?" Her words sting. "Gimme a break."
"...So," You can't enter a battle of words in your state, you try to get your bearings, "what do you want with me?"
"Pff..."She blows some air out of her mouth, annoyed. "What do I want? What, you expect to just lie on the ground in the middle of a forest late at night passed out and not have anything happen to you? And this is after completely disappearing off of the face of the planet for no good reason. Not to mention that I find you obviously drunk."
"I'm an adult, you know. I can do whatever I want."
"So you say. Yet you're a complete mess - clothes dirty, hair messed up, and it looks like some sort of small animal died on your chin and neck. How the hell did you get like this?"
"A wizard did it." You rub the stubble on your neck, that wasn't there before.
"Har, har, smartass.."
"Whatever. So are you going to apologize for spraying me with what seems to be rancid water?"
"That smell isn't the water, it's fresh from the stream. I'm afraid that's all you." She points to the distance between you and her. "That's why I'm standing way over here."

You fail to think of anything witty to say. It's good enough that you're able to speak in (mostly) coherent sentences. You put your hands to your head and rub your temples.

"Anything else that needs saying on your part?" You ask, irritated. "I'm too tired to be chit-chatting."
"Well, you're going to talk, even if your very soul threatens to leave your body."
"Feh." What she said doesn't make that much sense.
"Okay, I'll try again. Why have you been going all of the time to the tavern? Word spreads in a small village, and everyone knows."
"I told you, I'm an adult. I do whatever I want."
"That's your excuse, huh?" She looks at you with a completely serious face. "I guess it's also very adult to completely ignore your friends and acquaintances."
"I-I'm not tied down to anyone." You can't rebuke her head-on, as you don't want to face up to your own sentiments.
"...How selfish." Her voice is marked with more pity than disgust. "I'm sure that you know deep down that others have thought about you and worried about your state."
"..."

It's not like you wanted things to turn out like this. It's just that with all that's happened to you lately and your own actions have been completely unsatisfying. Anyone in your position would be unsure of himself and the surrounding world. Confusion and self-contempt are only natural results. That's how you try to rationalize it at least.

Some time passes with absolute silence. You don't say anything and Mokou doesn't either. The small open pocket in the bamboo forest seems like a stasis chamber - nothing moves on its own. You let out a small sigh that pierces the silence. Looking up, you see that Mokou is staring at the sky.

"What would you have me do?" You ask meekly.
"Nothing." She replies while staring off into the night sky. She doesn't even bat an eye. "Ultimately it's your life and choices. I'm don't have the authority to force you to do something you don't want to do."
"This isn't about authority!" You don't know why you're getting worked up. "You make the effort to bring me here and talk to me only to do nothing?!"
"It was a chance encounter." She lowers her gaze, coolly staring you down. "I shouldn't be held responsible for any choices you make for yourself."
"Easy to say after you disrupt my pattern. Like it or not you've just affected my life. Take responsibility." You say this despite realizing the foolish hypocrisy of it all.

She doesn't dignify you with an answer to those charges. She instead seems to soften up for a bit, going as far as showing a small smile on her lips.

"There is something that I'd be willing to do for you. You are, of course, free to do as you please since you're an adult."
"Out with it."
"I figure that you just need to be straightened out. Different people have different ways of doing that. Given our friendship, I'd be willing to spend some time and try to help. Talk, keep you busy, whatever it takes. I could make time in my schedule to make it a semi-permanent thing. It'd certainly also make a certain mutual friend stop worrying so much that she messes up during class." She then quickly adds, "Of course there's another option."
"And that is?"
"I'll leave you in the hands of your other friends out here. I'm sure that they're worried about you. Given how much buzz they were creating a couple of days ago. I can't guarantee how they'll treat you, of course."
"Of course." Try as she might she can't control however Alice would deal with you.
"That's it. Of course, you can always just walk away. I sure ain't going to pin you down until you submit." She hides a wry smile. She'd love to do that if it'd work and you know it. "It is late, and I have to sleep so don't take all night in deciding. If you need to wake up some more, I can always chuck more water at you."
"That won't be necessary." You frown. The water has chilled you, you might catch a cold.

She sits down on a rock a couple of meters away, gazing at the cosmos. This whole encounter seems surreal in its own right, but you can tell it's real enough. If you make an effort you can think louder than the throbbing in your head. You weigh the options given to you.

[] Stick with her first proposal
[] Ask her to direct you to Alice and co.
[] This is unnecessary, you'd rather just go back to Eientei than deal with this
[] Talk with Mokou some more before making up your mind (aka write-in choice/questions)

---
There, update after nothing for a couple of days. I think I can work now more or less. And sorry for my laziness on find a pic for the update, but I think it works well without one.

>>12618
I meant to comment earlier how lovely of a visual that is. And hilarious, in a tragic sort of way.

>>12624
A bit besides your point, but I'm a big Hemingway fan. Not that my writing style is at all similar nor do I try to emulate him.

>>12673
No, I'm not after all. I think I might have Dissosiative Identity Disorder. I could very well be half of the writers on THP and not be necessarily aware of it!

[] Stick with her first proposal

[!/] Ask her to direct you to Alice and co.

Might as well, after making that decision.

[X] Stick with her first proposal

There is no way in hell Shirou is in any sort of state to go crawling back to Alice right now. He's an apathetic and drunken jerk with poor hygene right now, not the endearingly idiotic doll freak who Alice first fell for.

Shirou needs a good straightening out (in more ways than one, judging from the company he's been keeping at the bar), and Mokou has certainly proven herself to be capable of doing just that. Whether it's something simple as camping out, or giving him the severe ass-kicking he so rightly deserves, she'll give him just what he needs to clean up his act.

Once he's sobered and cleaned up, and less of the pathetic mess he is right now, then and only then will he be even fit to grovel in Alice's shadow and beg for her forgiveness and to take him back after he left her.

Besides, as much of a douche as he's been, Shirou deserves a few good weeks of Mokou going R. Lee Ermey on his ass.

I'm not sure what else we'd ask about for a write-in, so we may as well just make this choice.

[x] Stick with her first proposal

At this point, doing consistent things would be inconsistent for us. I really can't imagine what the "stay in Eientei" option would have turned-out like.
EDIT: I copied in the wrong option.

Just out of curiosity, Teruyo, how would have: [X] "I can safely say that I'll probably spend my time exclusively here." turned out?

>>12686
Quite differently in many regards.

>>12687
You can make a Q&A Session after it is over.

{X} Stick with her first proposal

[X] Stick with her first proposal

We choose to tell Kaguya we won't stay holed up at Eientei 100% of the time, and our protagonist decides to spend several days ignoring all the things and people he should be worried about and becoming a drunk bum.

I don't even know what to say anymore.

[X] This is unnecessary, you'd rather just go back to Eientei than deal with this

>>12692
>>We choose to tell Kaguya we won't stay holed up at Eientei 100% of the time, and our protagonist decides to spend several days ignoring all the things and people he should be worried about and becoming a drunk bum.

Well, that's largely due to the fact that prior to announcing we were going to continue spending time outside Eientei, we had pretty much smashed most of the reasons we had for going outside of Eientei.

Our job was gone. We ditched our girlfriend. We blew off the friend of our girlfriend who was trying to get us back together with her, TWICE no less. About the only bridge left standing by this point was with the local tavern. Why, then, would it be so surprising that this is how he ended up?

[x] I am but a humble acolyte in the service of the booze god

Time to go for the booze god Ending. The only path that is stil left, getting drunk and hitting on her.

[ ] Commit Seppuku, it is the only option left to you. Die with honor and resolve your bad karma, to live on would be to inflict his cursed presence on others.

Shirou has strayed from the path of the Buddha, neglected his meditations and forgotten his lessons becoming too caught up in material and transient things. All this confusion and misery stems from his preoccupation with the mortal world, the path to nirvana is now forever closed to him.

Death is his only chance to redeem himself.




.......

Actually thinking about that whole curse thing, I'm all for heading over to the youkai mountain and asking Hina for a checkup.

[ ] "I think you're right, but more than anything right now I need spiritual guidance. Intervention from a higher power could free me from this curse, which of the two big shrines is best for something like that?"
[ ] "Once I'm at peace spiritually once more, then I'd gratefully take you up on your first offer."

>[x] Commit Seppuku, it is the only option left to you. Die with honor and resolve your bad karma, to live on would be to inflict his cursed presence on others.

Although killing himself is probably the best thing Shirou can do right now, I don't think it fits his indecisive character.

[x] Stick with her first proposal
Alcoholics Anonymous, here we come!

[ ] "I think you're right, but more than anything right now I need spiritual guidance. Intervention from a higher power could free me from this curse, which of the two big shrines is best for something like that?"
[ ] "Once I'm at peace spiritually once more, then I'd gratefully take you up on your first offer."

OH GOD YES

Just letting anon know that I'm around and I'm going to write - albeit a bit later. No special reason besides the fact that I'm acting exceptionally lazy today for some reason. Not writing for so long has thrown me off a bit, but I'll remedy that. So I'll entertain myself with a rousing game in EU3 and then get right to it. So uh... actual time frame? 3-4 hours seem like a fair assessment.

>>12697
>>12698
>Although killing himself is probably the best thing Shirou can do right now, I don't think it fits his indecisive character.
Personality issues aside, I think Shirou killing himself might only make things worse. I mean, after all, it's ever so probable that the supposed release that death would give him would just entangle him further within Gensokyo. And I think he would probably suffer more as a helpless spirit, given how the afterlife seems to work here.

>>I mean, after all, it's ever so probable that the supposed release that death would give him would just entangle him further within Gensokyo. And I think he would probably suffer more as a helpless spirit, given how the afterlife seems to work here.

His whole afterlife would be Unlimited Lecture Works.

[x] Stick with her first proposal

You shake your head, nothing seems to make it feel better.

"You know what? I'll take your help." You stare at the ground as you speak. "If you don't mind wasting your time on me, then I'll accept your effort."
"That's fine with me. Just one thing though, and this is important for you to understand." You lift your heard up. She's still staring at the sky. "This is your life so you have every right to do whatever you wish with it. That also means that you can't change it unless you really want to." She gets up swiftly, "I'm not going to despair if you're unable to change, I'll assume that it's what you want."
"That's an awfully passive attitude for someone who's promised to help me."
"You misunderstand. It'll be anything but passive. I'll do what I have to." She walks towards you, plucking her suspenders. "But the only guarantee you'll have is yourself."
"How comforting."

She freezes for a moment and opens her mouth. No words come out. Instead, after an awkward moment of silence, she lets out a sigh.

"I can't deal with you as you are right now." She simply states. "We'll start after it's light out again. For now, it's probably best if you rest up and get over your physical discomfort."

Not waiting for you to say something, she grabs you and tugs you up violently. You feel like a child being pulled along by a stressed-out mother. Walking is easier now, but Mokou is still the sole driving force between the two of you. She takes you through the forest, cutting through swaths of brush. She instructs you on what to do the next day on the way.

"Meet me in the morning at that clearing I go to. The one you know how to get to. We'll figure something out there and adjust the plan as we go along. You don't need to bring anything, just make sure to be sober." Moving in between a couple of stalks of bamboo, you're now on a vaguely familiar path. "I'll leave you right in front. I don't think you'll make it even if I leave you nearby."

Honestly, at this stage you're too cold to care. It feels like you're in the arctic tundra. Anything for a blanket and a warm bed.

Mokou takes you up to the doors of Eientei. You don't think much of it.

"There, now go in and rest up." She lets go of you and pushes you towards the door.

You can't think of anything to say to her. You just stare at her with what you think is an appreciative look. She just hurries you on. You head straight inside and into your room. You think you hear Mokou speaking to someone else as you leave the area, but when you look back you see that she's already gone.

You somehow get changed and attempt to warm up. You're tired, but that damn headache that seems to be coming from the deepest recesses of your head just doesn't quit. You have no idea just how late it is, nor do you care. All you care about is the war of attrition going on between your aching body and your drowsiness. It's a long while, with a lot of suffering, before you finally doze off.

In the morning you wake up with a dry mouth and a sharp pain on your lower back side. It's just then that you realize the full extent of your dehydration. The headache is a bit better - the throbbing has subsided, instead replaced by a constant white noise. Probably a coping mechanism of sorts; You shrug off the suffering and rush to get some precious water into your system. When you're done drinking your fill, you hear the vast amounts of water that you just drank sloshing around in your stomach every time that you move.

It's about then that you realize that you reek. It's a pungent odor that violates your nostrils the moment you become aware of smell again. If you had to guess the composition of this unholy stench, you'd say it's something akin sweat, a scummy pond, milk gone bad, and something else that you're not sure all rolled into a powerful concoction. You can't stand it and almost fly right into the bath. Nevermind proper bathing procedure or waiting for hot water, you just want to do something about this funk.

Bringing yourself up to code takes up a surprisingly large chunk of time. In between washing like you've never washed before, putting your clothes into quarantine, overcoming your hangover, it becomes late morning. Well, you woke up late today to begin with. But you should get going nonetheless.

You don't see anyone on your way out, even though you were half-looking for someone. It'd be nice to just exchange pleasantries on a regular basis. You look back before the path winds through the bamboo. You think someone was looking at you as you left, there definitely was someone in the doorway. Might have been Reisen. All the same you wave, hoping they did see you.

Thinking is hard when your whole body is sensitive. But getting to Mokou's hideout is more or less simple. And she's waiting for you already. You great her, as enthusiastically as you can under the circumstances.

"Glad to see you here." She says. When you come closer you notice that there's a large sack on a rock behind her.
"What's that?" You ask.
"Just some things I brought, which we might need."
"Need?" You blink your eyes rapidly, trying to think.
"Don't worry about it too much. We should get started however. It's not good to waste time."
"Fine by me."
"Good." She cracks a smile. "Now let's see just exactly what it is that I can do with you."
---
Not a full update and I apologize for that. I'll have the rest later; It seems that something comes up whenever it is that I actually get to writing.

>>12703
I just wonder where this choice will lead us to now... becoming a drunken bum sure had it's appeal.

>>12704

Liver Route

Pantsuman demands updates

>>12710
You're too soft to demand anything.

Update coming only at the very least 12-14 hours from now. I was writing but I had to keep reciting "don't write 'rocks fall - you die'" to myself constantly. Something which is a clear indicator that I need another frame of mind to do it properly. Something which alas will only come after I sleep and (forcibly) deal with a social function I need to attend to in the evening. I must persevere and finish this, dammit.

>>12712
>'rocks fall - you die'

At this point, I wouldn't mind this at all.

>>12713
For a minute, I was going to post "Seconded. We've fucked up so badly, we may as well restart." but then I realized that this CYOA is proof that Anon doesn't learn from his mistakes.

If the userbase was less retarded, maybe we could've gotten somewhere.

>>12714
This is exactly why we need route locking like HY did it in /sdm/
And it worked out great without feeling forced into something. Make it more Eientei centered and less Alice.
>>12712
I would never tell you to do this.... it's your story. Maybe some snow end could work

>>rocks fall - you die

I can see a perfectly valid reason for such a thing happening, even in the middle of a forest of bamboo where there should be no risk of falling rocks.

Say at some point a certain crow tengu let slip, perhaps during some drunken party, to a certain wolf tengu what a certain someone did to the certain crow tengu, and what she did to him in return. The wolf tengu, wishing to get revenge to restore the crow tengu's honor, plots to kill the certain someone, and waits until all parties have all but forgotten the incident to finally strike, thus catching him completely off-guard.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, after all. Not hot, in the heat of the moment when they might still expect it, but after things have cooled down, so that when it comes they never see it coming.

Looks like I'll have to push back my ETA a bit. I can't help it - I was invited over and had mulled wine. Of course this was followed by more and more holiday drinks, logically complimented by your stock spirits and other tried and true poisons. Point is I probably need a bit to detox.

And the rocks falling, mere hyperbole. No need to be so literal in the interpretation. Just so you know there are about two ends you're vacillating around and I could probably count the total number of choices before the end on one hand.

And you, >>12717, stop enabling me! Heh, though I've got to hand it to you, that's some fine thinking.

And last thing: I know this isn't really my blog but this is too bizarre not to bring up; I've been invited to go to a seedy bar/clubthing/dank hole called 'The Hobbit'. Sometime before the end of the year. What's so special about this place? Well, the idea is to go on a wenesday so to see Midget boxing. I kid you not. They give you ringside (or arena?) seats and serve you tequila while ladies of ill-repute pour drinks and massage your shoulders. And sometimes the aforementioned ladies box as well. It's all so messed up and something I would never expect to see. Only in Asia I suppose. Also speaks volumes about the people I associate with, I suppose. I try to tell myself that it's not as degrading if there's a woman in our group (she suggested it and is a regular along with another guy). But I know in my heart of hearts the harsh truth: I'm going to watch midgets box while utterly smashed and with hookers everywhere. Yeah, I felt I needed to get that off my chest. Sorry.

>>12718
>I'm going to watch midgets box while utterly smashed and with hookers everywhere.

What's there to think, even to ask. DO IT FAGGOT.

NOT YOUR BLOG FAGGO--

>Well, the idea is to go on a wenesday so to see Midget boxing.
>Midget boxing

We are now on topic.

>I'm going to watch midgets box while utterly smashed and with hookers everywhere.

When did Asia become ancient Rome? I can just imagine one of the little guys throwing down his gloves and yelling "Are you not entertained?!" in his silly midget voice.

Her cockiness is vastly misplaced. You spend most of the day trying out one thing or another. All for the sake of 'discipline' and 'order'.

"Oh come on, you're not even trying." Her remark bothers you because it isn't true. Sure, concentrating for what seems to be an eternity may be hard to begin with, but it's not your fault that you seem to fail after only five minutes.

Physical activity is no good either. You're told to run, jump, spar, and a whole lot of other goodies. Mokou paraphrased it best when she quipped ?You're like a sack of potatoes.?. No matter what you try, you can't follow through. You can tell she's taking it easy on you. That's the sad part. It's like the very fiber of your being is conditioned to not being able to carry out any task diligently. And well, you're not exactly trying to make that shortcoming up with immense willpower either.

Despite it all, Mokou doesn't despair. Well, at least she doesn't show it on her face. You do notice that she occasionally goes off into the woods after you fail spectacularly, snapping of twigs and her muffled voiced follows. But when she comes back she doesn't betray what she just did. By afternoon, however, she takes on a different approach.

"Alright. We've been at this for a while," you notice her rolling her eyes, "let's take another approach for now."
"No more running just because? Or staring into space?"
"No. None of that. Sit down."

You each pick a large rock and sit on it.

"Let's talk." She suggests.
"Fine with me."
"Right. Then tell me, how are you doing?"
"Just fine. I guess."
"...Alright. Let's be more direct. Can you tell me why you're here?"
"Simple, you told me that I needed straightening out."
"That's true." You can just feel that she's about to sigh, "But did you really want to?"
"What do you mean?" You ask. "I'm here, aren't I?"
"..."She flashes you a sour look.
"What?"
"Nothing." She lets out that sigh. "Let's move on, why have you been drinking at the tavern? Why not, say, have spent that time with friends or back home?"

You get that she's sort of acting like a therapist, but she isn't very good at it. She certainly doesn't compel you to say much, you think.

"Just because. I wanted to spend more time outside, but didn't really want to do some of the things I did before. And what's wrong with a guy wanting to unwind?"
"Not much - usually." She then adds, "It's just that you seem to have no ultimate direction. For goodness' sake, I found you passed out in the middle of the bamboo at night!"
"Hey," you get a bit steamed, "things are okay because I always choose what I think is right."
"And choosing what's right is ostracizing yourself? I mean come on, despite everything, you had some sort of values. I mean, that's partially why it was so fun to play with you."
"I have my values. I've never hurt anyone on purpose and I've tried my best almost always." You say dryly. No one likes to be criticized, you're no exception.
"Is that so? Hardly seems logical then that you'd systematically abandon all of your responsibilities and just simply shun so much so quickly."
"I haven-"
"That's a lie and you know it." She gets agitated. Her eyes narrow and you can almost see her getting physically hot-headed. "And what about the thing with Keine? Or whatever you were doing with the doll maker? I don't know all of the details, but from what I know, I know things are wrong there." She gets up, putting some distance between you. "And as much as I hate to admit it, I think it's plainly obvious that you haven't treated some of the other people under the same roof as you fairly. Personal differences aside, I wouldn't expect your conduct to change so dramatically."

It takes a moment for all of that to sink in. Your reaction is, of course, not very rational. Perhaps if your mind were more in sync with your heart, then things would have been better.

"Oh, screw you! What the hell do you know about me?" It's shooting the messenger of the obvious, but you have nothing else to say, "all you do with me is beat me up and commit extortion. Some friend you are, despite your claims."

Your words seem to calm her down her a bit. In fact, her next words are dreadfully icy.

"If it makes you feel any better, rage against me all that you want. While unfortunate, I don't mind even if you start to hate me... That just won't change anything. The things you've done and the people you've affected. The feelings you've hurt, all of the disappointment, all of the pointlessness - it won't go away despite your best efforts to deflect."

Taking a few steps towards the forest, she adds, "See you around then."

And with that she disappears. You'd stop her, but you wouldn't know what to say. The obvious self-reflection phase comes along, but you shove it aside, instead getting up and clenching your fist. You have no regrets, this is the only path.

[] Apologize to everything and everyone - even if you don't mean it
[] Take time to cool off and rest up

----
Well, here we go. Must hold fast.

>>12720
This makes no sense at all.
>>12721
If you say so... closest to midget boxing in touhou would probably be random faries beating each other up or something.

[!/] Take time to cool off and rest up.

Needs some Mystic Eyes of Death Perception in this.

>?If it makes you feel any better, rage against me all that you want. While unfortunate, I don't mind even if you start to hate me... That just won't change anything. The things you've done and the people you've affected. The feelings you've hurt, all of the disappointment, all of the pointlessness - it won't go away despite your best efforts to deflect.."

[x] Take her up on her offer. Summon Kanshou and Bakuya in a rage (like you did with Aegis in front of Eirin before), go after her, and just... vent.

>>You have no regrets, this is the only path.
Oh you.

[x] Apologize to everything and everyone - even if you don't mean it
Swift death option, if not by our own hand then by from Alice. Ah, wait, we still don't know where she lives ... rats.

[x] Take her up on her offer. Summon Kanshou and Bakuya in a rage (like you did with Aegis in front of Eirin before), go after her, and just... vent.

> You have no regrets, this is the only path.

[X] Reflect on you time in Gensokyo. Think about the people you met, the good times you shared, and most of all, the girl who was kind enough to bring you here
[X] Reflect on your own actions. How you brushed off friends and lover alike. How you hopped around selfishly, only thinking of what you wanted at the moment.
[X]Apologize to everything and everyone

Is this cheesy? Hell yeah! Ain't nothing better than some cheddar!

But seriously, what the hell do we have to vent about? For the most part, every character in this story was thinking about our own well being. Even Moukou wanted to help till the end. And how did we repay them? Spitting on their kindness at every possible chance just because. The way we've been acting, I probably would have cheered if we got "ROCKS FALL. YOU DIE." We're going to do what's right, and we're going to mean it, none of this fake "lol sorry" shit.

[X] Reflect on you time in Gensokyo. Think about the people you met, the good times you shared, and most of all, the girl who was kind enough to bring you here
[X] Reflect on your own actions. How you brushed off friends and lover alike. How you hopped around selfishly, only thinking of what you wanted at the moment.
[X]Apologize to everything and everyone

Changing my vote, because I like this. Of course, if we're really going to apologize to EVERYONE, we're going to want to pack a few sandwiches, because we're going to doing a looooooot of walking.
Well, until our visit to a certain mountain stirs up certain memories, and we suddenly find ourselves in an "accident" involving a rockslide. We probably won't be doing much walking after that.

>>And as much as I hate to admit it, I think it's plainly obvious that you haven't treated some of the other people under the same roof as you fairly.

See how far we've fallen, here? Mokou is calling Shirou out on being a douche to her ENEMIES, for crying out loud.

>>And you, >>12717, stop enabling me!
Ah, but if I am you as some seem to think, then by my enabling you, are you not basically enabling yourself?

So, really, you only have yourself to blame~.

[X] Reflect on you time in Gensokyo. Think about the people you met, the good times you shared, and most of all, the girl who was kind enough to bring you here
[X] Reflect on your own actions. How you brushed off friends and lover alike. How you hopped around selfishly, only thinking of what you wanted at the moment.
[X]Apologize to everything and everyone

I maintain nonetheless that yin-yang dualism can be overcome.
With sufficient enlightenment we can give substance to any
distinction: mind without body, north without south, pleasure
without pain. Remember, enlightenment is a function of willpower,
not of physical strength.

Well, I was waiting for a bit to see if I'd get another vote or two, but it seems that that's not going to be the case. Although you may not know it, the wording on the two options was very deliberate. But the write-in is fine. So I'll start to write, although it'll likey take a while. I'll probably post one part first before I'm done.

>>12737
>Ah, but if I am you as some seem to think, then by my enabling you, are you not basically enabling yourself?
I like the multiple personality bit, so I'll go with that it's a persona that encourages me to do things alluded to in passing. Or something.

The only path, as it turns out, is one of introspection. Introspection followed by important decision making.

You think, even as you move quickly through the forest, ignoring the fact that it's getting dark, the fact that you don't really have any food, and the fact that you're not even 100% confident in your beliefs. But still you think. You reflect up on your time here. While it's easy to claim everything is everyone else's fault or fate has it out for you, you realize that you are to blame for a lot of things. It's not a sudden realization, hell it's been in the back of your mind for quite some time. It's just not easy to put aside your ego and find fault

The people you've met have been all treated nicely with only one or two exceptions. You've had fun. You've enjoyed yourself. Thinking along these lines, it's hard not to thank Kaguya for bringing you over. Your buddy, your friend. Yeah, she's been all that and more. Sure, you haven't spent nearly as much time with her as you should have, all things considered, but that doesn't mean you don't care about her. She's put up with a lot of your selfish desires. Part of you says that she should have to, since you're not her pet, but you know that's just transient bitterness. Hell, everyone at Eientei has been nice, perhaps in a quirky way, but nice nonetheless.

Thoughts of other people are a bit more riddled with guilt. And you'll deal with that as you go. Right now it's time to try to make amends somehow.

You've run all of the way to Keine's home. It was what was nearest, and you also hoped to catch Mokou here. It's late in the afternoon, so you think that Keine is already home. You knock, waiting to see if she's around.

As luck would have it, she's in. She opens the door, and her surprise at seeing you is unmistakable. You seize the initiative and do what you came to do.

"I'm sorry for appearing out of the blue," You start, "especially given how I've behaved as of late."
"Is anything the matter?" She looks at you a bit concerned.
"No, nothing is the matter. Well, actually yes. What the matter is how I've treated you and repaid your generosity. I've been a jackass, lousy at holding any responsibility and a complete mess. And for that I want to apologize.."

You bow your head, to the point of straining yourself.

"Eh-" Well, this is certainly surprising!" She exclaims without any malice nor sarcasm. "What's brought this on?"
"Things... progressing the way the were. I know apologizing doesn't make up for everything, but I figure it's a start. Especially considering just how kind you were to me."
"Oh, not at all." She tries to get you to stop bowing by nudging you with her hand. "I understand from where you're coming from, so it's okay if you just make your feelings known."
"But you shouldn't have to understand!" Gah, she's too kind, prompting you to try to desperately dehumanize yourself. "I was a jerk, inconsiderate and rude. You gave me more chances than you should have and treated me with a level of trust and respect that I wasn't entitled to!"
"None of that matters." She smiles, something which almost paralyzes your heart with guilt. "The past is the past, as long as you realize where you went wrong and make sure to improve yourself, it's fine."

You continue this little tirade for a while yet - slowly yielding to her kindness. It's only when she invites you in for tea that you remember that you're on a mission.

"I'm sorry - but I can't accept your most generous invitation." You stop short of coming into her house.
"Why not? You can talk to me if you're still troubled. It'll be my pleasure."
"It's not that-"
"Is it because you think I'm not good at giving counsel?" She pouts, making her look childish. "I knew I failed earlier at helping you, but you've got to give me another chance. I would love to-"
"It's not that at all! I appreciate your counsel and your kindness!" You try to smile to show your sincerity, something that's not very easy given your swirling feelings. "I just.. have to tell everyone that I've let down how I realize it now. And apologize. I'm sorry, but I hope you can understand."

Keine lets out a sigh.

"If that's the reason, then I guess I can't monopolize your time."
"Thank you for understanding."

Before parting however, you inquire about Mokou. Keine hasn't seen her all day. You leave a message, just in case you can't find her later.

"Could you please tell her that I've thought about it and that I'd like to say that I'm sorry. And if possible for her not to be mad at me?" You scratch your head, "I know she's hard-headed, but I'd like to talk to her if possible in person again. I don't want to leave things as they are."

And with that, you leave Keine. She tells you to come see her some other time and waves to you until you're out of sight.

One down, many to go.

The next logical place to go would be the village. You've got to apologize to certain barflies.

The tavern is only just now receiving its afternoon regulars; men who spent all day working in the fields and doing other manual labor. When you come in, you're offered free drinks from some of the buddies you've made, some of them inviting you to play games and hear the latest gossip. Your target, however, isn't them.

At the back of the tavern, a small group of men are chatting amongst themselves. The tavernmaster is standing, idling about with them. You step up to them and say your piece.

"Guys, I came here for one simple reason: I wanted to apologize. I've been sort of an ass lately. I'm sure you know that." You turn to a man in a tight undershirt, "Vic, I'm sorry for coming between you and your special someone. I knew he was tied to you, but I still accepted his invitation for drinks and to maybe go back to his place. I'm sorry about that." The big man nods, and you turn to another guy, "I'm sorry about inciting you to bet all of your profits on me, it was wrong and I was just looking for a free drink - as you know the games late at night here can be rough and I was just looking out for myself.."

You turn to the last person you have to apologize to...

"You know why I'm apologizing. And I'm sure you'll appreciate it if I don't go into detail about what happened in that alley between us the other night. What can I say? I was too drunk to restrain myself."

Falling into silence, you expect them to all shout at you. Instead, they all seem to be... touched? Oh man, even clawhand is tearing up. But why? As you stand there stunned, you hear all of these guys start apologizing to each other. Oh man, you've triggered some sort of mass apology session.

After a couple of good cries, sweaty embraces, and brotherly toasts, you've all made peace with one another. The mood is celebratory, and the whole tavern is inundated by off-key singing. They invite you to stick around, but you've got to be places today. Time flies by when you're not paying attention.

Right now, there's just one last place outside of Eientei that you ought to visit. It's in the Forest of Magic, and you should hurry up, lest it get dark.

You can't help but sigh when you think about what you're going to say. Truth be told, you have no idea. You have no idea if she'll even want to see you. You can't put into words the torture and ill-ease that's strangling your heart. It's no better on an intellectual level - betrayal, disappointment, they all seem like foreign concepts ill-suited for this talk. Your mind's a blank.

Still, you know deep down that it would be like this even if you spent a thousand hours reflecting. It's not going to get any easier. It's never easy to go into the unknown, but you've take this decision and you plan to see things to the end.

---
Part one. I'll be writing the rest ASAP I've willed myself to finish as soon as possible.

>?You know why I'm apologizing. And I'm sure you'll appreciate it if I don't go into detail about what happened in that alley between us the other night. What can I say? I was too drunk to restrain myself.."

?_?

>>12752
Alice End confirmed.

>>12753

This just makes me wonder is Shirou has been gay all along and it's been his fight coming to terms with homosexuality that has messed his life up in a world filled with beautiful women.

Maybe Rinnosuke could.....

RINNOSUKE?

We didn't fucking look into what he was talking about last time we saw him! Oh for fuck sake the thing about going through something similar with the "proving yourself" bit? A perfectly good lead that was forgotten in an instant, that's ADD for you.


I know it's too late to think about these things, but that one just leaped out at me while thinking of Rinnosuke.

While I'm at it, where did that secret passage that took forever to find go and do we still have that mystery key we found? Ignoring so many other loose ends of course such as fleeing lights, waking up naked in the village, rabbits going crazy, proving yourself, what happened to Kourin, moon runes, dreams of Eirin killing herself and Aya.

Just tell me if we've been carrying that damn key all along?

>>12756

tl;dr

EVERYBODY should be gay in Gensokyo?

>>12756
Well, I look at it like this;

You find out the the very best friend you've ever had, who has invited you to come live with them for some indefinite period of time, is this incredibly gorgeous woman who wants to spend time with you, and beyond a smooch while the two of you were inebriated, you do NOTHING AT ALL to progress things with her, especially when she later returns the favor?

Were it not for the pursuit of Alice, indicating Shirou was just an idiot who didn't know a good thing when it was looking him right in the face the whole time, him being gay would pretty much be the only logical explanation.

I can understand getting scared off from Eirin, what with the whole cock-breaker bit. That's self-preservation.
I can even understand groping Aya, getting a blowjob in return, and then doing absolutely nothing to follow up on her. That's just being your typical male; an asshole. (I mean, really, the poor girl deserved at least a letter, since a phone call wouldn't really be possible.)

But to not want to spend time with the smoking hot moon princess who likes you, shares many of the same hobbies and interests as you, and actually wants to spend time with you, especially when you're both living under the same damn roof? Goddamn, Shirou. Just...goddamn.

The website not working and then Christmas eve really threw me off there. But let me guarantee you, this ends before Chirstmas is over.

>>12762
Merry Christmas Teruyo

Before you realize it, you're standing in front of Alice's house. The wooden structure seems eerily silent. It's probably just your nerves, but you feel as if the house itself is staring you down. That's not going to impede you from doing what you came to do, however. You step up to the door and knock.

Nothing

You knock several times more. There's absolutely no reaction from within. You try to open the door, and no surprise it's locked. More than that, it feels like it's been blocked off from the other side. You try the windows, but all of the wooden blinds are closed and tightly fastened.

You don't mean to get discouraged, but it's obvious that you're not going to get in. It almost makes you mad enough to forget why you came here in the first place. You don't know the deal why Alice isn't here (or maybe just not answering her door), but you came to make amends. And it's just plain frustrating to not be able to do as you wish.

You can't get angry to the point of losing all perspective, however. A nagging voice tells you that not knowing and not being able to, as well as being a general jerk, is your fault mostly. That's what you've come to accept with your previous apologies and it's not fair to make an exception in your reasoning just because you're frustrated. Deep breaths. You can analyze your motivation later. For now you should see if there's anything else that you can do.

Circling around the house, you find nothing betraying activity inside nor any hidden entrances. You scratch your head before leaving the clearing. There's one more place that you can check for Alice. And luckily, it's pretty near by.

Marisa's home and store looks about as unkempt as always. And, as usual, you can't tell if there's anyone inside or if it's just the afternoon light playing tricks on you. Coming here is not a comfortable experience for you. Quite frankly, dealing with that girl is always a hassle, even if it's to see Alice. There's a sign hanging on the door. You have to come very close in order to read it, the handwriting looks more like chickenscrawl,

"Closed."

That's not all, hastily etched onto the sign are two two stick figures. They're more or less of the same size, with no distinguishing features except for the large pointy hat that one is wearing. Well, at least you think that that pointy triagle-like thing on the 'head' (a circle with two dots and a line for a mouth) is a hat. Geez, a preschooler could do better. Heck, some of your youngest students definitely could do better.

You notice that there's an even small message/caption below it. From what you can make out, it says ?A + M <3 || ??. Go figure what that means.

You try to help yourself inside; It's open. You shake your head. Really now, how can she just leave her home open to all like this? There's no movement nor noise inside. It doesn't take you more than a minute to realize that you're completely alone. Just to be sure, you move around the house, going into every room. You don't even want to begin to describe the mess that is her bedroom. What is interesting, however, is that you find one of Alice's dolls here. It's the best lead that you've got.

You leave a note with some stuff you find lying around. It's not much, but you think that it at least sets the mood for further dialog. It's short and to the point;

"Alice, I've been a jerk. Let's talk.

-Shirou."

You leave after placing the note in a prominent spot. Hopefully things will begin to unravel with just this small step.

As for now, you're going to head back to Eientei.

It's already early in the evening when you get back. A host of rabbits linger at the main entrance. You greet them all casually with a smile. They look at you, with a strange look, but after a moment they welcome you as best they can. You'll stink of dirty rabbit for the rest of the evening.

The apology circuit here starts with the biggest bunny around. You find Reisen in her room, finishing whatever chores she had for the afternoon. You watch her through the open doorway for a bit before making your presence known. After all, it would be rude to break her concentration.

After she sighs, signaling the end of work, you knock. She greets you and invites you in. The two of you get talking, and when you put forward the same conclusions you put forward earlier to Keine, she immediately tries to cut you off.

"There's no need to apologize, you've done nothing wrong!" She takes on an apologetic tone herself.
"But after a lot of thinking, I..."
"I don't know what you think you've done, but you've behaved yourself perfectly with me." She looks at you with an almost pitiful expression. "You don't have to say you're sorry, if you haven't done anything bad."
"Nevertheless I think that I should let you know how I feel."
"And I appreciate that but, really, it's fine. You shouldn't feel like you've done anything wrong with me."
"It's not that you know..."You try to get a word in edgewise, "It's just my whole attitude. It's been anything but proper."
"It's been nice talking to you the times we've been together, and for that there's no need to justify the rest." She forcibly concludes the conversation with a smile.

Left with nothing else in your bag-o-conversational-tricks you return her smile and take your leave.
The next stop is the clinic. Eirin is inside, leaning back on her chair, looking at the ceiling. She subtly acknowledges your presence with a slight nod of her head, at the same time indicating that you should say whatever it is you came to say. Her replies seem uninterested, if not a bit disconnected from what you're saying.

"That's nice."
"So we're okay?" You ask.
"If that's what you want." She replies without so much as glancing in your direction.
"You do know what I'm talking about, right? And not just saying things to appease me?'
"Sure. You came here to justify your behavior for god-knows-what reason. And if it makes you feel any better, and more importantly ends this discussion, I'll just validate your position. So it's extra-nice that you've got all of this figured out for yourself."
"Geez, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you. I only came here to smooth out any misunderstandings we may have had."
?'Misunderstandings'?" She smiles slyly. "Hah, sure, why not? If it makes you feel better by going through with this unnecessary exercise in thinly-masked egotism, then sure, let's say we've had misunderstandings."
"No need to be so snarky... I came here trying to act as humble as I could."
"That's alright. I don't need to see all of that. And now, if you're quite done, I'd appreciate it if you gave me some alone time. I think I could put my time now into better use."

It's useless to say anything further here. You leave the clinic with a subdued 'bye'. You don't really know what that was all about, but you've still got someone else with whom you should speak. You head on up to Kaguya's room. You bump into her in the hallway just outside of her room. You ask her if she's got a moment to spare. Naturally, she invites you in and shares her time with you.

You give her the same lines you've been saying since mid-afternoon, adding details relevant to her case. She, like almost always, listens attentively, letting you speak as much as you want. She hangs on your every word, but you feel that she does seem to be quite a bit surprised with the subject matter. You try not to get derailed and say as much as you can.

"...and that's about it. Once again, I can only apologize about how much of a jerk I've been. Even though we're supposed to be buddies through and through."
"That's nice." She claps her hands and shows you a familiar smile.
"I... was sort of expecting something more than that." Then again, given the last few reactions, your standards were pretty low to begin with.
"It's just that there's nothing else to be said." She starts a little one-sided tirade of her own, "I'm your friend. And I think I understand what goes on inside of your head at times. It's only natural. Also, I'm 100% sure that you've never doubted our friendship. So what's a little mild unpleasantness between friends? I'm not about to think any less of you because of it. It's nice that you've come out and said all of this, but it's not necessary in the least."
"That's fine on paper, but I still feel that I've snubbed you at times. That's got to bother anyone."
"Not really. I'm sure that you wouldn't be too bothered if the reverse was true. We each have our own realities and, as such, different ways of being happy."
"I don't think that 'different realities' can excuse rudeness."
"Perhaps, but what I'm getting at is that not everything works out as one hopes it would. This is because of the choices we make and the paths we tread. Making excuses isn't going to change anything. The best thing to do is to make amends with reality and react accordingly."

As far as you're concerned, you've accomplished what you wanted to do with the people here. It'll be dinnertime soon. Kaguya reminds you of that by stating that she's got a slight stomachache. She tells you that she's going to lie down for a bit and you take that as your cue to leave.

It's back to your own room.

There's nothing to do there. Even after wasting some time by taking a show and re-arranging your belongings you find yourself dreadfully bored. It might be dinnertime soon, but it probably doesn't matter. You'll likely end up eating alone. That does tempt you to try to finish up your round of apologizes, instead of leaving it at this. You've missed quite a few people. Then again, maybe you're just not trying hard enough to have fun over here.

[] Have dinner and spend quality time here
[] Try your best to finish what you started
---
I decided after sleeping to add one final choice here, as a present of sorts. I'll call it even if it doesn't have enough votes by the end of the day (my day). I do plan to finish this today come hell or high water.

>>12764
Merry Christmas anon.

[!/] Try your best to finish what you started.

[X] Try your best to finish what you started

If there is work to be done, it should be done.

[X] Try your best to finish what you started

May as well go all the way with this. Seeing as we've taken care of Keine, Eirin, Kaguya, Reisen, and the folks at the bar, with Mokou and Alice still to be found, that just leaves us a few more people to catch up with.

Just be careful if your travels take you near a certain mountain, and watch out for falling rocks.

>?A + M <3 || ??. Go figure what that means.

GOD DAMN IT SHIROU.

>>12772
I hate to say it, but I don't quite understand it either.

>>A + M <3 || ?

I get "Alice and Marisa" and the "heart", but I'm drawing a blank on those two lines and the arrow are supposed to mean.

Unless there's something more, for the moment I'm going to just assume it says something to the effect of Alice and Marisa embracing the love that dares not speak its name.
That, or they both really love whatever the lines and/or arrow represents. Or perhaps it's code and indicating where those two are currently hiding out.

...for now I think I'm just going to stick with the "Alice leaving Shirou for Marisa" scenario. This going around and apologizing bit is all well and good, but I think the lad could use one really good jolt to really drive the point home of what a complete and total ass he has been. Even the sincerest apologies can't save you from having to sleep in the bed you made for yourself, after all.

>>12775
But the sign was ON Marisa's house, was it not?

>>12776

Shit. I overlooked that detail.

Kourindou, or the bar, then, I suppose. It looks like a bar.

[X] Try your best to finish what you started

what's to be done shall be done

[x] Have dinner and spend quality time here

>>12774
>Alice and Marisa embracing the love that dares not speak its name
Wouldn't it be "A - M" instead of "A + M ? (something)"?

A + M <3 || ?

Alice and Marisa - bar flies?

Although right and fly/flies dont really work, per say.

[x] Try your best to finish what you started

>>12780
Not really. You ever see the way people carve their names or initials in a tree or something? Same basic format, except they're generally inside a drawing of a heart or something.

[x] Try your best to finish what you started

Finishing what you started, eh? Not that easy. Considering it's dark out. Well, there's nothing to be gained by just idling about. Your conviction shouldn't be so easily swayed.

A surprise awaits you at the entrance. Instead of the regular cast, you run into someone who normally would never be even seen idling around here. Leaning against the main gate, Mokou has her arms crossed and is fumbling about with a small twig in her mouth.

"There you are." She spits the twig from her mouth and turns to face you.
"Mokou? What are you doing here?"
"Came to see you. I'd normally refrain from coming this close, but I was told that it was alright. I thought they went to tell you I was here."
"No, no one did."
"Figures. Come, talk a walk with me, I don't want to stand at the gate forever."

You accompany Mokou for a leisurely stroll through the forest.

"Keine told me you stopped by."
"That's right. Did she tell you anything else?"
"Maybe. You tell me what it was supposed to be."
"I see you can't reciprocate humbleness that easily. Well, it doesn't matter. I made up my mind." You take a small breath. "I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. I've been a big jerk, and I regret it. It's not easy to admit."
"So...?"
"So what?" You ask.
"That means that I..."
"That means that you...?"
"Don't make me spell it out."
"Oh." You realize what it is. She's being awfully small if that's the case, "I guess you were right on calling me out on all that."
"Damn straight."

You let out a small laugh. Mokou's own laughter makes you think that this wasn't so bad after all. She's not as nearly as scary as she wants to be. You realize that this convoluted, and seemingly tough, girl is really just a big softy at heart.

"So, what are you going to do now? Things seem quite over at that place." Mokou nods her head in the direction of Eientei
"Well, I've been going around apologizing to people this afternoon. I figure I should cover everyone I've treated poorly."
"Who's left? I would have figured that something like that would involve you apologizing to everyone that you've ever met."
"Your cruel words just bounce off my tough exterior. And I've only got a few people left. Well, I don't think I've done them that much wrong, so it's really just one person."
"Out with it."
"Fine. It's Alice. I tried to talk to her earlier but-"
"She threw you flat out on your ass?" She flashes you an obnoxious grin.
"No. She didn't. And please don't interrupt me. Like I said, I'm beyond your petty ploys."
"So you say."
"Indeed I do. Anyways, she wasn't home. Everything there was locked and sealed. She hasn't been around in the past, but this is the first time that the place looked so empty."
"What about her friends?"
"Again with the interrupting?"
"Sheesh, what crawled up your butt and died? I know you're trying to not be a jerk, but don't kill your sense of humor in the process."
"Alright, sorry. Just let me finish." You let out a sigh. "There was no one at the magic shop either. The door was unlocked, but there was no one there. I even left a note."
"So you're hoping that they've come back, read your note, and now she wants to talk to you?"
"Something like that."
"Wouldn't it then be better to wait at Eientei? You know, in case she wants to talk to you. I mean, where do you even plan to go now? And what if there's no one there now either."
"I honestly don't know what's better. I just feel like I have to do something."
"My advice is to not do anything at night. It's dark and you'll probably end up getting hurt somehow."
"I know that too. But even beyond Alice I feel like I should see some people."
"Just wait until tomorrow, it'll all be fine."

She does bring a valid point. And disregarding her advice might make you seem like a jerk. And it feels bad to have her mad at you.

"I'll listen to you. But I need a favor. Could you find out where Alice is? It'd help me not waste any time wandering about pointlessly."
"What am I now? Your personal assistant?"
?Pleeeeease? You try to sound like a kid.
"I'll do it. Okay? But that's just because it's what friends do for each other. Just be warned, though; I can't guarantee I'll find her. It's not like I keep an open line with her at all times. But I'll look around and tell you sometime tomorrow what I've found out."
"Thanks, you're a lifesaver."
"Like you wouldn't believe."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing." She lets out a sigh. "Let's turn back."

She leaves you at the gate. You thank her again and head back inside. Your ambitions have been thwarted for tonight, but it's probably for the best. You are pretty tired. Doing Mokou's little routine in the morning and afternoon and then walking all over the place. It's a great way to burn calories - too bad that's not your intention.

You grab something light from the kitchen and eat it on the way to your room. You run into Kaguya in the corridor. She's headed to the kitchen.

"Feeling any better?" You recall her stomachache earlier.
"Yes, quite better. I'm heading to the kitchen to have a glass of milk. Eirin gave me a pill and I should drink it with something."
"Well, you do that and feel even better."
"Thank you. Are you going to your room?"
"Yup, I'm thinking of turning in. Turns out I'm more tired than I realized."
"Oh, good night then. I hope you have a good night's rest. It's an important part of taking care of oneself."
"Right. Thanks, and good night."

You leave just as a yawn escapes your mouth. Just before clearing the corner you turn back to look at Kaguya. She's smiling at you. You smile back. Really now, you can't tell what she's thinking. And you're supposed to be good friends.

You only bother to undress partly and lie sprawled on your futon. You let out a big yawn just before drifting off into sleep. Life is best dealt with one day at a time.

Gah, your head hurts like all hell. You rub your head. There's a lump. Dammit, did you fall off your bed again? You're still groggy and your eyes unfocused. When you finally gather enough composure to get up, you're greeted by the usual scenery. The room is mostly dark, except for the light that stubbornly tries to shine through your drawn curtains. Other than that, the LED light on your keyboard is the only other thing emitting light. You must have left the caps lock on.

Normally you'd try to get something to eat, instant noodles are the usual choice, but today a loud thump on your door breaks your routine. Damn kids, they're always playing around here. If it's another baseball you're going to just keep it this time. You don't bother to put anything more decent to cover yourself, it's your home so why should you bother? You wade through the mess of DVD cases and empty cups on the floor and get the door.

The intensity of the day's light makes you squint. You count to ten before you're able to see properly. There's nobody at the door, and it certainly looks like it's not the kids this time. A pile of magazines and envelopes sit on the floor as well as a medium-sized box. You don't question the validity of getting so much mail at once and haul it all in - the postal worker's union is always going on strike these days. You dump it all on your unmade bed.

You turn on your computer monitor. Your desktop greets you. No applications are running. Did everything crash or did you reboot for some reason? You groan. It's just as well that this happened, you'll check out the mail first then. You toss all magazines to the side, you can read those later. The bills - depressing, but necessary to read. To your dismay you find not one, nor two, but three bills for the rent. Surely there must be some sort of mistake here. You open them up. They're all for different months. You may be irresponsible, but you've always made sure to pay the bills on time. Wouldn't they have tossed you out already if you hadn't paid?

You check your finances online. You have an unexpectedly large cash flow. Just at a glance you can see that you haven't spent rent money, nor money on... anything else? How can that be? You're alive, so you've definitely been eating. Wait... you check the date. It's really the right date. You're confused. Not only about the bills, but because you were supposed to buy that limited-edition release about a month ago. You look around and see it's not amongst your stuff. Nothing else seems to be missing. You stop to stare at one of your favorite figs. Odd, you don't seem to recall looking at it since you bought it.

All this is an exercise in futility. You're probably still sleepy and messed up from bumping your head. You've got to focus here. Paying those bills is important. You think that you'll just withdraw the cash and pay the landlord in person. As odd as it may sound, the fresh air you'll get might do you some good. You get dressed and pick up the bills. You glance at the box on your bed. You'll deal with that later.

The dull grey of the urban landscape feels almost alien to you. There's plenty of people on the street, most of them wearing heavy coats and gloves. You do feel a bit cold, but you don't plan to stay out here for very long. The nearest ATM is only five minutes away and there's no line. You punch in your codes and make the necessary withdrawal. The rest is easy. You go to your landlord's office and make the payments. You get your receipts and are done with it. No one cares why you haven't paid, the only chitchat you get is a 'funny' joke about how they'd have had to evict you. You also get a 'playful' warning about not making payment in the future. Assholes.

You're put off enough to walk around the city for a bit. It seems like an eternity since you last strolled through the shopping district. It's not that there's nothing worthwhile here, but you're usually busy with the entertainment in your own room. You pass by the local school. Seeing students playing out in the courtyard makes you feel anxious. You're not sure why you even care. You hasten your pace. You turn back home soon enough. A new shop is opening soon. The sign caught your eye. The text is surrounded by a bamboo motif.

"Full Moon - Nature products and drugs?

Your head starts hurting all of a sudden. You quicken your pace and take the path home. You stop halfway and sit on a park bench. Just what the hell is wrong with you? A loud rumble from your midsection answers you. Yeah, that must be it. You're just hungry. You spot a small stand next to the park. You'll grab something to eat and everything will be fine. You place an order of grilled chicken and eat it. The feeling of anxiety only seems to grow larger.

Ultimately, you decide to go home. There's nothing out here for you. There's nothing on the net either. Your email inbox is conspicuously empty, and most of your usual digs seem quiet. That only leaves one thing to do. The box. You might as well open it now. You grab a knife and kneel next to the bed. It's weird but there seems to be no return address on the box. Or your own address, for that matter. It's just your name printed in a serif font. You cut along the tape. A few motions later and the box is open.

It's full of packing peanuts. The y spill out a bit once you open the top. You dig inside, looking for something besides foam. Near the bottom, your hands find something. It's apparently cloth and not that big (in regards to the size of the box). You pull it up, trying not to scatter the foam peanuts all over the place.

You stare blankly at the object in your hands. You... don't understand why you have this. Her regal green eyes stare at you. You can't return the gaze. Tears fall from your eyes and onto the doll's blue and white dress.

"Oh... I shouldn't get your clothes dirty."

It surprises you just how broken your voice sounds. It feels like there's a void inside of you, a veritable black hole destroying your insides. Your rational mind doesn't understand why all of this is happening, but your body is reacting violently. You're almost choking on the sobs coming from your throat.

<It's as if something is broken>

Your top half collapses on the best, letting the doll fall from your hands. Hours seem to pass with you being in a hysterical state. Whatever this is, it's not going to go away anytime soon. You slump to the floor. The last remnants of a rational braking of your runaway emotions are swept away; the doll's accusing eyes are too much for you to bear.

There's nothing quite like absolute suffering without clear reason. Despite everything, you kept the doll near you for the rest of your days. It was a constant reminder of the deep wound inside of you that never healed and only seemed to hurt more as time passed. The external flow of tears ceased eventually, but they continued just as strongly on the inside. Even at the very end you only realized that death would not be a release, but only a transition to the next stage of the perpetual cycle. All success and failure in your life, even the momentary joy after the moment you got the doll, was irrelevant faced with this simple truth: you will always be broken.

Acta est fabula

>Acta est fabula

Hooray!

It's like the ending of The Godfather part III where Michael slumps over in his chair. A trainwreck from start to finish.

*clap*

All which must start, must end where it once did. Nice story, Teru.

Its...it's

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhereItAllBegan

And we didn't learn shit. Kira, eat that heart out.

Well, that's a sigh of relief.

Like having just passed a particularly large and unpleasant shit.

I can't say that I'm particularly happy with this end, though it's not as bad as SNOWFIELD.

Thanks for reading!

This post is just a little something I threw together a little while ago for when the story was over. I'm sorry if it seems to ignore any questions and comments posted after the story, I'll deal with those at the end (and in subsequent posts).

I wanted to thank everyone that's voted or read even a single update. Even if you didn't stick with the story (this begs the question why would you be reading this post, but oh well), I'm glad you gave it a shot. To those that have commented, had theories they shared, added fun ideas, written write-ins and so forth I want to thank doubly. You've made it even more fun. And I also want to thank everyone that's brought forth constructive criticism and helped the experience (and myself!) improve. Say what you will about 'how anon is retarded' or 'anon has ADD', but I think that you guys are still great. Mob rule may not be ideal, but the point of this was to have fun and we were in it together. By giving up or trying to say 'fuck it all' you're hurting no one but yourself. All actions have consequence.

There have been less than ideal moments both for me and for the story. And I'm sure the readers have felt this. I feel, however, that I've been consistently building upon my failings and improving things and adapting to my audience. A reset early on would have been meaningless, I think that carrying things out to the end is always the right thing to do. Even if results are unsatisfactory (story-wise), a lot of the events and characterizations serve as building blocks for future chronicles. That is to say, the very nature of these interactive stories allow us to see different perspectives in different runs as well as sides of things that perhaps won't be at the forefront in the future. The reverse also applies, future runs might give you more insight as to why things happened a certain way, or why people behaved the way they did.

All of that said, you'll see the experiences and lessons learned in the next playthrough. From the first post you'll have a clear idea of what I've implemented to make things better and more enjoyable. Hopefully that'll also mean that things are more expedient and will go without hiccups. A lot of these changes I couldn't implement halfway this run, and I've been thinking of them for a while. I haven't been deaf to the suggestions made, and I hope you aren't deaf to the responses given. As always I am to make things as open and transparent as possible. Which is why I value your input and write-ins.

I've always envisioned this as a mix in between what a VN, CYOA, and RPG session should be like. That is to say I as the DM (or storyteller) would present scenarios and ideas in which you would define how to acts and behave. And depending on the choices made, you'd find yourselves on a certain storyline or arc. It's just as important for me to be flexible and accommodate your desires as it is for you to state them and immerse yourselves. Otherwise I might as well just write a traditional story written in a non-interactive and linear fashion. So as the story matures, so does the storytelling.

Here's a point I've wanted to bring up for a while: I don't necessarily believe in arbitrary deaths. This despite their use in this playthrough, often mainly for comedic effect. It's often a copout for dealing with realities and situations that players bring upon themselves in stories/games. And as such, I've shied away from the typical save/reload type thing, especially towards the end. Yes, there are flaws with that line of thinking. But you'll see that I've taken steps to minimize those flaws in future playthroughs. Still, once again, every action has a consequence. That isn't to say that it can't be undone, but rather that the price of undoing something or fixing it will logically be significant (after all, you can't just approach an estranged friend in real life and try to force normality nor can you do the same with any number of situations).

As for now, during the next 2 or 3 days, I'll probably dedicate myself to reading the stories which I've slowly begun to shun elsewhere. I have to catch up with a lot of these, I've been too focused on my own work and there's lots of interesting stuff out there. Given that I'm a fast reader, it may be that I start another run earlier. And in that case I'd be both motivated and willing to work so progress would be fast. This, after all, is also supposed to be fun for me.

It's a bit of a shame that people won't give /eientei/ that much of a chance. Putting aside my own story, I think that the other stories here are nice and special in their own way. Definitely deserving more readership. Then again, at the same time, we're mostly isolated from some of the... unpleasantness that happens outside of here.

So thanks again, and look forward to the new run! I've got very good ideas in store and I'm sure anon will enjoy them.

Feel free to comment and ask whatever you want, and I'll get to replying soon enough (if necessary).

>>12787
A revealing comment accompanied by a healthy attitude. Surely a sign of progress and a testament to wisdom.

>>12793
I don't think that trope really fits, given all of the context and examples. The only thing congruent is the 'place' bit. I bet tvtropes and its massive catalog of every device ever has something more accurate. But then again, why even bother to categorize? I think it's enough with realizing that there's nothing new under the sun.

Congratulations on the successful playthrough, Teruyo. Lord knows I enjoyed reading it.

>Then again, at the same time, we're mostly isolated from some of the... unpleasantness that happens outside of here.

Ain't that the truth.

As for a question, what was with the bit with Eirin's bra? Did Reisen just up and drop it while carrying the laundry? I know it probably doesn't compare to the myriad other things we didn't follow through on, but that little thing has bugged me.

>>12797
Out of all the loose ends and unexplained things you ask about the bra? I can think of several other things pertaining to just Eirin.

Well, seeing as that little Eirin-centric scene might still come to pass (there's a smaller chance this playthrough, but it's possible - events aren't static nor usually 'here and now' affairs), I'll just be brief here: Reisen didn't drop it, and it was discarded by Eirin in a moment of impulsiveness for reasons which I shall not disclose (sucks the fun out of it). She didn't mean to leave it in the kitchen, but given her circumstances it was almost inevitable.

A fitting - if sad - ending.

Bravo, Teruyo. I'm looking forward to the next playthrough.

Congrats on the first play-through. I must say I'm looking forward to the second play-through. I'm also curious about the new features you'll be implementing ...

Anyway, I had one minor question/clarication. Did Tewi die in this play-through? I gathered as much since she pretty much disappeared completely ...

>>12800
I think Tewi is the kind to survive even a nuclear holocaust. She... just went to live on a farm... with Ms. Shameimaru. She has plenty of room to run around in and is being taken care of by a loving family.

Seriously though she's fine, she's just being kept very busy by something that suddenly came up. All for reasons only known to her and certain unlicensed physicians. Well, and maybe someone else. She'll pull through, it's in her best interests.

Well, it certainly wasn't a "nice" ending, but it was certainly fitting. Me? I would have gone with the scenario where it turns out Shirou never left his room, and the entire story was the result of a hallucination/dream brought on by severe blood loss after he cracked his skull on something when his excessive fapping and hot-gluing causes his Anemia Option to automatically kick in. Then he dies. At least he had died as he had lived; alone and masturbating.
...but of course, that's just me. Dumping the poor bastard back out into the real world with no memory of his time inside the Border, with things left unresolved with certain people, and nothing to show for it but little memento whose name he cannot even remember, which serves as a constant reminder of the gaping hole in his heart and soul that he will feel for the rest of his life, but never know why it is he feels it is fine, too. Possibly even more cruel, if you were to balance a lifetime of sorrow and regret against a quick death filled with the pleasant thoughts that only a brain shutting down and dying from blood loss can provide.

But, again, this was a very fitting end, and all in all I have no complaints.

Now I just hope we can get all our ducks in a row the next go-around. Some sort of game plan might not hurt, but I'd like to see things start back up first before that.

As for questions, just what was the "A + M <3 || ? " sign supposed to mean, and just what did happen with Alice and Marisa afterward?
Also, Aya's Fantasies: Never going to happen, or never EVER going to happen? I know we didn't take things far enough in that direction, but might there be some hope the second time around? Or at least, for something similar?

Well done, not the best ending ever, but, like there other Anons have said, it's fitting.

I'm still wondering what would have happened if we took up on Kaguya's offer to stay in Eientei. That, and where Alice and Marisa were. And what about everybody's favorite Crow-slut?

Also, some (silly) questions for next play through: Will there be Einhanders? If not, what about an attack from the Bydo moon?

>There's nothing quite like absolute suffering without clear reason. Despite everything, you kept the doll near you for the rest of your days. It was a constant reminder of the deep wound inside of you that never healed and only seemed to hurt more as time passed. The external flow of tears ceased eventually, but they continued just as strongly on the inside. Even at the very end you only realized that death would not be a release, but only a transition to the next stage of the perpetual cycle. All success and failure in your life, even the momentary joy after the moment you got the doll, was irrelevant faced with this simple truth: you will always be broken.

Here I'm expecting Snow End, and you give us something even worse. You actually topped Snow End. Not only did we find out absolutely nothing about what was going on, not only did we lose everything and everyone, our protagonist can only feel the soul-shattering misery from this without even remembering why.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

oh dear... i was braced for something horrible, but this is just sad man...
well, anyways, almost everything's been said, so ill think forward and to prepare for the futute, id like to make sure our character lacks the faggotry and ADD symptoms that so much hampered us, so i propose our new hero be called
Solid Snake

>>12805
But there's already a Snake in another story.

>>12805

No, we should be Archer now.

"And yet, these hands will never hold anything..."

Time for another round of answering;

>>12802
The problem with a mere hallucination is that it makes re-using the premise a bit odd.
>just what was the "A + M <3 || ? " sign supposed to mean, and just what did happen with Alice and Marisa afterward?

The scribbles on the sign were made hastily and without much thought. Was there intent to communicate something? Definitely yes. But is it any more significant (to the reader) than what a lush doodles on a cocktail napkin? Probably not. Logically, being the author, something had to be going through my mind: A + M (description of above crude figures) <3 || ? (love going out together/love each other's company). It was purposefully ambiguous so that you'd conclude things like what you did. Which, despite what was going through my mind, could be just as valid (that is to say, Alice and Marisa are in love could be the truth, but that opens up a whole new can of worms).

Well, what happened to the witch and the dollmaker can be answered in different ways as well. If you mean what they were doing that afternoon, then that's relatively simple. In her usual flippant way, Marisa had dragged Alice out to have fun and get her mind off of both the protagonist and the percieved animosity between them. They went somewhere far away in Gensokyo to relax. It was also partially to regroup and discuss a scheme they were privy to. And after that, in the days and weeks that followed, well, I'd like to abstain from saying much. Originally I planned from including a bit of that in the ending (or allusions to whatever happened at the least) but ditched it because it might seem too over-the-top or forced within the context. Well, if anon either firmly consolidated his position with Eientei/Kaguya or Alice (and to a lesser extent Marisa and even lesser - Mokou) a couple of choices before the end that would have definitely been 'seen' as the ending would have been significantly different.

>Aya's Fantasies: Never going to happen, or never EVER going to happen?

I actually wrote up a rough draft. Only to start up again and start from scratch. And to this day I have both versions on my HDD, mostly done. I just felt that I could make it better or that it was just really weak. Dunno what else to say. One day I might just finish it if I'm inspired or release 'as is' (although the latter is highly improbable). So yeah, except it sometime before Duke Nukem Forever.

>>12803
>what would have happened if we took up on Kaguya's offer to stay in Eientei
Partial answer above. Since I'm a generous and kind soul, that was one of your last chances to salvage for a better ending. I mean the ship had perhaps already sailed for a 'good' end (in the sense that UBW Good is 'good'), but something more decent was still possible. Either sticking around to see things more from an eientei perspective or going out and meeting with Alice would have revealed a bit more of what was going on. And while it was too late to go into business with Kaguya making figs (with Alice as a technical advisor/creative consultant) and live as the king of weeaboos, I think anon might have been able to strike a better compromise.

>And what about everybody's favorite Crow-slut?
Even only having the experience of running a two-bit rag, she could smell as scoop as big as the one you were involved in (while not world-ending still better than her usual work). Now there's quite a few ways to silence that line of inquisitive question-asking. The powers that be (and parties with interests at stake) could attempt to bribe, coerce, hide things, or throw her off the trail. In this case it was a combination of a payoff with a radical misdirection (as well as calling in some favors). The fastest and most awesomest reporter in Gensokyo isn't incidentally the brightest person. Well, compared to other 'wiser' denizens. So yeah, on a farm with Tewi.

>Will there be Einhanders? If not, what about an attack from the Bydo moon?
Yes. And didn't we defeat them last time? This is what we get for entrusting alien extermination to the Japanese.

And now, for me to go back to other things.

Congratulatons for finishing it. The End was perfect and i am sure it wasn't easy for you to finish it with us being stupid etc etc.
I can't say i read all of it, but what i read i liked ver much. There was too much Alice and other Characters in the Story that don't really belong in here. I hope that you thought about some good changes for the 2nd round.

>So thanks again, and look forward to the new run!

Looking forward to it! More Kaguya, more Eirin!

>And while it was too late to go into business with Kaguya making figs (with Alice as a technical advisor/creative consultant) and live as the king of weeaboos

OH GOD WHY, i wanted that end.....

Man, as long as we don't have play as Shirou again, I'm down with anything.

i propose we play as jun watarase this time

>>12811

I vote Tatsuhiro Sat?.

No issues with ADD, as he has an absurd fear of going outside! He's also addicted to legal drugs!

>>12812
So our benefactor would be Misa Tenshi?

>>12813
You know, I would consider such a thing unlikely due to her not really having much to do with Eientei (not that some of the other characters have that much to do with it, either, but I digress...) but the more I think about it, it doesn't sound quite so far-fetched.

Tenshi is already basically a troll, and if she were to ever get access to a computer with an internet connection, I could see her easily surpassing Kaguya in that regard. Assuming, of course, she doesn't get bored of people who get mad at her but cannot actually do anything to her. Unless the novelty of it is enough to keep her hooked, the rage of faceless people who she will never meet might not be enough for someone who gladly triggers natural disasters just to get a rise out of others.

Still, it could be fun, and I like the possibilities that come from putting her in the same room as Kaguya and/or Mokou, particularly the ones that end in epic three-way immortal hatesex. My god, it would be beautiful.

>>12812

Jacuzzi Splot

Oh, LAE has been completed? And there will be a second run? Hmm, might give it another try then. I stoped reading LAE almost at it's half, thread 16 I think.

And even if I left /einentei/ at that time, I congratulate you, Teruyo, for writing for all this long time and seeing it to an acceptable end (by acceptable, I mean not a 'bad end' or a 'I quit end'). I do hope that you have improved, after all this you certainly must have, because I will read LAE2, or at least read the introduction phase and a few more threads.

>>12818
Pretty much everything said here, except I stopped about halfway through thread 2

Well done Teruyo, despite some issues with structure I'd still say you delievered one of the better stories on THP in the quality of writing you produced. Personally, I like to look at this run through as an experiment, a rehearsal before the real thing. Though I quite agree that maybe someon other than Shirou would make a good lead this time, Shinji would make for another interesting train wreck if nothing else.

The ending was well chosen, while I had considered it possible it wasn't the one I had seen coming in this case. When I think about it, there was something rather chilling about Eirin and Kaguya's last moments with Shirou.

I still want to know about Rinnosuke going through the same thing, the mystery key, the brightlights and that thing that was too horrible to think about that popped up on the roof one day.

This picture sums up this ending quite wonderfully.

So Teruyo, is there gonna be a Q&A?

>>12821
just ask away, he said he will answer every questions.

>>12820
>Rinnosuke going through the same thing, the mystery key, the brightlights and that thing that was too horrible to think about that popped up on the roof one day.

It's unlikely that we'll learn more about Rinnosuke, it might come into light if you go along a Keine or Eirin-centric route. But it's not guaranteed. The mystery key might come more into play with either Eirin or (more probably) Tewi. The lights are definitely all Eirin (although something similar, yet unrelated might occur with Reisen).

>>12821
My brain doesn't really register being doubleteam'd by Rin and Sakura as a bad thing, despite the implications of what that erotical black hole is doing. And I think it's too wasteful to create a whole thread for for Q&A, so I'll just use this thread even though it's auto-saging. Or alternatively you could ask me on the small #eientei irc channel. I'm always on (if sometimes busy/sleeping) so I'll get to you faster that way. Or not, either way is fine.

As for the name change. Well, I don't mind, but I think there isn't any reason to change the name. I mean, I don't EVER describe Shirou. He's physically nondescript (the closest to physical attributes is stating that he's taller than Reimu, which isn't saying much). As for personality, well, he's molded by the choices that anon makes. He does have a base personality, but the idiocy is a reflection of the choices made. Save for the occasional 'you lost me' and other reference, there isn't really any link between him and his namesake from FSN. He *could* become like him, or like any other character, but he isn't to begin with. So yeah, he could be named Stalin, Frank Jaeger, or Mansa Musa and that wouldn't change things if the same attitudes were taken.

The protagonist will have a bit more of a personality in the beginning (as opposed of it developing towards the middle and end of this run) but anon will still be able to influence things. Like morality, knowledge, and some attributes (no one seems to remember that this run's Shirou was a bit more charismatic than average for example). It all depends on the choices made and the company he'll keep.

Oh and finally, I'll start the new run perhaps later today or tomorrow. I haven't read all the stuff I was supposed to catch up on, instead focusing on games that have long been neglected (what can I say? Not writting nor having that 'responsibilty' is liberating in a way). So I'll at least try to get my act together before writing.

Just stopping by to see how this is going and I see that you have completed this story and so Teruyo, I will congratulate you.

Though I stopped reading this quite a ways back if I recall where I left off there was some bear wrestling which was a "bad" end. Maybe someone can point to me where that thread is.

However now that this is done, so therefore I will get a complete story I will add this to the reading list. And its good to see one of the original board LA's to be complete at 34 threads quite impressive.

Also anyone have any stats for this story?
Word count, Number of pages and all that jazz?

>>12824
>Oh and finally, I'll start the new run perhaps later today or tomorrow. I haven't read all the stuff I was supposed to catch up on, instead focusing on games that have long been neglected (what can I say? Not writting nor having that 'responsibilty' is liberating in a way). So I'll at least try to get my act together before writing.

Eh, I'd take some more time off, if were you, to read and relax a bit longer. If you haven't read the others stories, then you missed a whole lot of things, like RAN (now only on archives) and etc.

But hey, if you want to start writing right away, then I won't stop you! Just a question, did Shirou develop a voice? Yeah, a voice. As in, dialogues! And will the next protagonist actually talk instead of "you ask etc, you say etc, you answer..."?

>>12826
>Word count, Number of pages and all that jazz?
I don't dare tally everything. Somehow I think it'd end up depressing me. It's just way too much.

>>12828
I think that by the second or third thread there was regular dialog (don't take that to heart, since I can't be assed to check). Really now, just take a look at any of the story posts in this thread for an idea of what the style has evolved to.

I'll be using this thread for any more Q&A, so ask away here while I start a new thread with (mostly) 'boring' recap/summary. Which I probably won't update for several hours (even with enough votes) because I'll be busy.

>>Stalin

do it

Wow, I pulled an all nighter, reading the last five or so LAE threads just to see this horrible ending? When I say horrible, I mean in the context of subject matter, not writing quality. Now I feel like I wasted my time.

I suppose that given anon's blatant dickery throughout this run, it was too much to expect a positive end with Alice...

Now I'm going to sleep troubled all day, gj.

Well, I've just gone through and finished this whole playthrough to completion, including all of the speculation posts and so on. It took me quite a few months to finish everything, since there were many points where I couldn't bring myself to read on due to anon's... general attitude. And I read slow, I'm sure that accounts for something.

But I did read everything, and I have to say that this whole story has been fairly satisfying. I was impressed how Teruyo was able to capture anon's general discontent and paranoia and mold it into our dear Shirou's personality, and the result of it was well deserved I think. I also appreciate how much thought was put into setting up the story paths in advance (the many mentions of flow charts and so on). It means this whole story did have several set points for exposition, yet anon somehow manages to avoid each of them. But it does enhance replay value quite a bit, now that anon is just that little bit wiser. Or not, it depends really.

There were some situations throughout the story that I think Teruyo took some liberties with the tone of some write-ins, causing some soured relations with many characters. I believe the original intent for most of these was more light-hearted than intentional fuck-ups. And maybe that's why many anons cried foul and ended up ignoring this story as it went on. I could see their side of things because I often expected different reactions, or even different articulation of the write-in descriptions/dialogue on our protagonist's part. I wish I could ennumerate examples, but I would have to reread everything to remember where I felt things could have been done with less antagonism. I suppose it's not as bad as it got with one other writefag's story, but it did put me off enough to delay continuing this story at times.

I do have to say that this ending struck me as a rather depressing scenario, leaving Shirou without his memories and leaving anon without closure on many things. But even after something like this, anon still manages to make me laugh (>>12804).

With all of this said, I do intend to read and join in on the voting during the second playthrough. I want to see how things turn out, if anon learned his lesson (that's a laugh) or if we're set to go down the same general route, possibly enhanced by silly disguises and various fantasies...

>>13854
I almost missed this reply since the thread has long since reached auto-sage. I appreciate the feedback no matter how late it might come.

I have to agree with you there with the write-ins. There's cases that those were perhaps distorted way beyond the intended direction. Sometimes this was purposeful. The times it was on purpose (I think) I did it for flow's sake. But well, right now I think that write-ins are being dealt with in a better way. Despite sometimes being out of character I think anon can produce some great stuff. I'm trying to make it so we don't end up with another broken protagonist. And it looks like we might pull that off. Save for a bit of a bit of a flare for being overdramatic, I think anon is doing pretty well right now (well targeting issues aside).

I thought I lost a bit of drive and direction just recently but that's just something that I'm sure I can handle. Overall I'm sure anon can do much better (and so can I). Hopefull some of these lessons will stick. Or I can work around deficiencies or whatever.

In any case, I'm glad you read and took the time to reply. Even if you hadn't liked the story, I still appreciate if you took the time to participate and/or read. After all, this is meant to be an enjoyable project for both me and all of my readers. That comes above any delusions, megalomania, or other drama. As long as just one person enjoy this, I'm okay with that.

Wow, this is a good story. I actually almost cried at a point.

...but there's one thing that bothered me. What happened between
>>12785 and
>>12786 ?


From what I see, either Shirou fell asleep and this stuff never really happened and Shirou somehow remembers what he felt during this time (like one of those dreams that you have but you can't remember what they are after you wake up), or someone took Shirou's memories away and put him back into the real world, leaving many problems unsolved and many things that should have been spoken, unspoken.

So... which was it?

Well with any answer, this was, in fact, a very good story nonetheless. 10K kudos for the author.