[x] No, no think bigger: a cheeky kiss would get my point across. She was open to it.

I'm always compelled to vote for the Reimu option. Seeing her at the top of the thread is a great feeling!

[X] No, no think bigger: a cheeky kiss would get my point across. She was open to it.

She may be open to it, but she doesn't expect it right now; that's what we want. Gotta keep the ball rolling.

[x] Stare silently into her eyes, stammer something stupid and then run away like a freshman confessing to the upperclassman they love.


haha oh wow i want to see this

[X] An earnest hug or intimate embrace – depending on how you looked at it - was the way to go.

Well, we did kiss her already. On the cheek. In public.

>>63467
The third option is adorable. But I don't know if Reimu would get it. The kiss is bold though.

[x] Stare silently into her eyes, stammer something stupid and then run away like a freshman confessing to the upperclassman they love.

>>63469
Screw it, I'm gonna go for the most interesting option. If executed correctly, it might melt her heart completely. She won't be able to keep her hands off Arc.

Right?
Right?

We're not off to a very good start with the voting. But I'm aiming to update at least once a day so, for now, we forge on and I'll get to writing something.

[] No, no think bigger: a cheeky kiss would get my point across. She was open to it.

If there is romantic option, I vote for it.

“You never give it a rest, do you?” Reimu didn’t really seem surprised at my stopping her by the door. I stared unflinchingly into her eyes.

“We’re all alone right now,” I said.

“Yes, the president and vice president are in the council room, as would be normal.”

I intensified my stare, “I can’t stop thinking about you, you know.”

“Go take a cold shower,” she shook her head and tried to move past me.

“Why c-can’t you take my feelings seriously?” I said, “isn’t this enough proof?”

It wasn’t my finest move. Caught trying to figure out which of two strategies was best, I compromised poorly, giving her a light peck on the lips. Hardly saucy stuff, but more than I dared do in public.

“One of these days you’re going to get slapped hard,” Reimu said, not entirely rejecting the gesture. “You shouldn’t play around with girls like this, someone is liable to take you seriously.”

“I’m somewhat serious,” I told her.

“Hm, well, you are blushing a bit,” she stated after scanning my face.

“Am not!” I protested.

She giggled, evidently enjoying the exchange, “looks like you’re ready to run away too. Now wouldn’t that have been cute? I’m surprised that you didn’t go for something a little less timid too. Make-my-knees-go-weak sort of kiss, you know.”

“I couldn’t make up my mind- wait, never mind that, you’re telling me it’s okay to kiss you?”

“We’ll never know now, won’t we? You should learn how to commit when it counts,” Reimu winked, “you know, like that gallant act you pulled off at my shrine. “Or the insolent request before the election. Real manly moments those,” she laughed, “a girl could find her heart turning into warm butter if she isn’t careful with that type of man.” She pushed me aside and left the room, calling out nonchalantly, “have a nice weekend, my dear vice president.”

I wasn’t sure what the lesson there was. It depended on how genuine she was. One thing was for sure: being wishy-washy cost me an opportunity.

Well, no reason to stick around the council room by myself. After Reimu ditched me, I went back to the classroom for my book bag and started to head on home.

Naturally enough, nearly everyone was happy about the weekend. Club rooms would be mostly empty on a Saturday. Only the truly committed and truly bored would stay behind. Again, naturally enough. It’s much better to go into town and get ice cream or go to the arcade or whatever than stay in a stuffy club room or run around the track.

Shame, since I part of me was in the mood to check in on the rhythm gymnastics or track and field team. Leotards, bloomers and short shorts were still gifts from the gods as far as I was concerned.

My mind was filled with indecent thoughts when I saw something a little unusual. It was downstairs, by the little interior courtyard on the way to the front gate. Something caught my eye. Rather someone. Scratch that, someones.

The fair-headed president of the art club sat on a bench, looking down at something. I wouldn’t have paid her any mind save for the fact that the look on her face was something I hadn’t imagined her possible of expressing after our last meeting: pure tenderness. It seemed impossible to imagine her capable of the icy reception she had given me.

Though, to be fair, I could see why she had her guard down. A small bird, maybe a sparrow, was chirping happily by her feet, feasting on crumbs from a roll she was breaking up with her hands. My heart melted. Near almost everyone in my position would feel the same way.

That’s why it was weird to see how the other someone nearby was behaving. That punk girl from the roof the other day was staring from the opposite end of the courtyard. She sported a frown which teetered close to a disapproving scowl. Did she not get on with Komeiji? Hardly a shock, she seemed like the type who wouldn’t get on with almost anyone.

Maybe I was missing something.

[] It might be a good time to talk to Komeiji, seeing that she’s in a good mood.
[] Take the long way around and speak to Kijin discreetly.
[] It’s all too much of a potential bother – go home and find a better way to kick off the weekend.

>“Maybe,” I said. “I’m not too keen on breaking hearts.”

Yeah, best line ever.

>“Got to use both the carrot and stick,” she giggled, “otherwise you’re liable to start taking my good nature for granted.”

hah just when I think that I am all about other touhous Reimu comes along. Damn you, Teruyo.

From what I remember, Reimu used to not be that open and jokingly with him, she was more guards up but it's been a long long long time sine then. Now she can easily go along with him and overall seems just lovlier my god.

[x] Take the long way around and speak to Kijin discreetly.

Maybe I am a sucker for punishment, might want to go try this for the rougher part.

>>63476
and ignore the sage in the namefield, fucked up here.

[] It’s all too much of a potential bother – go home and find a better way to kick off the weekend.

DOnt like either touhou.
Roll again!

>>63475
>One thing was for sure: being wishy-washy cost me an opportunity.

I usually don't like lines like these, they seem like a over-the-top bash to voters. But this time, considering the boldest option won, I can say that it wasn't our fault.

Also, considering how short sighted we are, I appreciate that you used show AND tell in this scene.

>She giggled, evidently enjoying the exchange, “looks like you’re ready to run away too. Now wouldn’t that have been cute? I’m surprised that you didn’t go for something a little less timid too. Make-my-knees-go-weak sort of kiss, you know.”

She's turning into my new favorite too. She enjoys being on bottom AND on top... metaphorically speaking.

[x] It might be a good time to talk to Komeiji, seeing that she’s in a good mood.

Time to make up for the ground we lost in the last Komeiji encounter.

[x] Take the long way around and speak to Kijin discreetly.

mpre seija is always nice

>>63479
Was a bit on the nose, but wasn't meant as a bash. At least not primarily. At the time I called it, it was a tie and so I decided to incorporate elements from the two leading votes. So as a result you didn't get the best of either world but got some of each. Not a bad result overall, which is why I decided to do it instead of the usual coin toss. Now... with my omniscience I think that a specific one of the two would have been better, but that's a whole different can of worms.

[X] It might be a good time to talk to Komeiji, seeing that she’s in a good mood.

Time to go ruin said good mood... nah, just kidding.

>>63481
So it WAS a tie. Well, that explains it.


Let me just add ties to the list of things we shouldn't do, right besides one sided votes. Man, voting is hard!

[X] It might be a good time to talk to Komeiji, seeing that she’s in a good mood.

I will follow the leader all the way to Okuu.
That said, this changes my impression of Satori. Let's try not put his foot in his mouth. I'd settle for putting her foot in his mouth, maybe.

Komeiji noticed me as I approached. She glanced from the corner of her eye for a moment and then her smile dissolved into a more blank expression. I could see her shoulders tense then relax, evidently not really thinking that further action was needed. That was all she did to acknowledge my presence, otherwise continuing to look at the little bird that continued to dance around, picking up breadcrumbs with its beak.

Had to admit, it wasn’t the most flattering of reactions.

“Cute little guy, isn’t he?” I said, trying to sound casual and undaunted by her frigid body language. It would have been great if I had had any food on me, but since it had been a half day, I didn’t bother getting lunch. Giving the bird food would have been an ideal icebreaker. “With it being spring and all, you see a lot more of them around. Even in the classroom you can hear them chirp away all day.”

“...” Komeiji ignored me.

That was the closest I’d get to an invitation to join her, so I sat down on one edge of the bench. It wasn’t close enough to be accused of trying anything funny. To an outsider it’d probably look like it was just two students on a large wooden bench after class, minding their own business. I scanned the nearby windows: there was no one in the corridors on the first two floors that I could tell. It was just us, the bird and the plants and trees. Kijin was gone, too, by the looks of it.

“It’s a bit rough that someone who is so relaxed around animals is so miserable around her fellow humans,” I said, trying to get some sort of reaction from her. “Or is it just me that you have trouble with? Tell you what, I’ll leave you alone if you at least say hello.”

“Hello, now go flirt with a mirror,” came the reply, “you’ll have more luck there.”

I smiled. Could have gone worse. “Look, we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot and, truth is, I’d like to get to know you better. Is that really such a big deal?”

“It is when I have no interest in your kind of knowing better, “ she said, pinching the edge of her half-destroyed roll and scattering a few extra crumbs for the still-cheery bird.

“I’m not such a bad guy once you get to know me,” I said.

“...”

“Would it help if I got Kaenbyou to vouch for me? She’ll tell you that I’m an ass but not a bad guy,” I said, offering what I knew was a gamble. That braided redhead was just as liable to blow things up to hell as she was to actually help me. Or give me the time of day. Well, that was part of her charm, I supposed. The high voltage nature of her reactions made flustering her all the more fun.

“I can make up my own mind,” she said, stubborn as ever, “and honestly, if you aren’t such a bad guy, as you said, you’ll leave me alone now.”

“No kidding, I would if you at least gave me hope that the door wasn’t entirely closed. I would like to get to know you better,” I told her. Why else would I have bothered to approach her? There would have been more interesting things to do at home or in town.

“Fine,” she scrunched up her brow momentarily, wrapping the rest of her roll in a handkerchief and placing it in her bag. It seemed like the little bird had had its fill and it flew off towards a nearby tree. Komeiji turned her head to face me for the first time. Though stern, her expression wasn’t overly hostile either. With a calm flatness to her voice, she added, “I’ll tell you whether or not I’m open to future interactions depending on the reason you give me for wanting to get to know me better.”

[] She was friends with Reiuji and Kaenbyou and was therefore bound to be interesting.
[] Couldn’t help it, the sensitive artist type was too alluring.
[] I enjoyed the challenge of becoming friends with someone who didn’t like me.

[X] I enjoyed the challenge of becoming friends with someone who didn’t like me.

Well we've done it before, anyway.

[x] I enjoyed the challenge of becoming friends with someone who didn’t like me.

fuck me this one is hard

>>63501
So she's a challenge now? Man, she's gonna go for the jugular with that one.

I'll hold off on my vote and see the other justifications.

She's sharp. Very sharp, she'll see through any lie or half-truth. Interestingly enough, she has lust-radar of some sort.

I knocked the third option before, but she's going to tear him apart on any of these if she really wants to. I'm going to stay away from anything that even smells like lust. What did she call Arc before? A walking phallus. Comical but very telling.

[x] She was friends with Reiuji and Kaenbyou and was therefore bound to be interesting.

The truth works.

>>63504
Well, aren't both the first and third choices the truth, in a way? I think you're right about which answer would be received better though. Satori has been much more negative about his flirting than anyone else, and last time she was the one who kept bringing up Rin/Okuu into the conversation.

[x] She was friends with Reiuji and Kaenbyou and was therefore bound to be interesting.

[x] She was friends with Reiuji and Kaenbyou and was therefore bound to be interesting.

This choice pretty much says it all: It's interesting and he sure is someone who likes to do interesting things. With girls. Reason in itself to go with this choice here.

Probably no updates until much later today, if at all, since I missed my writing window in the morning. Not that I think that it'll make a different, but things remain open until then. Hopefully the voting will also pick up as we go along so I don't have to keep waiting a whole day before writing.

[x] Artistic types are alluring

The first one is my reason, or would be, if I didn't knew whim she was already. However, I think his motivation is different. As everyone said, being dishonest is worthless here (his mind reading must have been translated into an uncanny ability to see through people... Or our MC is being too obvious.

>>63509
He has quite a reputation, it proceeded to ruin his first impression just as bad as we did, it seems.

That's a bold option though. Is it supposed to be flattering? What effect do you think it'll have?

>>63511
It treats her as a thing instead of a person. But not as much as the third option and it has the benefit of being honest.

We can't be attracted to her as a person, because we don't know her as a person. Yet.

Despite having to endure the condescension, I figured that it was better to have Komeiji interested in me. It certainly was better than the silent treatment. She waited for me answer, her face as still as a porcelain mask. It made me unsure of whether she was looking for something genuine or simply confirming biases.

The one thing we definitely did have in common were her friends. A weak link, sure, but better than nothing. I matched her tone with an unemotional explanation, “you’re a friend of a friend. They are interesting to talk to and be with, so their other friends are also bound to have those positive qualities.”

“Interest by proxy?” she raised an eyebrow, not looking like she was satisfied with the answer.

“More like by association.”

“...how tedious,” Komeiji shook her head, a slight smirk appearing on her lips for a moment. “If you find my friends interesting, associate with them all you like, but it’s no reason to expect to treat me the same way.”

“I’m not really expecting anything,” I said with a shrug, “just gave you a reason for being curious about you. Pretty normal when you think about it.”

“Be that as it may, I’m not very curious about you,” she said, “so I suppose you haven’t made much of an impression on me.” Komeiji got up from the bench, wiping away dust from her thigh and bottom with a few pats and sweep of her hand. Obviously, she considered our conversation over.

“Don’t you wonder what your friends see in me?” I tried turning it around before she left. I got up and stood beside her, getting closer than I had been before.

She didn’t seem to react much, tending to her book bag, closing its clasp before turning once again to face me. “They are perfectly capable of making their own judgment calls without me,” she said, “I know what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard and am, also, capable of making my own judgment calls. Idle curiosity is not reason enough to make an effort with you.”

“Hm, pretty rough logic there,” I said with a wry smile. Better than sighing. “I think we could get along with you let me try, but I guess pushing it won’t help.”

“Haven’t I indulged you enough? Or maybe somehow the two conversations that you’ve forced upon me do not count as letting you try? Whatever should a person expect with anything more explicit than that?” she asked with a shake of her head. Without any hesitation, she laid it on me thick, “you’re dull and haven’t given me any reason to reassess my perceptions. Regardless of honesty or your attempts to ingratiate yourself by honeyed words, you haven’t said anything insightful or just outright interesting. Interesting people talk about ideas, emotions and things beyond the moment or whom we happen to know.”

“It’s hard to guess what you’re thinking if you won’t at least open yourself to the possibility of normal conversation,” I said, “ you can’t fault me for trying to find an entry point with stuff normal people care about.”

“We previously talked of art in broad strokes,” she smiled to herself at her play on words, “that surely counts. As does your general thrust regarding romance. Both things easily developed upon and less tedious that whatever this attempt would register as.”

She began to walk away, but I joined her and we walked towards the front gate in silence. Feeling unsatisfied, I piped up before we parted ways, asking, “if you really wanted to, it seems like you could have just ignored me outright. Why bother at all then?”

Komeiji smiled to herself, not even looking at me for her short answer, “whimsy.”

As clear as an answer as I’d get, I thought to myself as she left through the gate without even bothering to say goodbye. Still wasn’t sure what was interesting enough. Shared hobbies? Saucy limericks? Hard to tell. Flattery certainly didn’t seem like it would accomplish much.

I went back home to grab a bite to eat. By the looks of it, no one was home. A few dirty dishes in the sink and the lingering smell of food hinted that a few people had been in until just recently. I cleaned up and fixed up something to eat. Since I wasn’t really in the mood to do anything fancy, I just made instant noodles and went upstairs to my room.

Just as I was considering a brief afternoon nap, I got new messages on my phone.

“got info u wanted ???? irl meet?”

“wich is cuter feisty or demure? my best asset ❤️? like body lol. important both pls respond b/c ???? related to meet waiting for reply”

Both from Aya. I wasn’t sure what exactly she meant, it felt like there was some punctuation missing that’d make the message less ambiguous.

With nothing better to do, I figured I might as well arrange a meeting. She had promised to dig something up by the week’s end, come to think about it. Wasn’t too sure about what to say about the rest.

Cuter:
[] Feisty
[] Demure

Best asset:
[] Face
[] Chest
[] Legs
[] Butt

[x] Feisty
[x] Legs

definitely legs, arc is a leg man.

Hmm is this an innocent, meta vote or an important one? Aya probably (definitely) takes pride on her legs, but I prefer her looks.

[x] Feisty
[x] Face

[] Feisty
[] Bust

>>63513
[X] Feisty
Personally I'd go for feisty yet reserved but feisty is good enough
[X] Bust
And I think the overall figure is more important than any component but for simplicity of the votes sake I'll just go with this.

>emojis
>pic related

[x] Feisty
[x] Legs

Reconsidered.

>>63516
What would you call a direct reply to a character otherwise?

>>63518
>hating emojis
>posting reaction faces
a bit ironic, lad. Hope it's intentional.

>>63518
I'd like to change bust to legs as well.

[x] Feisty
[x] Legs (assuming I can't say "everything")

I'm with >>63518 in a sense is that Aya's best trait is the overall package than any one part in particular.

[X] Feisty
[X] Legs

Definitely the best part, and I'm not saying that just because said legs won me many a match.
Tengu drum best move.

I messaged her back, responding as best as I could. I gave her a clear answer on what I thought.

What could I say? She wore that skirt well. It cut off at just the right spot and often left me wondering about the little that I couldn’t see. She knew that it was a big part of her appeal, too. She teased and played with me and that time in the classroom where she nearly revealed all showed the lengths she was willing to go to.

She liked me. Or so she kept telling me. And had for some time. I could at least believe that. But I wasn’t sure why. Sure, we had a bit of a history together. She was sympathetic after all those things happened first year and I appreciated her support but… still, I wondered if it didn’t have to do with her eye for a story. She didn’t publish or start anything else up so at least she had a good sense of discretion and maybe loyalty.

I smiled as I reached the logical conclusion: I was probably just an interesting source and it was worth keeping an eye on me. Natural to like someone who was in the thick of it more often than not. Or I could always just ask her and she’d probably just tell me the truth.

I got a reply a few moments later:

“naughty! totes looking forward to seeing u soon ????”

There was an address as well. Nowhere I’d been before from the looks of it. Other side of town, according to the map. Near Reimu’s place but still in the high-density urban sprawl. Could be a studio she kept. Wouldn’t have figured Aya to live there from what I knew of her. Maybe one of those mansions like Tenshi, given what I heard about her old man.

It was a long way from home, at any rate. After getting dressed I walked to the station, hopped on a train and spent the better part of an hour staring at the city before I got off again. Things weren’t as seedy as the neighborhood Marisa used to live in but the shine of the newer developments was nowhere to be found either. Large rows of apartment blocks, all uniform in design, dominated the skyline. They were all a dull concrete grey and the design was definitely more brutal and utilitarian than most.

I found the place I was looking for after wandering about for a while. I rang the intercom and was buzzed in without actually hearing a reply from the other side. Door was open when I made it up. I knocked and, hearing no reply, just walked in.

It was a small place, same general design as Suika’s apartment. A small corridor with a bathroom to a side and was otherwise as generic as studio apartments could get. The interesting thing was the lack of clutter. I’d have expected there to be film or printouts everywhere, like the clubroom. Save for a desk with a computer on one side and a bed on the other, the room was pretty barren. No TV or magazines at all.

The shower was running in the bathroom. Seemed like I had caught Aya at a bad time. I closed the door behind me and went over to the main room. A note left on a chair by the computer said “will be out soon, try to relax and not get too excited ????. Close your eyes when I’m coming out for a big surprise~”

I did as I was told. It’d be a bit rude to rummage through her stuff so leaning back and letting my mind wander was the only reasonable alternative.

“Hope your eyes are closed,” she called out from the bathroom as the water cut off.

“Sure thing,” I replied, figuring that I might as well let her have a little fun. I listened keenly to the sounds coming from her direction: a sigh, some rustling and finally a door opening. Then footsteps, muffled by the carpeted floor. She was right next to me. In front of me. The smell of a flowery body wash was unmistakable.

The chair moved as something was placed next to my thigh. Without saying a word, she grabbed my hand and guided it around. Silky. My fingers touched something smooth, something which was likely a pair of stockings. The legs underneath were thin yet firm. She slid my hand along the fabric, making sure that I understood just how long they were.

“Aya...” I said softly, trying not to let my imagination get too out of control. She shushed me and grabbed my other hand, leading it far up towards the promised land. Her skin was still damp in places but about as smooth as the silky fabric. A giggle escaped her as she made me rub around towards the inside of her thigh.

I felt her lean forward. She released one of my hands and placed a finger on my lips, drawing my mouth open slightly as she pulled on a lip. Even though my eyes were closed, I could feel her staring hard at my face.

[] Be patient and play along a while longer.
[] Get more proactive and take the lead.
[] While that was flattering, the information she promised was more important.

[X] Be patient and play along a while longer.

Guess we should let her have her fun.
We came all this way, no need to rush it.

[x] Get more proactive and take the lead.

Tough call. She might be waiting to have him take the lead, I say take a chance.

[x] Be patient

Its her game now and she's playing him like a fucking fiddle.
If it were someone we were already intimate with, I'd vote to take th initiative but, as bold as Aya is, I think j it'd be best to let her lead, so she can go as far as she is comfortable with.

[x] Be patient and play along a while longer.

Go along with it and see where it goes, maybe in the future we can take the lead. Though I'm starting to wish Bust won as odds are Arc'd be feeling up a nice bra. Not to say this isn't nice.

I hope this doesn't backfire.

[x] Get more proactive and take the lead.

I desire more lewds.

[x] Get more proactive and take the lead.

I desire more lewds.

[x] Be patient and play along a while longer. \\

gonna pick the safest option now

I waited patiently for her to move at her own pace.

She stopped guiding my movements altogether. I heard rustling. Something loosening, I thought optimistically. Her hand moved back over my face, and I could feel her even breathing on my cheek.

Her lips hovered above mine but hesitated going further. It took most of my willpower not to say or do anything. I waited. And waited. She’d make her move soon, I was sure of it. It was one thing to talk the talk, but walking the walk? You needed a lot of guts to just go for it.

Something moist trickled onto my lips. And then forced itself into my mouth. I was taken by surprise as something strong burned my mouth. I found that my nose was being held and all of a sudden I couldn’t breathe.

I flailed, managing to release the grip on my nostrils but in the small instant that it took to recover from the shock, I had already swallowed some of the highly bitter liquid. It burned my throat on the way down, much like the cheapest whiskey imaginable would.

I coughed and gasped for air.

“Too rough? Sorry,” she said, smiling sheepishly like I’d just caught her scratching herself.

“What the hell was-?” I tried to ask the obvious followup. There was a plastic syringe in one of her hands, the thick kind with no needle. That something had shot out from there. What was I, a turkey? But, more importantly, something even more obvious needed asking, “and why are you here?”

“Acting as a substitute,” she giggled, “trying to get a certain senior to finally notice me.”

“Hard not to notice you,” I said, looking her over. Himekaidou was as svelte as the last time I saw her half-undressed. Peeping through a hole in the wall didn’t really do her features as much justice – she looked more youthful and less standoffish. Wearing a partially-buttoned white blouse and not much else, she leaned over me with a suggestive smile. As much as I would have liked to have gawked at those fine stockings she opted to wear or the simple dark panties that were partially visible through the blouse, there were more important matters at hand.

“I’m glad you approve,” she spoke before I could collect my thoughts properly, “I was worried that you’d peek and ruin the surprise. My heart was pounding wildly in the bathroom, you know. The sound of water might have not disguised my voice properly.”

“What do you want?” I asked, frowning. Something wasn’t right. She kept staring at me, looking me over like she was expecting me to say or do something. “Why did you do that to me?”

“Something exciting is going to happen,” she said, evasively, and added very quietly, “soon, soon.”

“I...” I wanted to say something. But wasn’t sure what. I was looking at her but thinking what I was supposed to think was hard.

“I see...” she smiled, “Aya has really interesting taste in men.”

“Oh yeah, whataboutaya?” I asked, slumping down in the chair a little. Could peek under her shirt, maybe. But really, was just tired. More comfortable that way.

“That’s a whole different story,” I could hear her say, her voice coming in from far away. “Let’s have our fun now, okay?”

“Aya...” I mumbled. My body wanted to rest badly, so okay. It could rest for as long as it wanted.


[] At least those twintails of hers were pretty cute...
[] Yeah, something similar happened once when Marisa tried a potion on me.
[] What if there’s no such thing as free will and these choices are cruel illusions?
[] Then again, image if Alice could see how things turned out. She’d be livid!

Hahaha what the fuck.


[x] What if there’s no such thing as free will and these choices are cruel illusions?

A pretty ridiculous thought!

[x] At least those twintails of hers were pretty cute...
[x] Yeah, something similar happened once when Marisa tried a potion on me.
[x] What if there’s no such thing as free will and these choices are cruel illusions?
[x] Then again, image if Alice could see how things turned out. She’d be livid!

wut

[X] Say "no" to mind-altering substances.
...oh wait, not an option.

[X] Yeah, something similar happened once when Marisa tried a potion on me.

That's a rather unexpected outcome though (at least for me).

Guys, we're struggling to be fast enough to reach the 1-update-per-day target minimum for the story. I've said this before but this is a story that is designed to have short and fast updates. After 20 threads, changing format is impractical not to mention very not fun for me. Please check in more often and, if you can, get other people to read. Faster votes are needed so I can write when I have time instead of wasting the free time I have. More voters are also good because it's not only more diverse opinions, but it means that we can still carry on when some people are missing and can't vote for whatever reason.

I'm trying my best but it's a team effort and I need your help to keep running the story.

>>63539
How did we get out of that, oh right we didn't. Fuck.

[x] Something similar happened...

Maybe he can use the memory of Marisa to break through?

[x] At least those twintails of hers were pretty cute...
[x] Yeah, something similar happened once when Marisa tried a potion on me.
[x] What if there’s no such thing as free will and these choices are cruel illusions?
[x] Then again, image if Alice could see how things turned out. She’d be livid!

>>63541
Wait, this is a real vote??

My post was just a joke ...

[Z] At least those twintails of hers were pretty cute...

what? they are.

[x] At least those twintails of hers were pretty cute...

Focus on the twintails, burn them into your brain.

[x] Yeah, something similar happened once when Marisa tried a potion on me.

Just the thought of this, jesus, they make me go nuts. It has been quite a while since then again huh.

[X] At least those twintails of hers were pretty cute...

Well they are cute. Twintails have always been an interest of mine

It was such a bother to open my eyes. I was so tired that even breathing seemed like a hassle. The rising and falling of my chest felt like it could stop permanently if I just gave up. Even sleep was too tiresome to keep up and my brain couldn’t justify trying any harder. I groaned, or maybe it was closer to a growl, and tried to shake off the desire to simply stop existing.

Existence wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. At least in part because I woke up in my own bed. No clue how I got there, but it definitely was my bed. I groaned again and groped around, looking for something that’d help me understand what had happened. More questions than answers followed. Still groggy and becoming increasingly nauseous by the moment, I realized that I was completely naked.

I’d have to wait a while to figure stuff out. Trying to sit up was a failure. It felt like all the blood was pooling at the back of my head; I winced and gave up on sudden movements. I wasn’t sure if what I was going through could be described as a terrible hangover, but it sure made me feel like I had been hit by the fist of an angry god. Eventually, I started forcing my breathing into a steady rhythm and managed to settle down somewhat.

Though it felt like I had been asleep forever, I didn’t feel very well rested. As the nausea slowly abated, I began to feel the rest of my body more acutely. My legs felt sore, like I had run a marathon. My body temperature was all out of whack, too. My chest felt normal but my feet were unnaturally cold while my arms and shoulders felt hot. But all that was bearable in comparison to the splitting headache I had.

With some patience, eventually I successfully managed to sit up. I looked around. It was definitely my room. And my clothes were neatly folded nearby on my chair. I didn’t see my phone anywhere. But it was daylight judging from the bright light piercing the gaps in my curtains. Couldn’t have been out for too long. I tried to remember what had happened, but I couldn’t remember much. I went to meet up with Aya… and… someone tried to seduce me?

My stomach churned. There was a metallic taste in my mouth. I frowned, recalling the burning hot feeling in my throat. And then nothing. Try as I might, I could only vaguely remember Himekaidou saying a few things before waking up again.

A girl with twintails. Cute, wholesome-looking twintails. A bit childish, certainly. There were ribbons too, as I recalled. Funny how I could remember small details like that. Maybe it was because no one else really wore their hair that way anymore? I had said feisty was best. They were symbols of that sort of thing. Scolding, overbearing, loud and easily flustered types. At least in games. My experience with her was too limited to say anything else.

I tried getting up from bed.

I must have spent nearly a half hour bracing myself before I managed to figure out how to use my legs again. The confusion I felt began to wane a little and other feelings seeped in. I couldn’t deny that I was upset, but most of all, I was curious. Not just to know what had happened but why it happened.

Why her?

Again, I thought of the twintails. Stupid thoughts followed. Like how tugging at them would get her to open up. As if they were some sort of pull chain valve to her mind. Then again, maybe I already knew all of that and I just couldn’t remember for whatever reason. It did feel like there were things in my memory just beyond normal reach. I couldn’t really focus enough to remember at the moment, however.

Getting clothes on was a struggle. My fingers were uncoordinated in the extreme. For whatever reason all I could think about was the girl that was surely to blame for making me feel like crap. My heart beat a little faster, appearing no longer dependent on my willpower to keep on beating.

I sat back down on the bed. I was too tired to do much else. I could just as easily go back to sleep without even trying.

[] I could figure it out on my own if I rested up a little bit more.
[] Marisa could possibly be helpfully supportive.
[] If she didn’t just chew me out, Alice would know what to do.

[X] Marisa could possibly be helpfully supportive.

Yeah, all those chemicals can't be good for us.

[X] Marisa could possibly be helpfully supportive.

She won't take advantage, right? Right?

[x] Marisa could possibly be helpfully supportive.

As much as I'd say resting up, I fear we might forget even more if we do. And I'm wondering how the last couple of choices would have affected things. Hatate is more average than Aya in many areas maybe except legs

Boy oh boy.

[x] If she didn’t just chew me out, Alice would know what to do.

Mature and helpful neighbor, please help us.

[x] I could figure it out on my own if I rested up a little bit more.

we need to think on our own for this

[Z] I could figure it out on my own if I rested up a little bit more.

We should try to be at least somewhat independent and handle things on our own.

Even after making the decision to stand up, it still took me a good while to translate that into action. My legs threatened to turn into rubber if I lost focus. The splitting headache I had added an additional layer of challenge.

Things got worse as I tried to actually walk. It felt like my bones creaked and groan with every movement and my muscles were on the verge of spasming uncontrollably in rebellion. My body was betraying me but, then again, something in the back of my mind told me that it was a justified uprising. I hadn’t taken care of myself and was paying the price.

Closing my eyes helped a little. One less distraction to deal with. With a few false starts and a plenty of stops, I eventually managed to make it to the door. I leaned against the doorframe and took a break before trying my luck going any farther.

Marisa’s room was too far away to reasonably go in a single try. Logically enough, I stopped in the bathroom to freshen up. Man, I looked like crap. Despite feeling like I had slept forever, my eyes were puffy and red. Splashing cool water on my face felt good and somehow helped my headache feel a little bit more manageable. After taking care of business, I couldn’t say that I was a new man, but I definitely felt a lot less miserable than before. If my nausea was a bit less intense, I could even pretend I was simply hungover after a full night out with Suika.

With a little patience and a lot of effort, I managed to show up at Marisa’s door. I knocked and waited for a reply.

“Oh, you’re still alive,” Marisa greeted me with some surprise. She was dressed in weekend home attire: an old comfy oversized shirt and shorts. If my mind had been anywhere near its normal state, I might have been excited by the very unguarded state she was in. Seeing that I was in no state to stand around, she urged me in, “come on in and sit, you look like a zombie.”

I nodded and sat on the edge of her bed. Though it may have looked more like a partial collapse to an independent observer. My backside felt like it was rooted in the soft surface and it’d take a lot to get me to stand up again anytime soon. Her room was the same as always, a mix of random clutter dominating nearly every nook and cranny. Books, personal items and bottles with strange contents were freely dispersed around the area. Smelled mostly nice, though. Like the beach, sort of. There was a mild undercurrent of something musky that did my tender stomach no favors.

“I feel like crap,” I said, my voice more gravely than anticipated. “My head is killing me.”

“Even after sleeping that much?” she asked, taking a seat further up the bed. “I thought whatever ailed you would solve itself by now.”

“That much?” I asked, “it feels like a long time, but it can’t have been too long. I mean, it’s still daylight, like when I left.”

“Um, it’s Sunday afternoon,” Marisa informed me, “you’ve been sleeping since you got home early yesterday evening.”

That was a bombshell. I sat quietly for a moment, letting it sink in. Made sense, somehow. It did feel like a lot of time had passed since I went out. What the hell had happened and how the hell did I get back home?

Marisa seemed to pick up on my lack of memory, asking, “you don’t remember anything?”

I cleared my throat, “I can’t remember anything past a certain point yesterday.”

She looked at my face and then looked away. Her expression became clouded, “you mean.. you don’t remember?”

“I’m sorry, I really don’t.”

“That’s… fine, I suppose. Maybe it’s for the best...” she sunk her forehead into her cupped hands.

“Did something happen?”

“If you don’t remember, I’m not sure I should bring it up,” she said quietly, not bothering to look up.

“You can tell me. Anything that could help jog my memory is good,” I said.

Marisa sighed and then sat back up, her eyes focusing on the empty space on the wall in front of her. “Fine, I’ll tell you what happened then. I was sitting on the couch yesterday when you came back. You looked like a man possessed and acted like it to boot. I asked what was the matter but you didn’t really seem to notice me. There was a weird smell about you, like a mix of smoke and perfume. When I stopped you from climbing the stairs, you finally seemed to notice that I was there.” Marisa paused and sighed again and began to play nervously with her fingertips, “it was then that you took it all out on me.”

“...” I couldn’t remember any of that. As hard to believe as the scenario might have been, I still listened intently.

“You grabbed me by the waist and carried me up to your room. It was like you were an oni or something, your grip was just too strong to break free from. And then… you ignored my every cry and complain. And… well, I don’t think I can become a bride anymore after all of that.”

Marisa sunk her face into her hands again and let out a whimpering sob.

“Marisa, I...”

“I don’t really care what happens with my body. But couldn’t you have at least first kissed me tenderly and told me how you felt about me?! It’s all I ever wanted! You’re the worst!”

My chest tightened and complex feelings that only made my nausea worse began to surface. I was simply the worst. Even if I couldn’t remember anything it didn’t excuse it.

[] Give her space but promise to take responsibility no matter what.
[] A tender embrace followed by that kiss she deserved was a start to setting things right.
[] Even if I could not remember, it was too hard to believe...

[X] Even if I could not remember, it was too hard to believe...

Didn't happen, pretty sure of that at least. I'll give her credit for trying, but part of me wants to play along and see what happens. She's exploiting the situation, so I'd call her out on it. This doesn't change my feelings for Marisa, but she will need to be put in her place.

Unless it did happen, but she wouldn't have easily opened the door since there's be a chance it'd be round 2.

[x] A tender embrace followed by that kiss she deserved was a start to setting things right.

Turning the joke around!

If it isn't a joke, however, then it is paying back what we owe, even a little. So win win. I doubt it isn't though

Only two voters??

[x] A tender embrace followed by that kiss she deserved was a start to setting things right.

Bold as he should be.

[X] Even if I could not remember, it was too hard to believe...

She is totally faking it to get a kiss, don't let her win!

[X] A tender embrace followed by that kiss she deserved was a start to setting things right.

Alright then.

[X] Even if I could not remember, it was too hard to believe...

Seriously Marisa, something like this going down and you pull something like this?

[X] Even if I could not remember, it was too hard to believe...

Maybe, baby

[x] A tender embrace followed by that kiss she deserved was a start to setting things right.

way more fun to just play along

>[] Give her space but promise to take responsibility no matter what.
I like this better but since it's not going to win gotta go with

[X] A tender embrace followed by that kiss she deserved was a start to setting things right.

Since I'm around, I'm going to call it here to avoid the possibility of an endless tie.

“I really can’t remember,” I said, sighing. It didn’t feel like such a thing was really possible but, then again, neither was losing an entire day. Just a simple apology wouldn’t cut it, but I tried anyway, adding, “I’m not really sure it’s something I could apologize for but let me try anyhow.”

Marisa wasn’t very responsive, slumping her shoulders with certain dejection. She peeked at me with the corner of an eye, apparently seeing what it was that I would do next.

That was as good a cue as any.

“You’re pretty important to me,” I told her, testing the waters by placing a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t flinch or swat it away. I may have imagined it but maybe she even began to unslump and look a little more relaxed. “I don’t think I’d ever try to hurt you on purpose and, if I really did yesterday, well, you deserve better.”

My body was still sore but I managed to conquer the discomfort long enough to move closer to her. We sat in the middle of the bed and I grabbed her from behind, draping my arms around her center and edging towards her lap. It was a loose embrace, sure, but it was all I could manage in my state and with the awkward positioning. Marisa accepted the move, bringing her head back up from her hands and resting her back on my chest and shoulder. She felt small and soft but just a little bit nervous, maybe like a cat that was open to being cuddled.

I didn’t want to be too aggressive, mindful of what she’d told me. It felt kinda nice just to be like that for a while. Maybe it was a psychological thing, but I started to feel a little better. Marisa’s lithe frame was reassuring to hold. After a while, she began to fidget some and it seemed like she expected something else from me.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to set things right, I gently guided her face towards me by nudging her chin with a finger. She looked back at me but avoided direct eye contact. “Umm,” she vocalized quietly, buzzing with anxious energy even as her cheeks hinted of reddening, “you don’t really have to push yourself, you know.”

“I’m doing this because I want to,” I told her. Seemed like she wanted to say something else, but thought it better not to. I didn’t hesitate and brought my face closer to hers and kissed her on the lips. It was an awkward angle and didn’t last too long. All the same, maybe from the nervousness, Marisa’s body jumped reflexively. It was a cute reaction.

She stayed close to me, resting her head on my shoulder. “I didn’t think you’d actually kiss me,” she confessed after a few moments of silence.

“Sorry if I crossed a line there.”

Marisa laughed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but it’s so cute that it’s making me feel guilty. The confident scoundrel role suits you much better. Though, I have to admit… I really like being held by you like this. It makes my body feel all rubbery in a good way.”

“I-”

“Sorry, but you’re not as strong as an oni,” she told me, “the only untoward thing you’ve done to me in the last day happened just now. Then again, it’s your own fault for coming back home so messed up that you can’t remember what you did.”

“Oh.” There was no escaping the realization that I had been led on. But I wasn’t upset. I could deal with being toyed with. Being scolded would have probably killed me. My body wasn’t ready to deal with any fallout harsher than that.

Marisa wiggled herself free from my embrace, looking a little embarrassed. Her face was a shade redder than before and I couldn’t help but stare at her lips. If I didn’t feel so bad, I would have been tempted to just throw common sense out of the window and kiss her again. It had helped distract me from my suffering, after all.

“I don’t think I can help you much,” she said, “I wasn’t home when you came back. All I know is that Alice went up to your room at night to ask you about something and she found that you were already sleeping. Which was weird, but we didn’t want to bother you or anything.” Marisa giggled and changed the subject, like it wasn’t important at all. She added, “now kiss me and tell me how important I am to you again. It made me feel all squishy, like I was some sort of princess.”

“You really are helpless,” I said, smiling. Whatever else she may have intended, she at least raised my spirits considerably. With my body being less than cooperative, that was a big deal. She didn’t really know anything but, in her own way, she had been supportive.

“If you really aren’t feeling well, go back to bed and I’ll whip up a nice soup or something and nurse ya right back to normal!” she proposed excitedly. Her smile was infectious. It was starting to help me forget all about my physical discomfort. She went one step further, turning it into a hard sell, “it’s not every day that a cute girl like me offers to take care of you, so you better not waste the opportunity.”

[] Enjoy Maria's offer. The rest could wait until the next day at school.
[] Tell her all about what happened, regardless. Maybe she can help out somehow.

[x] Tell her all about what happened, regardless. Maybe she can help out somehow.

The blackmail is coming, best to get started earlier rather than later in a plan.

[x] Enjoy Marisa's offer. The rest could wait until the next day at school.

She's just too cute. Not sure how she could help us anyway.

[x] Enjoy Marisa's offer. The rest could wait until the next day at school.

Some rest would help the mind think better.

On the one hand we did cause whatever happened to us by dealing with Aya and general skirt chasing.

On the other hand,
[Z] Tell her all about what happened, regardless. Maybe she can help out somehow.
Marisa does enjoy a good mystery, and weird shenanigans.

[x] Enjoy Maria's offer. The rest could wait until the next day at school.

I wish I had a cute girl nursing me back to health today. Damn you, take this offer.

[x] Enjoy Marisa's offer. The rest could wait until the next day at school.

We can worry about our problems later, a cute girl is offering to nurse us!

>>63591
I don't think that was Aya we were talking to. It's hard to tell what lead us to that point.

“Is that really necessary?” I asked, thinking that she was pushing it a little.

“Totally necessary,” she emphasized, grinning from ear to ear. She pushed the spoon closer to my lips, “say ‘ah’ now, the plane is coming in for a landing.”

“I can feed myself,” I protested, “I feel better now.”

“Shush, quit actin’ so stubborn,” Marisa countered, “if you’re feeling better it’s because of my awesome love-infused care. Ya still have ways to go.”

“Okay, fine, just the first spoonful,” I bargained, “I’ll eat the rest myself.”

“We’ll see,” she laughed.

Seeing that I couldn’t get a better guarantee than that, I played along. Marisa happily deposited the noodle soup into my mouth. At least there was no one else around witness the scene.

“Oh, did you make this yourself?” I asked after swallowing. It was pretty good. Unlike most of her culinary endeavors, it actually had subtlety to its flavor. I was so hungry that I didn’t stop to think before asking her for something to eat but I had risked getting a burnt or salty mess of a meal.

“I may have had a little help,” Marisa confessed, readying up another spoonful. “My love is the secret ingredient so that’s why it’s so good.”

“Thanks,” I chuckled, “I appreciate it. Tell Alice that I appreciate it too when you see her.”

Marisa used the pause after I spoke to shovel in some more. “Don’t be thinking about unnecessary stuff right now. Focus on eating,” she chastised playfully, keeping me off-balance. Well, I couldn’t really complain. She was trying her best for me. Couldn’t be helped if she lacked the skills. But I recognized my neighbor’s cooking anywhere. After all, she was the only one that could actually cook really well. And that included Auntie and her safe, limited and basic dishes. Or me for that matter.

About halfway through the bowl of soup, Marisa finally relented and let me finish off the rest. It really hit the spot. As overbearing as she had been at times, Marisa sure did a good job at making me feel better. She had stayed with me all afternoon and done everything to make me feel comfortable, bringing me water and whatever else I wanted. Sure, she had pulled up a chair to my bed and scolded me for stuff like trying to get up and get a magazine instead of asking for it but it came from a good place so I didn’t mind.

It was evening before I realized it. Those short naps I’d taken made most of the sleepy feeling go away. Despite feeling almost normal, I was still told to stay in bed by my private nurse. I chatted with her about this and that until it was finally time to turn in. Marisa offered to get a futon and spend the night in case I needed anything but I declined. Thankfully, she wasn’t too insistent.

“Your face looks good now, I think I can sleep without getting worried,” she said with a nod before wishing me a goodnight and telling me that, if there was anything that I needed, I should call for her. I hadn’t thought about it but beneath the cheery and doting attitude, she probably had been reasonably worried about me.

Thinking that I was lucky to have people who cared about me in my life, sleep soon found me.

I felt as good as new in the morning. The walk to school felt as normal as ever. I made sure to thank Marisa for helping me out and included Alice too for her cooking. She smiled modestly but otherwise said nothing else about it. We fell into our normal morning route, talking while walking like nothing at all had happened. It was only when we reached our homeroom that I began to think about what had happened again and what I could do.

There wasn’t too much time until classes began. Anything I did would have to wait until the next break. If I wanted to be direct, it’d probably be best to get Suika involved. She could be cunning when she wanted to so she could lure Himekaidou out for me since I assumed that facing her in public might be awkward at best. And Suika could help with leverage if it came to that since she could be pretty outright intimidating. Plus, she’d be cool with doing a buddy this sort of favor.

The alternative was more indirect and uncertain: I could talk to Aya. I didn’t think she’d betray me since she was a friend but it was her number that messaged me in the first place. She might be compromised herself and possibly couldn’t do anything. So maybe things weren’t quite so black and white. Then again, maybe she was tricked and was fuming mad. She could get things settled with a soft touch. Either way she was clever enough to know what to do even if she didn't always act in my best interests.

I sat through morning lectures without really paying attention. I’d have to make a decision before too long.

[] Be direct.
[] Go with the indirect route.

problem is, if you tell suika about it, you're not going to hear the end of it for months. when was the last time suika came to arc with an embarrassing problem? things are out of balance. that said,

[Z] Be direct.

When has Arc been anything but.

[X] Go with the indirect route.

Guess I'll take this one.

[x] Be direct

I don't want to involve Suika in something so uncertain... But I can't argue why. Maybe I fear she'll be too hard on Aya even if she's innocent? No... I should trust more in Arc friends. As he has said, he is lucky to have them.

And, frankly I'd like to read about her again.

My first thought was to go to Yuyuko. This is a serious transgression. Yeah he'll be indebted, but this could turn serious very quickly. Best to limit fallout from hitting our folks in the student government if at all possible.

[X] Be direct.

[x] Be direct

It's a rather serious problem. Arc shouldn't be playing games right now - gotta get to resolving this issue as fast as he can.

[x] Be direct

arc need to rely on suika more

[X] Go with the indirect route.

Suika WILL overreact. And this isn't Aya's style... I think keeping this private for now is best and our buddy isn't known for subtlety.

That said, I'm surprised that Arc isn't in worse condition... he was probably raped. Is it due to Marisa's ordinary magic?

[x] Be direct

May as well use our violent midget friend for something she's good at!

[X] Go with the indirect route.

We should talk to Aya first before involving Suika as otherwise there may be a massive mess made as Suika'd likely assume things.

>>63613
Don't be dissing Suika now pal. She may be a bit enthusiastic, but she isn't stupid.

>>63602
Your argument is against warning Suika and you vote for doing so?

>>63617
It doesn't help it's a tad worded confusing as you'd think going to Aya would be direct, right?

I had to triple check to be sure.

I flagged down Suika as soon as the bell rang. She probably could tell by just looking at me that I had something on my mind. If I wanted to be discreet, who better to turn to than a trusted friend?

The classroom was no place to scheme or have a private conversation. We went to the roof together. As per usual, there was no one around up there. It was partly cloudy and a cool breeze was blowing. Suika walked to the edge and leaned up against the fence, looking out towards the skyline.

“So yeah,” I started, standing beside her, “if you’re interested, there’s some I need to do for the student council after school you can help out with. It’ll be fun.”

“I’m not really interested in helping out the student council,” she said, sounding absolutely indifferent. Though I was going to bring it up anyhow, she knew me well enough to see through my attempt.

Still, I finished the thought, “I have to tell people in the fake clubs that they’re being shut down. I could use a badass with me. Y’know the kind that can intimidate someone with just a look.”

“I’ll think about it. I’ll have to feel like it,” Suika didn’t seem very enthused. She grabbed onto the fence and moved her face closer to it, as if that would help her see something far off.

“In fact, I think I’ll need a good, supportive friend earlier in the day too. Someone who is both clever and can be intimidating.”

“Just make your point,” Suika said, sounding impatient.

“I’m in a bit of a bind,” I started to explain, trying not to sigh. I covered the basics, including but not limited to the consequences the day after the meeting. I concluded, “think you can help me settle things with her?”

Suika flared her nostrils as she snorted air and then spat out off the top of the roof. “No friggin’ way,” she said, a look of disgust on her face.

“Come on, I’ll make it worth your while,” I pleaded.

“Don’t make me deck you in the face,” she warned, “you know that I don’t care about your bullshit with girls. Never have, never will. Waste of time and it ends with you being held by the balls like you are right now.”

Evidently she was getting worked up. She brusquely wiped dribble from her chin before turning to stare at me with a look of real contempt. I didn’t doubt it for a second that she wanted to punch me. I tensed up but didn’t make any sudden moves, knowing that it’d probably just piss her off more if she thought I just came up to pick a fight. If I said anything about buddies helping buddies or leaned on our past that would definitely end with blood being drawn.

So I let her rant a little, hoping things wouldn’t escalate.

Between a barrage of expletives and criticisms of my manhood, she said something a little more coherent. “Last time I did you a favor, I got burned hard. Or did you forget already?” she asked, looking like she was going to kick me in the shin if I denied it. “Ya ratted me out and I should have made you pay for it. But good friend that I am, I said nothing. Figured you were just an idiot, not an asshole. But this really makes me wonder.”

“...I-”

“Shut up, I’m talking and you’re not weaseling out of this by talking like I’m one of your stupid tarts,” she interrupted, scowling. “I can tell what your stupid as is thinking just by looking at you and, no, right now is not a really good time to just say that you had no idea, give a generic apology and act dumb.

“Totally not cool of you at all to tell anyone that that box was for me. I got a surprise visit from your precious guardian. Came to talk about the evils of substance abuse because apparently, some dickless fink told her that I had wanted all that for myself. The same ungrateful bastard that refused to share a single drink with his best friend, mind. That’s why I wanted that much, so we could have fun together. So, yeah, screw your council and screw your personal problems. If anything went wrong you’d just rat on me and I’d get screwed over yet again.”

The blow that I had long awaited came straight for my chest. It knocked the wind clean out of me and dropped me to my knees. Expecting it hadn’t helped me prepare for the speed or intensity at all. Righteous or not, it was the most succinct way that she could tell me how she felt. To her credit, she could have kicked me when I was down but she held back. She had made her point.

I caught my breath again after a few painful moments. Soon as I did, I laughed. Suika laughed. Then glared some more.

“Moron,” she said angrily but I could tell that she had at least let out some pent up steam. I could probably work with that. The chances of getting hit again were lower.

[]

---

Convince Suika to help out with a write-in vote.

Be as vague or specific as you want. Even if you don’t know how to put what you want to do into a vote, just talk about it and I may or may not work it in. The winner won’t necessarily be what gets the most votes and I may just pick whatever works best depending on the overall consensus. So go ahead and try and don’t be afraid of being open to changing your mind.

Only thing you shouldn’t do is have votes with conditionals (ie: “if x then y”) because those are cop outs. Just go for it.

It's hard to try and convince her of something when she has the right to remain offended for a long time... we voted for a dick move.

[x] Look: I fucked up, I know that. I also know that I have no right to ask this or anything from you. But this isn't me playing with some girls, this is serious
[x] I may have been drugged or something along those lines. Who knows what I did or to whom. I must know what happens.
[x] I'll in your debt for this, big time. Tell you what: next time you need me for anything I'll be there ASAP. No ifs or buts. I mean it.

Giving carte blanche for fucking up our life to Suika is risky and probably unnecessary to convince her (she mellowed out quite a bit) but it's the only way I could find to even the scales.


After all, what is worse for a lackadaisical ladies man (due to the story) with a touch of schizophrenia (thanks to us) to be at the whim of another even if it is once?

I like this write in, let's buff it up.

[x] Look: I fucked up, I know that. You're absolutely right about all of it and I have no excuse for you. I also know that I have no right to ask this or anything from you. But this isn't me playing with some girls, this is serious.
[x] I may have been drugged or something along those lines. Who knows what I did or to whom. I must know what happens.
[x] You're the first person I'm coming to for help on this. I know you have what it takes and for what it's worth, I do trust you.
[x] I'll be in your debt for this, big time. Tell you what: any time you need me for anything I'll be there ASAP. No ifs or buts. I mean it. I don't deserve the chance to make this right, but if you're willing, I will do my damn hardest.

She is right, there is damaged trust. A true buddy will be there no matter what, I say we dont limit it to a single time. Anytime she needs Arc, he needs to be there. Carte blanche. It's the least he can do.

>>63633
You have balls. But I didn't mean he won't always be there for her (which is what a bro does... Or should, in any case) but I meant to give her one chance to do it on a whim. I fully support helping friends in critical, so to speak, situations

It sounds good to me, but we might want to sweeten the pot some more.

[x] Look: I fucked up, I know that. You're absolutely right about all of it and I have no excuse for you. I also know that I have no right to ask this or anything from you. But this isn't me playing with some girls, this is serious.
[x] I may have been drugged or something along those lines. Who knows what I did or to whom. I must know what happens.
[x] You're the first person I'm coming to for help on this. I know you have what it takes and for what it's worth, I do trust you.
[x] I'll be in your debt for this, big time. Tell you what: any time you need me for anything I'll be there ASAP. No ifs or buts. I mean it. I don't deserve the chance to make this right, but if you're willing, I will do my damn hardest.
[x] To show I mean it, how about I nab some of my Aunt's best alcohol and we can kick back and enjoy it. We can even have one of our little brawls for fun!

We should try to cater to her two favorite things, drinking and fighting.

Are you guys sure you'll follow through on it as I think part of how we got into this minor mess is because how we DID NOT.

Let's try to think ahead for once.

[x] Look: I fucked up, I know that. You're absolutely right about all of it and I have no excuse for you. I also know that I have no right to ask this or anything from you. But this isn't me playing with some girls, this is serious.
[x] I may have been drugged or something along those lines. Who knows what I did or to whom. I must know what happens.
[x] You're the first person I'm coming to for help on this. I know you have what it takes and for what it's worth, I do trust you.
[x] I'll be in your debt for this, big time. Tell you what: any time you need me for anything I'll be there ASAP. No ifs or buts. I mean it. I don't deserve the chance to make this right, but if you're willing, I will do my damn hardest.
[x] To show I mean it, how about I nab some of my Aunt's best alcohol and we can kick back and enjoy it. We can even have one of our little brawls for fun!

Talk is cheap, so it's worth building in some tangibles to this write-in. I like the alcohol deal, but we need something more. Maybe work something exclusive for her through his connections in the student gov or Yuyuko.

>>63639
We either make it up to her or lose her as a friend. If you can't commit to putting Suika first, then put forth a different vote, that's all.

This is ballsy, but it's been sorely needed.

>>63646
Anytime anywhere is too broad. At some point or another, we won't be able to follow up and it will be the end. I like that you want to make it up for her but something as nebulous as 'everywhere' usually ends up being 'nowhere' if you get what I'm saying

[x] You wanted to have fun with me, eh? Then let's do it, right now.
[x] This can wait, the school can wait. You wanna go? Let's go. Wanna go tonight? That's fine too.
[x] You said it, I have women problems. I often do, yeah. But there's one that I really really don't want to make sad again. (It's you, in case you're too slow to get it)

>>63645 here,

I'll adjust my vote to include three unrefusable favors instead of the carte blanche.

>>63654
[x] You wanted to have fun with me, eh? Then let's do it, right now.
[x] This can wait, the school can wait. You wanna go? Let's go. Wanna go tonight? That's fine too.
[x] You said it, I have women problems. I often do, yeah. But there's one that I really really don't want to make sad again. (It's you, in case you're too slow to get it)

i like is

Surely we can get more votes than this?

[x] Look: I fucked up, I know that. You're absolutely right about all of it and I have no excuse for you. I also know that I have no right to ask this or anything from you. But this isn't me playing with some girls, this is serious.
[x] I may have been drugged or something along those lines. Who knows what I did or to whom. I must know what happens.
[x] You're the first person I'm coming to for help on this. I know you have what it takes and for what it's worth, I do trust you.
[x] I'll be in your debt for this, big time. Tell you what: any time you need me for anything I'll be there ASAP. No ifs or buts. I mean it. I don't deserve the chance to make this right, but if you're willing, I will do my damn hardest.
[x] To show I mean it, how about I nab some of my Aunt's best alcohol and we can kick back and enjoy it. We can even have one of our little brawls for fun!

Looks good, I think

Maybe our write-in is so bad that the writefag won't update.

>>63689
Probably

>>63690
>>63690
Nope.

While I had hoped for both more informal and loose talk and activity generally, I don't actually have a real problem with the feel-good conservative answer some people went with. I do have a few other bones to pick with how low the bar is set and, despite that, how actual opinions are hardly voiced. But there's a different time and a place for that.

There'll be a fittingly mediocre update at some point along with more in-depth plans and criticisms laid out sometime soon. It'll be the last time I bother to try to keep to the ideal schedule and structure, so maybe expect something in the next day at some point.

The chances of getting hit again weren’t zero. I got hit a few more times. Nothing too bad, though – at least compared to the scientifically precise blow from earlier. Suika lashed out as I tried to talk to her, clearly spoiling for a fight.

A few choice replies to my explanations included:

“I’d laugh at how stupid you are if you didn’t piss me off so much,”

“Sounds like karma to me,”

“I’d hafta be crazy to believe anything you ever promised,”

“Drinking with you would leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

And, of course, there was also the general spitting at my general direction and all the creative cursing. It was the kind of stuff that curled up hairs and made the dainty sort have a fainting spell.

“-ful little snot-” Suika paused during one of the more creative insults. She sighed. Then kicked me in the shin. That one hurt a lot. “I really, really, don’t want anything from you,” she said plainly, looking like she was trying her best not to punch me again. “Promising this or that doesn’t mean anything to me. Getting stuff in return for your idiocy is for shallow idiots. Helping a friend out is never supposed to be about compensation. It’s something you just do.”

“So you’ll help me?” I asked hopefully.

“I don’t give a shit about your problems,” she smiled darkly, “tell you the truth, nothing here sounds serious to me. You’re just being a little bitch. Getting pissed off at you isn’t worth my time.”

“Maybe I should have just fought you,” I said, “a good whooping would stop you from being so girly about this. I can’t really do any better.”

She snorted and spat at me, hitting my shoe. “Don’t try to turn this around on me,” Suika chuckled, not taking the bait, “not after you were basically crying about not wanting to ever to make me sad again. Like I was a jilted lover. How disgusting.”

“So, what then? Is this it for us?”

“Maybe it was as soon as you started chasing skirts so much,” she shrugged, “I don’t know. You’re an ass is all I can say. I don’t want to help you out and I don’t want your empty promises. So, uh, I’d like to say it’s a standoff but ya got nothing on me, so no real reason to stick around.”

“Kicking me some more won’t help?”

“Probably not.”

“How about me getting on all fours for another apology?” I asked.

“You’ve already sunk way lower than that,” she said with a smirk.

“Gotta be something I can say or do,” I was scratching my head, trying to figure something out.

“What do your manly instincts tell you?”

“That I’m screwed,” I sighed.

“Your instincts really suck,” she said, “and that explains a lot. I guess I always was the one with a real set of balls between the two of us.”

“I’m thankful you didn’t try kicking there to test the theory out,” I shook my head, feeling like she was just gloating at that point. But, it wasn’t like I could push back much. Sucked being powerless. I leaned back up against the fence, slithering down and hugging my knees.

“Don’t turn my stomach by actually crying now,” Suika crossed her arms, looking down at me. “So, I didn’t bite at the offer of being treated like one of your floozies. Nor do I want you to give me crap like I’m somehow entitled to it. So what? You can’t expect me to get mushy about stupid crap like that.”

“Guess not.”

“What are you expecting to do to this bitch? Beating up a girl is pretty low, even for you. And I sure as hell ain’t gonna do it for you.”

“I want to find out what happened first,” I said, “ then I’ll decide.”

Suika spat again. It was over my head and out through the fence. She sat down next to me and, for a long while was silent. “What happens when she tells you to sod off or that you’re screwed and there’s nothing you can do about it? Seems like the kind of thing that is obviously going to happen.”

“I thought you said you didn’t care,” I voiced hopefully, if a little boldly.

“I don’t. Still don’t want to see you convicted of a crime or have you off yourself after you do something stupid. Not even you deserve that.”

[] Try not to push it too much and get as much information as possible regardless.
[] I’d just think up something on the spot. There’s always a way to get at someone.
[] Abandoned by my friend, I’d cry like the hopeless, friendless loser that I was.

---

I realize that I may sound a bit more hostile in >>63691 than intended. Supposed to be more like cheeky self-jabbing.

More seriously, I've decided that this is the last week that I'm going to try to keep to the fast schedule. If there aren't enough votes quickly enough and there doesn't seem to be much hope in a week's time, I'm just not going to write this story anymore. I try my best to clear my schedule to be available but waiting around for an uncertain amount of votes at differing hours takes its toll. It's a lot of effort and I normally don't mind it but if I don't have a somewhat reliable audience then it's hard to justify. Not to mention that the story really suffers from not having fast updates - it feels like I'm dragging things out with updates when they would normally be resolved in 2-3 days tops. No single choice should matter too much most of the time and not being able to move at a brisk pace creates the false illusion that somehow they have an undue weight.

Plus, if I'm perfectly honest, I'm really tired of asking for votes here and elsewhere. I know that not everyone always has time and life has a way of hijacking good intentions but 400-700 word updates can't take more than five minutes of your day to read. So I truly don't understand how it's such a big deal for something you (presumably) enjoy. Same with getting like-minded people to read. It's supposed to be a stupid school story and I can't believe how much of a struggle it is to keep going even with one update a day.

Maybe it's something else? Something I'm doing wrong? Let me know if that's the case - I'm not a mind reader. Unless people actually say stuff, I can't know how they feel about the story and things. I get few replies to my non-story bits so I'm left guessing at best.

Meanwhile, I'll keep doing my best until the end but, man, this shit shouldn't be so fucking hard to get done.

[x] Try not to push it too much and get as much information as possible regardless.

We don't know much about Hatate and I'd be cautious around her too after whatever she did to us. Plus, we just need to know what happened. She likely won't tell the entire truth, but something tells me taking a more provocative approach is bad news.

>>63692
I think you're expecting too much from us. Way too much. I'm sorry, but last time I checked, people voted. Maybe it's not the amount that you were hoping for, but people still did. And not just one or two, there's usually enough to suggest a general consensus among us, enough to work with. The fact that this story is still getting votes regularly after so long is a feat. You can't expect long discussions and tons of votes as if every choice is a huge impactful decision.

Another is your tendency to "call Anon out on their bullshit" or so. We make dumb decisions, we all know that. But do you always have to be so insistent on doing that?

>Promising this or that doesn’t mean anything to me. Getting stuff in return for your idiocy is for shallow idiots.
>I don’t give a shit about your problems,” she smiled darkly, “tell you the truth, nothing here sounds serious to me. You’re just being a little bitch. Getting pissed off at you isn’t worth my time.
This felt like it was more from the writer than Suika. We get it. We didn't choose the decision you wanted. We're dumb for picking the wrong one. There's no need to put us down THAT much. I get what you're going for, but I can see this turning potential voters away.

Okay, enough of my rambling. But I had to since this story is one of my favorites on this site and I'd hate for it to end after so long. I know you want what's probably best for your story but we also want to be able to read and have fun with it.

[x] Abandoned by my friend, I’d cry like the hopeless, friendless loser that I was.

A curious option, wonder where it'll take us?

>>63693
Daily updates don't seem like an impossible request. Hell, remember when dailies were the norm around here for the popular stories?

This may well be the last story on the site to set that as a goal. I think the least we can do is meet the writefag halfway.

>>63693
Suika has always been loud, abrasive and violent. Check back in the story. Anytime the protagonist or anyone else does something she disapproves of, she sure as hell lets people know and is often physical about it. There was an actual fistfight at one point, sparked over Arc and his womanizing (around the Kaguya/Mokou bits I think). Finding links for precise moments in a story this long is a bit of a problem, but I encourage you to look back. >>51148 is just the tip of the iceberg and something I found with a casual search. It's just the character and her reaction to the situation and what was said. If there's one thing I'm proud of in this story it's how characters feel like individuals (at least to me) and react to different situations in different ways. So, sorry, I think you're projecting when you claim I'm calling you out on anything. In fact, the only times I address the votes is when I do so directly like when the reasoning is faulty and/or expectations of what will happen are wildly off base. And I do that outside of updates. Sure as shit doesn't have to do with whether or not I think the vote itself is 'wrong' - otherwise why would I include it at all?

>You can't expect long discussions and tons of votes as if every choice is a huge impactful decision.
For a story with daily and short updates, I shouldn't have to wait a whole day to get enough votes for relatively unimportant choices. Or even longer. That's my whole point. It's not supposed to be a big deal and the threshold of votes corresponds to about half of the total regularish voters. That is to say, I need 5-6 votes from out of a pool of 9-12 or so people. Is it unreasonable to want at least half of the voters to participate? I could make do with 3 votes, I guess, but that's not only shitty for me given the time I have to invest writing but unfair to the majority since the effects of choices do pile up.

And, hell, I haven't ever complained about needing long discussions and you know that. The bar is so low that I emphasized with the last choice that I didn't even need actual votes, just people saying stuff would be enough for me to consider and work with. Even then it was a struggle to see people speak their minds.

>But I had to since this story is one of my favorites on this site and I'd hate for it to end after so long. I know you want what's probably best for your story but we also want to be able to read and have fun with it.

I'm truly glad you like the story, really. I know that me talking like this sounds like I don't appreciate it and I don't enjoy writing it, but it's precisely because I do that I have to take a long hard look at things and try to fix issues. The story being slow ruins the experience for you too because you get both less content and get stuck feeling like some interactions are just dragging on. Plus it fucks with my creative mindset and messes with my schedule. I try to find time to write every day between life stuff and it sucks when I can't reasonably tell when I'll be able to write. After 21 threads I can't simply update once a week with a massive wall in which a lot of crap just happens. This story is about small choices that often go into wildly different directions than two updates previous; you can go from heart-throbbing interactions at school to crazy weird nightclubs in no time. Not to mention that the writing style is purposefully plain and somewhat stilted by design. If you have longer updates you usually need to include more descriptions and variety.

[X] Try not to push it too much and get as much information as possible regardless.

Somehow I don't recall ad-libbing being useful before.

[x] Try not to push it too much and get as much information as possible regardless.

I thought this was about concerning Aya (which should be a thing considering how Hatate used her number) if not warning her.

>>63696
Consistency helps. I'd have missed this update if I didn't force myself to check. It's why some votes are slow to come in; no one's expecting the latest mini-hiatus to suddenly. end.

[X] Try not to push it too much and get as much information as possible regardless.

>>63701
Still don't accept votes without a comment, sorry. I appreciate the effort but you'd know that if you'd read the rest. I encourage you to read the whole thing if you're able. Generally though no one ever bothers to delete/fix their vote which makes me think that they weren't really regular readers anyhow and not the people I keep asking to check in.

>>63700

> thought this was about concerning Aya (which should be a thing considering how Hatate used her number) if not warning her.

Wanted Aya? should have voted for her earlier. This choice is talking to Suika. So obviously, you should pick something relevant to that context. If you think that that answer will please her or motivate her or whatever, then it's fine.

>Consistency helps. I'd have missed this update if I didn't force myself to check. It's why some votes are slow to come in; no one's expecting the latest mini-hiatus to suddenly. end.

Consistency is really important, sure. So then how about two weeks of consistent daily updates? Did that help? Nope! Still spent most of my time waiting for an uncertain amount and frequency of votes. Does it kill people to check minimum once a day? Other stories come back after weeks of nothing and they get more votes in a day or two than I do in a week. Clearly it can't be too much trouble to ask people to check more often. Just refresh the front page for god's sake. Or open up a new tab.

Also, since when is waiting for votes a mini-hiatus? I suppose that we're in the middle of a two day hiatus right now, huh?

I hear a lot of the same stuff being said over and over. It's all superficial. There's a lot of excuses to make on both sides, to be honest.

What it comes down to is this: do you want to see ToY move forward?

If you do, then fucking vote. It's not that hard. In fact, it's so easy that I find it extremely difficult to treat as a valid excuse.

I don't think we've ever had this problem in other stories FFS. How many dead threads and abandoned stories are there in the archives alone? Countless. Writefags flake out on a regular basis.

We have the potential here for multiple updates a day and people just can't seem to show up and vote? I'd say we've lost heart as a community and a fanbase. It's pathetic.

>>63703
Ignoring scraps and hiatuses, there's a grand total of 466 dead stories. 321 are stalled, 63 are on 'hiatus', some of which were declared in 2009, and 82 are classified abandoned. The numbers might not be 100% accurate anymore, as Kapow hasn't updated the storylist in six months, but as of 2015/11/24, that's the data.

I'm still working my way up to modern times, but the sheer level of salt Teruyo is spewing luv you Teru~ has drawn my attention enough to read the most recent updates and vote.

[x] Try not to push it too much and get as much information as possible regardless.

>>63704
>scraps and hiatuses
Scraps and sporadics

A week has come and gone. We failed to attain even the minimum amount of votes that I had been using as a threshold for at least a year’s time.

It’s therefore impossible to continue writing this story with the expectation of doing, at least, daily updates.

For reasons I’ve gone at length on in the past, I’m not going to change the pacing or length of updates. So that means that I can’t continue the story.

This story, the site in general and writing mean a lot to me. So, if you’ll indulge me, I’ll at least go on candidly one last time about how I feel about all of this. If you don’t care, well, I doubt you’ve read this far anyhow.

From its inception, ToY was supposed to be a story that would always keep moving until its conclusion. I chose the school setting because of its broad appeal and also to thumb my nose at the fatalists who saw the dearth of old style stories as a sign that the site was dying. It always meant to hark back to those early days where the whole community would be involved in reading and commenting, whether it was the seminal WuiG, the haphazard MiG or any of the dozens of others that mushroomed across all of the various boards (including my own very shitty first attempts with DoaLF). If other writers were flakes and life cruelly took away all the fast stories, I determined to push through via willpower something which I felt was sorely lacking. 21 threads with not a huge voting average isn’t too shabby but certainly a lot less than I dared to dream about.

The settings and its characters were meant to bring smiles to faces even when things didn’t go as planned. This picaresque dream of mine would combine canon as I saw it with imaginative scenarios and a healthy veneer of the attitude so prevalent in early visual novels. Those old VNs still evoke powerful nostalgia in me to this very day and I think they capture something which is sadly missing from modern society; cheeky humor abounds but it is not afraid to mix in drama and adult situations matter-of-factly. All of the anxieties of youth and the realities of life are presented with beautiful gradient art but we’re nearly always told not to dwell too much on the bad. Whereas something from Key was meant to provoke catharsis through suffering and often convoluted premises, the old let you reach your own conclusion from a messy facsimile of reality. I think that anyone who has played something like Three Sister’s Story or Yu-No can understand the type of thing that I hoped to emulate. Just because life sucks doesn’t mean you can’t have fun! So what if so and so isn’t a virgin or if seedy elements come into it? What matters is the moment and how you choose to face it. Whatever other qualities Arc may have had – he always looked to make the most of what came at him.

I truly hope that my joy from those experiences were at least sometimes felt by the reader. And that they also found themselves worrying a bit less about life and the ugliness out there and became more accepting. I can tell you honestly that writing for me has always been something I have tried my hardest to do properly. I may not be a very talented writer but whenever I said I’d try to keep a schedule or write as much as I could – I’d do my damnedest to follow through. Even when I found myself in interpersonal conflict, intercontinental trouble or just simply feeling down, I still tried to write and deliver something that I thought people would enjoy. You wouldn’t believe under what circumstances I’ve written and updated! Sometimes the pressure from life would affect my judgment I think but I still tried to be as even handed and enthusiastic as I could be. It felt worth it whenever I heard someone speaking positively about a character or enjoying a situation that we were exploring in the story.

And why wouldn’t it? A while after I started writing on THP, I determined that I wasn’t really writing for posterity and recognition. Instead, I was simply writing for the people who chose to go on a journey with me and my stories. That’s why I always encouraged dialog between readers and with myself. I legitimately have always been curious to know what people think and have worked attitudes accordingly into the text. It’s kind of like a tabletop RPG in that regard. I didn’t care if my writing was ‘good’ so long as we were having fun as a group. I trusted people to be truthful to me even as I pointed out things that I thought could use some work. After all, they’d do the same for me. And we’d talk about it and fix issues together. That’s why it hurts a lot to be faced with so much indifference so much of the time. I never tried to directly influence votes but if I felt that a line of reasoning was suspect I’d point it out. All the choices are supposed to be informed decisions so if it’s not something I intended to be taken in a certain way – isn’t it therefore natural for these corrections to at least be acknowledged by voters? That nothing changed and no one replied was always deeply disappointing. The examples of this are manifold but is evident even in this last vote. If I tell you a choice is about x character instead of y as you think, then doesn’t that change everything about your reasoning? That’s something I’ll never understand.

Same as how it’s so hard to get people to vote in the first place. Even with life being a bitch, I always tried to find time to write. It’s natural to do so for something you enjoy. So is checking once a day, reading and voting that hard? Sometimes you’re on a roadtrip without internet for a day or two, I get it. But with the internet being so ubiquitous is it so unreasonable to expect that most people will be able to check at some point during the day? And, if the story is like mine and updates quickly, check more often than that? The story deliberately has short updates, often less than 700 words (often 400-500). Doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to read. If you’re on the site because you read other stories, don’t you check other boards too?

That’s something that has frustrated me forever. Especially when you couple it with the attitudes of the community at large. So many times I have heard people complain about lack of activity on the site and lack of enthusiasm and even when I point out that I’m trying to keep a fast schedule, they show little interest. Not just that but my attitude has always been to encourage people to read and write whatever they please. I can barely recall when I’ve been encouraged the same way either on the site or on IRC. Is it that hard to just be nice? This is a hobby we all like, so logic like “it can’t be helped” is just so alien to me. Man, even getting people on IRC who presumably enjoy the story to read and vote is a fucking nightmare of an ordeal. I gave up altogether. When weeks pass without anyone saying anything about a story it’s just completely demoralizing. I’ve endured because of my hope that things will get better but, really, it hurts to see all my calls on the site and elsewhere go so completely unheeded. Would it have really killed you to say something or get someone else motivated to read? I put my heart into doing this, as do a lot of other writers, can’t you try to engage us a little more? Maybe so many stories wouldn’t be dropped if there was more frank communication and respect.

I’m not trying to put all blame on everyone else. It’s just that I’ve truly tried my best all through these years. The clearing my schedule to be available to write, the imagining fun things to do for my readers and even encouraging others to go ahead and start writing themselves. I don’t know what else I could do to make the community more like the community I want it to be. So maybe I suck because of various things I’ve done. But I would have liked to have heard about it instead of getting the silent treatment. I would have liked that whenever someone made an accusation and I replied, they told me if I addressed their issues properly. Apathy after so many years and so much investment both creatively and psychologically is just too cruel.

I don’t really expect a response to what I’ve said here. It came directly from my heart and I hope it at least gave you insight to how I view things and how I feel about it all. Dropping a story that I deeply care about after all this time without saying anything less than this seemed unfair. But maybe that’s just my ego talking. Despite it all, I hoped to have been able to continue writing and to get to all those very many scenarios that I had planned. In my ideal world this whole arc with the tengu would have been over with weeks ago after multiple updates per day and we’d be on to the next thing, dealing with whatever 2hus came up. I’ll truly miss writing Alice dealing with daily insanity and teasing Rin.

In spite of writing all of this out (and omitting quite a bit which is more akin to rambling!) I don’t plan to stop writing about touhous altogether. If I can’t do daily updates because of my failures in attracting an audience, I’ll at least try some other type of story with the more standard glacial pace. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t. I haven’t decided what to do yet. Not sure what people would read nor how to avoiding repeating the same failings. For the immediate future, it’ll probably be alright if I wallow in heartbreak for at least a while.

Not like anyone expects daily updates anymore!

Ha ha ha!

;_;

Fuck you, I am entitled to be a bit self-indulgent and there's nothing wrong with capping it with self-deprecating humor.

Welp, that's that then.
Thanks Teruyo for writing this and everyone who cared about keeping going.

;_;

well fuck

>>63725
Thanks for your hard work, Teruyo.

;_; life sucks teruyo and I hope that I can get on IRC again sometime soon so we can have a talk and once again joke around like ages past. Looking forward to your next story.

>>63794

You'd think he would be Clever, Audacious and Wise enough to realize we enjoy his writing.

>>63795
What Teruyo says is true, he wishes to enjoy this journey together with us, for all of us to partake in it but, well, we are like shitty friends and not calling back and just leaving text messages. I feel bad for being too at blame here.

>>63795
I know people enjoy my writing but apparently not enough to check in and vote regularly here. The whole point of this story were fast, daily updates. The last vote showed how hopeless it was to keep trying as hard as I was to keep to that schedule. I asked and begged many times here as well as on IRC only to find impenetrable indifference nearly every time.

Funnily enough, the new story is actually going faster in regards to votes than this was for a long time. So yeah, I suck but people who didn't even try when they needed to step up suck worse. I didn't quit this because I wanted to, but because it became impossible to keep going with the turnout.

>>63797

S'all good. The new story's update schedule is much more compatible with how I do my rounds on all the stuff I routinely check. Kinda just left this story by the wayside after missing a bunch of stuff I wanted to have a say in.

>>63798
There is no practical difference between the update schedules. Look at this thread and the previous one. Here. struggling to do one a day. There, about once a day too. Two differences: more votes and I haven't paced new stuff around *having* to update. If I had the same amount of votes at the same speed, I wouldn't have had to drop this. Bottom line: it's not hard to check in at least once a day, stop pretending like it's a big deal.

>>63799

Checking in isn't a big deal. I usually check the site 5 to 10 times a day since I'm interested in the community here. The issue is I don't get in the mood to read touhou stuff everyday. If neither of us are committed to the once a day thing, I figure I got a lower chance of missing the votes I have a particular interest in. Maybe the new schedule will work better for me, maybe it won't. So it goes I suppose.

>>63799
>I haven't paced new stuff around *having* to update.

That's key, I agree.
As for the rest... I don't expect consistency because I don't give it: I don't check on weekends and I might have a day or two where I don't feel like reading.

>>63692
[x] Abandoned by my friend, I’d cry like the hopeless, friendless loser that I was.
I mean, I would cry too if my friends abandoned me.

>>64202

Fuck. And here I thought we had something. But it's just someone who didn't bother to read the whole thread and didn't even sage.

Uh, after re reading I realized that most votes impacted the story so little that I literally can't tell who or what won. If you take writing again (the new story was abandoned after, like two choices and the one before that after a thread) consider calling the votes.

[x] Abandoned by my friend, I’d cry like the hopeless, friendless loser that I was.

Like the recent election, this is the lesser of evils. I can't exactly write in because it has been noted in the past that they are not allowed unless the option is present (with a few, arbitrary, exceptions) all I have to work are three options:

>Try not to push it too much and get as much information as possible regardless.

Slow and steady approaches have failed before and this problem is too big to let it be.

>I’d just think up something on the spot. There’s always a way to get at someone.
A.k.a. the "I have learned nothing" vote. Going with no plan has screwed him over thousands of times.
Specially bad when we consider what he's trying and failing to do RIGHT NOW.

So that leaves us with the third option. While this could be considered a pity festival, something Suika had explicitly said she hates, that would leave us with no option to choose.
With that in mind, I'd like to consider this option as a way for him to seriously acknowledge that he is at the end of his rope. The situation is fubar, and no amount of improvisation or "charm" will get him out of this one.

>>64214

Apologies for my outburst earlier. As much as I'd like to discuss about the story again, you already know it's been dropped. So unless Teruyo decides to throw us a bone and continue it, DO IT, YOU FUCKER this entire discussion is meaningless.

>>64215
I'm not that guy. Fuck that guy for not saging.

And I voted just because I forgot to before. That's all. The meaning is on the action of voting, not on the vote itself.

>>64214
I haven't dropped either of the new stories. One is stuck in a tie and the other hasn't been updated but it's been like, just a week, and I've just been busy (and I'll get to it soon maybe even later today).

And not being explicit in calling out what won is a conscious choice. It's because I take in stuff from comments and other votes if it feels appropriate and is doable. Most of the time the results should have been self-evident (at least for the ones that take you to different places or have you interact with different characters). But, it's not worth getting into this stuff right now.

And while it is touching to see votes, even now, both you and >>64215 should bear in mind that I loved writing this story and had no problem with continuing it for as long as I could write. However, the single largest reason I dropped it was because it was a struggle to get votes to do daily updates. The last vote failed to get in a week what I'd get in a day beforehand and this uncertainty was stressful. Daily, short updates are what the story was paced around and it can't really exist in another format without being, like, rebooted (and I think it'd lose its soul if that was the case). I don't want to give you false hope but, theoretically, if you had enough people that had no problem checking in to vote daily I'd see what I could do on my end.

I suggest getting on IRC and talking to me and other people if you really want to explore the topic further. Since, you know, coordinating writing and seeing about having a core group is much harder to do in an anonymous board where posting is infrequent. It's easier to make more concrete and nuanced plans in real time. Even if I'm not around at that very moment, you can find me idling almost 24/7 on #eientei on rizon and if you say something chances are I'll see it quickly enough.

>>64218
The site is dying for a while now. Why not move to other quest centric sites?

>>64219
I don't think it'd solve the underlying issues; that and those are even more low-brow than here.

>>64218

If you ask, the votes come, don't they? I mean, in the end, if you want to write daily, you just gotta go for it, no matter what showing you get. I was a little sad when votes on my stories were petering out after that new story smell ran its course, and while I set my sights to a pretty small number of votes to begin with, I got an acceptable number to punch out daily updates a month straight across two stories, the third managing multiple updates a day.

If you go for it, while I'd not really be properly qualified to vote due to not having read the story, I'd love to see another rapid fire story around and would no doubt root for you. I'm not really one to talk about abandoning stories, as I more or less did so when I started writing on this site, but I'm positive you can reel enough readers in with a little broadcasting. Heck, I've been strategising with my ally on how to garner more votes, and while I've only had nominal success due to this or that, I've noticed that you have to be dramatic and make a declaration.

You have to throw down, and keep throwing down! Wrestle with the voters if you must!

But ehh, I'm pretty sure you've been writing longer than I, so I'm sure you know what I mean. I won't pretend to know what it's like to have your voters dwindle to the point that you can't satisfy your needs, but for what it's worth, I believe in you. I believe you can bring in the votes like you use to. Look at how many votes you get when you're not writing! By that logic, you'll get a least a bunch if you jump back on the horse this very moment!

Okay, now to get back to trying not to write extended and potentially unneeded motivational whatevers and/or stories so that I can sleep for a change. Good luck, whatever you decide!

>>64222 here.

After not sleeping as I said I would, I looked through all the messages said since you called it quits. I just wanna ask what your minimum vote number was. I'd gladly contribute if you'd have me, but, no matter how cool I totally am, I have yet to succeed at being more than one person. As such, if you continue it, I'll see about reading this thing and voting with punctuality.

Seriously, I check for votes 10-40 times a day, and NaNoWriMo only exacerbated it.

I may have a problem.

>>64223
You really don't.

t. 10-20 front page checks a day lurker enthusiast

>>64219
Despite the site getting shittier in many ways, I still very much like this community, its attitude and general sense of humor. While it really hurts to do my best and not get much of a response for it, I generally think the site is a worthwhile place to be. It's because I care that I've been paying the bills and running the site for years now.

>>64222
>>64223
It's nice to get a pep talk, no sarcasm intended. And it's because of your earnestness and effort that I feel it's worth answering in detail.

In the interest of keeping focus, however, I'll get to the central point of my experience. Mainly, that I have a lot of it. I've been writing on this site since the very beginning, which is closing in on a decade. I've done a lot of stories, some with other aliases and styles. Short updates, long updates, daily updates, fortnightly updates, no comments, plenty of comments, whatever you can think of in regards of votes. ToY was envisioned as a fast story that would work with multiple updates a day at the cost of those updates not being too long nor too involving generally (sub 1000, usually 700 words and no single update would have anything of too much consequence from the result of a vote). Even in the beginning it was hard to get people to notice the story, I think in part because I was the one writing it and in part because it wasn't on /th/ (and non-/th/ boards get way less readers). Still, I generally gave it my best and soldiered on. I wrote daily updates as often as I could even when the votes were few or when I was literally traveling in remote areas of the world with spotty internet. No matter what was going on in my personal life I endeavored to make time to write. I more or less did even if occasionally I made a few questionable judgment calls- but that discussion is diverging too much from the central point.

I tried updating at set times no matter the number of votes. There were times that I updated with only 2-3 votes for a while. I tried waiting for x amount of votes (at times four though in more recent times six when I was forced to slow down anyhow). I had consistent update rates for weeks on end. So, what did this do for me? Not much, which is the tragic part. I failed to attract new readers despite oftentimes being the only story on the site not only with daily updates but with consistent updates at a time when even /th/ was dead. The readers I had, because they were a small pool, weren't always there either. So I'd get an inconsistent amount of votes in an inconsistent time frame. Because I believed in my mission of a fast, fun story I kept pushing things through as best I could. But at a certain point it was just stressful to try to keep slots of time open in my day in case that last couple of votes finally came in. This lead to many pauses in the story, which I sometimes did so that people could catch up, assuming they hadn't had time to read, and to see if I got any new comments, votes or opinions in the process.

The apathy was soul-crushing. People would rather not say anything or make an effort to check in and let things be rather than spur me on.

Now, as your post goes on about it, no doubt you'd tell me that this was a problem in advertisement. Well, maybe it was. But I tried my hardest to do that as well. Over the years I posted on /gensokyo/, /blue/, other story threads I ran to no avail. Reminders that I was doing something fun with daily updates as well as outright begging and pleas fell on deaf ears. There was never any observable difference in the votes. Don't even get me started on IRC. Derision and apathy were what I encountered the most in the main channel. And with the people that I knew better, the people who I knew voted (mostly people who hang around #eientei) often couldn't be bothered to vote consistently even when I reminded them to. With all that resistance you'd think I was telling them to read War and Peace instead of a 500~700 word update about 2hu schoolgirls that would take them less than 5 minutes. I shouldn't have to beg for votes, presumably it's something readers do because they enjoy the story and want to keep it going. As a writer I'm sure you understand how it can be a motivation to see a vibrant community around your work. After different periods during which I tried to persuade old readers to be more consistent and new readers to give the story a try to begin with, it just became too much sadness and stress. A silly story about coming of age and shenanigans shouldn't be so hard to write. And, honestly, seeing things continue to deteriorate was heartbreaking because of just how much of myself I had put into this story. I care very much about what I did and being able to construct a story with the help of voters who could be very fun to work with. We were on a journey together. It may sound stupid but it really hurts when you put your heart into something and have all those really stupid unnecessary hardships to contend with that ultimately keep you from doing what you want.

With all that said, where does that leave us? I'm not sure. I didn't stop writing this story because I no longer cared - quite the contrary. But I would not hop back into it willy-nilly. I went through enough cycles of begging for votes and it falling on deaf ears for me to just pick things up and hope for the best. As for the number of votes needed? I'm not sure but six (seven on a tie) felt like a good sweet spot between having to wait for all voters and producing enough differences of opinion so that votes could go in different ways instead of it being just a bandwagon. With my outlook that reader input is the single most valuable thing for this type of story (because i took in their desires and ideas whenever possible), more are obviously better. The more discussion, the more meeting of minds, the better. But, like I said earlier, this sort of discussion is best had on IRC, where it's easier to formulate more concrete plans due to the direct back and forth you can have with someone. So, without promising anything here, I once again encourage you to talk to me there.

And yeah, despite everything, I usually check the site multiple times a day too. Usually the front page but I go to other places too. It's why people saging votes is so weird to me - why wouldn't you want authors and other voters to know when a story gets more activity? I get saging a comment or an old thread you may not wish to bump, but something that's ongoing? It inspires me as a writer to see people vote and talk in my threads, making me want to write more, and as a reader it makes me pumped to wonder what's coming up next.

>>64225
When people get bored with a story or when it hits a serious roadblock in what it's trying to do (sometimes it's tough decisions, sometimes it's OP writing himself into a corner), they generally stop voting. I won't speak for anyone who voted in this thread since, well, I didn't, but complaining about anon's derision and apathy is like shouting "WHY THE FUCK IS WATER WET?" on a crowded street.

That said, your writing style is pretty fucking good compared to most of this site's writers and you should write more. Do it you faggot. DO IT.

>>64227
Whether I complain about it or not isn't really the point. I was explaining the history and process because I was told that somehow my trying my hardest would make everything work out. The point I was making was that my best efforts and dedication didn't make a lick of difference in the past. I'm not going to write a story that I know is doomed to failure because people can't be fucking bothered to check in on once a day, much less vote. Put bluntly: you want me to write? Round up people who won't pussy out after a short while and actually like magical girl fanfiction enough to make the sacrifice of taking five minutes out of their days to read and vote. Anything else is a non-starter.

It's not rocket science: write->get votes-> write more goes the cycle. If I was railroading this shit I could skip votes entirely, but the process here heavily depends on reader input. So get angry at other people, get involved. My suggestion of IRC is to help get shit organized. Talk to other people and me there. I've still got the drive and passion so I'm not the problem. Prove me wrong on the apathy, loser. And skip any sort of blithe, smarmy, condescending, angry or otherwise pointless arguments while you're at because we could go at it all day long and still not get anything done (hint: that anything is getting people to actually fucking vote).

>>64229
I will fucking vote for you. Every time, even. I liked CAW and voted a couple of times there - at least pretty sure I did. So cut through your hesitation, throw away your thoughts with a label that says "ohh god only three people voted today, why put any effort at all", someone on the internet is going to stumble on archives, read through this whole thing and feel happy.

So please, for fuck's sake, write. I will believe in you, just believe in me that believes in you. And archives.

>>64223
>>64219

Fucking faggots Fellow amigos, write sage on the email subject. Only author posts and votes get to bump the thread. No excuses, no exceptions.


>>64218
So that's why you don't call the votes. Makes sense, but you should still write down what won. Could be like this: "[x] 'Lie to the oni' Won, with touches of >>192209 and >>92685"
It is more cumbersome, yes, but nothing motivates anon to discuss more than the idea of their stupid minority vote having influence despite losing to better, more sensible, options (or I guess you could say "Nothing motivates Anon to discuss more than the fact that they can stop or lessen the impact of the bandwagoning cringe party vote from ruining the story")

Alternatively, you can just go full meritocracy with the votes, but that could put the numbers down a notch. A copy paste of a vote and a line of explanation is easy, but you can't expect every voter to write down the goddamn Martin Fierro every day.
Just suggesting things here though. At the end of the day, you're the boss.

As for votes, I can promise my own but I don't have anyone else. I'm the typical forever alone faggot that can't get friends even over the Internet.

Also, this is a pet peeve of mine but, clarify when write ins are available and when they aren't on every vote. Please.

>Update incoming on Three sisters magicians story

Hooray!
Wait, fuck, they're four now.

>>64225

If it helps, I do understand that feeling in a different way. But it wasn't a recent thing; it was crushing apathy from day one. I more or less wrote 6 days and stopped when I first started writing years ago, as not one seemed to care about my crap writing. Crap writing by FF.net standards, to put that into perspective. It even got a MST version by someone, which I honestly enjoyed.

It's why I jumped ship years later, after five years on that site. I couldn't do it anymore, no matter how much I wrote. I had written 600k words, and the whole time my one stubborn reviewer was, more or less, my one reviewer. He made silly comments on each and every chapter. I mean that literally — Since chapter 50ish of my first story, he reviewed literally every single one, which amounts to around 200.

But then I made a mistake and spent a year trying to fix my older writing. In that time, I intended to reread my story, and remember what happened, as I had forgotten. The death knell wasn't that, but that was a nail in the coffin every month. The final nail was when I tried to write a valentines story on this site, as it worked better in CYOA format.

The confusion of the readers was evident, but it was a learning experience all the same. But above all, there was such a showing. Not one person, but many, and that feeling... I liked it. I liked the feeling of others caring so much as to vote. Most were dead silent otherwise, but that feeling...

I guess your reason for staying — that community — was my reason for continuing on my writing here, with fresh stories and new ideas.

>Round up people who won't pussy out after a short while and actually like magical girl fanfiction enough to make the sacrifice of taking five minutes out of their days to read and vote.

If that's what needs doing, I'll try my best. Won't make any promises, but you did convince me to finally hop on IRC for the first true time and test the waters. Someone thought I was you in my newest story, and that was plenty reason enough to be intrigued by your writing, as it speaks worlds that such a mistake was made to begin with.

Mind you, they also thought I was Kira early on in the second story of my four thus far, but that was more awkward than anything, after I learned of his fate.

>>64233

...I just realized I never said that I got back on that horse. Whoops.

Anywho, see you on IRC.

>>64231
I don't really want to get into discussion of process right now, but your feedback is something I'll think about.

>clarify when write ins are available and when they aren't on every vote
Forgive me if it isn't the case, but to the best of my recollection I think I make it clear at the beginning of a story whether or not write in votes are generally accepted. Assume that they are unless I say otherwise. If not, it's usually added as an option in a vote when you can go with one.

>can't get friends even over the Internet.
I'm your friend, compadre. As is everyone else in my threads. That's not just some bullshit thing I'm saying to sound good - it's how my whole outlook on writing CYOAs in this site is framed. That is to say, the reason why opinions and comments are important to me is because I genuinely believe that we're doing a story together, and everyone is an indispensable participant, much like a GM in a tabletop game guides players but can't just do a whole adventure by himself. 'sides, there's nothing quite like messing around with your friends, sharing good times.

>>64230
Thanks, I appreciate the support. I'm not really writing for posterity though! To me the here and now, actually developing the story with like-minded people is what counts the most. So long as we're having fun I don't really care if I get recognition or whatever later.

>>64234
>>64233
It was nice to meet you, and to hear about your struggles.

With all of that said, guys, let's not get too excited yet. You're only still just 3 people. It's a good start but I need a bigger pool and I guess the challenge is seeing how to attract others. For now, if you don't want to 'conspire' (aka spitballing ideas) on IRC please keep voting in my other active stories. We'll see how things develop.

It's probably much too late to say something like this, but looking at this topic I just felt like getting this out. I really like your writing. I mean it when I say that, you're one of my favourite writers on this site. I'm sad to say that I didn't vote in this story. I joined the site a bit over a year ago, so I had a lot of stories to read. This one being 21 threads I didn't really get around to it. Still, I've read your old stories, and your new stories.

Really what I'm just trying to say is you're a cool writer. Maybe I'll hop on the IRC sometime.

>>64236
Thanks, the sentiment is appreciated.
but >I've read your old stories, and your new stories.
I'm sorry you had to go through that. I wouldn't read anything by me older than DEFT and even then... all that clumsy prose, occasional poor judgment calls from me and real life seeping in a little more than it should have. It's enough to put anyone off. At least the upside is that now I try to be as transparent and honest as possible and expect the same from readers, even if the truth hurts.

All the same I hope you do keep on reading the stuff I'm currently working on, I'll try to be a bit more timely with updating. But a lot of it does depend on the readers. Sometimes a single vote more, or a fun comment, is the difference between "I'll wait and see" and "I'll get on it right away!" - motivation is funny like that. And I do hope to see you on IRC. It's always nice to have a chat with the people of the site, even if it's just about silly stuff.