Mmmhhh, accepting would be a good idea, being an interesting plot hook and all.

[X]Accept

Say what you will about her personality, but there isn't much of a better source in Gensokyo than Aya. And perhaps Aya's investigations might cast Letty in a kinder light than what most people assume of her.

[X]Accept

Can't possibly go wrong.

---

That note still nags at me even though I said I'd deal with it later, which manages to confuse me. Why am I going out of my way to delve into another person's mystery like this? Alchemy is one thing, but this? ...I write my response on the back of the note with the crow feather pen before tying it back up and placing it back on the window sill the crow tengu had left it on to begin with. It's a simple 'I accept', but it should be sufficient. I don't need to be overly eloquent all the time after all.

Once that's done I get back to the more important task of creating a thermal jacket, or whatever you would call a heat-keeping bit of cloth crafted from a fragment of a being very close to a phoenix in nature. Though this one would not require a constant supply of glowing red-orange goo in order to remain effective over long periods of time. It's a rather silly concept, but when I first started this I had decided to utilize a magic based fuel in order to keep the jacket operational. Unfortunately I lost a large amount of the fuel during an escape and it was all eaten by a bunch of insects not too long after that. Fearing the possibility of giant insects crawling around attacking and eating people after repeated feedings of the thermal energy I wisely scrapped the plan and moved on.

I'm rambling again, aren't I? It does keep me from having to explain every last little thing as I do my work, and it also does wonders from my concentration. The last thing I need is for this to blow up in my face again because I accidentally mixed phosphorus and water in with the main cloth strands. Why I ever thought using such a volatile element in my creation is truly and thoroughly beyond me... Regardless, the main idea is to get the strand's power weakened to the point where it keeps a comfortable temperature without some horrible side-effect attached to it, then get enough of it to where I can craft some kind of coat with it. I don't think I really need to remind you all how well that little endeavor has gone, do I?

It's not really the preliminaries that get me, but rather something that goes wrong mid-process that manages to stay hidden throughout the whole process only to manifest in the end as some critical error that could prove lethal. In fact, some of them have come very close to being lethal and I've had to destroy several of my attempts in order to keep my house intact. I've been trying to spot the errors before I finish the product in order to correct them, but there are never any outward signs that something has gone wrong. It's almost like I've forgotten something fundamental about how you acquire material, but that can't be right can it?

Well, there's the basic material all laid out and ready for transmutation...

[X]I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should look over my source material again...
[X]No doubts, no regrets. Progress can't be made while standing still.

[X]I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should look over my source material again...

Can never be too careful.

[X] I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should look over my source material again...

>giant insects
>thermal energy
I was wondering why you used a Lost Planet picture.

[x]I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should look over my source material again...

[X]I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should look over my source material again...

infinitely better safe than dead.

[X]I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should look over my source material again...

[x] Check your sources


(From before in previous thread)
Then that would be ridiculously hot.
If it takes heat from a fire place then you are going to get burned.

Rather than that one should create a material that has microscopic holes in it that automatically shrinks or 'closes off' to prevent the passage of air at extreme temps (high and low). Of course it would be a very good insulator to prevent heat from conducting through the material and into open space.

When the outside is cold, holes shrink, trapping body heat inside.
Hot outside: holes open to let excess KE from molecules out.

As long as his body isn't freezing, this jacket will keep him warm.

[X]I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should look over my source material again...

Follow thy instinct!

After gathering the remaining materials I begin the incantation to change the liquid into a fully functional jacket, but find myself faltering partway through. Do I really want to risk blowing myself up for something I'm not even sure will work properly? One's own life is more important than a malfunctioning experiment after all...

I comepletely lost my nerve after that and began putting the materials away in their respective storage. The extract that would have been used in this transmutation has been safely stowed away in a bottle and sealed shut so it won't do anything strange like flow out and turn into a mini-Mokou that would attack me repeatedly. Once that's done I head up to my room to retrieve my- oh yeah, I still have that book on me since I had to retrieve it from the witch earlier today. Okay, I head over to my bookshelf to retrieve some source material so I can go back over my formulas and such, perhaps take a refresher course on the basics in case I've forgotten something, and hopefully remember that I do in fact need to eat. And so I begin.

An undetermined amount of time later.

That's not it, that's not it, that's not it, knew that, didn't forget that, the original text is wrong here, here, here, and here...

Corrections at 59% and rising... The original writer is completely out of touch with todays world, or maybe he or she just hasn't tried to use material from a living being before. Either way it's a massive gap in the theory.

Nothing interesting happens through this point.

And as assuredly as the sun rises and sets, the alchemist has become so absorbed in his work that he actively forgot to eat, drink, use the bathroom or anything. I know what you're thinking, 'this is a setup for a bad end isn't it?' Well, it's not. Ivan has a rather bad habit of neglecting his own body's needs when he gets too far into his work and will often correct this once he wakes up from the pain of sleeping in a bad position. This won't be for a few hours so please wait warmly.

...

...

"Ugh..." I note that my pillow is rather hard, not to mention kind of bookish. .... Bookish? "I did it again."

I fell asleep while working, and from the looks of it it's early morning. I feel like crap and have little time to correct this before starting my day. Said day started about fifteen minutes ago, which means I'm behind schedule in a bad sort of way. ...Honestly, Eirin's never going to let me live this down if she ever finds out.

[X]Deal with that irritating knocking sound first.
[X]Normal wake up routine.
[X]How about a real bed?

[X]Deal with that irritating knocking sound first.
-[x] Then some food and a bath, even if you have to leave soon. No sense leaving hungry and dirty.
--[x] And if things allow for it, a little nap in an actual bed.

Sounds like a plan.

[X]Deal with that irritating knocking sound first.
-[x] Then some food and a bath, even if you have to leave soon. No sense leaving hungry and dirty.
--[x] And if things allow for it, a little nap in an actual bed.

He's got to develop some sense of prioritizing things man; perhaps create a clock or... assistant to help him organize himself.

[x] go to sleep in a real bed, that knocking sound is just a figment of your imagination. But just in case keep a grenade or two handy while sleeping.

[X]Deal with that irritating knocking sound first.

The updates aren't long, so i figure we'll be getting a choice to determine what to do after the (tommy)knockers have been dealt with

[X] Deal with that irritating knocking sound first.

It's probably Letty. Ivan didn't give her a lot of time to read the book yesterday.

[X]Deal with that irritating knocking sound first.

I get up from my poor seating position in order to deal with that obnoxious knocking noise only to find what is perhaps the result of a poor night's sleep, or else I inhaled something in a daze. After all, one does not typically see a tengu standing in one's window frame. Especially not one that has chosen to use the sides of the frame as a handhold or one that is actively positioning her geta so that they'll somehow help perch her on the window sill.

I suppose I should at least open the window so I can shove her off properly.

I slide the window open and attempt to push her off, and committing a fairly obvious tactical blunder in my fuzzy-headed state. A human does not win a physical match with a tengu unless they are significantly overpowered. Or whatever you'd want to call someone who has become strong enough to defy the natural order. I'm not awake enough for this...

"Sheesh, if you're going to get your mitts on me like that you can wait until I'm inside." Aya responds to my attempt to forcibly remover her from my window by coming in anyway and bowling me right over. Or she would have had she not grabbed hold of my arm as she crossed the threshold of my house. "Uhh, no offense, but you look like shit. What happened?"

"Got too absorbed in my work, wound up skipping dinner and fell asleep while attempting to correct my formula. Now please state your business and leave, I'm not really in the mood to deal with pushy tengu." I don't even realize how rude I'm being. Normally this would spell doom for anyone not of the village guardian's level of strength or higher but I assume the reporter realizes that I'm not exactly in my right mind right now.

"Huh boy. Good thing it's me you're dealing with and not some other tengu. You'd lose your tongue for that at the very least, if you weren't struck down immediately." She doesn't leave and instead places an old paper on my table where it won't interfere with any of the other objects on it. "I'm starting to wonder if knocking you out and sticking you in a proper bed would be considered a mercy."

"I'm thinking about heading to mine here in a minute, assuming I can stay awake that long." I don't even regard Aya as I step past her to make my way upstairs, but I find myself being helped along by her. "...Thanks."

"I barged in, so it's only right that I do something to make up for that. The papers are on your table, and I'm leaving you a crow feather pen so you can contact me if you find something interesting or have hit a dead end." Given how many people have spat Aya's name before I would never have expected her to be this courteous. Maybe it's because I have the old legends stuck in my head but I half expect her to decide that kidnapping me would make more sense since I'm vulnerable or something along those lines. Ugh, am I some kind of bigot? "You don't have to answer if you don't want to-whoa!"

"Aw, geeze, you fell asleep on me? Nice to know you're either crazy enough or comfortable enough to decide you can sleep with me around." The tengu hoists me up to carry me fireman style into my room, and lays me down on my own bed. She's not entirely correct though, I'm still conscious, albeit barely. "... Eh, you're a smart guy, you'll figure it out if you didn't hear me."

---

>

"Aw, geeze, you fell asleep on me? Nice to know you're either crazy enough or comfortable enough to decide you can sleep with me around." The tengu hoists me up to carry me fireman style into my room, and lays me down on my own bed. She's not entirely correct though, I'm still conscious, albeit barely. "... Eh, you're a smart guy, you'll figure it out if you didn't hear me."
Nice update, Nice scene, Nice Aya.
I love Aya. Have I mentioned that before?

>>808
Nice to see someone make a halfway Nice Aya. Sure she's said to be annoying, but it's usually good spirited.

Will we see Hatate in this?

>>810
I hope not.

Not that I have anything against Hatate, but I hate to see characters crowbarred into a story just because a new game blew in. Why, if an author forced such a thing, I dare say it would be fowl play. Besides, we should calm our spirits and be happy with the photographer we have. After all, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and we already have two! So get your head out of the clouds, or our chances at befriending anyone could very well be twice spoiled. Such a travesty would surely make headlines faster than one can shoot their bullet!

>>811
I see what you did there. Though isn't she supposed to be some sort of recluse? Unless she views the more outgoing crow as her rival and wishes to outdo Aya's paper I doubt she'll bother with me, and even then it would take something big to get her attention. I just hope this Hatate isn't the pervert Aya is, or this violated feeling will never go away.

Hmm, I really shouldn't adress you lot directly. I'd get more than a little unwanted attention if certain parties found out about this.

...

Once I'm fairly certain that Aya has in fact left the building I drift off to sleep again, but this time it's on an actual bed instead of a chair and a table. Before losing consciousness completely I do chastise myself for not asking if Aya could loosen up my muscles at all before leaving, though I'm not certain if she's simply do it, if she'd tease me about it, or go too far with it. She's yet to earn my explicit trust after all. What fool trusts a pretty face they've only just met?

...Yes, I do realize how hypocritical that sounds coming from me since I've pretty much entrusted my life to Letty once already.

Little thoughts plauge my head as I sleep off my exhaustion. You know, nagging thoughts that tell you you've gone and forgot something, or doubting questions that try to make you rethink your current position. I don't spare so much as a second's thought to them and focus on trying to make my sleep as peaceful as possible, though just as I'm really about to drift off into dreamland I hear a knocking. It's unlike the gentle, rythmic tap of knucklebone against glass that Aya used to alert me to her presence, but rather a harsh pounding that makes me think someone's trying to break in. I can take a wild shot in the dark as to who would be so blunt, or two close but not entirely unrelated guesses, but decide that arming myself would be a good idea just in case it's some jackass(es) who thinks (t)he(y) can just waltz in and make off with my stuff. Having a house near the village gate is both a blessing and a curse at times...

"Open up already, I'm freezing!" For the love of all that is cheese, stop beating down my door.

I make my way down the stairs, despite nearly falling over once or twice, and walk out into the entry hallway just as the person at the door renews his or her pounding. I stand just inside the door before talking. "What's the password?" If you're going to screw with my day I sure as hell get to screw with you.

"PHOENIX-" Aw crap. I swing open the door just in time "-PUN-" to see Mokou thrusting her fist forward and Letty trying to pull her back. The resulting punch sends me to the floor, but this time there's no burn! ...I'll need a fresh shirt though. "Shit, sorry about that. ...Wait a tic, I didn't break anything did I?" Oh look, I think I'm finally going to fall asleep! "Ivan!" I can feel the phoenix woman shake me a bit before drawing her hand back...

"He's still got a pulse." The snow woman on the other hand has taken a more sensible route in checking to see if I'm still alive. If I were awake I'd be thanking her right now. "His breathing has calmed down so there's no reason to fret. Just let him rest."

Mokou pulls out a fresh stick of pocky and sticks it in her mouth before talking. "Good. I'd feel even shittier about this if I managed to kill him by accident. Here, give me a hand." She then moves to my head while Letty moves to my feet. Once in place... "Ready? Lift!" ...they pick me up and begin walking to my room.

"Pardon me for prying, but you didn't seem to fond of Ivan. Might I ask why you're helping him now?" Letty chooses to take up the task of carrying me up the stairs backwards while asking questions.

"One, Keine would rip me at least two new ones in some unsettling ways, two, I don't think he deserves death for a minor annoyance like hair-yanking, and three, he's like a fungus. He just grows on you until you're used to him." Mokou has the advantage of being able to see where she's going and acts as a spotter for Letty. If I were awake I'd be asking who the Mokou impersonator is and where she's stashed the real Mokou.

"So you do consider him a friend of sorts." There's a momentary gleam in the snow woman's eyes, but it quickly passes. Perhaps they've considered a mutual truce while inside my house.

"Sorta. He's not exactly in my inner circle but I'll help keep him safe like I do everyone else. Swing to your left... There. Now straight back." Mokou swings around to face the entrance to my room and follows Letty in before the both gently lay me back on my bed. "Now that this lump is back where he should be, I'm going to go make some lunch. Keep an eye on him would ya?"

"I was under the impression you don't trust me." Letty takes a seat near my bed regardless, but she doesn't break eye contact with the firey woman in the doorway.

"I don't. I think you're going to take advantage of the guy and I'd love nothing more than to throw your ass outta here. The only reason I haven't is because I need you to keep an eye on him so he doesn't do anything else." With that Mokou leaves the room, leaving my unconscious form to Letty's care.

"Our distrust is mutual then. I believe that you will only ever bring Ivan pain and would love nothing more than to freeze you into an ice block." She settles for watching me just in case I have a seizure or some such silly thing.

...

"Tch, I'm still wondering why Eirin doesn't just snatch the kid up. They've got similar interests and almost all the same bad habits." The phoenix looks over the mess I have on the table before giving everything a closer look.

Mokou action:
[X]Just get lunch dealt with.
[X]How often do I get a chance to screw around with his stuff? This can't be that hard...
[X]The hell is with this paper?...

Letty action:
[X]It's best to leave him be.
[X]I should replace that shirt...
[X]Perhaps increasing his warmth will help him sleep better.

[X]Write-in

[X] Just get lunch dealt with.
[X] I should replace that shirt...
-[X] And maybe increase his warmth as well

Poor Ivan has terrible luck. He needs to run into Hina at some point.

[X]How often do I get a chance to screw around with his stuff? This can't be that hard...
[X] I should replace that shirt...
-[X] And maybe increase his warmth as well


Back to Eientei!
And having mokou owe us big time is going to help immensely when we next need some of her hair, losing a house or two is worth it.

[X] Just get lunch dealt with.
[X] I should replace that shirt...
-[X] And maybe increase his warmth abit as well

>>814
Actually, you misunderstand. I'm currently having Ivan break the fourth wall to adress the readers before the update really begins, which has nothing to do with IRC. Especially since I haven't been there in quite some time and have never been called out on anything when I did.

The 'certain parties' would be Yukari (for obvious reasons) and some other yet unintroduced characters, so the non-fourth wall segment blurs the line between story and OOC, if that makes any sense. It won't affect the story if they do show up, they'll just be little cameos.

[x]How often do I get a chance to screw around with his stuff? This can't be that hard...
[x] I should replace that shirt...
-[x] And maybe increase his warmth as well

>>812
I did several things there, some of which I'm not proud of, but I do like what you did in return.

...That could be easily misconstrued.

Anyways...
>Though isn't she supposed to be some sort of recluse?
True, well I guess we don't have to worry about seeing h-
>Unless she views the more outgoing crow as her rival and wishes to outdo Aya's paper
Oh, hai there, plot of Double Spoiler.

>>815
Bad logic I say, bad logic. And it might result in a bad end.

>>812
Cleared things away now that they're clear.

I just asked out of curiosity. And the whole Aya being a pervert is more fanon than canon, but it's a better fitting bit than making nice-hearted girl Kaguya into a spiteful NEET.

Hard to say how Hatate will turn out, since she comes off as someone inexperienced to Gensokyo. I do feel sorry for her in some cases, since the results of running into Suika or Yukari would most likely be sexy.

[X] Just get lunch dealt with.
[X] I should replace that shirt...
-[X] And maybe increase his warmth abit as well

Fire/Ice catfight? Interesting how those two don't like each other, but yet kinda natural. But I believe in Letty.

[X] Just get lunch dealt with.
[X] I should replace that shirt...
-[x] And maybe increase his warmth as well.

Shame Letty is in this story. Otherwise we'd have some delicious tsundere Mokou.

[X] Just get lunch dealt with.
[X] I should replace that shirt...
-[X] And maybe increase his warmth abit as well
Those last two updates were really good. DO you know why?

Neither do I.

>>820
Tsundere is overrated, and many people tried to make Mokou stories, only AD tried to make a story with Letty. But before Letty appeared I was like "Mokou's okay, I have no problems" then when Letty appeared and we got to know her, then I was like "FUCK YEAH! LETTY TIME!"

>>822

I'm just hurting for any story to have some Mokou romancing, tsundere or not. For all the stories she appears in, the girl gets passed up quite often around here.

>>823
Blame all the writers that drop their stories with Mokou in them, the guy who did that Naturalist story with Mokou has outed himself via a hissy fit in /shrine/ (he's also the DEFT guy), so go give him a piece of your mind.

Though that one story in /eientei/ (The power of one) seemed to be on a potiental Mokou route; that is if the writer hasn't dropped it.

>>823
The /eientei/ story did feature Mokou heavily as well as Keine. There isn't that much out there that has Mokou as a romantic target. She seems to get friendzoned or ignored all too often unfortunately.

>>824
'outed himself'? How can something that's not a secret and explicitly stated be some sort of big reveal? Then again this is coming from a guy who calls explaining oneself a hissy fit. Drop the persecution bit wiseman, it gets old fast.

>>826

Oh I'd call it a hissy fit and I doubt most anon actually knew he was the same author of the naturalist as well as the DEFT guy.

I missed the times when YAF was thrown around, at least then people actually knew their "TH-P" to merit it. Nowadays everybody's a wiseman.

But hey let's not muddle this great story with that please.

May I suggest an insanely awesome notion: Letty and Mokou harem. Though Mokou will take more work since she somewhat likes him compared to Letty's surprisingly warm feelings. But such a team would make Ivan's dream a reality.

Here enjoy this picture and take it easy.

>>819
"Inexperienced, yes. Maybe dangerously so depending on how far she'd be willing to go."

"Wait a sec..." I turn to see the crow tengu occupying my usual seat while resting her smooth, flawless legs on the table. "What in the nine views of hell are you doing?"

"Me? Answering these questions." Aya holds up a few peculiar white sheets of paper with words printed on them. "You're not exactly qualified to talk about Hatate since you've never even met her."

"That doesn't excuse the legs on the table." I note that the heels of her geta could potentially scuff the surface, but I'm a little reluctant to touch her.

"Oh, you mean these~?" Aya's giving me an inviting look while sliding a hand along one of the offending legs, but I know full well she's teasing. "Make me~."

>>827

"I've seen this 'hissy fit' but have yet to delve into the details too deeply since I'm not terribly interested in internet drama." I ignore the tengu and her chuckling in order to read one of these pieces of paper. I know I called them strange, but it's mostly because they're so white and the fact that the words written on them are so... uniform. I've seen this 'internet' but have not come across a device that does this. "I've heard the term 'YAF' thrown around and understand why it is, but have no real knowledge of the event itself. I assume it was similar to the current 'hissy fit?'"

>>828

I notice the tengu picking up another paper and the accompanying drawing to look at, though I note her attention is focused almost explusively on the photo. "Not the best I've ever seen, but it is something I hadn't considered..."

"What are you-" I catch a glimpse of the drawing before Aya tucks it neatly away in her shirt pocket. "Was that...?"

All Aya does is give me a sly smile.

"As for a harem route... I don't even know if that's possible. They're on a truce in my house, but I assume they'd be at each other's throats once they're out of the village. There's probably some way..." I forget that the tengu is in the same room as me momentarily and slap my hand to my mouth when I realize what I've said.

"Oh ho~! So you're not against the idea!" Aya busies herself with scribbling my words down on her paper, and I immediately lunge for it only for her to yank it away. The result is my landing in her lap, which is an incredibly stupid place for me to be. "You have the hots for me too? You playboy~"

Sometimes I really dispise Aya's sense of humor.

...

Mokou looks over my stuff only once before walking away from it. She had seen it all and would likely question me about it once she was done. "May as well leave his stuff be. Don't want to blow up his house or something stupid like that." She opens the door to the kitchen when she realizes that there is in fact a solid wood door between her and her goal. "I shoulda torched those papers though. I shouldn't let him fall for that sub-zero slut." She gets some meat out of the freezer and begins preparing it. "Gah, why am I even getting involved?! I don't know enough!" She carves the slab of meat with more force than was necessary and ends up cutting into the wood board she had set out. Even she knows that it took a considerable amount of effort to transmute that much granite into a workable counter space and as such I would not appreciate it being damaged. "Given his track record Letty will melt within the week."

Within the confines of my room sit a snow woman of considerable beauty and my unconscious body. The former had been watching over the latter for quite some time now and was contemplating whether it would be out of line for her to replace my shirt. "Honestly... I've seen how you two interact, I know the pain she's inflicted on you. Yet you still act as though she were just rough and uncultured." She moves to my closet and slides open the door to reveal a modest collection of clothing. Reaching in, she pulls out a plain flannel shirt that will do a perfectly good job at keeping me warm since the room isn't as warm as the rest of the house. Letty snorts to herself as she does this. "Okay, those last two are a given, but why? Why put up with someone who hurts you?" I don't really get why she insists on talking to an unconscious person... I wouldn't object since she's doing me a favor. "...I suppose that's why you've regarded me with kindness." She tilts my body up to remove the burned shirt and sets it on the back of the chair she had chosen to occupy. Taking up position behind me, she then slides the flannel shirt over my head and fits it on me snugly. After that she slides back off the bed and lays my body down on the bed, though there is some kind of look in her eyes.
"You're not exactly warm, are you?" She then kneels beside the bed near my head, then pauses. "I wonder if you'd object to this being a sign of affection..." She brings her lips to mine and begins transfering some of her warmth into my body. And by 'transfer' I mean a simple kiss, one where our lips meet and nothing more. She keeps it short since she knows that being caught like this would only give Mokou fuel for her argument, though she says something before retreating to the chair. "That's my thanks." Her gentle voice managed to reach me regardless...

Within the kitchen, the phoenix woman finishes her preperation work and begins grilling the kabobs she had made with flames from both hands. This made for an even cooking and cut down on the time needed to cook them, which to her was a good thing since it meant that the alchemist wouldn't have to be alone with the snow woman for much longer. "...Dammit, this sounds like some cliché romance novel. Why the hell else would I even consider Ivan being more than an aquaintance or a minor nuisance? Seriously, I stopped getting inlvolved with mortals for a reason." Content with her work, Mokou pulls out three plates and sets the finished products on the topmost one so she can handle everything with one hand should the need arise. "Whoever's making me think this way needs to be buried alive." She ascends the stairs while someone far away from this spot fears for his or her life. She opens the door only to find that Letty seems to have remained stationary save for the fresh shirt on my body. "That better be all you did with him."

"Why would you accuse me of otherwise?" Letty does an exceptionally good job at lying about that as she takes a few of the hot kabobs for herself. Perhaps one of the more peculiar things is that she decides not to cool them down, but instead chooses to eat them hot. Certainly not what I'd expect.

"Not in the house, please..." Whatever Letty did, it was enough to draw me out of my slumber. It was also quite pleasant, though I get the impression that Mokou would be less than amused if I told her about that. "Thank you for making lunch."

"No worries. I gut-punched you for no reason, so we'll call it even." I'm not in the mood to argue with the phoenix woman, especially when she went out of her way to do this for me. "Now, about you inviting a freakin' snow woman into your house..." That last part was said with more than a small amout of disapproval.

[X]How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
[X]Try to change the subject as quickly, though also as subtly as possible. (Specify)
[X]You know, it's rude to try to make a person answer while he's got a mouthful of food...
[X]I suppose it's time to face the music and hope that this doesn't end in another trip to Eientei.

FFFFFFFfffff

Nicely done writefag, nicely done

I don't see Mokou allowing something such as the question of Letty's visits slip by as easily.

Ivan knows the answer but he can't seriously explain it all considering it's about Letty's past life possibly that of a great alchemist among other things.

Not to mention stalling isn't going to do much good. Then again at least showing some manners ought to some how ease Mokou into a reasonable state for the explanation; Meeting another who's interested in Alchemy where Ivan's generally alone in this regard is hard to ignore. Another perspective behind it is bound to provide a boon of new data as well as some other... benefits

At least until after another possible trip to Eientei that may come up.

[X]I suppose it's time to face the music and hope that this doesn't end in another trip to Eientei.

[X]I suppose it's time to face the music and hope that this doesn't end in another trip to Eientei.

Reasons?
Alchemy fan
Kind (far more than Mokou's been for the most part)
Soft
Polite (She asks to read his stuff, not go off stealing it unlike a certain witch)

Mokou should learn not to judge people by their species lest someone bring up how he shouldn't trust Mokou, the girl that sets him on fire half the time.

>>828
>>829
A fiery phoenix on one arm and the spirit of winter on the other... but why stop there? In a few months we'll have the budding opportunity to seduce spring's vivacious harbinger, and with two seasons already under our belt, IYKWIM, the bounties of autumn would simply be ripe for the plucking. Of course, at that point, strictly in the interest of maintaining order, we'd have to establish some kind of rule about having orgies on every solstice and equinox, purely for the greater good and all that.

Now, this would undoubtedly be a momentous task, but the most difficult trials are also the most laudable. Why, were our protagonist to actually accomplish all that, he would truly be a man for all seasons. Silly Henry, polygamy's far more fun than divorce anyway.



Oh right, I'm supposed to vote in these things and not just make bad puns...

[x] How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
-[x] If anything, I suppose it's the same, strange impulse that also keeps drawing me back to a woman who makes a regular habit of proving that I am, indeed, inflammable.

[X] I suppose it's time to face the music and hope that this doesn't end in another trip to Eientei.

Letty may be the embodiment of the season he hates the most, but she didn't attack him in his own house. Mokou needs to take a chill pill.

[X] How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
-[X] If anything, I suppose it's the same, strange impulse that also keeps drawing me back to a woman who makes a regular habit of proving that I am, indeed, inflammable.

I can see hilarity ensuing with this vote.

[X]I suppose it's time to face the music and hope that this doesn't end in another trip to Eientei.

pray and always carry a few stun grenades with you

[X] How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
-[X] If anything, I suppose it's the same, strange impulse that also keeps drawing me back to a woman who makes a regular habit of proving that I am, indeed, inflammable.

[X]I suppose it's time to face the music and hope that this doesn't end in another trip to Eientei.

And >>831 pretty much summed up the reasons why.

[X] How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
-[X] If anything, I suppose it's the same, strange impulse that also keeps drawing me back to a woman who makes a regular habit of proving that I am, indeed, inflammable.
Brillant

[X] How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
-[X] If anything, I suppose it's the same, strange impulse that also keeps drawing me back to a woman who makes a regular habit of proving that I am, indeed, inflammable.

[X] How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
-[X] If anything, I suppose it's the same, strange impulse that also keeps drawing me back to a woman who makes a regular habit of proving that I am, indeed, inflammable.

{X} How can I answer a question when I don't even know the answer myself?
-{X} If anything, I suppose it's the same, strange impulse that also keeps drawing me back to a woman who makes a regular habit of proving that I am, indeed, inflammable.

>>830

I look over another one of the pieces of paper that the tengu brought in and try to from an understandable answer. "You do raise a point. I can't really explain my reasoning to Mokou in particular, partially because I'm not sure if I want to accept the answer yet, and partially because Mokou would call it a load of bullshit." Confident that I have in fact read enough of the letter to give a solid answer, I set it back down on the table. "I must confess that freeing Letty from her existence as a snow woman so that she can resume being an alchemist, or at least get her to remember who she was would be in my interest since I don't really have anyone to talk about it aside from Marisa and Eirin." I then prop my head up on one hand in exasperation before continuing. "Even then I wouldn't exactly want them coming around to my house. The former would surely make off with something, perhaps without even realizing it, while the latter would surely redouble her efforts to make me her apprentice. And while Eirin is brilliant doctor and alchemist... Well, you've seen for yourself why I don't trust her explicitly. Plus her eccentricities would surely be my doom."

"Hey Ivan, what're you talking abut? And for that matter, to who?" Mokou steps into the room without my noticing. I know I've been keeping an open door policy for this segment, but would it kill the guests to knock first?

"Oh, I'm just responding to the questions and theories sent to me by the readers. They come up with the strangest things sometimes." I don't think Mokou's going to understand this that well but there's always the hope. I did make a point of swiveling my chair around to face the phoenix woman so I don't appear rude.

"Fan-mail, huh? I didn't think you were much for the public eye." Mokou sticks a fresh stick of pocky in her mouth before stepping up to the table and picking up a piece for herself.

"Uhh, Mokou, I'd watch which ones you read, some of them are a little-" Even though I'm reaching for the paper in her hand I already know it's too late. I've seen what's on that particular letter and she sure as hell won't like what's on there.

>>832

The phoenix woman's right eye twitches noticably, which is my cue to dive out of the way in case she incinerates everything in the room. I'm not going to stop her now that she's got the job of answering this letter. "The fuck is wrong with you?" I note that she's reading and re-reading the letter numerous times in order to grasp the intent behind it. "Okay, first of all I have to say the only way this could possibly be more sick is if you were aiming to get Ivan, Kaguya and I into a threesome." She then gives it at least one more look before continuing, and merely sighs. She's mellow today isn't she? "You're treating this like I'm in love with Ivan and am willing to share him with Letty. Well, you're wrong on both counts. Ivan's a friend at this point, even if I'm a little reluctant to admit it. And the reluctancy is mostly because I'm immortal and if I did get into a relationship it would be really, really painful to watch the guy grow old and rot away while I never change. I went through that a coulpe of times already and pretty much swore off mortals after that. It's not that I'm too proud, I just don't want to get hurt like that again." Mokou takes up my previously occupied seat in order to make herself more comfortable while she goes through with this. "If you seriously want me to hook up with him, you're gonna have to make it so he's as unchanging as I am or somehow reverse the effects of the Hourai Elixir." She then pauses for a moment in order to compose herself. "As for Letty, as much as I hate her guts for freezing me solid multiple times every fucking witner I admit she's probably the better choice between me and her. She may want to fuck his brains out but she's been nice to him so far and the two might be able to share a hobby, and maybe even more than that if you can make her human or something." She then takes a drink out of my water glass while pausing once again. "As for that obnoxious little fairy, forget it. She won't show up until springtime, which is not only three months from now, but most likely just as the story comes to a close since this only deals with winter. Same goes for the harvest goddess and her sis. And that's assuming Ivan's willing to commit to polygamy in the first place. You gotta remember that not everyone's into the harem deal. Also? Your pun sucks."

"I'd also like to point out that you probably meant 'flammable' rather than 'inflammable', because unless I've got my prefixes wrong 'in-' would suggest that I cannot be set on fire. Let me assure you that I have been set alight before, and by the same person you accuse of doing so." I poke my head out from behind an upturned table I had been using as a blast shield in case Mokou did blow her top. "I note that I haven't exactly mentioned it, but she's burned my hair off before."

"That one was an accident." Mokou even goes so far as to neatly fold up the letter and set it back on the table.

...

There's no stalling this, and I dare not take the direct route lest Mokou lecture me about how I shouldn't trust Letty like this. I do get the feeling that I know the answer to why I let her in in the first place, but am I really ready to accept it? Well, I could fling her arguement back in her face and hope it stuns her into a reasonable state... "Mokou, I don't know precisely why I chose to let Letty into my life, but I assume it's the same strange impulse that makes me constantly pursue a woman who makes a point of reassuring me that I am in fact, inflammable."

Mokou's look is one of mild surprise, which is made somewhat goofier thanks to the fact that she was eating at the time. Once she finished she actually admitted something. "Okay, I concede the point. And I'll even take back the part where I lump Letty in with the rest of her kind and re-ask the same question, but with the name Letty in place of snow woman." She bites off another chunk to give herself more time to think, or perhaps for me to consider my answer. "But really, why did you invite her in? You're not the type to get drawn into a woman just because she's got a nice body."

Letty simply focuses on eating her portion of the meal and does nothing to help or hinder the conversation. For all intents and purposes she is officially a neutral party in the conversation, though I note that she's paying attention to what I'm going to say.

I finish up my first kabob and set the used stick back down on the plate. I've come to something that I hope with constitute a believable answer. "Because she holds an interest in alchemy and has no other way to indulge in it. I found it easy to sympathize with her in that regard and gave her perimisson to read one of my books here." I really hope that this will be enough to placate Mokou for now. She may not approve of this, but...

"So you're lonely, is that it?" Mokou's response smacks me upside the head in a way I didn't think possible. She continues in between bites, and I'm not sure how much of this I'm going to like. "I can see why. Keine's a nice woman but her brain's just not build for alchemy. I don't make that good a conversation partner either, that forest witch makes off with your stuff, and Eirin... The two of you get along don't you?" Is she really that curious about that?

"We do, it's just her..." I struggle to find the words to describe the lunar doctor's oddities. She's brilliant, has made it perfectly clear that she wants to apprentice me, and can actually force me to put effort into keeping up with her when it comes to alchemalbabble.

Mokou holds a hand up to stop me, which is good because I'm having a linguist's block. "You don't have to explain that one. I'm just running through the possibilities in the hope that maybe I can convince you that this one isn't worth the effort." She jabs a thumb in Letty's directin, who doesn't seem bothered by all this. This is concerning her after all. "But nobody's ever managed to convince you somethng wasn't worth pursuing so I'm just wasting my breath here. What I should be asking is if you've got any plans for the day."

[X]Write-in

[X] "Well, I was going to work on my jacket, but I'm not going to with Letty around. I'd rather not subject her to any explosive accidents. I take it you had something in mind?"

Technically, nothing's been said about plans, but based on Ivan's workaholic tendancies, he probably was going to get to work on the jacket. I don't think it's a good idea to play with fire when Letty's around. Mokou, on the other hand, would have no problem with fire and drag Ivan to Eientei if there was an accident.

>I'd also like to point out that you probably meant 'flammable' rather than 'inflammable'
Flammable and inflammable both mean "capable of being set on fire". Inflammable is a more archaic version that is used in nontechnical and figurative contexts. If you want to say something can't be set on fire, that's 'nonflammable'.

[X] "Well, I was going to work on my jacket, but I'm not going to with Letty around. I'd rather not subject her to any explosive accidents. I take it you had something in mind?"

Curious on what there is to do in the middle of winter.

[X] "Well, I was going to work on my jacket, but I'm not going to with Letty around. I'd rather not subject her to any explosive accidents. I take it you had something in mind?"

[x] "Well, I was going to work on my jacket, but I'm not going to with Letty around. I'd rather not subject her to any explosive accidents. I take it you had something in mind?"

>>832
>>842
Oh dear, I really should put a more of a disclaimer (the Email fields do hold something of a hint) on such posts. I assumed people would take rambling lines of pun-filled plans for seasonally-themed harems with a grain of salt, but I didn't anticipate my ridiculous tangents reaching the parties in question. Suffice to say, aside from my vote, there's not a lick of seriousness in there! My apologies for any distress I might have caused you, little phoenix, and I do wish you the best regarding your problems with intimacy.

Also, it's "puns", dear, as there are several more than one in there... and "sucks" is being far-too generous regarding their quality. Regardless, I appreciate your feedback on my feedback.
Toodles~


P.S. Ivan, you are indeed correct that the prefix 'in-' would create an antonym of the base word ninety-nine percent of the time, but, as >>844 so kindly pointed out already, inflammable is equivalent to flammable in the exception-filled monstrosity that is the English language. While you seem to have seen your fair share of explosions, I doubt you'd object to avoiding further unnecessary accidents. So do keep this in mind should you ever stumble across any similarly-labeled containers from the outside. Failing that, please give my regards to the yama.

>>848
That was rather crazy, not even including the part of pursuing 'summer' (Yuuka) especially when even trying for a Mokou and Letty harem would be difficult enough.

But hey, you got a funny reaction from Mokou.

I wonder something what if there was a way to turn Ivan into a similar species as Letty would that make him A snow man?

[X] "Well, I was going to work on my jacket, but I'm not going to with Letty around. I'd rather not subject her to any explosive accidents. I take it you had something in mind?"

Cmon Mokou, if ya wish to help Ivan on his research, there's always trying to gather very difficult to acquire materials that you'd surely be able to do where Ivan may not be able to; aside from materials that come from thee personally.

[X] "Well, I was going to work on my jacket, but I'm not going to with Letty around. I'd rather not subject her to any explosive accidents. I take it you had something in mind?

[X] "Well, I was going to work on my jacket, but I'm not going to with Letty around. I'd rather not subject her to any explosive accidents. I take it you had something in mind?

>>849
>I wonder something what if there was a way to turn Ivan into a similar species as Letty would that make him A snow man?

Ivan the snowman was a jolly happy soul,
With experiments and notes galore
And two vials filled out with cold.
Ivan the snowman is a fairy tale, they say,
He was made into snow but the children
Know how he turned to ice one day.
There must have been some magic in that
Old silk hat he made.
For when he placed it on his head
He began to frost around.
O, Ivan the snowman
Was alive as he could be,
And the children say he could laugh
And play just the same as you and me.
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Look at Ivan go.
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Over the hills of snow...

>>849
>That was rather crazy, not even including the part of pursuing 'summer' (Yuuka) especially when even trying for a Mokou and Letty harem would be difficult enough.
Firstly, Ms. Kazami is the youkai of four seasons, not 'summer', and it's not as though I didn't consider her. I just thought I would keep my comments in the realm of 'incorrigible'; whereas suggesting that one attempt such activities with Miss Flower Power is akin to 'assisted suicide', and Ivan's far too sweet for me to risk his welfare like that.


>I wonder something what if there was a way to turn Ivan into a similar species as Letty would that make him A snow man?
Clearly this merits further investigation and experimentation. We'll have to see what can be done~

>>852
I chuckled. Well played, sir.

>>844

I'm starting to wonder if that crow enjoys forwarding me all these letters seeing as I always seem to have another half-dozen to answer whenever I turn around. Regardless, I pick up the first one so I can answer it. "Well, working on the jacket wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Though you are right in saying that it would be a poor idea to work on something that has had a history of dramatic failures while Letty is around. It would be a failure on my part to let something bad happen to my guests after all." I pause briefly in order to take a drink before continuing. "I do thank you for the correction. I still manage to slip up every now and again..."

>>848

I set the first down and pick up the next only to find that the first part is pretty much addressed to Mokou. "Well, sadly Mokou isn't here right now but I think she'd be both glad and a little miffed to hear that it was just a joke on your part. As for the E-mail headers, you can blame Aya for not including them."

As though the name were some kind of summon, the crow tengu herself entered the room via the window. "You rang?" I already know that it's too late to get rid of her now that she's here, and she parks herself in my lap just to make it known that it won't be so easy to remove her and to annoy me.

>>849

The tengu took up the next letter and looked it over, though I can tell she's ignoring the first two-thirds of it in favor of the last line. "Huh, someone's considering trying to turn you into a snowman? Sheesh, between what the writer has planned and what the voters are considering, you're gonna have to be more careful than ever." Aya makes a point of showing me the letter in question, and a chill goes down my spine.

"Well, it's an interesting possibility if nothing else, though becoming a snow man would be rather easy. All I'd have to do is die in the cold and be unable to let go of the physical world." I do, however, shove the letter away now that I'm done looking at it. I'm not exactly keen on the idea since I kind of like living the way I do now, and would only entertain the idea if there were no other way to be with Letty, assuming I can't change her into a human and don't care about what others may think or what kind of hell I'd catch for it.

>>852

Aya snatches up another letter and gives it a once over before bursting out into laughter. "Pffahahahaha~ Ivan, look at this!" She puts the letter where I can read it, and cringe. It's one big horrible pun about the possibility of me being a snowman. "Sorry, I knew what it said prior to this but it's still funny."

>>853

"I'm glad one of us does." I shift myself, to which Aya responds to by grinding her rear on my lap with the excuse of making herself more comfortable. I really hope she is just teasing this time... "As for you, I am glad you think I'm worth not throwing into danger for the nigh-nonexistent possibility of the flower youkai becoming my girlfriend."

"And that wraps up this segment! Sadly the main story's going to have to wait for a bit, but at least twenty-five percent of the reason people read this is because of our answer segment, right?" Aya looks off in some direction while I'm left confused as to what she's supposed to be looking at. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an alchemist to tease..."

"Please don't." Now I'm trying to get out from under the Tengu, but since she has the advantage of being a youkai it doesn't do much.

"Your resistance makes me want you more~" Aya sets the letter down, and I fade the screen to black while pulling out a small grenade-like object...

>>854
>but at least twenty-five percent of the reason people read this is because of our answer segment, right?

Allow me to be the first to say that I thoroughly enjoy the answer segments and wouldn't mind if you started every update with one, or even did some outside of updates.

>>854
>but at least twenty-five percent of the reason people read this is because of our answer segment, right?

If anything it's a very nice bonus to an already entertaining story.

>>856
Yeah it's a funny little bonus and I said the snowman thing as a joke.

> "Your resistance makes me want you more~"

First thing to cross my mind from that comment was the Borg.

Second thing was that Aya wanted to get intimate with the protagonist.

Do it, whore.

>>858
She's not a whore, and if she tried, chances are Mokou would turn her into char crisped chicken or Letty would turn her into chilled chicken if not frozen.

"Well, I was planning on working on my jacket more, but I feel that working on something with such an astoundingly high failure rate would be beyond stupid now that Letty's here." After all, not only would it be bad on my part to allow harm to come to my guests while they are under my care, but such a failure could mortally wound the snow woman. I refuse to take such a risk if others would be hurt by it. I shift my weight a little to make myself more comfortable before I finish off my portion. "I have to wonder if you have anything in mind."

"Me? Not really. I just came here to chew you out about Letty and maybe bug you for a bit. Keine's busy teaching the kids, I don't feel like pissing off Kaguya just yet, and it's too cold to do much of anything." Mokou stacks the plates together and places the sticks used to hold the meat and vegatables in place on top of that. I give her one of those looks and she relents. "Okay, okay, it's too boring out there."

"At least you're honest about it." I get off the bed in order to test my legs, which seems silly since all I took was a gut punch. Regardless, I find that there isn't so much as a tiny wobble in my movements and decide that I've been in my slightly colder room long enough. "Unfortunately I haven't invested in games of any kind, and your usual mode of entertainment won't be avalible until Letty leaves."

"I get it..." Mokou steps out of my room and heads back down to the kitchen, and I wait until I'm absolutely sure that she's out of earshot before speaking again. "Thank you for warming me back up." Keep it simple, stupid. That's all I can say in a situation like this. I could go on about how nice it felt, how it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do it again, or perhaps even steal a kiss from her, but I don't want to do any of these things. It's just not the right time for it. And besides, who confesses to a woman they only met yesterday?

"It was no trouble at all." Letty also takes her leave of my room, and I follow suit so I don't get left behind. She looks at me while she descends the stairs so she can continue talking. "Might I ask why you continue to be friends with Mokou? She only ever seems to hurt you."

"That? ...Huh, that's something that will take a while." We descend to the bottom of the stairs, then make our way to the main sitting room. There isn't much in the way of furniture but there is enough to comfortably sit three or four people if the need arises. This also happens to be the warmest place in the house thanks to the large sealed fire situated right in the middle of the room. "That is, if I can remember how she decided that I wasn't so bad."

Letty seems to be giving the conversation only part of her attention since she's more focused on the large glowing orb that happens to throw out enough heat to make things comfortable in even the most bitterly cold winter conditions. "Oh my, I'm not sure how long I can stay around this..." That's right, she seems to absorb ambient heat and her body will eventually begin to fail her if she absorbs too much. If I were a more dishonorable fellow I'd simply allow this to come to pass since I recall how she recovered from that the last time, but I choose to do something quite a bit nicer. "Huh?" She looks at the small orb in my hand and takes it when I offer it to her. "This is so cold..."

"I figured that if you wish to stay, I should do everything in my power to make it as comfortable as possible. Allowing you to become uncomfortably warm would be unacceptable." I then invite her to take up one of the two seats on the couch before drawing a specially made curtain around the large sealed fire to reduce the amount of heat it would throw in Letty's direction. "That should do it."

"Catering to the guest, huh?" Mokou pops out of the kitchen not too long after I make sure Letty's comfortable enough to stick around for a while. "This is gonna be dull if you aren't going to blow yourself up." I know for a fact that she's half-joking and half-serious. Sometimes I really do wonder why I put up with her... Then again, I wonder why she puts up with me. "So what do you plan on doing?"

[X]Just because I can't work on my jacket does not mean I can't work on something else. (specify project)
[X]While it is too cold to do much of anything outside, surely there's something to do.
[X]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me danmaku would be a reasonable idea. Or perhaps flight at the very least.

[X]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me flight at the very least.

Learning Danmaku in an enclosed space may just be asking for another possible destruction of house and home. Danmaku can wait, if Ivan ever considers pursuing it.

At the very least with flight Ivan can make his getaways from Mokou all the more interesting as well as hunting down Marisa will be easier in case she ever sneaks in once more for something to take off with.

[x]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me flight would be a reasonable idea.

>>861
I imagine they'd be sensible enough to go outside for danmaku training, and probably for this too. Still, flight does seem the better idea. He can already defend himself somewhat with those bottled elements, and having an option for travel other than walking would be quite the boon.

[X]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me danmaku would be a reasonable idea. Or perhaps flight at the very least.

This option doesn't mean we'd try doing full blown patterns, but small bullets at least.

[X]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me danmaku would be a reasonable idea. Or perhaps flight at the very least.
Fly~

[x]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me flight would be a reasonable idea.

Let's make a literal example of "bouncing off the roof"

[x]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me flight would be a reasonable idea.

I'm sure Mokou can do more than teach flight as her cooking must be awesome...

I'm actually envious of Ivan in this regard... Though I could do without her love taps

seriously you'd think Mokou may actually take pleasure in stripping Ivan via rendering his clothing to a crisp; regardless of side effects such as nearly ruined flesh

[X]I didn't think of it before, but perhaps asking Mokou to teach me flight at the very least.
OR "how to break your neck in one, simple, step"

>>868

Mokou wouldn't want to outright kill him, toast perhaps but not kill him.

Perhaps Ivan's a sort of clown associate that entertains Mokou considering how plain he can be for a human; aside from the accidents that occur during his experimentation that is. Not to mention there's only so much one can do with all eternity to spend time...

>>869
Yeah and she can't spend all her time bugging Kaguya.

"Hmm, looks like I only have time to answer some questions right now." I take a look at my clock and determine that it's a little late to continue my misadventures right now. I do have enough time to hopefully answer everyone.

>>861

"Well, it kinda makes sense to go outside when you want to practice danmaku." However, before I can pick up the first letter I find it snatched up by none other than Marisa, who has seen fit to invade my privacy once again. "And no way in hell is Ivan gonna be able to keep up with me, even if he does get off the ground!"

"You forget about that nifty wind spell I could easily repurpose to keep you from going at top speed. Plus you eventually go to ground since your broom isn't exactly gentle on you." I immediately set to work locking down all my valuables before the witch can take a good look around-

"Don't bother, you've got nothing I want." Dammit, Marisa's been through everything already?! ...I guess that explains where she got the apple. Even so! "Sheesh, is this what you do in your spare time? Answer questions and respond to anonymous people?"

>>863

"I don't see you making any suggestions." I pick up the next piece of paper before the witch decides to do the whole segment herself. Not that I'd mind, it's just that this is my time to impart my knowledge, or lack thereof, on others and possibly recieve some in return. I don't want this crude witch to steal that too. "While it is true I can defend myself with the grenade-like bottled elements, they are not infalliable and they are limited in number. They aren't difficult to make either, though I can't make too many in one day lest I drain myself completely. Plus with the grue after me I have to balance what I do in a day..."

"Rumia's after you?" Marisa gives me a disbelieving look until she thinks about it a little more. Then she tilts her head slightly. "Oh yeah, you got away from her by force. She loves that sorta thing so it'd only make sense that she'd be after you. She's got a real S&M playstyle."

"I didn't need to know that." It's bad enough that I know she's after me, but now I can only imagine the horrors the little grue would impart upon me before ending my life for good. None of them are particularly appealing, though it might be a bit more tolerable if she doesn't somehow force me to remove her ribbon.

>>867

I pick up the next piece of paper just as Marisa's reaching for it, but I'm much closer than she is so her speed advantage doesn't mean much. I scan the paper and read the pre-highlighted segment, and my face immediately falls. "'Love taps'? Enjoying burning my clothes off? That's a scary thought." I really hope that isn't Mokou expressing her fondness towards me, or else I may have to start avoiding her...

"Love taps? Ivan, what's that letter say?" Marisa leans over to read what's on the letter, but I've already crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash. Marisa is only second to Aya in how annoying her teasing is after all. "What'd you go and do that for? I want to see!"

>>869

"And that's precisely why I threw it out." I ignore Marisa's pouting face in favor of picking up and reading the last letter I plan on reading for now. I note that the witch is looking over my shoulder and that there's no way to stop her, but unlike that last one I don't feel the need to hide it from her. Though what's written on this one just adds to my worries.

"Huh, bein' a toy for Mokou to play with when she's bored? That sounds about right." And Marisa doesn't help things at all. I really have to wonder if she enjoys poking fun at me sometimes. "These are all the ones you have to answer, right?" She then looks to me with a gleam in her eyes.

"Why do you ask?" I'm not sure I want the answer to that question, but even though I'm inching away from her I know I'm going to get it firsthand anyway. She's steadily advancing on me until I have no place left to run...

"Well, Mokou's not gonna be such a good teacher, so I figure I'll take up the task! In other words: It's danmaku time!" She grabs me by the collar and drags me out of the house, and all I can manage is a pleading 'No Marisa, no!'

I remember what Wriggle said about me being youkai bait when I told her I couldn't fly or shoot danmaku, and with Rumia on the hunt it only makes sense that I at least learn to fly before I run into her. At least my odds would be upgraded from a snowball's chance in hell to something slightly more reasonable if I were to become a competent flier. "Mokou. Could you teach me how to fly, and perhaps how to use danmaku?" My tone of voice makes it known that I'm being serious about this. Surely this isn't the most intelligent choice since Mokou's immortal and might not remember how she learned either of those feats, but it's worth a shot.

As I thought, Mokou raises her eyebrows at me and adopts a surprised look on her face. "You serious? I didn't think you trusted me enough for that." She then leans up against the sealed fire without any sort of protection at all, which means she's probably soaking up some of the fire magic to keep herself warm in the weather. "Plus it's freezing out there. You seriously think you're gonna last? It'd probably be better if you got that jacket finished first or found someplace warm to work."

"I know you're not about to kill me on purpose, and you'd haul me to Eientei if something were to go wrong. As for the temperature, we'll just make periodic trips back into the house to warm up and dry off if the need arises." She hasn't openly admitted that she can't remember how she learned to fly, but I can tell Mokou's putting a great deal of thought into this. Regardless, I start dressing up to spend time out in the cold.

"You know, sometimes I wish you'd stop being so logical all the time." Mokou puts her palm to her face after a minute or two, which tells me she may not remember what she would need to in order to teach me. "I can't do too much for you, but I can get you started. Let's go." She then steps away from the sealed fire so she can walk outside. I follow suit, as does Letty, and I almost immediately regret stepping outside. Mokou has a fire aura around her to keep her warm and this is Letty's element, but for me the standing air is like having spiky ice cubes shoved in your face. "If you want to wait on this, I won't blame you." I am saved from having to be cold by Mokou, who stands close enough to me to envelop me in her aura. It's still only enough to bring the temperature up to something reasonable.

"I made the request, so I can't very well back down now." Scarf, that's what I can use to protect at least part of my face. One adjustment later and most of my face is covered, though I shouldn't work myself too hard since it's heavy enough to greatly restrict the air flow from the outside air to my lungs. "Now what?"

"Now we're just going to focus on firing bullets since that's going to be easier than flying in this condition. ...If I can remember." She finally grudgingly admits that she doesn't exactly recall how she learned to shoot danmaku. In fact, I wonder if she even thinks about it when she uses it. "Well, let's start with one of your normal spells and work from there."

...It's all fairly sluggish, low-level magic, but which should I demonstrate?
[X]Fire Bomb (Fire element)
[X]Chain Lightning (Lightning element)
[X]Wind Spear (Wind element)
[X]Diamond Dust (Ice element)
[X]Shade Flare (Dark element)
[X]Pulsar (Light element)

[X] Pulsar (Light element)

If Rumia's after Ivan, he should use her weakness.

[X] Pulsar (Light element)

[X]Pulsar (Light element)

[X] Pulsar (Light element)

[X]Pulsar (Light element)

>>874
>If Rumia's after Ivan, he should use her weakness.

You Are My Morsel
My only dinner.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my supper away

The other night, dear,
As I wait stalking
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and laughed really hard.

You are my morsel,
My only dinner.
You make me happy
When skies are gray.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my supper away.

I'll always love you
And make you lively
If you will only say the same
But if you blast me
To flee far away
You'll regret it all some day

>>878
I couldn't help myself, doing the snowman one master sparked some inspiration and I await, much like the lovely grue, for any opportunity to unleash my mind

[X]Pulsar (Light element)

I don't think it'd do extra damage, but it'll certainly stun her.

>>878

Strangely cute.

>>878
You are awesome, never stop being awesome.

>>878

Does this imply Rumia to be a Yandere?

>>878

"That's not the impression I get from Rumia. Mostly I think she considers me her plaything, though that may escalate the longer I manage do survive her." I read the altered children's song that one of the readers had sent it and I find it mildly disturbing. Not the lyrics themselves, but the fact that they're causing me to think that the little grue might enjoy hunting me just a little too much...

>>883

And letters like this just make me think that it's all the more likely to happen.

"I do have to wonder if you considered the other spells at all, or jumped on what could be the counter to Rumia's powers over darkness. Consider that she's had an undetermined amount of time to gain control over her vague powers while that light spell is something I only learned a couple years ago." I briefly wonder if the voting base even considered the advantages and disadvantages of each spell before just jumping on one. While this is certainly not the last opportunity to learn different danmaku styles, this would be the first choice and would be one of the more important ones since this will be the only quick-casting spell I can use for a little while. There are no right or wrong answers here, just different styles.


...

I run through the six or so spells that I recall off the top of my head and choose to demonstrate Pulsar. This is a strange little spell that was inspired by Marisa's star fetish, yet it's not something she'd use since it's not as fast or straightforward as her spells. Pulsar allows me to generate an orb of light that orbits around an opponent in an extremely erratic fashion while flaring off mildly damaging bursts of light energy. In theory, this would force the opponent to focus his or her energy on dodging the unpredictable ball while being unable to line up a shot of their own, though theory and actual practice tend to differ...

Regardless, I generate the needed magic circle around my hand. It's white with numerous celestial patterns on it to help focus the mind in imagining the pulsar bolt. A brief incantation later and a tiny orb of bright, white light appears in the center of the circle, just inside the palm of my hand. The circle grows ever smaller as it feeds the orb until the Pulsar bolt becomes as big as my hand. After that I allow it to fly off in its characteristic erratic flight as it searches for a target it's never going to find. That wasn't particularly draining either so I could do this a number of times before tiring myself out.

"Is everything you cast this slow?" Mokou once again seems surprised, but for all the wrong reasons. I shouldn't expect such a low-tier spell to impress anyone, though there was always the hope... "Or rather, are all your casting times this snail-paced? I could have landed a few dozen hits on you by the time you finished one spell. Hell, if you were fighting that crow you'd be down already and she'd probably eat the hit just to rub it in your face."

"The spell itself is fine though." Letty steps toward me to offer her view on the subject. "I imagine that it would be much more impressive if it were used on an actual target." With that she causes a snowball to form in the air, then simply hangs it there. "Could you repeat the spell? I don't think one can make a shot type without seeing what the spell does in its entirety."

"He could've said something if there was some trick to it." Mokou simply stands by and does nothing since anything she could do would most likely interfere with what happens next.

Once again I call on the light spell and fire it, only this time it locks onto the snowball and pursues it relentlessly while blasting it with light energy until the ball is destroyed. after that the Pulsar simply exhausts itself.

"That's a bit better. Homing shot? It's kind of a weird one. Not like the one Reimu or Yukari used." Mokou did mention Yukari before, though she mostly called her 'gap bitch'. I assume Reimu went her usual route of 'shoot first ask questions later' and this Yukari helped the shrine maiden gang up one Mokou. "That'll definitely be a homing shot type once you figure that out, but I don't remember how to do the weak shots."

"I assume you're going to teach me something else?" From what I've seen there are three primary bullet types: The light ones used to break spellcards without totally exhausting the user in the process, heavy ones that compose spellcard patterns, and the myriad of projectiles that make their way into the spell melees. If I had to guess Mokou will teach me about the second of the ones I listed since I doubt she goes into the more physical danmaku use all that often.

"I think I'm going to show you how to translate that spell into the heavy bullet type since that's all I remember how to do. After that it's up to you, though I don't think you're going to have too many problems learning other forms of danmaku considering who you're on good terms with." Mokou then starts explaining the methods to creating the larger, more powerful bullets and walking me through the process of casting them while Letty mostly stands silent. The snow woman does interject and correct every now and again, and before I know it I can get at least one bolt casted fairly quickly.

Dense Pulsar: A powerful danmaku bolt that was created by mixing the properties of the Pulsar spell with the heavy shot type used in danmaku patterns. While you can't create a full pattern, you can still hit quite hard with this. There's the small problem of it being slower than the spell version, but it's just as unpredictable and seems to last longer. There's also the benefit of it shooting off four bullets as it flies.

After that, Mokou states that she's not interested in keeping her aura extended over three other people and that we should go back in before she decides that she only needs to heat herself. In short, we're done out here for now. There's the possibility of doing other, less potentially damaging things indoors.

[X]Warm up and head back out to bother Marisa about flight and other such magic.
[X]I think I'm better off staying indoors today. Since I've still got a few hours of daylight left I should work on something. (specify project)

[X]I think I'm better off staying indoors today. Since I've still got a few hours of daylight left I should work on something.
-[x]There's always reviewing the materials for the Jacket project (perhaps this would help explain to Mokou the need for a strand or two of her hair and where it differs greatly from a certain "NEET's" usage.) Perhaps a second opinion or thoughts from Letty?

Curiously while the theory of Mokou's ability of maintaining an aura of warmth around her is being implemented on the jacket, perhaps the same theory can be done with the aid of Letty. Considering how she absorbs warmth to a certain point and basically retains that warmth until she releases it elsewhere, perhaps the same type of behavior can be applied to another jacket or duster for sake of variety. Rather than be the source of warmth it absorbs warmth from a sealed fire bottle and will forever retain it until its owner decides when it releases it. Heck it could be made to be used for all seasons, keep cool during the hot summers and retain warmth during the winter seasons. especially if any project involving Mokou may seem to be too volatile to regulate properly.

>>884
>"That's not the impression I get from Rumia. Mostly I think she considers me her plaything, though that may escalate the longer I manage do survive her."

Oh I was merely having fun just like with the snowman one. Though I will say I wouldn't be too surprised if the grue enjoys toying with her prey mentally. Obfuscated cunning or perhaps I'm giving her too much credit... I would imagine she does display some greater intelligence than most would be able to see in her games when caught alone by her.

damn it I realized I just skipped a question in regards to the chosen element to focus on and can't erase the previous post to make an addendum.

in regards to jumping on Pulsar[light element], ice, fire and wind could be handled later on as Ivan already have associates that more or less are masters of their element (Letty, Mokou, and Aya respectively). In regards to Lighting/Plasma, and Darkness, I can;t help but think lightning to be far more volatile than fire itself. Mastering Shade or Darkness... You really want to give Rumia a greater incentive to go after you Ivan? If not for fun chasing, then knowing another that can relate to her in terms of ability... yeah...

Just this anon's thoughts...

>>885
Sounds like a fine plan, though I think the final solution lies in finding a way to make the most of both of their abilities. I'll just modify the write-in a bit for grammar and clarity:

[X] I think I'm better off staying indoors today. Since I've still got a few hours of daylight left I should work on something.
-[x] Review the materials for the Jacket project.
--[x] Explain to Mokou why you need a strand of her hair. If you ask nicely enough, maybe you'll get a donation.
--[x] Perhaps a second opinion from Letty would benefit your work.


Dear Ivan,
Do try to get some actual sleep tonight; the lack of rest seems to be affecting your sense of humor. Though it is admittedly difficult to see the difference...

P.S. Please work on developing a sense of humor.

[X] I think I'm better off staying indoors today. Since I've still got a few hours of daylight left I should work on something.
-[x] Review the materials for the Jacket project.
--[x] Explain to Mokou why you need a strand of her hair. If you ask nicely enough, maybe you'll get a donation.
--[x] Perhaps a second opinion from Letty would benefit your work.

I am totally imagining a sex scene between Rumia and Ivan.

[X] I think I'm better off staying indoors today. Since I've still got a few hours of daylight left I should work on something.
-[x] Review the materials for the Jacket project.
--[x] Explain to Mokou why you need a strand of her hair. If you ask nicely enough, maybe you'll get a donation.
--[x] Perhaps a second opinion from Letty would benefit your work.

>>889
It would probably end like spiders: She eats him afterwards.
...or maybe like praying mantis: She starts eating him while the act is still on.

[X] I think I'm better off staying indoors today. Since I've still got a few hours of daylight left I should work on something.
-[x] Review the materials for the Jacket project.
--[x] Explain to Mokou why you need a strand of her hair. If you ask nicely enough, maybe you'll get a donation.
--[x] Perhaps a second opinion from Letty would benefit your work.

This will do.

>>885
>>886

Strangely enough, the brain of the moon Eirin Yagokoro is sitting in the chair Ivan usually occupies. This shouldn't be much of a surprise considering who was dragging him off the last time this segment was updated. The doctor picks up the first paper and the second since they were not only from the same person, but also a full letter that was accidentally broken in two. "So this is what he does when he's not blowing himself up." Eirin then takes a good long look over the letter before talking again, though she doesn't dive into the answer just yet. "My apologies, Ivan is currently incapacitated thanks to Marisa's overenthusiastic training. Somehow he managed to shrug off a Master Spark at point-blank range with little more than a severe burn, yet falling into one of Tewi's traps was enough to knock him out... Regardless, I'm doing this segment in his place until he recovers." She slides the chair back just far enough to use the table surface as a footrest, which she knows I'd chew her out about if I knew. "As far as getting that jacket right, I can say that Ivan has got it just about right. The only problem is that he forcibly took a strand of Mokou's hair from her, and considering that she possesses a phoenix within her it only stands to reason that anything forcibly acquired would resist to the greatest of its capacity. As for why it didn't backfire on the princess? I managed to subdue it. I could do the same for Ivan if he would ever let me help him." A sigh escapes Eirin's lips, not unlike one a parent would utter when thinking about how their child will attempt to do something on their own no matter how impossible it is.

"Though learning that the Darkness youkai is stalking Ivan is much less pleasant. I'm going to have words with him about keeping problems to himself when he wakes up." Eirin frowns once she reads the part concerning Rumia. "Though if she is stalking him I doubt the element would matter."

>>887

The doctor spins the chair around to where she's now sitting parallel to the desk and kicks herself alongside it so she can set the answered questions down and pick up the next one. She seems to be mildly amused by the contents. "I can't say what he'll do in the story, but rest assured he's getting his shut-eye now. As for his lack of humor... I really do wonder if he has a funny bone in his body at times. Honestly, his mixing his work and play turned him into a real dull boy."

>>889
>>890

She once again spins the chair around to where she can sit properly, then crumples up the previous letter and throws it in the trash. She reads over the last two of interest and promptly does the same with them. "I realize that both are most likely jokes, but the former should keep his fantasies in check just in case. Rumia won't receive Ivan's consent so the only possibility of intercourse happening between them would be rape."

"Now with that out of the way, please enjoy the next story segment." Eirin spins the chair one more time to get herself into position to get off it. After that she heads upstairs with a medical bag in hand.

...

I'm going to put the trip to Marisa's house on hold until tomorrow at the very least. Not only will it be to dark out to head home by the time I finish dealing with her antics, but I'll most likely be incapable of doing anything of value for the next day at the very least. I instead focus on something more immediate and useful. Namely, going back over the materials for the jacket. It's a simple list of commonplace items save for the phoenix woman's hair, which is only transmuted along with some specific liquids in order to gain enough of the same material in order to create a fully functional jacket. Sometimes the law of equivalent exchange is annoying, but there's no way around it since it's a fundamental part of the world itself.

"Might I ask what you're doing?" Letty walks up to me without my noticing, which makes me jump just a little. "My apologies, I didn't realize you were so jumpy."

"If you have a certain grue stalking you, you'd be inclined to be a little more jumpy than usual. As for what I'm working on, I'm currently looking back over my materials for the thermal jacket I'm working on." I point out things like the newest plain jacket I had purchased, the phial of phoenix essence I had previously transmuted from that solitary hair, and the things of lesser importance I kept on hand anyways. "It's always interesting what you can get commonplace, and not so commonplace, materials turned into if you know what you're doing."

"But you haven't tried again as of late?" Letty doesn't provide any useful help as I might have liked, but that won't come until her memory has been jogged or I manage to teach her enough about alchemy for her to be helpful. "Perhaps you should consider how you acquire your materials."

---

>>892
>Rumia won't receive Ivan's consent so the only possibility of intercourse happening between them would be rape.

I'm okay with that.

>>893

good grief

>>893
I think Dr. Q Is working on a new Rumia story, until then, read his Rumia story and stop filling this thread with your sick rape fantasies. The rest of us would rather fantasize about loving sex with Letty.

I'll start to dig up letty pics soon.

>>896
>I think Dr. Q Is working on a new Rumia story
You, sir, seem to be misinformed. Dr. Q's new/current story is >>/border/21220 and currently involves the sealing club, not Rumia.


>The rest of us would rather fantasize about loving sex with Letty.
You're imagining having consensual sex in the missionary position with her, aren't you?
You sick, twisted bastard, you.

>>897

I believe that anon is either psychic or on IRC, because I have in fact been dabbling in a continuation of my /at/ Rumia story between updates for my /border/ story.

>>897
should have said a continuation of his current one.

As for the letty sex, it wouldn't be just the missionary position, and I think Ivan would be grazing her large hitboxes with his penis

Happy Sex >>>>>>>>>>> Rape.

I'm actually curious about Letty's past life. For all we know she may have been nothing more than a shop owner at one point or another and simply succumbed to the cold.

Perhaps her interests in alchemy in the first place is really nothing more than a mere interest to pass the time similar to Mokou's issues whenever boredom arises.

or maybe she's looking for a way to create a new body or homunculus to start a new life or create another..?

>>898
Definitely psychic; no one goes on IRC.
Also, hooray!

On another note: Damn you, midterms. Damn you and your causing a general lack of updates around the site.

Since there's a matter of letters

Dear Letty,

Keep up being the wonderful person that you are. I for one never thought badly or considered you weak due to your stage one boss status. And a large hitbox does not equal being fat, just being a good goalie.

But I have a question: It's been said you found Cirno annoying at one point, how did you change your mind on the matter?

-One of your fans.

>>901
It's not midterms that are slowing me down, it's the daily timing. I only have about two hours out of the weekday thanks to it being spring since certain events change with the sunrise and sunset. I won't go into them, but it's not school that's making this slow.

---

>>893

After Marisa's 'training' and Eirin's treatment I'm more or less back on my feet. Well, back enough to do the Q&A session at least. Not enough to do anything strenuous. Once I pick up the letters I start to wish I didn't. "I realize that I must be like a fictitious character to you, but don't go throwing me to the grue simply because you want something to jack off to." I happen to be glaring at that particular letter as I crumple it up and throw it in my incinerator that I just so happened to have had installed all of yesterday. Much more satisfactory to have particularly offensive comments go up in a puff of smoke.

>>896
>>897
>>899

And these are only mildly less offensive. "Please keep this sort of thing to yourself. I'm close enough to having a breakdown as it is without you twits trying to dictate when, where, and with whom I'd share my first time with." I still toss them in the incinerator before picking up the only other letter I'd think about reading right now, even though I somehow feel even worse than when I came down here to begin with. "I really should ask Eirin for some knockout drugs..."

>>900

I read the last letter chosen and actually find it interesting since it doesn't involve sex. As such I take the time to read through it instead of just tossing it away like all the others. "That's something I know nothing about, but am very interested in getting more information on. I'm not one to leave something like this alone after all." I then get up from my seat and start to walk back up to my room, but not before seeing if the doctor is in so I can have a good, dreamless sleep.

...

"How I acquire my materials? What difference would... that..." It slowly dawns on me that I have in fact forgotten something that is fairly fundamental about getting material from living things with high spiritual power. Something that is so thoroughly obvious that I feel that if I had the ability to go back in time and deck myself for forgetting to begin with, I would. Clearly my face reflects this since Letty decides to respond to it.

"Perhaps asking Mokou nicely would get you a more desirable result." She states this with little more than a matter of fact tone while my forehead meets my desk repeatedly. She does stop me before I do something stupid, such as somehow setting the house on fire or giving myself a concussion. To think that I forgot something so obvious... "Please don't hurt yourself." And with that I sit up straight. "Go talk to her while she's here. You trust her to listen to you, so go. Explain to her what you need and why."

I don't need any further pushing toward that direction since it may very well mean that I don't have to blow myself up trying to figure out another way to circumvent such an obvious error in the process. "Then I'll be back in a little bit, hopefully with what I need." I then step out of the room. While I don't see it, the snow woman smiles at me as I walk off after stifling a giggle.

Mokou seems about ready to step out of my house when I do find her, yet I manage to catch up to her in time. "What? It got boring around here so I thought I'd go bug Keine." She stops and turns to me with a 'Well?' look on her face.

"You know that jacket I've been working on? I finally realized what I was doing wrong." No change on the phoenix's face yet. Not that I really expected one since I'm pretty sure that I'm some kind of entertainment for her, which could meant that my finishing my jacket is precisely what she doesn't want.

"So?" She's impassive about this so far.

"I need a strand of your hair given to me willingly, otherwise this will be doomed to failure." I sum it up in the least number of words possible in order to keep it understandable to the phoenix. If I were really smart about this I'd go into alchemalbabble to make her head spin to the point where she'd give me what I need just to shut me up, but I'm the kind of person who makes such a fundamental error...

"I still get to visit you, right?" What. Mokou already yanked out one of her hairs and is holding it out for me. Not the expected outcome by any stretch...

"Why do you think anything would change? I'm almost insulted that you'd think I'd be so petty." I do take the strand regardless and begin to wind it up into a small ball so it doesn't snag on anything. Right now this is an irreplaceable material and I don't want to lose it for any reason. "Thank you though. I honestly thought that you'd refuse me because I'm some kind of entertainment for you."

Mokou merely gives off a small 'heh' before continuing. "You are. There's only so many ways I can spend time when I've got an infinite amount of it. Don't take this the wrong way though, I'm also kind of tired of having to haul your ass to Eientei every two days. Don't need Kaguya convincing you to stay there in order to force me to swing by more often. Now I'm going to head out for a while, so see ya." She then steps out without another word, though I get the impression that she forgot that Letty is here as well. What other reason could there be for her leaving without dragging the snow woman out with her?

---

I love your Mokou.
And your Aya.


Ayayayayaya

>>903
Guess then Letty will answer that letter another time?

Interesting how Mokou left, guess she is trying to nudge those two together.

>>905
>guess she is trying to nudge those two together.

I thought it had more to do with how she wishes to continue respecting his desire to continue his experiments, even if it means finding answers from another being when she herself may not be able to help.

Another thought would be considering where Ivan is, some one who she feels she can, at least somewhat, trust to watch over Ivan may also feel good to Mokou as well. Ivan's got enough as it is with teasing Youkai and entities, let alone a snooping and thieving witch; Last thing he needs are the destructive variety...

> "I really should ask Eirin for some knockout drugs..."

Well I suppose that's one way to get an easy "first time"...
...and berating anon for thinking about sex or perverted things is like playing games with a retarded kid and berating him for not following the rules.

Anon figured that Ivan wasn't like a typical shit Shounen hero in that he actually has a sex drive, but is too nice/polite/scared to go into it much.

And thus that fuels some speculation. But Ivan strikes me as the type to separate his fantasies as far away from the people.

I mean he'd fantasize about a woman with Eirin's figure but not her due to fear/respect/etc.

I think if she's not out to freeze us, a Letty hug would be very nice

>>902

Since this letter was directed specifically at Letty, I had taken the time to locate her despite my less than ideal condition. The result of that was being forced back into bed since I had somehow woken up before I had gotten the prescribed amount of rest despite taking Eirin's knockout drugs beforehand. So now this Q&A segment is being held from my bedroom, much to my chargin.

The snow woman herself sits on a chair not too far from my bed and reads the letter I had specified, which she then folds back up and sets aside. There's a light blush on her face born from mild embarrassment, though her words remain steady. "Thank you. It's not often at all that a human gives me words of praise, and even less often where one doesn't make fun of me because of that meme..." The fact that she's using her gentle voice means that this must mean a great deal to her. "It's nice of you not to consider me weak either. Danmaku ratings only get you so far after all, just look at Rumia. Well, look at her later if you provoke certain events. And as for my 'large hitbox'..." Letty places one arm under her generous chest to emphasize her next statement. "My bust may not be big enough to explain it, but I'm glad you agree that I don't fall under the 'fat' catagory." She then makes eye contact with me, and it's only then that I realize I've followed her movements to her ample bosom. "Oh my, Ivan, you do have an interest in healthy girls." She's sporting a smile with a meaning that I would have thought uncharacteristic of her.

"I never said I didn't. It's just that-" I almost begin my explenation until Letty gets up and places an index finger on my lips. She then proceeds to sit down next to my head and I almost immediately note that it's gotten warmer.

"Shh, save it for after you read this one." She's doing this on purpose! Regardless, I take the letter she hands me...

>>908

...And read it through. Once I've gotten through it all I take a few moments to compose an answer. "It's not that I'm too polite, scared, or nice, it's that I'm simply focusing myself on my life's work instead of every curvy beauty who makes my acquaintence. Especially when at least one, you know who you are, of those beauties enjoys teasing me while trying to make me slip up and dive headfirst into a world I may not want to be a part of. That might also sound like some 'Shoenin Protagonist', but at least there's a shot at getting that focus shifted to a broader spectrum." I almost forgot about that last part of the letter and make a quick addition. "As for getting a hug from Letty... Well, they say you can't miss what you never had."

"That's no good. That's no good at all." She pulls the covers up and begins sliding under them despite having her normal clothes on, and unlike someone like Aya she doesn't try anything while doing so. She doesn't even pause when her bust is at my head level and instead shifts all the way down. Once she accomplishes that she slides on top of me and begins radiating warmth while wrapping her arms around me. She then looks directly at me before nuzzling my neck. "Isn't this much better than sleeping alone? It's such a curious thing that people would choose to sleep alone over cuddling with someone they care for." Her warm breath reinforces her presence while her weight keeps me pinned down to the bed. As a result I don't answer her and instead hug her back before drifting off to sleep with the odd idea that I may actually get a full night's worth of rest. "Good thing I remembered to bring the rest of the letters along, otherwise this would have ended here." The snow woman adjusts the covers a little, then reads the next letter.

>>904

Letty looks over the brief contents of the letter and the picture attached before answering. "I'm glad you enjoy this story's interpretations of Aya and Mokou. And I think I should save this drawing since it's so nice." She tucks the picture away, then looks at the next letter.

>>906

"There's no deep or hidden meaning to this, she really did forget." Letty giggles to herself, yet does so quietly so she won't wake me back up. "In time she may trust me to look after him, or grudgingly admit that I would be better for him, but that won't happen yet. I've done some rather cruel, unprovoked things to her and she never got over it. I don't expect her to..." She nuzzles my neck again to hide her face as best as she can without moving. "As for Ivan not needing to attract the destructive variety of youkai... It's a little late for that now. Rumia's stalking him, remember?"

>>907

The snow woman looks over the last letter she brought to bed with her and adopted a worried look. "Please don't retaliate against Ivan about this, he's having to deal with the revelation that from the last time he attempted to forcibly acquire a strand of Mokou's hair onward his every major action will be dictated by a group of people outside the border who all lack names and may not have his, or anyone else's, best interests at heart until some undetermined point in time. How would you feel if you were in the same position?"

"Now with that out of the way, I'll get back to what I've wanted to do since the beginning." And then she too drifts off to sleep. A certain phoenix woman looks on from the doorway, yet decides to berate me for it after I wake up.

...

I stand there looking in the direction Mokou had left the house in with her freely given strand of hair in my hand. I actually feel a little guilty for thinking her to be so petty, but she took it well and openly admitted that I'm playing the role of the royal fool for her entertainment. I roll my eyes when I realize it's not like I'm going to stop blowing myself up anytime soon. There will be plenty of spectacular failures yet. However, the jacket is no longer one of them and I practically run back to my lab in order to begin the transmutation process anew, this time with a key material acquired in the correct fashion! The snow woman does nothing but smile knowingly at me as I set to work, and it's not until much later that I'm lightly shaken out of my self-induced absorbtion. "Eh?" ...Oh Hell, I forgot about Letty. I stand up and face her while she practically falls over onto me. "My apologies, I should have known better than to-" And she promptly shuts me up by locking lips with me once again. Except this time the sum of the warmth she pours into me blanks out all thought as I gradually fall back onto the chair I had just vacated. I didn't even realize it but we were sharing spit by the time we were done... I look up to the snow woman, who in turn has a blush that rivals my own. I find myself wanting more...

"Haah~" She exhales as she stretches, then faces me with a renewed smile on her face. "It's not a concern. I should have know enough to simply step outside than forcing my excess warmth on you. I am glad you don't seem to mind it." I almost wonder if she waited until I'd feel obliged to take responsibility for my actions before doing that. "You should stop for now, seeing as it's dinner time."

Is it really that late? I look at the clock and realize that I most certainly would have pulled another all-nighter had she not stopped me.

[X]Ask what Letty would like to eat.
[X]Perhaps eating out again?
[X]Actually, a quick trip to the bathroom is in order...
[X]"Did you do this on purpose?" Referring to the warmth dump.
[X]Write-in

[x]"Thanks for the warmth"
[X]Ask what Letty would like to eat.
-[x] If she needs time to think, take a quick trip to the bathroom.

>>902 here again (And to be honest >>908)

I guess due to whatever happened, Letty forgot to answer the question. I can understand, she was doing something important.

It's been said you found Cirno annoying at one point, how did you change your mind on the matter of the little spunky Ice Fairy?

I'm sure Cirno'll grow up to be a well behaving member of Gensokyo society... at least as well as anyone in Gensokyo does behave.

Here's a picture of something I can see happening.

Seeing the various seasonal beings in our seasons would be nice for the most part. The only exceptions would be Yuuka and Lily White; nothing against them, but there would be property damage. The Akis in contrast would be quite welcomed, since people in the outside like large fall bounties and beautiful leaves.

As for Ivan, thanks for responding, you lucky bastard.

[x]"Thanks for the warmth"
[X]Ask what Letty would like to eat.
-[x] If she needs time to think, take a quick trip to the bathroom.

>"I've done some rather cruel, unprovoked things to her and she never got over it. I don't expect her to..."

Here I thought Mokou was just being figurative about Letty freezing her solid. Having two mortal enemies to deal with must make life interesting.

Hmmmhmm~ And here I was beginning to think you hadn't noticed, Ivan. It makes me quite happy to see you're being a good sport about it. Still, as flattered as I am by your generous acknowledgment, I hope you don't think you can get off the hook with a bit sweet talk. There's still plenty of fun (some at your expense) to be had! Rest assured, though, I'm not completely unsympathetic to your plight. When all this is over, I'll personally send over my assistant with a formal letter of apology for any trauma caused.

With regards to the current vote: I don't see why Ivan's using the bathroom should hinge on Ms. Whiterock's ability to decide on a meal. If he needs to go, he should simply go, and he could probably do to freshen up after working for so long. More importantly, one should always wash up before preparing food; so I believe using the facilities should be a given here.

[x]"Thanks for the warmth"
[x]Ask what Letty would like to eat.
[x]A quick trip to the bathroom is in order...


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm apparently needed elsewhere in regards to a party I started. At least, that's what they're telling me; I honestly don't remember much about the details... I may have been somewhat inebriated when I got the idea.

>>913
I think you're missing the true meaning of the bathroom vote.

>>914
Or am I?

>>915

Yes, Yes you are.

[x]"Thanks for the warmth"
[X]Ask what Letty would like to eat.
-[x] If she needs time to think, take a quick trip to the bathroom.

>>910

...

I facepalm when I realize that Letty didn't actually answer that question, and I can't exactly go get her right now since there's an annoyed phoenix woman in the room with me. Obviously this will remain a mystery for now, though I get the feeling that Cirno's childish nature would grate on anyone's nerves after a while. I can't answer for the snow woman herself though.

"I'd love to know how the hell that crow keeps slipping in here without me seeing her." Mokou picks up a couple of the letters that were delivered only moments ago. Judging from the annoyed look on her face I'd have to assume she'd none to thrilled with Aya slipping in like this, and quite frankly I agree with her. "And this guy's calling you a lucky bastard? Clearly he hasn't been paying attention to all the crap that seems to happen to you."

"I think he's referring to Letty deciding to sleep with me last session." It's only after I say it that I realize that I've made a mistake. A very, very big one.

Mokou clenches the letter in her fist and incinerates it while turning her head to look at me. Judging from the red glow in her eyes I'd have to assume I should either start running or pray that I suddenly develop a silver tongue. "She WHAT?!" Aw crap...

"Mokou... Try not to incinerate my house will you...?" Unfortunately I don't have a silver tongue and I sure as hell can't outrun her. As such I can only back away slowly and hope she doesn't do anything rash, which is exceptionally foolish seeing as she's enraged right now. "It's not like either of us were naked."

"She's still proving me right." I suppose this means she's not going to take it out one me... "Just stay away from her Ivan. She's nothing but trouble for you." And she's still hung up on that?

"Says the person who sets me on fire every time I meet her." I can't help but point out the hypocrisy in her statement while I cross my arms. She knows full well that she's just as much trouble as the snow woman, if not more so since Letty has done nothing to harm me either intentionally or not.

"Are you taking her side in this?" There's a mix of emotions playing across her face right at the moment, and I think I see something akin to the fear of rejection among them. I doubt she'd let it show again so easily. "You barely even know her! I can't accept her going after you like this."

"Calm down. First of all, this is too serious for just a Q&A segment and second, what you say and do here doesn't affect what happens within the story itself. It's literally an alternate timeline separated from this one." I know it's a rather big gamble to just up and say something like this when it's clear she needs some support, but she really does need to calm down so we can do this.

No response. This is either a good thing or a very bad thing and I'm hoping it's the former instead of the latter. "...You really suck sometimes, you know that?" Figures it'd be the latter. "Just because this doesn't affect the story doesn't mean that-" I close the distance and put my lips to hers. She simply stiffens in shock until I step back.

"Now, if we're quite done..." I move to pick up the next letter before Mokou decides to retaliate against my bold action. It did get her to shut up and stop being so melodramatic though, though I get the feeling I've made things worse. "As for meeting the embodiments of the other seasons, the writer doesn't have anything planned past winter. I thought this got answered before though, albeit in a completely different setting."

>>913

I read over the next letter and make a small tone of disgust before answering. "First of all, I can't even see you since we're literally a world apart and I can't get a good look at you. As for sending an associate... Unless you're Yukari Yakumo I doubt very seriously that you could do such a thing. I also take some level of annoyance at the fact that you enjoy having fun at my expense." I almost facepalm upon reading the second to last line. "As for the bathroom vote... You keep throwing that term around, but I don't think it means what you think it means." I set the letter back down and proceed to wave a hand in front of Mokou to make sure that kiss didn't fry her brain. "Now let's get on with the story before this takes up the whole update."

...

I almost say 'thanks for the warmth' but the words die in my throat before I can speak them. I don't know why she did that or why she chose to use me as a heat sink right then and there, but it's making me feel strange. Much more so than last time. It can't be because she's just softening me up, or rather I hope it's not that. I then kill that line of thinking since it's not only going nowhere, it's also rude to simply ignore the one in front of me regardless of her intentions or actions since they've done no permanent damage. "I was wondering if you'd like to stick around for dinner? I believe that it's only fair since I've more or less completely ignored you the whole time I was working on this." 'This' being the mostly completed jacket. I have to admit that the silvery phoenix and fire seal designs weren't present on any of the failures and that it's a rather nice touch. Stylish and functional.

"I wouldn't say no to the invitation. I really should get back to Cirno soon though... She waits all year for me to show up and now I'm ignoring her..." She does seem rather conflicted about whether to stay or go. I'm not sure if it's my place to aid her in this decision or not since anything I say or do could set off some kind of chain reaction that leads to yet more problems. Problems that I simply do not need. She shakes her head after a minute or so and looks to me. "I will stay. It would be rude to refuse such welcome hospitality."

"Well then, any preferences?" I don't really have anything to say about this since it's not within my ability to influence anymore. Ugh, the heat is muddling my thought process... I need to get rid of it somehow but I don't know how!

"I think I'll trust the chef." So she's leaving it up to me. Figures I'm not at my best in terms of thinking... "It's not quite dinnertime yet so if there's anything you want to do..." And she's guessed that I have some kind of issue right at the moment.

"No, I think I'll get started on it now. You don't mind hot food do you?" This is partially out of consideration and partially because I don't think I could take another heat dump like that without some peculiar consequences.

"Not at all. I actually prefer hot food." With that out of the way I decide that I'll do something with some of the chicken I've saved. Usually I do things like cut the breasts into strips, bread them, and fry them since they make for a good portable lunch or use some of it for pizza toppings, but the question becomes: How far do I want to go with this? This isn't exactly a romantic moonlit dinner between two lovers.

We both step downstairs, though Letty takes up a seat in front of the curtain covered sealed fire in order to leave me to my own devices. Now the question becomes: What do I take care of first?

[X]Just get dinner dealt with.
[X]Dispose of this peculiar heat first. (Specify)

---

I know that this is more or less a revote but the choices from before were mutually exclusive. This is to determine what gets done first, though I advise you to think about the consequences before voting.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
-[X] Step out in the cold for a short moment.

I can't help but wonder if you're having more fun with the Q&A sessions than the actual story itself. Not that I'm complaining.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
-[x] Splash some cold water on your face.

Safer than stepping out into the cold, and Ivan could pass it off as cooling off from the Kitchen.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
-[x] Splash some cold water on your face.

This always helps me clear my head, but I prefer being cold over being hot.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
-[X] Splash some cold water on your face.

>>918
>I should either start running or pray that I suddenly develop a silver tongue.
>There's a mix of emotions playing across her face right at the moment, and I think I see something akin to the fear of rejection among them.

Hmm...

And here's to you, Ms. Fugiwara
Ivan loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
take it easy, Ms. Fugiwara
Ivan holds a sweet place for your stay
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

He'd like for you to stick around more often as a partner
He'd like your help more often just as well
Look around you, he needs you more than just quick first aid
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home

And here's to you, Ms. Fugiwara
Ivan loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
Take it easy, Ms. Fugiwara
Ivan holds a sweet place for your stay
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

Catchy song. But I agree, I think they make a nice couple (was Mokou ever the main girl in a CYOA? I can't remember)
I have faith in Aya though.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
-[x]Masturbation Take a quick bath.

>>924
>was Mokou ever the main girl in a CYOA? I can't remember

There was that biologist over at /eientei/ but didn't last long; whether it was lack of the author's efforts or anon having missed it who can truly say...

>>925
Too soon to tell with that, but the "Power of one" story has a nice chance of it being Mokou route.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
- [X]Masturbation.

It shouldn't take too long.

No offense, Ivan.

>>926
I meant word of one.

>>924
>>927
These would take too long since Ivan's already cooked dinner.

>>924

I don't even really care about if it's "her turn" or such. I frankly just like this Mokou allot better then Letty, who seems to have just barged in and totally taken over. I doubt if I stop the Letty avalanche (wretched pun go!), but I shall strive valiantly against it where I can.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
-[X] Step out in the cold for a short moment.

Seems like this would be considerably more effective then a bit of cold water on the face frankly.

[X] Dispose of this peculiar heat first.
-[X] Step out in the cold for a short moment.

Quicker and more efficient.

>>929

That makes two of us. I'm sorry to say that this Letty does nothing for me in comparison to the way the other characters are written, especially Mokou.

Then again, considering that romance doesn't seem all that important in this story, it's likely not that big of an issue.

>>931
Also a good way to freeze to death via underestimation of the temperature.

>>929
And make shitstorms like in GH? you're better off using that energy to get some other Mokou stories going over in /eientei/

>>932

Because Ivan is surely stupid enough to mill about outside until he dies of the cold instead of stepping out for a moment and going right back in. Surely.

>>933
What about making Letty question our sainty? Since even in the best case we'd need her to warm up again.

>What about making Letty question our sainty?

>>934

I'm pretty sure Ivan never found the priesthood a calling.

>>935
I meant sanity.

>>932

That would be nice if there was a decent one, which I haven't really seen. Regardless though different authors have different takes on a character, I like his take on Mokou hence I want more of her. This would not necessarily change even if there was an alternative fic around.

Also I maybe a stubborn mule, but I'm not an asshole who will start shit storms over stuff I don't like. I got nothing against guys that want something else, but you know the old saying about bridges, friends, and jumping.

>>937
Mind you us Letty fans actually like this Letty and not just doing this to fill a gap.

>>919

I am having quite a bit of fun with this. It's certainly an entertaining pastime since it provides insight into how characters might interact and what they're like without having to meet them within the confines of the main story.

---

>>922

I wasn't exactly pleased when Aya came knocking at this late hour, but she explained that a rival of hers is trying to get the scoop ahead of her so the crow tengu I'm becoming familiar with is putting in some serious hours in order to keep her material even fresher than Hatate's. Even though I understand it and can even go so far as to sympathize with her on the matter, I still find it annoying. Regardless, I pick up the first letter and immediately note that it's more song lyrics that have been adapted to fit the story. "Amusing. You really do sit and wait for me to leave these little openings, don't you?" I fold up the letter and stuff it into one of the side drawers just in case I find a use for it later. "Mokou really shouldn't see this right now, seeing as I went and kissed her the last time she was here. I would rather not have her brain melt down as she tries to comprehend the fact that someone else thinks that she and I might make a good couple."

>>924

I note that this is actually the only letter given to me by the crow, and am slightly concerned since there must be more comments than that one I just read. "Hmm... I really hope she isn't driving herself into the ground by over-exerting herself. Sure she's a youkai, but even they have their limits." Spin, spin, spin the chair... And I see a pair of glowing red eyes just outside my window. Since red is a very common youkai eye color I make a point of readying a danmaku bolt in case it turns out to be Rumia or some other nameles youkai who wants a late-night snack. I approach the window and put a little light to it only to find that Aya's perched on it. She looks half asleep from the looks of it... I open the window and Aya stumbles through. I literally have to catch her so she doesn't fall over. "Aya, didn't I say something about needing sleep?"

"Don't worry, I've done this before." Aya then promptly places the rest of the letters on my table and takes up a spot closest to the sealed fire I use to simultaneously heat and light the room. I did feel her skin, and it's freezing so it's possible her body's not exactly happy with her. "I'm fine, you don't have to worry."

"If you can call hypothermia, exhaustion, and sleep deprivation 'fine', then I suppose you are." I have to ignore the letters for a moment so I can get the crow tengu situated. "I, on the other hand, consider you to be anything but and will not permit you to leave until morning at the very least." This will require a blanked, one of these...

Aya does give me a smile with a rather dangerous gleam in her eyes. "I'm still a youkai you know. You can't force me to do anything." Just to prove her point she stands tall as I approach and advances on me, only for me to sidestep her and kick her geta out from underneath her. Despite her incredible balance and the force she can put on those shoes, she still can't defend against what she doesn't expect. Still, having been the one to kick her down, it only makes sense that I catch her and wrap her up in the blanket I picked out. "Fine, I get the message..." And with that she provides no further resistance. Now that she's on the closest couch with a nice pillow beneath her head she seems to consider nodding off, only for her to get loose when I turn my back on her. All she does is drag me to the couch with her and force me under her. "Much better..." I suppose this is her way of flipping my arguement back in my face. Q&A will continue tomorrow folks, and the story along with it.

>>939
I guess that post is a good example of why I like this Aya. Unlike on most stories, doujins and CYOAs where she appears, she looks more... I dunno, fallible? More human, if you like (not that she's really one, but you get my point) The only other story where I've seen her like that is on that /youkai/ story (you know the one) and that's more her acting as a mother figure than anything.
Besides I've always thought that certain girls in Gensokyo might feel lonely sometimes. Don't take me wrong: I know that she's very capable of taking care of herself but... life's more fun with someone on the front seat with you.

>>938

Well of course, and there's nothing wrong with that, difference of opinion and all that. Still we can certainly disagree like gentlemen rather the slobbering fanatics.

On that note would anyone like some tea? I've brewed enough for everyone.

Huh, I went in here to write a Letty-oriented story and from the sounds of it it may derail from that track onto something else. Not that that's a bad thing mind you since it opens up other options in the story.

---

>>927

At this rate I'm going to either get addicted to sleeping with women or get charred to a crisp by Mokou when she finds out. Either way it's now morning and I still find myself being used as a pillow by the rather shapely tengu reporter I had decided to have stay over for the night. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't pleasant, though I really should get up sometime soon so I can finish what I was doing last night. This involves getting Aya to let go of me so I can get out from under her, though she's got something of a death grip on me right now. "Nnn, five more minutes Momiji..." I see that I'm not going to get much done this morning until the reporter wakes up. She does open her eyes somewhat and sees that I am not her junior. "Oh, that's right. You made me stay over last night." She still doesn't let go.

"Yes, yes I did. Could you let me get up now? I have to finish what I started last night when you decided to run yourself into the ground trying to outdo that other reporter." I'm still not sure how I should feel about this since Aya's usually only teasing me when it comes to this sort of thing.

"And that's why I pulled you to bed with me. You were going to pull another all-nighter just to get those letters answered. I've seen what you're like when you do that to yourself." She does shift up just a bit, which does nothing but make our position seem more suggestive. This doesn't last long since she slides off me moments later. She then offers me a hand up, which I accept. "I'd have to take a guess and say you didn't feed yourself either."

Gah! Traitorous stomach! You're not supposed to go revealing what I want to keep hidden! "I guess that's your answer right there. I don't really see the importance of taking care of it right now, and I do know how to cook." I start to walk in the direction of those letters without realizing that Aya hasn't let go. If anything she upped her grip strength in order to keep me from going anywhere.

The reporter merely shakes her head in both disapproval and exasperation. "And humans think the tengu are prideful... Come on, the letters can wait. We're taking care of you first." And I can no longer object or even resist since she swept me off my feet. Funny thing is that I thought it was the male lead who was supposed to do that to the girl, and not the other way around. She does make a point of grabbing the letters before heading into my kitchen.

"I suppose this is your way of acknowledging that I won't be content until I get those letter answered." I'm neatly deposited into a chair while Aya sets to work on getting something for breakfast. I then take the second letter out of the pile and look it over. "No offense taken. I expected that sort of thing to come up since this vote was left rather ambiguous in its meaning."

"You don't waste any time, do you?" Okay, the sight of Aya in an apron isn't bad at all. I am a little surprised that she's got a carton of eggs in her hand, partially because I thought she'd be against it and partially because I'm not sure I even have eggs in the house. I am a little muddled in the mind still so I just accept it without a word. "So what's this one about?" And I shouldn't go thinking that she'd go so far as to leave me in peace. "You? That's going to be an interesting day when it does happen. So what about all the others?"

"The letters? Those are just discussion between the people about which in-story character they like and want to pursue. There not something I want to mess with since my opinion out here doesn't necessarily translate into the story perfectly." I more or less push the remaining letters off to the side save for one.

>>934

"I stated that Letty is forcing me to rethink things, not that she's driving me insane." I then set that letter off to the side since it's no longer of any importance to me.

...

Ugh, I can't think straight thanks to that warmth dump and the absolute last thing I need is to torch my house trying to make something to eat. Taking a cold bath would take too long, utilizing certain male functions would also take too long on top of potentially setting things in motion that I might not want, splashing water on my face would be a slight improvement at most... I'm left with taking a quick step outside to let the elements do the work for me. Come to think of it, a sealed ice would cause the same effect. Regardless, I step out the back door for a moment to let the heat out, and sure enough the biting cold causes me to return to normal in a matter of moments. With this out of the way I step back inside and pull out a pack of pre-cut up chicken out of the freezer and place it in a baking dish. From there it's a simple matter of sticking it in the oven I constructed myself and let it cook for however long it takes. There's some time between when I stick it in and when it's done so I set to work on anything else that might go well with it.

The oven is a simple setup that's not unlike my water heating and cooling system in the fact that it uses sealed fire to evenly heat the oven, though unlike the temperature control system this was designed only to heat things up. This works by connecting a number of nodes inside the oven to a large sealed fire that has a particularly high amount of energy stored within and using a number of control gates to manipulate when and where the fire flows out to fill the nodes. I confess that it's not as precise or as accurate as the kappa made inventions, but I am in fact getting there at a steady pace. A similar, connected setup allows me to heat things on the stovetop set above the oven as well.

It takes roughly a half hour to cook everything and get it ready, but the resulting spread looks nice at least. I did sneak a taste of everything at one point or another so it should taste good as well, though different people have different tastes. I made a point of letting Letty know that things are close to being done so she's at the table when I get everything in.

[X]Perhaps some dinner conversation? (specify)
[X]Some meals are better enjoyed in silence.
[X]Write-in

>>942
Don't I like Letty and I don't want no Mokofags from /eientei/ screwing things up. Look what the Alicefags did to Teruyo's story. You cannot deny the damage and havoc they caused, even if you consider the story SNAFU'ed by that point.

SDLT's Mokou is nice but standard. You could find similar Mokous in various stories. Letty on the other hand is very nice and is a rarity. And if the man says it's a Letty story, let it be a Letty story.

Seriously, my reaction to the story "this is alright" before Letty and after Letty "I'M F5ING LIKE THE MOTHERFUCKING FIST OF THE NORTH STAR"

[X]Perhaps some dinner conversation?
-[x] "What parts of alchemy interest you so far?" after she answers, talk about how you got into it, leaving out the parts of your screw ups.

>>944

I would dispute how rare she actually is as I've seen her used in a number of fics. Regardless of that it's a matter of opinion and no one can be "right" here. I happen not to find much interesting about this Letty, that's my view, you disagree and that's fine, but don't attack the other side and insult them for no good reason.

This is a democracy after all and if your side truly has more support it will prevail, so there is no need to attack the other groups for voicing a differing view. Let your votes do the talking and save the smack talk. Still I shall discuss this no further at this time, as despite my honest intentions the risk of derailing into OT crap is indeed strong here.

Anyway getting back to the topic at hand.
[X]Perhaps some dinner conversation?
-[x] Small talk, perhaps focusing on trying to figure out more about her past or where clues about it could be found.

>>945
Never as a target though, Letty is often just a supporting bit character in most of the stories she does appear in.

And my apologies for the remark, I meant for it basically mean: If shit happens, folks won't take it laying down.

And it's more like SDLT knowing how to make nice characters if this happens. Hell look what happened with his Yukari in AoS (/shrine/); after meeting her, everyone was all for Yukari route.

[X]Perhaps some dinner conversation?
-[x] Small talk, perhaps focusing on trying to figure out more about her past or where clues about it could be found.

>I went in here to write a Letty-oriented story.

Ah, well then. Shame, since I find your Mokou very appealing, but that's that. Also there's the whole "only two of us" thing.

>>944

>SDLT's Mokou is nice but standard. You could find similar Mokous in various stories.

No offense, but that's how I see this Letty. The "former alchemist" is a nice addition, but aside from that she seems pretty basic.

>>946

>Never as a target though, Letty is often just a supporting bit character in most of the stories she does appear in.

That sounds almost exactly like Mokou's track record, actually. Very rarely a target and the stories where she is one die.

>>947
people have tried to make stories with Mokou as a target, but they either died or are slow as hell. The only story of note with a shot at the lovely snow woman was one of the Rainbow stories that Angry Desu wrote and look how that turned out. And I do think that as this story goes on, we'll find out more about this Letty.

[X]Perhaps some dinner conversation?
-[x] Small talk, perhaps focusing on trying to figure out more about her past or where clues about it could be found.
Oh well, opinions. I find Letty a bit bland, but that's probably just my point of view. I find this Moko pretty standard, not that's a bad thing, mind you. And I find Aya all the most likable, maybe due to her poor rep.
Anyway, writefag, however this story continues, know that you have talent for this.

>>949
He does write a nice Aya (Just look at her in his /shrine/ story) Though Aya and GiG's Snake are something of a OTP pairing around here. Another Aya story would nice. Dunno who'd bring it.

>>947

Whoa whoa, I only said I went in here to write a Letty-oriented story, not that I wasn't open to alternate paths. If I weren't, I wouldn't have let anon pursue Yukari in my /shrine/ story.

>>944
And I have to point out that unlike Teruyo's scenario, what with anon being unable to settle for a target, the anon voting in AoS settled on Yukari the moment I showed that she wasn't anything like what I was making her out to be. The worst they do now is plot how to get other characters as well to form a harem. Even if they didn't I would have wrote around it and they damn well know it.

Honestly, if you feel like pursuing someone in the story, just go for it and let me work out the details if I haven't already. I do have ideas for Letty, Mokou, and Aya at this point since I make a point of covering my bases here.

Just don't get out of hand, be decisive, and don't go cheating on the girl you do pick and it'll work.

Huh, no character Q&A today. Guess that was more because the writefag's better suited to answering all this.
---

Dinner has more or less started now, and it's initially quiet since I didn't have any ready topics to discuss. I shouldn't be surprised since I don't exactly have people over for dinner all that often, and the rare time I do someone I know fairly well is gracing me with her presence instead of someone I've barely known for two full days. ...There is one thing though, and it's something I really should have just snapped to without having to think about it.

"If you don't consider it prying, do you mind if I ask how much you recall about alchemy?" Honestly, it's what she's asking for my indirect assistance with. Might as well see how much she knows.

"I don't mind answering that. I confess that I don't know very much anymore, nor do I remember where I could look to find more information. I only stumbled upon you by chance." Letty seems sincere about this. It's not good for uncovering more about her past or other related subjects, such as where more clues might be found. I suppose I'm better off asking Aya for help in the matter for now. "Simply reading that book is jogging my memory little by little. I must thank you for that."

"You've already thanked me for that you know. There's no need to keep repeating it." So it seems this will take time to even start unraveling her mystery... I shouldn't have expected anything else since nothing I've done was ever accomplished in a day.

Either way the remainder of dinner consists of various pointless small talk, then the snow woman takes her leave since she still needs to spend time with Cirno. I'm not sure I want to know what the little fairy must think of me at this point... Ah well, time to do something else I think.

[X]I haven't had a chance to look at the papers Aya left for me. Even if talking to Letty herself was a bust, surely the crow copied something down.
-[X]Feel stupid for not bringing it up while Letty was around.
[X]Finish the jacket now that no one is around.
[X]Some other project? (specify)
[X]See if there's anything interesting outside.

[X]Finish the jacket now that no one is around.

[X]I haven't had a chance to look at the papers Aya left for me. Even if talking to Letty herself was a bust, surely the crow copied something down.
-[X]Feel stupid for not bringing it up while Letty was around.
Heh

[X] I haven't had a chance to look at the papers Aya left for me. Even if talking to Letty herself was a bust, surely the crow copied something down.
-[X] Feel stupid for not bringing it up while Letty was around.

Obvious Letty plot points? Don't mind if I do.

[X]Finish the jacket now that no one is around.

[X] I haven't had a chance to look at the papers Aya left for me. Even if talking to Letty herself was a bust, surely the crow copied something down.
-[X] Feel stupid for not bringing it up while Letty was around.

Perhaps it might have been just as well, but it's funny how that's a sub-choice.

[X]Finish the jacket now that no one is around.

He is still a dedicated alchemist, after all.

[X] I haven't had a chance to look at the papers Aya left for me. Even if talking to Letty herself was a bust, surely the crow copied something down.
-[X] Feel stupid for not bringing it up while Letty was around.
--[X]Finish the jacket now that no one is around.

Assuming Aya just started on her research when she brought the papers, there may not be as much for now. Plus considering Mokou finally gave Ivan a bit of her hair, the project may actually have a chance of being a success.

Honestly, you think I could do a full update instead of half of one, but nooooo. Reposted since this is actually done.

---

There's actually two things I want to do at this point. One, I never got a look at those papers Aya gave me, and two, I should finish work on that jacket now that no one is around to interrupt me. The former comes first since I know full well I'll be messing around with the jacket well into the night if not all night and it won't do me any good if I were to put all my focus into my nearly-finished project first. As such I head into my lab and examine the table the crow had placed the papers onto. Or rather, examined the papers on the table since I already know what's on my table.

I pick up the first paper with care since it's so old, but judging from the feel I don't think I have much to worry about since it doesn't feel brittle as I expected it to. I wonder how the Tengu manage to make such long lasting paper? I really should ask Aya about that the next time we meet. Now that I'm done sidetracking myself I actually read what's printed on there and find that it's... Ridiculous. I would have counted it as a thoughtless prank if I didn't see the annotation off in the margin.

'I know, it seems ridiculous and that it looks like a joke, but read the fourth page.'

And so I do. What I find is a heavily edited page with much of the original writing crossed out and more annotations placed in the margins. It's still ridiculous to me, but it's actually a fair bit more believable now that the bulk of it isn't trying to inflict shock via not so clever lies. It more or less confirms the fact that Letty is, or was, and alchemist but there's the fact that it seems to have been her primary trade. On top of that she was skilled at her craft and could do things that would boggle people's minds, and her last notable project was an incomplete Philosophers' Stone that she had apparently considered giving up on.

I can answer why someone would give up on that hopeless quest. The stone is supposed to be capable of producing an elixir of life to make one's self immortal for a month, transmute any material into any other material, and act as a storehouse for information. While I have dabbled in making a working formula every now and again, I would never even consider actually making one since the costs are horrifyingly immense, not to mention immoral.

You see, everything, even this mythical pipe dream, is governed my the law of equivalent exchange. This law states that in order to create something you must first give up something of equal value. In the case of the stone, this means lives have to be sacrificed to create it, or perhaps the souls of living beings. Either way, unless there is some massive reservoir of worthless souls in existence there's no way any sane alchemist would attempt this, myself included.

The rest of the paper doesn't have anything particularly useful within its pages so I fold it back up and set it aside. There's some interesting information in there but it's so thoroughly outdated that it would all be useless in this time frame. Now that that's out of the way I examine the jacket I had worked on earlier in order to appraise how much I had to do before it's finished.

A quick transmutation spell and everything's done. Well, with the application of a couple fire seals to ensure that it doesn't self ignite for some reason. With that out of the way I'm left wondering one of two things: Should I get a good night's rest for once so I can find a good teacher to learn danmaku from? Or do I work on a new project like I usually do?

[X]Sleep is good.
[X]Bah, I'll sleep when I'm dead.
-[X]But I'll be bored, so maybe I should work on something. (specify)

[X]Sleep is good.

Sleep feels good man.

[x] Sleep is good.

Good idea to get a good night's rest once in a while.

[x]Sleep is good.

Best to sleep so that the mind may be sharp for training or beginning a new project.

[X] Sleep is good.

Since Ivan has bad sleeping patterns, he needs to fix his sleep deficit.

[x]Sleep is good.

[X] Sleep is good.

>>962
>Good idea to get a good night's rest once in a while.

Yagokoro, bring me a dream (bum, bum, bum, bum)
Make it the cutest moe-blob that I've seen (bum, bum, bum, bum)
Please no nightmares like those two nights ago. (bum, bum, bum, bum)
Then tell me that my lonesome nights are over.
Eirin, I'm so alone
Don't have nobody to call my own
Please give all your medicine
Yagokoro, bring me a dream.

"bum, bum, bum, bum"

Yagokoro, bring me a dream
Make it the cutest moe-blob that I've seen
Tell me the word that it won't be too long
Tell me soon my lonesome nights are over.
Eirin, I'm so alone
Don't have nobody to call my own
Please give all your medicine
Yagokoro, bring me a dream.

"bum, bum, bum, bum"

Yagokoro (Eirin's voice: "Yesss?") bring me a dream
Give her a pair of eyes with a "come-hither" gleam
Give her a lonely heart like a poor hermit
And lots of wavy hair like a friend I know
Yagokoro, someone to hold (someone to hold)
Would be so peachy before I am too old
So please give all your medicine
Yagokoro, bring me, please, please, please
Oh dear Eirin, bring me a dream.

"bum, bum, bum, bum"

>>961
>>962
>>964

Despite my earlier misgivings Aya turned out to be a decent cook with some interesting ideas and enough skill to make it work. I do find it minorly annoying that she has joined the group of people who think that I am largely incapable of taking care of myself, and even more so that this next batch of letters pretty much agree with everyone else. "Now see here, I already have a sleep schedule. It's just not one that most people are accustomed to." I fold up the letters and set them aside since their messages are short enough to memorize and respond to in on go. "I would hardly call myself sleep deprived."

Aya happened to still be in the same room as me and seemed to not be able to help but pitch her opinion in. "What you consider sleep deprivation would leave even someone like me a drooling zombie, and that's saying a lot since I'm a youkai." She's long since shed the apron and aided me in cleaning the cooking implements, which I hoped meant that she would be out of the house soon seeing as I never seem to be able to get anything done when I have guests. "Honestly, how much sleep do you get in one go? Five hours at most? Less?"

>>966

"Enough to maintain my effectiveness." I open up the last letter of the current batch and look it over. I'm half amused and half wishing that this person didn't alter music lyrics to produce some odd alternate lyrics. "I will confess that-" I almost say something I would most certainly regret saying around the tengu. Not that it helps in the slightest since she's already reading over my shoulder.

"Eirin too, huh? For someone so reserved and distant you certainly have a lot of fantasies." Aya's nudging me as she says this, but I refuse to give her the satisfaction this time. "Sheesh, keep shutting others out like this and you'll just die alone. It'd be such a shame for such a nice looking guy like you to go to waste." She then drapes her arms over my shoulders and quietly speaks into my ears. "And don't think I won't take you~"

That's enough. "Cut that out Aya. Just because you force me to sleep with you and make me breakfast does not mean you have a license to kidnap me." I stand up only to find that she's pressing herself into me. This was a mistake...

"I~ don't~ need~ one~" She continues this for a few more moments before letting go. "Seriously though, you need to get yourself a girlfriend or get out more. Staying shut in like this except to get your hands on more materials, or to get stuff back from Marisa, or make very infrequent trips out to visit other people isn't good for you at all, and I'm pretty sure the only reason you're not insane is because we keep barging in like this." She steps over to the window, then pulls it open. "And I am serious about kidnapping you if you keep this up." With that she flies off and leaves me rather worried about my future.

...

Sleep is the order of the day I think. It's been far too long since I've slept for more than five or six hours at one time and even longer since I've actually listened to myself in that regard. That and I want to find a suitable teacher to learn danmaku from and need to be in the best possible shape to engage in that activity. As such I hang the jacket up and head off to my room, which happens to be empty for once. I make a quick change into some sleepwear, get under the covers, and fail to fall asleep straight away. This shouldn't surprise me at all since I never follow a normal sleep pattern, but it's counter productive...

Once I wake up again I find myself in a cold sweat and breathing rapidly due to the dream I had while I slept. It mostly consisted of Eirin cleverly luring me to Eientei for questionable purposes over a couple hundred years, which is absolutely silly since I'll never live that long, nor did she even know of my existence up until our first encounter a few years back. This is a small reminder of why I don't sleep like a normal person. I either have nonsensical dreams or flat-out nightmares anytime I go to bed at a reasonable hour. Getting less sleep doesn't necessarily help, but it causes me to forget them easier and not have to endure them for as long.

I do make note of the fact that it's best to be clean and presentable when going out to meet people, especially new people who might get the wrong first impression if you show up as anything but your best. Not that this means I'd have to meet someone new today mind you, just that I should be ready for it. As such I take a fresh change of clothes and head into the bathroom, and from there I draw a bath and fail to deliver any new points about it.

Out of all the people I know, Eirin, Marisa, Alice, Reimu, and perhaps Keine are the best qualified to teach me the art I wish to practice. The only question is who I want to ask for help? ...And if they'd be willing to teach me. I'm certain Eirin would love another chance to draw me closer to Eientei, Marisa would most likely be enthusiastic about having new target practice, and Reimu would likely require regular donations to be willing. Then there's the possibility of asking the aforementioned for reccomendations... I could just experiment the day away like I usually do, but I just keep getting the odd feeling that it would be better if I got out for once.

It would be better to go to:
[X]Eientei. Eirin has thousands of years of experience and we seem to think on the same wavelength.
[X]Keine's house. The guardian must know a few tricks, and she literally has all of history to draw from.
[X]Marisa's home. The forest witch knows the value of hard work and is probably one of the few people I can get along with nigh-unconditionally.
[X]Alice's house. The seven colored puppeteer is rumored to have originated from Makai and can make for a surprisingly good teacher if one would listen to her and treat her warmly.
[x]Hakurei Shrine. The miko is extremely powerful and would likely give in and teach me if given a donation.

[x]Keine's house. The guardian must know a few tricks, and she literally has all of history to draw from.

Don't feel to confident about the other options. This one is the most likely to result in some sort of useful progress.

[X]Alice's house. The seven colored puppeteer is rumored to have originated from Makai and can make for a surprisingly good teacher if one would listen to her and treat her warmly.

I think she'd be best for teaching.

[X] Keine's house. The guardian must know a few tricks, and she literally has all of history to draw from.

She's a teacher by profession, so she'll probably be more patient than the others.

[X] Keine's house. The guardian must know a few tricks, and she literally has all of history to draw from.

Can't possibly go wrong~!

[X]Eientei. Eirin has thousands of years of experience and we seem to think on the same wavelength.
Interesting.

[X] Keine's house. The guardian must know a few tricks, and she literally has all of history to draw from.

[X] Keine's house. The guardian must know a few tricks, and she literally has all of history to draw from.

>>968
>I'm half amused and half wishing that this person didn't alter music lyrics to produce some odd alternate lyrics

Ah don't worry Ivan as I've had my fun in messing around with lyrics; or at least when I felt it applied far too easily to just pass up on the opportunity.

>>975

He should just be thankful we lack any pictures of him to crudely photoshop into embarrassing images invoking the girls in question, not that we would ever do such a crash and tasteless thing mind you, even if we had to means.

Oh by the way is Aya still around I wanted to ask her about something...

>>976

I believe you meant "crass" but nonetheless who's to say I wouldn't find renewed inspiration, lest I'm seen to have, "Jumped the shark", so to speak..?

seriously I may have plenty of material or I may not as it all depends on what will come. I wouldn't post just anything if it's trivial, and sleep is surely not trivial...

Yes that, but in my defense I'll not Ivan isn't the only one with awful sleep habits as that was written at about 5 AM and I assure I did not sleep at all during the preceding hour. (Or the night before that, but I did get almost four hours in the afternoon that day!)

>>978

"I'll not"

... Or maybe I'm just retarded and can't spell at all.

Letty, Mokou(Maybe) and now Aya? Boy has a regular harem going on.

>>981
He just knows girls that aren't repulsed by him.

Who are all very capable of outliving him.

>>982

sadly I can't imagine just any regular human woman willing to take on the stress of being with some one who'd on a regular basis inexplicably harm himself or accept his life style. One can say the only one's capable of handling him would be youkai and extraordinary humans

>>981
Eh the only one's seemingly showing any real interest would be Mokou and even then that's vague at best. All the banter we've seen so far had been outside of the story so lets not forget that.

Then again who's to say none of what occurred outside of the story wouldn't some how breach the story in the first place one way or another..?

>>983
Who's to say I was referring to the story ;)

>>984
>;)
ಠ_ಠ



...and yes, Ivan's out-of-story harem seems to be coming along nicely; regardless of whether he wants it or not.

>>983
Man, it'd get kinda old explaining to children that Ivan can't play with them because he blew himself up yet again.

This is the only story I know of with a alchemist in Gensokyo, since I think folks either go science (Rika, Rikako, Nitori) or magic, not the weird hybrid that Alchemy is.

>>976

The tengu had already taken off by the time I opened this new letter, which to me is a good thing since it might actually mean that I get some peace and quiet to answer these, but swung back around almost immediately when she remembered this one was a prelude to a question someone wanted to ask her. Thank you, I was almost rid of her for now...

"Well, since you asked... Shoot." Aya now stands almost directly behind me as she reads the letter. "Don't look so thrilled Ivan." She's cracking a smile herself as she says this and I merely facepalm in response.

>>975
I pick up the next letter and give it a thorough reading despite the contents being quite brief. "I suppose I shouldn't blame you for doing that. If I leave an opening I leave an opening." And the letter gets folded and set aside.

"More like, you know you can't do a thing about it no matter how much noise you make and are just taking it a graciously as possible." Aya's busy pulling over another chair while she manages to hit my feelings about this right on the mark. I'm really starting to wonder if she's stalking me or some other such nonsense. Regardless, I make a point of ignoring that statement.

>>981

"If you can call it that. None of the members would be willing to share." I prop my head up on one arm as I read the next one sentence letter and am merely mildly annoyed by it. Mokou and Letty would never agree to share me with each other as things are now, though Aya's a bit of a wild card since I don't know how she'd respond to such a thing.

"What're you talking about?" Aya slides up alongside me just as I crumple up the letter and toss it in the incinerator. The last thing I need to do is give the crow any more ideas than she already has. "What was that for?" She seems a little cross about this.

"Because it wasn't important." I almost pick up the next two letters but Aya retaliates by grabbing them first. I'm left hoping that whatever their contents are that they aren't thoroughly embarrassing.

>>982
>>983

"Repulsed? Ivan's not what I consider repulsive, and I don't think the human women would really consider him repulsive either. I kind of agree that it would take one hell of a woman to keep up with him and take care of him though." I'm trying my hardest to read whatever it is Aya's reading and she's doing a very good job of keeping me away from the letters, mostly by pinning me to her body and planting my face in her chest to keep me from saying anything. She does have some interesting methods of persuasion... "And depending on what you do in the story, you might not have to worry about the lifespan gap between human and youkai, or even human and immortal. As for stuff spilling over from this Q&A segment into the story... This is just an alternate timeline. Everything that happens here can happen within the story, minus the fourth wall breakage."

---

Let's hurry up and get on with the story then!
If everything goes alright, either a pharmacist can gain a college, a reporter a lover, an inmortal a lifelong (heh) partner or a spirit a soulmate.
All good ends, if you ask me.

>>989
>pharmacist can gain a college
Colleague, not college.

>>990
Yes

Be it gut instinct, careful thinking, insanity, or something else I decide to head out to visit the village guardian to ask for lessons in danmaku. Given who I'm going to be visiting in short order I decide to mentally prepare myself for the sarcasm and jabs I'm likely to receive as Keine tests to see if I'm really serious and not just pulling her leg, even though she knows full well that I simply do not joke around. Stepping out my door I find that it's about as cold as it has been and immediately retreat back inside to retrieve my jacket. Once I do that I step back out and find that the weather is significantly more tolerable now that I have a pleasant source of heat keeping my entire upper body warm, and begin the trip to the schoolmarm's house. I realize that this is actually one of two places she could be around this time since she'll sometimes head to her school earlier than usual to grade the children's homework or to plan the day's lessons and activities in advance.

I find that thanks to the repeated snowfall snow literally covers everything in the village and the surrounding area, and that it's starting to become a bit of an issue... If it gets too bad I'm certain Mokou will melt it all, but it does bring up the question of why it's been so snowy as of late. I doubt very seriously if Letty is behind this seeing as alienating herself from the village would only serve to hinder her quest to rediscover her past self. Whether others will see this in that light is another matter entirely.

The trip is hindered a bit by the foot-deep snow and I consider asking Mokou for another strand to create a matching pair of pants, then to make both the pants and the jacket waterproof. That is however, largely irrelevant so I'll instead say that I have reached Keine's house and that I've knocked on the door while I was rambling to myself. Since I can hear an 'I'm coming!' from the other side I can assume she's home. Moments later the door swings inward and Keine stands just inside the doorway as she stares at me like I'm some sort of mirage. "Ivan? What are you..." She almost starts on the predicted tangent until she catches herself and shakes her head. "I'll save it for later. Please, come in." With that she gestures inside and I walk in, making sure to take my shoes off at the door and to put them on the convenient rack she had placed near the door to keep shoes in. She overtakes me in order to direct me to her living room not to long afterward, then proceeds to ask the first of many questions that must be plaguing her. "So what are you doing here? You don't visit me without a reason."

She's trying very hard to keep herself from grilling me with countless questions, which is a nice gesture seeing as it may take a while to even get to the main favor I want to ask of her. I take a seat in one of the chairs since this may take a while. "I came here to ask about danmaku lessons. I figured it's high time I learned how to preform it properly." I cross my legs to make myself a bit more comfortable in the chosen chair, though that does nothing to ease the suspicious glare I'm getting from the guardian.

"You've never shown any interest in it before. Why the sudden change of heart?" I can tell that she's going to try and pry the real reason out of me before I can leave. This would mean that I'll be stuck here for quite some time and that she'll be late for her own class, but that's not really my issue.

"I'll put it bluntly: I'd prefer to be able to repel youkai without having to fight them on their terms." This isn't the whole reason and Keine know it. ...It's a bit to soon to say that she knows for a fact what my predicament is, but she'll guess it soon enough. She's far too sharp and knows me too well to let something like this slide without getting the whole story.

As a result that gleam does not leave her eyes. "Then permit me to be equally blunt: What happened?" She now stands in front of me, forcing me to bear the brunt of her glare as she asks that question. I don't give any outward indication that it's having any effect, though I am getting a bit nervous.

I could think up a reasonable, non-committal answer if I wasn't being bored into with a death glare delivered by someone who could see through a half-baked lie thought up in an incredibly short timeframe by a former student and long-term guest. As a result I find myself quickly cracking under the pressure, and instead of letting this go on long enough for her to either give up or send me into some sort of panic mode, I sigh. "Fine. Do you recall some months back where I stayed at the Hakurei shrine for a couple days before being handed back off to you?" This won't go over well at all...

"Go on." She does. I can tell she wants to go into a full blown rant about how incredibly stupid and reckless I can be but restrains herself for the time being so she can know she'll hammer me for what I deserve instead of what she thinks I deserve. As frightening as she can be at times, her dedication to getting her facts straight regardless of the situation is quite remarkable and something I admire.

"That was caused by a non-danmaku fight with the darkness youkai, Rumia. As you can imagine I barely scraped a win out of that one and she's decided to stalk me as a result, claiming that I'm some kind of rare prey." I don't really need to remind her of the damage I still had on my body when Reimu half-supported, half-carried back to Keine's house. It was fairly brutal and I'm quite certain I still have some kind of scar somewhere on my body that refuses to heal properly. My eyes never left Keine's during any of this, which makes her restrained fury that much more frightening.

"And when did you plan on telling me this?!" It's too much for her to hold back anymore. She's going to rip me a proverbial new one for this... "First of all, engaging in a fight with any youkai without obeying the danmaku rules is suicidal! Second, Rumia has been known to stalk whatever she can't kill on the first try! What the hell gave you the idea that fighting her was the best possible course of action?! Are you really that stupid? No, not stupid, you lack any sort of common sense! What else should I expect out of someone who routinely risks his life over something as trivial as the weather? Even if Mokou kept you from death by bringing you to Eientei! Do you even think about those who care about you anymore?" Her rant goes on for at least an hour, and it's clear she's forgotten all about her classes in favor of drilling it through my head that I'm a class-A nineball, even though I don't have any clue as to why that would be an accurate gauge of my intelligence. Eventually she does calm down enough to resume speaking like a normal person and I finally see that even though she's still red in the face from anger, there's some telltale tear streaks coming down her cheeks. She points at me before speaking again. "I'll teach you, but you had better put that brilliant mind of yours to work!" So now she goes from calling me fatally nonsensical to brilliant?

She takes a tissue and wipes the tears from her eyes, then hauls me out of the chair with surprising force. From there she drags me straight to her front door and more or less forces me to get my shoes back on before dragging me outside. She's completely forgotten her own shoes in the process though... Regardless, she drags me off to a clear area withing the village before realizing why her feet are so cold, then she pretty much orders me to stay there while she goes back for her shoes. I'm in no mood to test her patience when it's clear she's made up her mind on what she wants to do with me.

A few minutes later and Keine returns with shoes on her feet and a determined expression on her face. I really set off a bomb there... Can't think about that right now, must focus so she doesn't chew me out more! "Ivan. Show me what you can do, then we'll go from there." Her demand is quick, concise, and to the point. I fire off a solitary Heavy Pulsar bolt, then she makes a little tsk sound. "I take it you saw fit to ask Mokou for help in the matter." Is she bent on trying to make me feel guilty? "It's a start though, and it'll save you some effort in the long run but for now you need a sustainable shot type to wear down spellcards with."

[X]Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
[X]Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X]Pulsar Wave
-[X]Alternate? (specify)

---

In terms of the shot type choice, I encourage creativity here. Also, repost since this doesn't really need to take up two posts.

[X]Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
[X]Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X]Pulsar Wave

I'm starting to regret this.... then again Ivan did some common senseless things.

>>994
I trust in Keine's ability to teach. If she can teach math to kids she can teach danmaku to Ivan.

They're mostly unrelated issues but teaching children is a pain in the ass.

[X]Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
[X]Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X]Pulsar Wave

[X] Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
[X] Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X] Flame Stream (rapidly launched fire darts, moderate spread when unfocused, tight stream when focused)

Homing shot types tend to be weak for breaking spellcards. Ivan needs something that can do a lot of damage quickly before his stamina runs out.

I thought those options were mutually exclusive.

[X] Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
Learn to fly already damn it. Fly faster I mean.

>>997
well... he didn't specify as such.

[X] Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
[X] Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X] Flame Stream (rapidly launched fire darts, moderate spread when unfocused, tight stream when focused)

[X] Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
[X] Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X] Flame Stream (rapidly launched fire darts, moderate spread when unfocused, tight stream when focused)

[X]Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X]Pulsar Wave

[X] Actually, there's the small matter of not being able to fly...
[X] Time to focus on a shot type.
-[X] Flame Stream (rapidly launched fire darts, moderate spread when unfocused, tight stream when focused)

>>993
>"Ivan. Show me what you can do, then we'll go from there."

image ought to help any connections I've made here

Poor Ivan went down to Keine's place, he was looking for Danmaku lessons.
He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind: he was willin' to make a deal.
When he came across this schoolmarm grade-in' on a thick book mark-in' it hot.
And the teacher jumped upon a snow covered stump and said: "Boy let me tell you what:
"I bet you didn't know it, but I've had inklings about your skills.
"And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
"Now your alchemy skills shows some promise, boy, but give this teacher her due:
"I bet a date against your time to learn hard, 'cos I know I'm better than you."
The boy said: "My name's Ivan and it might be a sin,
"But I'll take your bet, your gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best that's ever been."

Ivan you rosin up your hands and play your bullets hard.
'Cos hells broke loose in Keine's place and the teacher deals it hard.
And if you win you get a nice date with the schoolmarm all night
But if you lose, the teacher will cave you.

The teacher opened up her palms and she said: "I'll start this show."
And light flew from her fingertips as she resined up her aim.
And she pulled the shots across her streams and it made an evil hiss.
Then a band of bullets joined in and it sounded something like this.

~ ~ ~ ~

When the schoolmarm finished, Ivan said: "Well you're pretty good Ms. Keine
"But if you'll stand by towards that stump, right there, and let me show you how its done."

Fire on the mound, run boys, run.
The teacher's in the house of the risin' sun.
Youkai in the forest den, runnin from them.
"Scarlet, does your dog bite?"
"Yes, child, yes."

Poor Ivan bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat.
He spread his arms wide fearfully, knelt in front of the schoolmarms' feet.
Ms. Keine said: "Ivan just be ready for the longest lesson of your life.
"I told you once, you son of a bitch, I'm the best that's ever been."

And she played fire on the mount, run boys, run.
The teacher's in the house of the risin' sun.
Youkai in the forest den runnin' from her.
"Scarlet, does your dog bite?"
"Yes, child, Yes."

I think I out did myself this time; not sure really

>>1006
>your instead of you're

>>1007

Oh please I'm surprised no one called on me for another "mistake" I made that would actually be mind boggling stupid. Have fun looking for it though~!

>>1010
I don't care about your other mistake, just the mixing of your/you're.

>>1006

Aya had decided to leave the scene after trying to provoke me into doing some 'things' to her. Naturally, I resisted rather than play along with her, though I should think about playing along one day just to see how she'd react. She did leave a couple more letters on the table just before she left so I pick the first of two notable letters and immediately groan. Another one of these letters. "I have to admit you've really outdone yourself this time. Normally I could shrug off something like this without much complaint." I fold up the letter and set it off to the side for a moment, and my eyes take on an amused gleam. "On the flip side, something like this would not come to pass unless I go completely insane. On top of that, Keine would not force me into that kind of position, nor would I consider making that bet so I really don't have that much of an issue with this one."

>>1010

I pick up the accompanying letter from the same person and snicker. "Oh? There's a mistake other than writing such a song to begin with?" It's said in a dry, deadpan tone, but I'm left with a smile on my face.

...

I sort through my mind to think up a shot type that would benefit me in the long run. I recall Marisa telling me that homing shot types are inherently weaker than shot types that require precision, hence why she always uses lasers to break her opponent's spellcards. Less time spent dodging if you're willing to keep yourself in line with your opponent. On the flip side, homing shot types mean that you can focus on simply surviving the pattern rather than trying to keep yourself lined up properly. ..."I've made up my mind on what I'm going to try." I turn to the schoolmarm while activating a fire-gradient magic circle. With a nod from Keine I focus my efforts on forcing the fire to come out as a stream of dart-shaped bullets, which doesn't work too well considering it almost blows up in my face.

"Ivan, what are you trying to do?" Keine tilts her head to the side and crosses her arms as she regards me with curiosity and a bit of 'he's doing it again'. "You say you're trying to come up with a shot type but it looks more like you're blowing yourself up again."

I pick myself up from the snow as she asks this and immediately try again, because I think I'm a firm believer in the old adage 'if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.' Either that or I'm simply to stubborn to give up regardless of the situation. I call upon another circle, but alter some of the glyphs. This is not at random, this is an incredibly precise calibration that will let me alter the form of the fire I'm attempting to shoot. The result is a short-ranged series of bullets that blow up upon reaching their maximum range.

I find that Keine has grabbed onto my arm before I can alter the glyphs further. "Honestly, you come to me to teach you danmaku and all you're doing is bumbling around like a drunk youkai.

---

Keine moves up behind me as she holds my arm and remains still until I allow the circle to dissipate. "There. Now let me teach you to the best of my abilities. First of all, stop trying to call on elemental fire. While danmaku is harmful it is not lethal, and you would forfeit the match if you were to use something truly harmful to your opponent." She doesn't move a muscle as she talks, and I find myself calming down just a bit as she does so. "Good. Now imagine your shot's design in your mind and let it flow out naturally." She shifts her hand's position until her hand rests on mine. "And, release."

The effect is almost immediate. The magic power builds up in my outstretched hand until it's almost too much to take, then once I release it a small fire-gradient orb manifests in my hand. From there I burn the image of the fire dart into my mind, and it responds in kind by firing out a stream of fire darts that heat up the air surrounding them. Strangely enough, they never get hot enough to sear my hand yet I am certain that they'll make someone else uncomfortable at the very least, especially if that heat shimmer is any indication.

Keine actually suppresses a giggle as she lets go of me and pulls back. "You don't need to say anything, the look on your face is enough." The look on my face? I wish I had a mirror right about now...

"Oi, Keine! Aren't you supposed to be teaching these kids?" Mokou shouts at the two of us as she melts a path from the schoolhouse to the clearing we're in. I suppose the fact that she has one of the kids clinging to her wouldn't help her mood much.

"Eh? Oops! Sorry Mokou! I got so carried away with chewing Ivan out and teaching him how to create a shot type that I forgot about school!" Keine rushes to the aid of the poor phoenix woman, leaving me alone once more. I could swear that the cold wind has gone from benign to downright oppressive...

[X]She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else. (who?)
[X]I should find a nice place to practice the Fire Dart for a while.
[X]That's a shot type and a heavy bullet type, so now I should work on making a few more nasty tricks... (specify project)
[X]Write-in

[X] I should find a nice place to practice the Fire Dart for a while.

Practice makes perfect.

[X]She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Marisa

Son of a bitch, it's like we're pursing the fucking road runner. We'll learn to fly even if I have to vote for it forever.

[X]She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Alice

Marisa is a risk, since what if she needs the broom to fly?

[X]She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Mokou

Totally a good idea.

[X]She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Marisa

Now you KNOW it can't possibly go wrong!

>>1017
Mokou's not a bad choice either, since she's a human. Hopefully it's more normal flight than something derived from whatever phoenix powers she has.

[X]She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Alice

[x] She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Alice

Alice might be better for this.

[x] She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Alice

Mokou has her hands full with Keine, no?

[X]She ran off before she could teach me flight... Time to find someone else.
-[x] Alice

>>1022

might be? Alice is bound to be vastly more reasonable teacher if she can be convinced, but she may want something in return. Mokou also IIRC already said she can't even remember how she learned to fly anymore.

>>1023
Curious as to how well Ivan knows Alice and the chances of her making passes at him in the letter zone.

But I'm seriously curious as to how much of Gensokyo's notable folk Ivan knows.

>>1015

This letter would not have been of any importance if it were not for the fact that the word 'Road Runner' was used in it and the fact that I am quite certain Aya's come to visit again. True to form, she slips up behind me and shouts "MEEP MEEP!", which causes me to jump out of my chair and straight up into the second floor before running off into the distance in less than a second. Strangely enough this doesn't hurt a bit. It's almost like she replaced the material in this particular section of the ceiling for the sole purpose of making it painless to go through. "This is your fault by the way. ...Now how do I get down?"

>>1016

Of course, if this were any normal Q&A it would have ended when my head went through the ceiling. However, seeing as I have a 'chronic run-in' curse this will continue, albeit being done by a different person.

Strangely enough, a white wolf tengu with a long pipe in her mouth and a somewhat bored expression on her face takes up my usual spot on the chair, and like so many others, puts her feet on the table. At least she has the decency to take her geta off first... She almost picks up the second letter when she spots my body stuck in the ceiling. "Well damn. What happened to you kid?" She's surprised enough to almost drop her pipe.

"A certain crow tengu decided to imitate a cartoon character. and if it's not too much to ask, could you please get me down from here? Hanging by my neck is not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination." Truth be told I'm really hanging by my shoulders, but a little exaggeration can go a long way.

"Sure thing." The tengu floats up next to my body, then pulls it down with enough force to almost drop her to the ground. "Shit, how much do you weigh?!" Despite that she manages to get me to the ground in one piece.

"That's none of your business. However, I will thank you for getting me down. I would have wrecked something doing it myself." I note that the wolf tengu has once again taken up my chair and has also completely disregarded my peeve about feet on the table. "Might I ask for your name?"

"Momiji Inubashiri, junoir for that bitch Aya." She shakes my hand roughly before taking the next letter and opening it. "I take it you're the human she keeps sexually harassing?" She does take a moment to look me in the eye.

"I am." I really don't approve of this rough woman, though I assume she has her reasons for calling Aya a bitch. Either way I'm left fetching a chair for myself so I can get back to what I was doing before I was interrupted by tengu. At least until Momiji decides to get up close to take a good look.

"Then you're her latest male victim, not to mention the first one in several hundred years." She's getting rather touchy-feely for someone I've just met, and she's taking some deep whiffs around my exposed skin. "No enhancement of any kind either seeing as I don't feel like turning this into an ero. I might use you to piss Aya off sometime though, since she only harasses those she likes."

"Leave me out of your plans. It's bad enough Aya won't leave me be." Somewhere along the line I finally got the other chair down and got the letter out of Momiji's grip so I can finally move on with this. "As for Marisa's flight capacity... Believe it or not, she's perfectly capable of flying without that broom. The thing is that she's so concerned with her 'witch' appearance she refuses to fly without it."

>>1018

I take one look at the pitcure attached and start scribbling down a blueprint for that.

...

How absent-minded is Keine, exactly? First she completely forgets that today is a school day, then she forgets that she's not done chewing me out or teaching me danmaku. I merely shake my head while I consider my other options for people who can teach me flight. Mokou's too busy helping Keine, Marisa might be a little over-enthusiastic for the job, Eirin would surely make another attempt at making me change my place of residence, Alice... Alice would actually be level-headed enough to get the job done without getting distracted or dragging me in for more than I asked for. Assuming she's not busy of course. I doubt that she would be with the snow being as deep as it is. Or perhaps she's busier than ever making insulated clothing? Regardless, I make my way to the village gate that leads out to the Forest of Magic and being creating a magic circle over my left hand. I'm no fool after all, I'll need every advantage I can get if Rumia's serious about stalking me until she finally catches me.

The snow crunches underfoot as I walk the familiar path to Alice's house, and I'm quite thankful that most of the flora is hibernating or dead. I've heard some truly nasty rumors about what happens to those who fall prey to the plants in here and am in no hurry to experience them for myself. Alice does make a point of keeping her path clear of the pesky things every so often so I should have less to worry about than I already do. It doesn't stop me from wishing that her house wasn't so deep in the forest at times.

Still. Silent. The snow dampens all sound past a certain point, but someone doesn't seem to understand that if the small giggle I hear is any indication. My left hand has a ready to cast spell on it while my right is clasped around a bottled element.

[X]Call the source of the noise out.
[X]Blast first, ask questions later.
[X]Play along and act like you don't hear anything. Rumia won't be silent and you don't need that much reaction time to make any would be predators rethink their position.

[X]Play along and act like you don't hear anything. Rumia won't be silent and you don't need that much reaction time to make any would be predators rethink their position.

The less satisfied she is about stalking Ivan the better.

[X]Play along and act like you don't hear anything. Rumia won't be silent and you don't need that much reaction time to make any would be predators rethink their position.

[X]Play along and act like you don't hear anything. Rumia won't be silent and you don't need that much reaction time to make any would be predators rethink their position.

{X} Play along and act like you don't hear anything. Rumia won't be silent and you don't need that much reaction time to make any would be predators rethink their position.

[x] Play along and act like you don't hear anything. Rumia won't be silent and you don't need that much reaction time to make any would be predators rethink their position.

It might be Cirno or another fairy.

[x] Play along and act like you don't hear anything. Rumia won't be silent and you don't need that much reaction time to make any would be predators rethink their position.

Right. If she's the one stalking me then I should simply play along and act as though it were nothing to both reduce the satisfaction she'd get out of it and to potentially lull her into a false state of security. If she takes the bait and attacks then she'll end up eating an explosion to the face before she could do much else. As such I continue walking down the path to Alice's house without giving any further acknowledgement to the little grue, and receive conformation for my theory not too long afterwards.

"I saw you twitch Ivaaaan~" She must be fairly close if she can make herself heard yet unseen. Too close if you ask me. "If you won't make this fun for me, I'll make fun out of it~." Wait. I whip around to look for the little grue, looking up and all around, yet there's no sign of her. ...She couldn't be hiding in the darkness beneath all the snow could she? The snow is deep enough to where it could block out and reflect all the light trying to seep in, which would result in a black field beneath the blanket of snow. I pull out a bottled wind to blow away her cover just as she pops out of the snowy ground in front of me. "You're too slooooow~" I confess that she is adorbale when she spreads her arms and smiles like that, but any admiration for her is swept aside by cold survival calculation. By erupting out of the ground she's removed her most immediate, though almost completely unnecessary method of escape.

"And you didn't think this out well enough." I hold the neck of the bottled wind level to the grue, brace myself, then flick the stopper out of the neck.

"Is that so~uwaaaaaaaa!" The result is that the little grue is blown away by a powerful and abrasive gust of wind that strips the ground of its snowy blanket. I immediately feel guilty about this since the last time I did this it covered a solid portion of Marisa's house, and unlike the witch Alice doesn't deserve it. I set off once more only to hear a second set of feet behind my own. "That wasn't very ni~ce." And her eyes have gone from childish and cheerful to mature and malevolent. I'm no longer dealing with the cheery little man-eater everyone else knows, I'm dealing with something else entirely. "But it's just like you~, and I love that." Suddenly her arms are enveloped in darkness, a pitch-black pair of arm socks that let her reach far further than she really should be able to. And now she's reaching out for me. "Come HE~RE!" Her grin turns downright sadistic as those black arms fly out for me at incredible speed until I blast them away with heat and light, sending them reeling back to their owner in burnt tatters. With a little tsk the grue flies at me herself, only to hit a bottled fire. The resulting explosion once again blows her away, but this time I'm left a little singed. No big deal in the grand scheme of things. Better to nurse a burn than become a bulge in that monster's belly.

The area around me is now clear with several feel between snow banks, yet Rumia burrows beneath the snow to re-enter her realm. It doesn't make any sense since she can't simply launch attacks from the darkness until I'm little more than a bleeding mess on the ground, nor can she extend her darkness past where it naturally exists to trap and ensnare me. She's not hurt enough to warrant running nor is she hiding and waiting for me to pursue her, and she is most certainly not healing herself... I pull out a bottled light and cover my eyes without ever seeing the tiny fist flying toward my skull. I drop the light and am sent flying into a snowbank that just happens to have a tree in the middle of it. It's almost enough to knock me out, but I hang on since I know that I will never wake up again if I fall asleep here. I pick myself up only to find that my leg immediately sinks into a black substance with the consistancy of mollasses... So that's your game. I pull out another bottled light, cover my eyes, and throw it straight down. My leg is freed almost immediately and I scramble for the open ground she denied me mere seconds before. I end up stepping on the bottled light by accident and almost don't cover my eyes in time to avoid its effect, though by the time I can uncover my eyes I have to drop to the ground to avoid a clawed hand that slashed right across where my neck had been moments before. Strangely enough she doesn't follow up on this and allows me to get up, at which point I begin walking towards Alice's house in the hopes that the noise would attract her attention somewhere along the line...

And I see her flying at me.

I...
[X]Take my chances with an element to her face.
[X]Slug her with a firey fist.
[X]Fire danmaku into her gut.
[X]Write-in

[X]Slug her with a firey fist.
Good luck Ivan

[X]Fire danmaku into her gut.

>>1025 Still needs answering.

[X] Fire danmaku into her gut.

The other two options sound like they'll end in pain for Ivan.

[X] Fire danmaku into her gut.

[X] Catch her in a hug, and give her a big kiss right on the lips!

Surprise tactics!

[X]Fire danmaku into her gut.

Time to put the theoretical physics to the test~!

>>1039
As funny as that might be to see, Ivan would never do something like that. Atleast not to Rumia.

[X]Fire danmaku into her gut.

>>1025

"I do apologize for not getting around to this before, but the part of the story that followed this was still being written and as a result it was not included in the previous batch." It feels minorly embarrassing to have missed a letter in such a fashion, but I'm here to correct that oversight now. "I know Alice well enough to be within the 'friend' range of things, but not well enough for her to make advances on me. As for how many important people I know personally..." I have to pause a moment to count them all. "Marisa, the entire Eientei crew, Reimu, Alice, Keine, Mokou, Aya, Cirno, Letty, Mystia... I think that's about it for right at the moment since while I do know a few other people I'm not exactly close friends with them. As time wears on I'm certain that number will go up."

>>1037

I snort in amusement as I read the short letter. "Do you really think I'm going to get out of this one without a scratch? This isn't a spellcard battle after all, this is a life and death battle with a crazed youkai where even one wrong move could end me." I set aside the letter before moving onto the next.

>>1039

"Sadly, there are no Karakasa on the battlefield so there's no surprise bonus for doing something like that. It might fluster her a bit sure, but I'd still be far too close to her for comfort." Something feels distinctly off as I say this, almost as though I just jinxed myself. It's only then that I feel a woman's chest on my shoulders and a chin on my head.

"Kind of like right now, huh?" It only takes one look at the arms draped around my shoulders to be able to tell who this is. Not that the voice wasn't a big giveaway in itself. I leap to the side as she removes her arms from me only for her to laugh at my attempts to get away. "Heh heh, jumpy today are we~? Don't worry your pretty little head off, I'm just curious as to what you're doing."

"Something that doesn't require your involvement Rumia." I simply walk back to my desk and retake the seat I previously abandoned upon seeing the grue, albeit a nicely proportioned and lovely grue, and grab the next letter.

"And it didn't need Aya's help, or Mokou's, or Marisa's, or Eirin's..." She then sits upon my table and rattles off the people who have shown up so far. At the very least her rear is clean so she won't do any damage to the table, unlike those who insist on putting their still-shoed feet on the polished surface. "Face it Ivan, you like the company. The fact that they all appeal to your tastes doesn't hurt either." She tilts her head ever so slightly and looks at me with amused eyes.

"Oh, so you, along with everyone else, think that I have some kind of harem now?" I do find it somewhat annoying that an increasingly large number of people have spread rumors of my romancing multiple women at once even though that couldn't be further from the truth. Regardless, I pick up the last letter I plan to answer for now only for Rumia to snatch it away.

>>1041

Her eyebrows shoot up as she reads it and the quoted letter, then hides her smile with a hand. "Ehehehe~ It's too early for that sort of thing to work. Maybe late~r." She then looks to me for a moment before saying something I'm not entirely comfortable with. "And you should never say never, especially in Gensokyo."

"Now if you're done..." I shoot her an annoyed look that she completely ignores.

...

Well this is just another fine example of why you shouldn't roam around in the woods without a gun... I do have to give the author props for managing to make Rumia of all people seem threatening.

My first vote would be "duck and then run the fuck away", but since she can fly evasion maybe difficult. Still need to keep her as far away as is reasonably possible though as distacne equals time to react so...

[X]Fire danmaku into her gut.

>>1042
>Do you really think I'm going to get out of this one without a scratch? This isn't a spellcard battle after all, this is a life and death battle with a crazed youkai where even one wrong move could end me.
So why bother picking the options that boil down to "blow up bomb in face" and "let her get into mêlée range"? If either fails, you've given yourself a disadvantage. With danmaku, even if she evades it, you'll have bought enough time to avoid her attack.

>>1044

Except she's almost within melee range anyways, hence the wording of the first two options.

>>1044
There's a surprise factor; she's used to his alchemic attacks, but she never experienced danmaku from him before. But this is a hard battle where we'd certainly need outside help. EX Rumia and all.

>>1048

This isn't EX-Rumia. EX-Rumia was the one in the letter answer section. The one in the story is normal Rumia who just got serious.

>>1042

Did she just suggest that's it's possible to catch Rumia's interest as something other than as prey in the future?

>>1049
>Did she just suggest that's it's possible to catch Rumia's interest as something other than as prey in the future?

I think she did, but I personally can't see how that would ever happen.

>>1049
He noticed a major change in her voice, longer range of her limbs, etc.

In nature, humans are the prey and youkai the predators. By that logic it only makes sense that without the danmaku rules we would be naught but food for creatures like the one charging me. However, I spit upon such laws that dictate that I should simply accept my place in the food chain. A white bolt of danmaku appears in my left hand just as she gets within range, and a satisfied grin appears on my face as she realizes that she is once again charging into a trap. I intentionally fall backwards as I fire the bolt of Heavy Pulsar into her gut, which in turn causes her to fly forwards clutching her stomach right into a tree. Though I should know better than to think that will be the end of it I still advance towards the puppeteer's house in the hopes that that the sounds of our fight will get her attention, right past where Rumia sank into the ground.

Another lunge at my head, which I sidestep with less than an inch to spare. Still, even Rumia can't turn on a dime and she doesn't seem to understand that I know at least a little danmaku, so I press my advantage as much as possible by firing a blazing stream of fire darts at her back while she can't see what I'm doing. It's not much but she lets out a yelp as the fire darts impact her back, though that's all I get as she begins to fly around more evasively. She still doesn't seem to understand exactly what I'm trying to do here as she allows me to go wherever I please so long as I can keep her from getting close. ...I start to tire as I keep the stream aimed at her, yet she doesn't seem to be all that interested in attacking me anymore. She points directly behind me with a wry smile on her face, and my heart sinks when I turn to see the 'closed' sign on Alice's door. No wonder she hasn't come running out to see what all the commotion is about, she's not even here!

"So much for getting help." Rumia states this in her usual sing-song voice as she starts to advance on me just a little bit faster than I can back away. "I have to admit that your danmaku usage hurt a fair bit, but you really should have put your stamina into consideration when you started shooting all that fire at me." She puts a hand to her mouth as she giggles in her creepy way. "You might have lasted long enough to satisfy me if you didn't underestimate the energy requirements imposed when using danmaku. Unlike your spells where you only have to cough up a one-time lump sum, or your bottled elements which are prepared in advance, danmaku is a constant drain on the user. A human like you, even one already in tune with the magical arts, is too inexperienced to do much harm before you exhaust yourself." Once more she covers her arm in a black sheath, then slings her clawed hand at me. I get ready to smash another bottled element into her hand to make her back off enough to where I can come up with a contingency plan, but-

---

OH GOD SHE'S GONNA RAPE HIM!

I am prepared for whatever comes next.

For someone usually portrayed as a dingbat, Rumia's pretty battle-savvy.

Oh well, 'twas a nice try.
At least I can brag of being the only one who didn't pick this choice.

>>1056

Hey, I didn't pick it either. If it were up to me, Ivan would be having lovey-dovey Rumia hug-and-kiss time right about now.

>>1057

By "lovey-dovey Rumia hug-and-kiss time" I assume you actually mean "horrible rape ending in violent death"?

>>1057
I know you meant well, but do you honestly believe it would work out like that?

>>1056
It's not a bad end YET. There's no go back ___ choices or such.

>>1060

Protip: The writefag will take your doubts and have fun messing with them if done too much. This is not a dissuasive measure, simply a fair warning.

---

But is such a funny little word isn't it? A three letter word that is used to continue a sentence into the opposite direction of what it started out as, such as 'I managed to blow away most of the arm lunging at me but got hooked into with the intact thumb anyway.' or 'She then proceeded to smash me into the door, but it gave way as my body hit it.' Both examples are...

"Gah... Hah..." I struggle to get back on my feet even after being smashed clean through a door designed to keep Marisa out and I'm certain something broke in the process. Add that to the cut that tore into my collarbone and you may as well plan the funeral now. ...Okay, that's after you add in the fact that there's more than a few pitch-black shadows along the entry corridor... Ow... I can't really stand anymore so I crawl further into the house while prepping one last spell. It's not the brightest decision I've ever made since Alice doesn't keep the lights on while she's out, not to mention I'll most likely have to repair the damage myself once I recover from all this, but at the very least I'd be alive.

It's strange that the little grue didn't follow me in here to finish me off while I can barely defend myself, yet I'm not about to complain. All this means is that she's probably lurking in the shadows to wait me out, be it death from blood loss or simply taking any more damage than I have, and the former is going to happen fairly soon if I don't cauterize it. Thankfully the puppeteer has seen fit to keep a fire going while she's out... Just a bit longer. All I need to do is heat the poker to a red-hot state, press it to the cut area, and I shouldn't die from that one wound...

...

Got the poker, got it in the fire, and...

...

I keep myself from screaming as the red-hot metal sears my flesh since that would only excite her further, or perhaps promt her to see what I, or someone else, have done to myself. Still, my most immediate cause of death has been stopped. A small victory in this kind of fight yet at this point I'll take what I can get. That doesn't stop me from feeling dizzy or light-headed as I start crawling towards the puppeteer's gunpowder supply, which just happens to be upstairs and behind a magic-based lock. The lock will be easy, but trying to climb these stairs will be a nightmare in my current state. There's also some lit candles in the hallway above me so no part of this is ever enveloped in complete darkness, yet something feels off... I pull out a bottled light just in case. And then I climb.

And climb, and... Did I just touch someone's head? ...Impossible, that would imply that she's in a non-existant shadow... I felt something soft yet hard come off, and since it's still in my hand I bring it to my face to see what it is.

...My heart sinks further than I possibly could have imagined. The crack along the red and white yin-yang button that I put there in our last fight, the one that kept her power in check, [spoiler]is in my hand.[/i]

The candles snuff themselves out one by one and with a renewed adrenaline rush I scramble, no, run up the stairs only for my leg to get caught in that mollasses thick darkness. Needless to say I have to climb forward... And my face hits a pair of soft things that have no right to be there.

"That was definitely worth letting you live." A mature voice eminates from a place no more than a foot, foot and a half above where my head has been planted into. "I think I'll do something nice for you before I eat you as a way of saying thanks." She pulls away from me, leaving thick, sticky trails of black trailing away from my face like drool as she sinks into her own darkness. That mature voice now belongs to a mature woman, one that I did not ever wish to see.

...

And she presses her lips to mine, wraps her arms around my body, and drags me into the darkness. Or perhaps to say, drags me into herself.

I really wish Alice were here right now, she could have done something to save me from this, or Marisa, or... Or hell, anyone would do! Just do something before my body's dragged in completely!

?

>>1059

Of course not. It would be impossible for Rumia to rape anyone.

There's no one who wouldn't want to have sex with her.

>>1062
>Protip: The writefag will take your doubts and have fun messing with them if done too much. This is not a dissuasive measure, simply a fair warning.

Hey now, all my doubts involved normal Rumia, but once you threw in EX-Rumia, I found very little room for doubting. feel free to mess with them anyway

Oh boy the suspense.

Oh what the hell. I've still got a bottled light in one hand and a prepped spell in the other. Those ought to be more than enough to at least break her grip on me. As such I press my hand and the bottle to her stomach, fire the spell in my left and crush the bottle in my right, which ends up getting my right hand cut up since I'm basically grinding glass shards into them but it also ejects me out of her darkness and... Right down the stairs.

As much as I might say that I'll do whatever it takes to survive, sometimes that just doesn't stop me from feeling really, really stupid when something like this happens. Even more so when every bounce off the wooden surface feels like someone just jammed a spike strip into my back. I'm slow to get up this time, too slow really. I see that Rumia's looking down on me from atop the stairs with a taunting look on her face, daring me to rush her again. Not after what almost happened. ...Now if only I could move...

"Clever trick, Ivan. But wasteful. You could have broken out with just one of the two instead of both. Then again, I can't blame you for wanting to ensure that you could break away, but what good is it when you can't even move?" She descends the stairs one step at a time as she speaks, and I note that she's not angry or anything. In fact, she seems rather happy. I did just unintentionally unseal her so I guess she has every reason to feel elated at her newfound freedom. "Really, you blow yourself away from me only to end up in my arms again. I have to admit it would be a shame to kill prey like you, but at this point I have to wonder if it wouldn't be considered a mercy killing." She kneels next to me, picks up my right hand and begins licking it clean of the blood flowing from it. It's not a bad feeling, in fact it feels quite nice, but the moment I stop fighting she'll consume me. "Shh, let me make a good parting memory for you."

Funny. I commit such a fundamental mistake and now I'm going to die for it, alone with the very predator who seeks to devour me in the house of a friend I so desperately need the help of. But I don't think for a second that anyone is going to come save me. That would be just too convenient.

Those footsteps are probably just hallucinations, that voice a trick of the mind to try and make me hang on even though I've lost. I vaguely feel Rumia hoist my body and hold it close to her body, and the bloodied hand has already been drawn into her. The same pleasant feeling from when she was licking it clean is present again, only this time I almost accept its invitation. I feel the black dress begin to swallow me up with hundreds of slick tendrils winding their way around me to pull me in. All I can really feel is the softness and warmth of the grue's body even as she pulls me into oblivion, and before long I black out. But not before seeing...

[X]Fire
[X]Ice
[X]Wind
[X]A laser
[X]JESUS F***ING CHRIST THAT HURT!

[X]JESUS F***ING CHRIST THAT HURT!

I wonder what this is.

[X] Ice

[x]Ice

And for once, it's not the icy grip of death.

[X]Fire

Always did like the warmth of a fireplace considering winter and fall being my favorite seasons...

>I wonder what this is.

that's the feeling of permanently losing a right hand, or so I'd imagine

autosage been hit, new thread please.

[X] JESUS F***ING CHRIST THAT HURT!

Eh, what the hell. Only other option I can't figure out is laser and this one looks more fun.

>>1076
>Only other option I can't figure out is laser
Seriously? Laser is not difficult.

>>1077

D'oh. I should have seen that one.

[X]Fire

[X] The small glint of tenderness, even love, in her beautiful red eyes.

I am having more fun with this.

[X] The small glint of tenderness, even love, in her beautiful red eyes.

Sure, why not?

Even though it does say bad end. But still, why not?

...wait, does this count as getting laid?
And no Ivan, this is directed at the other Anonymous, not you, the 'healthy' grue, the molesting crow, Mokou, or anyone else.

[x] Fire

Thought about Laser as a perfect counter for darkness, but Fire should work just as well. And do want a Mokou save. (probably even a slightly dere-dere event)

[X]Fire

might as well, whoever comes to our rescue needs to beat up one ex-rumia, mokou with fire magic and immortality should be enough.

[X]Fire

Curiously what would Keine's be exactly?

While laser I would almost always automatically think of either Marisa or Alice, would Keine's be regarded as the same to a lesser degree?

[X]Fire
Maybe Keine is laser because she helped him with that laser-shaped danmaku? No? Oh well.

[X]Fire

Fire is the solution to all your monster woes!

>>1083
You're acting like Letty in the dead winter is a weakling.

>>1088

Oh Letty's anything but a weakling, however since no one's ever actually seen Ex-Rumia before, who's to say it wouldn't take more than any of Ivan's acquaintances alone to take her down?

Regardless of who actually manages to rescue Ivan I doubt Ex-Rumia would be that simple to deal with.

>>1080
I so want to vote for this, I really do.
But I just know it won't win.

ah hell, might as well try.
[X] The small glint of tenderness, even love, in her beautiful red eyes.

>>1080
Bad Ends are rarely fun, and there's the chance a bit of it might stick like in RiG.

>>1092

You're just a stick in the mud. Bad Ends are as fun as the writefag makes them, as fun as the situation allows, and you have no guarantee that this would even be a Bad End. Sometimes votes can have surprising results.

[X] The small glint of tenderness, even love, in her beautiful red eyes.

[X] The small glint of tenderness, even love, in her beautiful red eyes.

This is going to be silly ridiculous.

[X]Fire

I'd rather have it be Letty, but better the Mokofans than the Rumiafags.

>>1096
Please do not start talking like that.

[X]Fire