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Touhou Nekokayou #82: Magic A Is As Magic A Does

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Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red #82

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Characters: Marisa Kirisame, Alice Margatroid, Shanghai

The comic, which takes its title from a trope (Warning, link leads to TVTropes. Muffin will not be held responsible for hours of time lost as a result of following it.But see also this disclaimer), has mostly taken place in summer and spring (and I guess early fall in some places); however, since UFO (and Catness) take place in "early spring," and the comic has mostly taken place between SA and UFO except when otherwise specified,1 I have a good one-third of a year unaccounted-for, so I figured I might as well at least notice the other seasons. I decided to put this in a cool-enough time period that Marisa would need to wear her SA-outfit. (Presumably, she's grown out of her PCB outfit.)

You can pinpoint the exact moment where Marisa goes from "proudly showing off her invention" to "silly."

One advantage to useing such a "busy" background like the autumn-thing is that there's very little danger of accidentally moving the Cropper window a pixel off to the side, resulting in a black border on the edge, because it's really easy to notice when I've done so and I can fix it right away.

I originally had an idea for using an idea like this in a Touhou roleplay I'm involved with, in a context where Marisa would actually need that kind of physical-shield, but I then realized that (a) I wouldn't be able to guarantee a punch line that way, and (b) if I did, what would we do next? And besides, you simply cannot easily replicate the Happy Flame Time shrug-thing in text-form, but in create.swf it is relatively easy. And it ended up being fairly wordy, either way ...

As for the punchline itself: you know you're really nerdy when you've done something exactly like what Marisa did, entirely for the fun/hell of it. I know I have!

Oh, by the way ... for future reference, this is also a case of ">Chekhov's Skill (Warning, link leads to TVTropes. Previous disclaimer appliesBut see also this disclaimer). :)

Transcript

  1. (Marisa approaches Alice in Alice's house in her Subterranean Animism outfit; Shanghai is facing away from Marisa.)
    Marisa: Hey, Alice, wanna see my latest invention?
    Alice: Um, sure, okay.
  2. (The Magic Forest, in autumn. There is a large boulder in front of Marisa (who is holding a smaller rock) with what appears to be a sheet of glass standing upright on top of it. Alice and Shanghai are behind her.)
    Marisa: I have titled the spell the "Fist-Shield" cuz it blocks physical-kinda attacks, ze. First, I shall demonstrate on that glass thing, which does *not* have the Fist-Shield on it.
    Alice: Um ... okay ...
  3. (Marisa throws the rock at the glass sheet, which shatters, startling Alice.)
    Marisa: Now, watch!
    Alice: Wha!
  4. (Another sheet of glass appears in the same place in a puff of smoke.)
    Alice: (annoyed) Okay ... did you really need to shatter a sheet of glass in order to ...
    Marisa: Oh, don't worry, it's just a simulacrum, it's not real glass. Lemme get te rock.
    SFX: poof
  5. (Marisa returns from off-panel with the rock.)
    Alice: (thought cloud) A simulacrum ...?
    Marisa: Okay, got it!
  6. (Marisa, standing where she was before, casts the spell on the glass shield.)
    Marisa: And now, putting the spell on it ...
    Alice: Um ...
    SFX: ZUN
  7. (Marisa throws the rock at the glass; there's a pinkish shield made of hexagons, causing the rock to bounce harmlessly off the glass.)
    Marisa: AND GO!
    Alice: Question ...
  8. Marisa: Sup?
    Alice: So ... rather than show off this barrier -- which slows but does not stop physical force -- by making a simulacrum which would just break when it hit hard enough ...
  9. Alice: ... you made something that would realistically simulate breaking glass?
    Marisa: (goofily) Well, I didn't want it to look fake ...
  10. Alice: ... let me put it this way, then: you created a fairly difficult and complex magical effect, solely for the purposes of demonstrating a *less*-difficult and complex effect, which nobody actually needs because of the spell card rules?
    Marisa: (bashfully and cat-eared) Hey, you know I can't put down a challenge ...

1Actually, I suppose theoretically the comics with Kogasa could be said to take place before UFO; there's nothing in them which intrinsically requires that they take place after UFO beyond Kogasa's mere presence, since she was just "one of the many random pre-stage-4-bosses whom Reimu beats up on her way someplace else," and no references of any kind are made to the events of UFO. All that's "changed" is that she knows Flandre, Koishi, and the Three Fairies, and that Kana Anaberal knows her by name.

All Touhou characters are © Team Shanghai Alice and/or ZUN; create.swf is ⑨ KirbyM with help from Thefre. "Sakura petals" brush in main/4koma logo was made by Kisara Girl. "Falling leaves" brush in 60-Years logo came with Photoshop.

16 Comments (auto-closed) (rss feed)

Tewi Inonymous

Hurray for more humor and silliness!

Draykon

I actually didn't notice that was a shrug until just now.

Anyway, this is really the kind of rendition of Marisa I like best. Intelligent and skilked with magic, but not necessarily practical with it.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

I'd say a good chunk of why Marisa doesn't necessarily seem particularly bright/creative when resolving Incidents is that there's only a limited number of ways you can blow things up.

Medinoc

Well, she's not the only person to do this kind of things. Kat from Gunnerkrigg Court did too.

KurisuMurei

It's probably how Marisa has a near-flawless record of getting past Meiling. Have this spell to block so that Marisa would have enough time to charge up a Master Spark (Not all that long, really, but Meiling's shown to be pretty quick) and have it ready for when Meiling shows an opening.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Yeah, but by the time she's invented this, she's been getting past Meiling for years ...

Morgan

When I hit panel 4 on reading this I thought, "Marisa's preparing for a career in the movie special effects business!"

(Well, probably not, but everyone getting together and trying to make a movie would be a funny story.)

Twilightdusk

@Morgan: Hey, I'd read it.

Sanketsu

I read the warning. Several times. On several different strips.

I clicked on a "trope" link.

I now know why you cannot be held responsible.

Holy Lifestream... *shudder* ...it's beautiful.

Player Three

Sooner or later, this Chekhov's Skill will find use. Sooner or later.

But is it really a Chekhov's Skill if it's telegraphed as such?

DiMastine

/ Modified by Dizzy H. Slightly Voided:

Chekhov's Skill [Muffinedit: DO NOT USE <HTML> AND <P> TAGS] is from what I can tell similar to the gun. It's mentioned once then doesn't show up till people have forgotten about it. We haven't forgotten yet.

Arcc

On closer inspection, I am vaguely reminded of a Goa'uld force shield.

. . . I've always wondered if Gensokyo has its own Stargate. Personally, I think this prospect bears further investigation.

sRc

the thought has occurred to me, too (while marathoning through SG1), but then a) I wasn't sure where they'd want to go in particular, and b) since Gensokyo is still attached to Earth it would be third tier, under both the Alpha and Beta gates, and so nigh impossible to dial to

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

DiMastine, I don't know what tutorial you were using, but since it didn't get into your head the first time: The <html> tags are meant to be placed around THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT. The <p> tags are meant to be placed around AN INDIVIDUAL PARAGRAPH, and the site is already set up so that you do not need to do that. You do NOT just toss in <html> and <p> "whenever you need to use HTML tags." For that matter, it's not a good idea to just use tags if you don't know what they do ...

In any event, *cough* I have now fixed a bug which prevented the system from automatically removing screwups like that ...

Arcc

@sRc: Well, considering it's also located in a detached segment of reality, gate dialing would be fairly complex in the first place. Carter could probably figure it out, and then explain in it in a way that doesn't require actual explanation.

Now the real question is, is Daniel Jackson really that good at grazing, or does he h4x his lives?

Beta-Maxis

I'll just continue to not use HTML. Better to keep the mouth shut and appear the fool than open it and remove all doubt.