Stars in the Forest's Sky

Independent, semi-selective Marisa Kirisame from the Touhou Project. Written by Lilli. (Est. Dec. 10th, '17)

[arborealastronomy]

unassorted headcanon time:

1. marisa is actually pretty badly malnourished, with her mushroom based diet; this is part of the reason why she’s incredibly short! the other reason being, well, you don’t get a lot of food when your tutor’s a spirit.

2. marisa’s tsuchinoko really is named Plopsnek. 

3. poor girl’s got a Lot To Work Through in regards to Mystic Square; you try being a young girl who accidentally kills a few demons, watches your mentor kill a lot more, watches the goddess of the land set a goddamn city on fire, and escape without any traumatic memories.

4. she’s devised a bunch of color codes for her star danmaku to use around the house. one such example is a green star, followed by a blue star - this means “can someone please bring me a blanket”

5. mimi-chan is a sentient icbm. she didn’t used to be. this is quite peculiar!

[arborealastronomy]

arcanedollmaker:

Marisa?  Cleaning the place up herself?  And striking a deal with Patchouli?  Now she was certain something was up…  Alice shut the door behind her as she entered the main area of the house, finding herself a seat opposite of Marisa.  She was almost ready to make a snarky quip about Marisa’s surprisingly mature decision, but decided against it.  It didn’t seem like her friend would be very receptive to their typical bantering right now.

“Human perspective, you say?  Hrmm…” she pondered for a moment, and then it suddenly clicked for her.

“You wouldn’t happen to be thinking about becoming a youkai magician again, are you?  I can’t imagine any other reason why you’d make such a deal with Patchouli.  No normal person could ever read through all those books in one lifetime.”

That must be why she was feeling so down…  She was probably getting introspective and wondering what she really wanted out of life.  Even she must’ve realized by now that the only way she could pursue magic to any significant degree would be to forsake her humanity.  But would she really be ready to give that up…?  Alice wasn’t sure.

“…Is that what’s been on your mind?” she tentatively asked, trying as best she could to empathize with Marisa.  For herself, Alice never had to come to such a decision.  She was already born with a naturally long lifespan.

“I am, I guess. I’ve already discussed the idea t’death with ya, so... no sense in goin’ over it again.”

“An’ I ain’t upset about that, either. It’s just... one of those days where I’m a lil’ off kilter, I guess. I dunno how many of you demons wind up developin’ mental problems, but human minds’re kinda fragile, y’know? I swear I’ve talked about that before with ya, too. Jeez...”

Marisa opened her eyes again, and formed a green star bullet, followed by a blue one. The two flew off into another room, and after about a minute, Plopsnek came slithering out, dragging a blanket along in his mouth.

[arborealastronomy]

arcanedollmaker:

It wasn’t entirely unusual for Marisa’s door to be unlocked.  As Alice stepped inside, expecting to be greeted by the same sight of the piles and piles of junk that graced the main living room as always, she was actually rather taken aback by what she found instead.  And what’s more, Marisa was just lounging around looking…  Well…  A little disheveled, to say the least.  Typically when she stopped by, she’d see Marisa doing something – whether it was digging through her trash heaps, reading up on a stolen borrowed book, practicing some new magic, or fiddling with her mini-hakkero, the witch was always up to something.  So to see that not be the case today was jarring.

“Erm…  I came here to borrow some books of yours, since I know you always…  Ahem…  Liberate some from the Scarlet Devil’s library from time to time…” she stammered out, awkwardly trying to tiptoe around the proverbial elephant in the room before deciding to just outright face it.

“But I suppose I should be asking you the same thing.  What happened, Marisa?  Were you robbed??”  That was really the only explanation she could come up with – that Marisa’s whole inventory had been stolen, and she was lazing about in despair over it.  But then, no…  Why would she just be sitting here doing nothing about it, then?  Why wouldn’t she be chasing down the culprit, firing off Master Sparks as she pleased?

“Or…  Did something else happen?”  There was quite a hint of concern with that line of questioning.  She had to wonder just what was going on with this girl that she had come to call her “friend.”

“Robbed? Nah. Cleaned up the place. I am, believe it or not, capable’a that once in a while.”

Marisa let out a sigh, and shifted on her couch, trying to find the comfiest arrangement of cushions and limbs. Her search was ongoing, it seemed.

“I made a deal with Patchy, an’ gave her all’a her books back. So, I had t’clean up the place to find ‘em all. ...Really, I just shoved all the junk in a couple’a closets. Patchy also wants t’comb through it all, t’look for magical artifacts. She’s gonna be disappointed though, mosta this shit really is junk. But what do I get out of it, y’ask? Access to her whole library, an’ she’s willin’ to copy mosta her books. Not all of ‘em - some books are a bit too dangerous to go leavin’ their homes. As y’ought to know.”

Marisa eyed Alice’s Grimoire for a moment, before closing her eyes.

“It’s a good deal an’ all, don’ worry. I’m just havin’ a moody day, I guess. Good ol’ depressin’ human perspective an’ all that. But anyway, only books I got left here are my own. An’ I doubt my inexperience’d be of help to ya.”

She rolled over onto her side, facing away from Alice. Marisa’s definitely not having a good day, it seems.

[arborealastronomy]

scarletdestruction:

“A-Ah…I checked with Remi…sorry, she isn’t willing to help, and I don’t have a lotta money myself..”

“So…I’ll just take two.”

“Aaaalrighty then. There’s your two, that’ll be three hundred yen. An’ your sister’s an ass.”

[arborealastronomy]

outsidersmith:

That would be no issue, and for such a fair price too! At least, if his math is correct.

“I will take three.” If you blink, you might miss him getting the money out!

“Alrighty! There’s your little sweet coins, an’ - yep, six hundred yen... alright, pleasure doin’ business with ya.”

[arborealastronomy]

outsidersmith replied to your post: Drops 1,000,000 Chocolate money outside of Marisas...

“How much?” He has a mighty need.

“Only two hundred yen apiece!” Taiki isn’t anywhere near as cute as Flan, unfortunately. “Pretty fair deal for somethin’ that doesn’t exist here~”

[arborealastronomy]

scarletdestruction replied to your post: Drops 1,000,000 Chocolate money outside of Marisas...

“Remi will buy it (for me).”

“That’s gonna be a hundred’n fifty yen apiece for ya. An’ be glad, that’s a discount cuz you’re cute.”

[arborealastronomy]

Drops 1,000,000 Chocolate money outside of Marisas door.

Welp. Maybe she can sell all that chocolate, seeing as how that probably isn’t exactly a common thing in medieval Japan.

[arborealastronomy]

what’s a money

[arborealastronomy]

arcanedollmaker:

@arborealastronomy:

Well this was a bother…  It would seem that Alice had come up short on magical reading material since her last excursion to the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s library.  Perhaps she underestimated how much stuff she needed to get, or maybe she had simply forgotten about some of the books she had come for.

Point being, she was fresh out of material now and her research had basically come to a standstill.  But she couldn’t just go right back to that manor so soon – the librarian might become impatient with her, and it’d be downright embarrassing!  There had to be another way to get her hands on some new material without letting a week go to waste…  And unfortunately, Alice knew just what she could do.  But she didn’t like it…

The walk to Marisa’s house wasn’t too terribly long, but it felt like it took an eternity for Alice.  This was essentially her walk of shame.  She felt bad that she had to go groveling to someone for help, much less Marisa, her…  Friend?  Rival?  Acquaintance?  Actually, she wasn’t even that sure about the relationship between the two of them.  Nonetheless, she figured the wannabe witch would at least hear her out as a fellow magic-user.

“Marisa…  I need something,” she announced herself rather bluntly as she knocked on the door, forcefully but with some restraint.

“Yeah, yeah, let yourself in.”

When Alice came in, she’d find a rather unusual sight - the ever-present junk layer was present no more, and Marisa was languishing on a couch. She was fairly underdressed to be having company - no skirt, her shirt partially unbuttoned, and most importantly, her hat off - but really, she couldn’t bring herself to care. It was one of those days where nothing felt like it mattered all that much.

“What’s up?”

[arborealastronomy]

Just making sure you weren’t making a mistake. Make sure you’re safe from wrath. But remember just because you aren’t physically strong doesn’t mean your weak

“I... know? Uh, thank ya though.”

[arborealastronomy]

Are ya calling Sanae fat?

“No, I’ve got really fuckin’ weak arms. It’s a magician thing, Byakuren aside.”

[arborealastronomy]

sophisticatedsuccubus:

“Wait wait…Marisa and mistress…Are making a deal?!?!”

Plopsnek makes affirmative Plopsnek noises. Marisa, meanwhile, is making lots of loud crashes as she upends her whole house looking for those last damn few books-

[arborealastronomy]

knowledge-and-shadow:

“Just as you nicked the Multi-Directional Laser from me.

“As for books you’ve found, I’m pleased you were already planning on doing that for me. You see? This is already a great working relationship.”

“Definitely off to a good start! So, I think I should get goin’ and start gatherin’ up all those books. Tryin’ to find all of them’s gonna be a pain... But, that’s alright. Have yourself a good rest of the night, Patchy; I ain’t gonna take more’n a couple’a days to have all them gathered up, ‘kay?”

[arborealastronomy]

knowledge-and-shadow:

Patchouli nodded; she almost certainly was getting the better end of the deal. Whatever “junk” Marisa had picked up over the years, a lot of it was powerful and valuable, even if she didn’t know what she had. This agreement handed most of that to Patchouli if and when she wanted it, but if Marisa was getting what she wanted in exchange, it was fair.

“I might have wanted a Hakkero if you had one you could spare; I admit, a Master Spark is impressive to look at when it’s not being aimed at me, and I wouldn’t mind being able to shoot it myself. But I’m getting what I really want out of this deal when it comes to the Master Spark, so if that’s off the table, it’s off the table.

“That reminds me, a corollary to part two: if you find any interesting books in your adventures, please bring them to me. I’ll naturally want to look at them and add copies to my library.

“In this case, since the books would be yours, I would get the copies, while you kept the originals.”

“...Honestly, I kiiiiinda nicked the Spark from Yuuka Kazami in the first place. The Hakkero makes it a hell of a lot easier, ‘course, since I’m still just a human without much innate magical talent, but yeah... Back when I was a kid, she had the big ol’ fuck-you-laser market pretty much cornered. I mean, I s’pose Gengetsu kinda had a big laser too, but... eh, anyway.”

“As for books, sure. I was kinda surprised y’hadn’t said anything like that already, t’be honest with ya. I... heh, I was kinda already plannin’ that, whether you had said anythin’ or not. Fair’s fair, right?”

[arborealastronomy]

knowledge-and-shadow:

The mage nodded. “Oh yes, I was quite serious,” she said. “I collect knowledge. This means collecting books. I seek to control access to the knowledge I’ve obtained, but that doesn’t mean they vanish into the Voile’s maw, never to be seen again.

“It simply means that the books in the library are mine, and if someone wishes to gain the knowledge they contain, they need to go through proper channels first. Like you have done just now.

“You have your goals, Marisa, and I mine. Your goal of becoming a youkai magician does not harm mine in any way, so I have no reason to try to stop you. All I want is that my library and my rules be respected while you use the knowledge I’ve collected to further your goals.”

She smiled.

“Since you’ve agreed to do that, our accounts will be balanced, and we can move forward.

“A word of warning, though; depending on what books you ask me to copy, I may have to take longer to do the work. The more magical power a book contains, the more it takes out of me to duplicate it, so you’ll need patience, but whatever work I agree to do will be done.”

This was a profitable day. Patchouli would be getting her books back, and ending all of Marisa’s raids on the library. All it would cost her was letting Marisa in to do her research and making copies of books the other magician requested as she wanted them. Which, as long as Patchouli didn’t actually lose any books, was no burden at all. When she wasn’t blasting through walls and slinging magic at her, the blonde witch was hardly the worst company.

As for the other half of the price…

“I suspected that was the case; you might have been able to do better business if your shop wasn’t in the depths of the Forest of Magic, where only the strongest or most foolish would dare to enter, but that’s not for me to judge. Calling it store credit sounds better than ‘let me come into your house, rifle through your stuff, and take what some random things I want when I want to’, don’t you think? Maybe I can drum up some more business for you this way.

“Besides, if what I want isn’t in your possession, finding it gives us something to do, doesn’t it?“

Marisa, of course, recognized that Patchouli was probably getting the better end of the deal, but that didn’t really matter to her. Transcending her humanity was everything, and if this helped speed that along past, you know, “an indeterminate amount of years after my death,” then it was all worthwhile.

And so, she stood and listened, to all that Patchy had to say. And in the end, Marisa had a smile of her own.

“Heh, the shop location was t’keep dumbasses from fuckin’ up half the countryside. Now, I will say, there are three things in m’house that y’don’t get. My tsuchinoko, my ICBM, an’... the Hakkero. Kourin made it for me, an’ me alone. As for the adventurin’ part... mm. Yeah. I like the sound’a that.”

[arborealastronomy]

You just know Marisa would be a fan of the Pokemon Minior if she knew they existed.

you’re absolutely right, anon

and also anything that can learn Hyper Beam because giant lasers fuck yeah