THIS IS NOT ANOTHER CHAPTER
This is just my thoughts on the book as well as a few questions that you might still have lingering. I also have a question for everyone, so please read this if you have the time.
Due to the nature of the story, a few things were left vague or just not explained at all. To combat this, I released the story to a few trusted individuals and asked them to give me questions.
These are those questions, along with a few I took from comments. Feel free to add your own in the comments if it goes unanswered.
But before we get into your questions, I have one of my own.
Currently, I'm writing an X Yuuka Kazami story. It's going well, but when I set out to write it, I did it with the intention of slowly developing Yuuka as a Yandere.
But I'm not really sure about that anymore, it's been a massive point of contention for me. I honestly don't mind doing either or, writing a Regular X Yuuka seems like fun, but so does a X Yandere Yuuka.
So I want to leave it up to you guys.
The way I see it, we have three choices.
A: Yandere Yuuka.
B: Regular Yuuka.
C: Both. (This will basically be the exact same story, but with a few major differences. There would be massive overlap, though I imagine the last few chapters would differ greatly.) (However, no matter how similar I keep them, the workload will still be hugely increased, moving my other projects much further into the future.)
I'd really appreciate your input on this, thanks!
Now onto the questions.
Q: So who was the voice at the start?
A: It started off as Yukari, then it was Rei and then it was nobody, because it doesn't make any sense for it to be anyone we know of. So I guess it's just some weird spiritual person who we don't know.
Q: Spirit is supposed to be a Chameleon youkai, but they never change their appearance in 'in truth' what's up with that?
A: Spirit was still rather young before events... transpired. Spirit never figured out how to properly use their abilities before they were... yeah.
Q: Spirit uses they/them pronouns. Why?
A: At first it was because I thought of them as a collective of people that they had captured, but then I got to thinking. If you're born from the fear of humans, are you given a sex? It wouldn't really make sense for something born asexually to have a sex, so you wouldn't really be given a gender at birth, right? I thought... hey, why don't I just make Spirit non-binary? And so I did.
Q: At the end of 'In truth' Keine and Spirit walk off into the forest. Why did they do that? Keine could've survived and Spirit still had three days.
A: Well for Spirit, it's easy. Just as Mokou said, Spirit was satisfied not with the life they lead during the story but the one that Keine ended all those years ago. With that in mind they decided to finally pass on.
For Keine it's a little muddy. You could definitely claim it to be OOC, hell, I would. But at this point I've added so much to Keines backstory while ignoring everything else that she's practically a different character. (Think kkhta Koishi to regular Koishi).
But basically, after murdering Spirit, Keine felt obligated to keep resurrecting Aichi until the day Aichi herself decided to die. When she did, Keine no longer served a purpose and could rest in peace.
Q: Have you even read forbidden scrollery?
A: No
Q: The title is misleading
A: I set out to make a goofy story and somewhere that changed irreversibly. I apologize.
Q: Who the hell is Rei?
A: She was the acting Yama before Eiki. She isn't an official character, but I needed someone to fill in for Eiki as she was a statue at the time.
Q: Why did Yukari let Spirit keep Ran and Chen if she was just going to snatch them back, like an hour later?
A: She was going to let Spirit have them until Spirit despawned, but Spirit slipped up by calling her old. This made Yukari mad and she took them away when Spirit needed them most. She just used 'giving them a chance' as an excuse.
Q: What was Reimu doing while Marisa was captured by Spirit?
A: Short answer: Relaxing.
Long answer: Originally, after Spirits conversation with Yukari, they would've been gapped to the hakurei shrine. There, Spirit would've gained the forms of Reimu, Shinmyoumaru, Shion and Suika. Aunn also would've been added to the 'Remnants' gang.
I cut this because it played out way too similar to how Spirit snatched the SDM crew. It also muddied the fight between Spirit and the Remnants and Aunn didn't serve a purpose.
Q: What was with that weird ink Flandre
A: I needed a way to get rid of Flandre's form. I had no idea how to do this. So I made up something.
Q: Insanity doesn't restore memories.
A: Yeah.
Q: So what did Spirit become after their original death?
A: They became a vengeful spirit, the vengeance they felt was targeted towards Keine, but after Keine erased their knowledge of that feeling, Spirit just became a... well spirit.
Q: But if Spirit is a vengeful spirit due to Keine murdering them, then wouldn't Spirit forgiving Keine at the end absolve Spirit's regrets? Allowing Spirit to move on?
A: Spirit is still tied to life in a weird way due to the ability they gained at the beginning and having re-formed their own body. And it doesn't really matter tbh, they move on three days later anyway.
Q:Why isn't Mokou featured more? She was teased in an earlier chapter but she only shows up at the very end. It feels like a missed opportunity.
A: It does, doesn't it? But I just felt like she wouldn't serve any real purpose.
Q: The thing with the youkai attacking the village was stupid.
A: I agree with you. I just needed to put the village in danger and that was the best thing I could come up with.
I want to thank everyone who made it this far, I'm guessing there aren't a lot of you. I want to explain myself for a little, I'm sure you noticed this story... well... it isn't very good.
That's because it was horribly rushed and also massively delayed. At some point, this story became a huge drag to write. (I think around Remnants 2)
I debated whether or not I should even release this story but in the end I felt like I had to. I didn't want to have disappeared for six months with nothing to show for it. So I forced myself to finish it.
In the end, I'm glad I did. It served as an excellent learning experience for me. I now know how far I can reasonably stretch Touhou Project and its characters before they snap.
I'd also appreciate some feedback, though. No matter how many times I go over a story I'm still going to miss things.
So if you feel like this story is utter garbage, I agree with you (mostly). But I hope you don't think of it as representative of my work, while Average man's trip has its problems, it's much more like what I want to write in the future.
So going forward, I'm gonna see my works through a different lens. I'm gonna write when I feel like it and I'm gonna write what I feel like writing. So if that means you never hear from me again, then so be it!
And as for future projects, while I don't want to say anything concrete (They're all still conceptual) I am working on something or other. Whether or not that'll ever see the light of day? Who knows!
If after reading this story, you don't want to stick around, that's fair.
YOU ARE READING
The Gensokyo Hat Heist
FantasyA pale blue spirit has been pushed around the plains of Gensokyo since it's beginning. Completely unnoticed by even those spiritually inclined, and without the strength to move, it was completely helpless. Until it heard a mysterious voice, statin...
