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This is super ultra hyper late but Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, @thislittlelog! I’m your @touhousecretsanta!

Since ReiMari seems to be your bread and butter, I hope you will like them having a little moment for themselves like this.

#touhou #reimari #touhousecretsanta #reimu hakurei #marisa kirisame #touhou project #thislittlelog #2018 gift #my art

Merry Christmas @sonofdysonsphere! I’m your @touhousecretsanta for this year. You said you had wanted to see writing this year and because of that I wrote these two pieces for you. One is a series of poems, the other a series prose, and together they tell two sides of the same story. Once from Marisa’s point of view and then from Alice’s. It was great fun to write and I hope you enjoy them and the holidays as a whole.

A liar and a cheat, A laggard and a thief Is what they think And let them do it! Let them each and all Think that and only that To their heart’s content So long’s they don’t suspect, Don’t guess at all At the day’s toil.

Let her think it too, With sharp words And sharper sighs So she doesn’t think of this, Of the frustration and failure Deep in the forest As she tries over and over Just to get it working, just once, To bring them down From the Heavens above Right here, right now: the stars.

Let her think of only the end, A show brought to her Built by a witch’s hands, An architect beyond compare! Perfect and without fumble, A show to last the ages Let her think on that and only that Without all the effort, all the trouble. Without the smokes that raise To nothing at all but coughs. Without flames that spark up Only to die right before the eyes Without the blasts that blow her back And show not one star, Not a single one.

A master’s work needs be flawless.

A brilliant boom! The mightiest of explosions, So she’d claim clearly And without shame or pause Even if she knows it a lie, Especially because it is. A brilliant boom! It takes down a tree Or maybe even two! Oh dear and the smoke! It rises and rises, Willowing wafts of failure Signaling her place, Signaling her work Which just don’t do. So the witch packs her bags And mounts her broom To begin off and alone To another spot, safe and sound.

A frightful sight! The most dreaded of scenes Is spotted up on high In the sky as she flees. A frightful sight! Why it’s the doll maker, That seven-colored mage, Surely looking fierce Or at the least exasperated. Either way, either way It’s not good, no good at all. So the witch dives back down, Back into the woods To find another place, safe and sound.

III

“I saw you, you know!” “Oh, what’re you up to now?” “That was too close to my house!” “Could you just stop?”

They’re all pleas and begs That she throws aside Just for the chance To keep up the sham Of a perfect gift, Effortless and wondrous.

“Can you just say something?” “I know you saw me!” “Look, I’m not even mad!” “Oh, fine, be that way!”

Those are truths, she’s sure, For Alice doesn’t lie, Not like her, Though she does hide In her own ways, Silly, precious hermit.

A devious hermit that shouts: “I have you now!”

And the witch is snared.

Cocky grin on her face, Crooked and wild, To hide the growing panic As she wriggles and writhes Caught up tight, tight In puppet strings unseen. That’s what she shows off As Alice comes marching up, A million questions prepared, And not a hint of hate Like when they first met.

Sour frown on her face, Hard and thin, As she asks and asks Poking and prodding About the blasts so strong That they took down a tree (Or was it two?) And so, so close to her house As Marisa shares a million lies Each more ridiculous than the last. Not to mock her either, Like when first they met.

It was foolish, it was To cut her down And with a cackle and a cry She’d up and off Right back to the sky To go off in search Of a suitable place, yes, To perfect the gift That’s for her, just her Though it’ll fill up the sky For all to see, A loud sign of love.

A nagging thought lingers Of how easy it was, How she was set free Nice and quick, just as she’d like. She chalks it up to trust, Friendship, plain and simple! Why Marisa didn’t even crush anything! No reason to detain her, no. So she tosses the thought right out As she finds her her place.

It takes a day And then it takes two And maybe even twelve But it gets done, it does. No smoke, no flames, Just stars Right in her pocket, Just for Alice.

Alice who she pulls along, Hand around her wrist Babbling boastfully Of just what she’ll see, Marisa’s great secret! Known only to her Till now As the love colored witch Sets the stars in the sky All blue and green And purple and red, Arranged out just so In shapes and showers So, so perfect, As a Christmas must be, Just for Alice.

VII

With rapt attention Alice looked to the stars, Marveled and awed And the witch preened, Proud and joyed At a gift worthy of her, The seven-colored mage.

But Marisa was to marvel too As Alice held it up and out After a display, A failed experiment And a giggle too. So Marisa lied And Alice hugged And for a time Perfection seemed pointless. -- From a magician’s point of view... I The day passed as it typically did for Alice. She sat at home, shut in her room. Safe, snug. There was a blissful quiet, only broken by the sounds of birds. Not a knock at the door from anyone, or a rude intrusion from Marisa. Just peace and quiet. Thankfully. Free as she was, as she preferred, she worked at her dolls. Not new ones, nor even plans for ones. It was a maintenance day. Limbs had to be checked, and stitches redone if need be. Bodies needed checking too, repacked with fluff as needed. The joints on her wooden puppets needed work and their strings too; a broken puppet isn’t much help in a fight. And the dresses! Dresses and darling little hats and more bows than one should know what to do with...That was perhaps the most vital step: ensuring they looked beautiful, each and every one. This work would take her the better part of the day to get through even just a fraction of the dolls, but the effort was worth it. Satisfying. And the chance to work in peace? That was also welcome. As she combed the hair of one doll a blast was heard. Off in the distance thankfully, but still she frowned as she drew the comb through the doll’s hair gently; she didn’t want to tear it. The peace was dead. Hopefully this would be a fluke and she’d only hear this one explosion, though. Goodness knows, she couldn’t bear to work with them going off all day. That prayer in her heart and her shoulders stiff with anticipation she went back to her work. The next blast didn’t come right away. It didn’t come and Alice’s nerves calmed. Enough so that her shoulders fell and the worry with them. She could return to her precious dolls in silence. A ripped dress was repaired, a hat switched out, and button eyes sewn back on. As she flipped the doll over in her hands looking for more imperfections though a second loud bang went off. Her body went rigid, leaving her only able to sit still for a time. Heart pounding she set the doll down and looked out the window. A pillar of smoke in the distance was seen. Who knew what Marisa was up to this time; it had to be her of course. Glaring out the window, she waited a moment longer for another explosion. This time she was not disappointed. The biggest yet went off and it seemed to take down a tree. Of all the.... Unable to work any longer and worrying that Marisa would burn the entire forest down at this rate, Alice left her desk. She left her room and her home and set off, dolls at her side. She’d need to at least see what Marisa was up to. It might not be an incident yet, but an investigation needed to be made. II Not one tree but two! Two trees had been felled and there Marisa was scurrying away on her broom. She’d probably seen Alice coming and wanted to make a quicker getaway above the foliage. Wrinkling her nose at this and the lack of time to investigate, Alice rose above the forest and began her chase. She pursued the witch as fast as she could without overpowering her entirely. Marisa’s lack of stealth would be her downfall. Alice would see to that. “I saw you, you know!” she shouted out to Marisa. To no avail, of course. Marisa was pretending Alice was not there at all. Something she’d likely continue until she was caught...Still, Alice tried to reason with her as she willed herself a tad faster,, “What are you even doing? That blast was too close to my home and what about people in the forest!” Marisa, of course, refused comment. Frustrating. “Could you please at least say something? ‘Hello,’ ‘Sorry,’ ‘It wasn’t me?’ Anything?” Alice tried again, knowing that the words would fall on deaf ears. Fall they did as Marisa kept her mouth shut and seemed to even pick up her pace. No, Alice would need to catch the witch by trickery to make this work. Keeping up appearances, Alice sent Hourai and the others down into the woods with a wordless command: string up the forest, in a number of directions. What better to catch a witch than a net? A net she can’t even see! The witch would need to be chased down into the trees for that to work, however. That in mind, Alice pushed herself just a bit more. It would be dull to win with overwhelming force, but if she could just spook Marisa a bit and into the woods...Surely, a bit more speed would be fine! It wouldn’t be a cheat! To show how close she was getting Alice shouted again, “I know you saw me, Marisa! Look, I’m not even mad. I just want to talk!” Marisa swore. Good, good. Grinning with confidence, Alice reached out a hand and brushed her fingertips against the bristles of the broom. The witch swore again and tossed a burst of stars behind her to stun Alice. Blind for a time, Alice rubbed at her eyes. Pained or no she still made sure to seal the deal with faux anger, “Oh fine! Be that way!” That would make Marisa’s defenses drop further, thinking that the magician would run off back home. So Alice hoped, anyway. Even if not Marisa would go down into the woods once more, surely. If speed wasn’t working then trickery would have to do. Unfortunately for Marisa Alice’s dolls were also in the woods. Her very successful dolls, given the cry Alice heard as she dipped into the woods herself. Boy that was fast. A bit faster than she expected…Shame. Still cleverness is cleverness and she’d bagged herself a witch without having to cheat. III “Hey, shoo why don’t you!” Alice heard Marisa shout as she walked in on the scene. Marisa’s broom was confiscated by Hourai, faithful as ever. The witch herself meanwhile was struggling against the invisible puppet strings. Why, she even tried to kick at some of the dolls. “They” tightened the hold on Marisa at Alice’s prompting, which led to Marisa letting out a pained, “Ow, ow, ow, ok! Geez! I’m sorry for the kick! Still a pest though…” “One day you’ll learn to not trust the trees, I’m hoping. It’ll get boring if you keep this up for too long,” Alice said as she admired the sight of her work. She investigated too, eyes glancing about the scene of the capture. There was a tube on the ground, she noted; a strange thing she wouldn’t stare at too long. She turned her eyes back to Marisa thinking to investigate the tube on her own later. Needless to say, Marisa would not be divulging the truth herself. She’d have to pry that out herself. “Well, I mean, when you grab onto it like that what’m I supposed to do…?” Marisa said as she fell limp against the strings. Not for giving up, surely, but to bide her time and conserve energy. She was a stupid brute of a woman in so, so many ways, but she was also as wily as a weasel when need be. Alice admired that about Marisa. “Not set the whole forest on fire, I’d hope,” Alice said as she eased up on the bonds some, for Marisa’s comfort, “What were you even doing? You knocked over not one, but two trees.” Marisa grinned. She did that frequently, no matter how hot the water she was in happened to be. “Oh, you know, practicing for the old onbashira toss at the Moriya’s,” she lied without even a hint of shame, “Can’t beat the oni if I don’t practice my lifts, you know!” “Uh-huh,” Alice remarked, deadpan, “For a festival six years from now.” “It’s all about conditioning, Alice! Why, you can’t just expect me to go in there rushin’ all this. I’d pull a muscle or five and then what? Another oni victory!” As Alice stepped on the tube at her feet she noted how easily it crumbled. A sort of cardboard? It seemed from how it crumbled and that smell...sulphurous almost...Keeping up the act Alice said, “I wasn’t aware you held so much faith in Kanako. Or is it the other one, the frog?” She thought about the tube. A firework. A very unsuccessful one given the trees...and Marisa’s squirrely behavior “Oh, yeah. Totally. Real big fan of her, you know? She’s just got that...um…” Marisa stalled and smiled sheepishly at Alice, “The uh...I mean. The sky tram? That thing’s neat? Dunno what you’d need it for if you can fly but it’s cool…” She was really intent on keeping the ruse up. Too intent and she would for the whole day or more if Alice entertained her. Alice did not have the time for that. The mystery was partly solved by simple observation anyway, so Alice ordered her dolls to let Marisa loose. “Very,” Alice said as she watched Marisa snatched her broom back from Hourai. She watched her stick her tongue out at the doll too. Hourai was unimpressed. “Can you at least not throw trees not even a mile from my home?” Alice asked. “What?” Marisa said stupidly; her lie was already slipping from her mind probably as she mounted her broom. “Oh yeah, sure! Count on me, Alice! Trustworthiest human in all Gensokyo, on top of second strongest! That’s me.” she added and with that and not even a goodbye or a wave, Marisa rocketed off to goodness knows where. Hopefully the new spot proved a safer place to conduct her experiments. Hopefully. Alice sighed, somewhat exasperated by the whole affair. She smiled though, as she watched Marisa fly off. Absolutely ridiculous...but it had been a bit fun. Fun or no she’d dolls to get back to though and so Alice set off to her home once more. As she back question sat in her mind: why fireworks? IV BANG! Alice shot up from her bed with a start. Hair still messy and complaining the whole way she followed her dolls as they led her to the window. Out it could be seen the source of the sound. Outside her window and grinning wider than ever was Marisa. It wasn’t even sunrise and she was already creating a racket… Unapologetically to boot. Alice didn’t even get a sorry bow. No, she just got Marisa spouting off something that she couldn’t hear from her room. She could see what stood at Marisa’s feet though: fireworks. Remembering that day almost two weeks ago and seeing the date on the calendar she realized what that whole mess had been about. She grabbed the remains of the failed rocket and left her room. Hair still messy and wearing only her slippers, she hurried out to meet Marisa. “You know you could have woken me up a bit more normally…” Alice said, not a touch annoyed. Well, perhaps a tiny bit annoyed. An explosion to wake her? Really? “Yeah, yeah I could’ve but it’s more fun this way isn’t it? A day to remember!” Marisa said while standing proudly above her works, “No boring old ‘Here’s breakfast!’ or ‘Look it’s Christmas!’ or whatever.” Alice looked down at the store of fireworks. There were piles of the things, in various sizes. Honestly, she was a bit amazed that Marisa could get this all together in such a short period of time. “Perhaps, but what if you killed me with the shock? That wouldn’t work out well for either of us.” “Huh. Yeah, good point there,” Marisa said while kneeling down to light another rocket. “Stand back a bit, Alice,” she said waving her back, “They’re safe! I swear! Just...you know. Yeah? Yeah!” Not the most stunning of endorsements some would argue, but it made Alice smiled and she did as requested. She’d trust Marisa for the time. “Let’s only set a bit of the forest on fire, please,” she joked as she looked up to the dark sky.“And go…!” Marisa said before scampering back on her hands and knees to sit next to Alice. Alice turned to look at her briefly to see her grinning up at her from the floor. “Merry Christmas, Alice!” The sentiment was drowned out a bit by the sound of the rocket launching up into the sky. Quick as she could, Alice turned to gaze at the display. Stars upon stars upon stars, close at hand and in seven colors. They spread forth and showered down with intent and care in well crafted patterns. What those patterns meant themselves, she could not guess exactly, but they were planned painstakingly, each and every one. That she could tell and that, in a way, awed her more than the fireworks themselves. More so when she thought again on that day almost two weeks ago. As the rocket gave out its last breath and as Marisa crawled back to the stash Alice pulled out the broken and charred cardboard tube. She looked at it for a moment before saying, “So the log tossing went well, I can see.” Marisa went rigid with shock and turned red. With shame? Embarrassment? What for, Alice couldn’t understand. Marisa was always so weird about hiding even the barest hint that she put effort into anything. Even when the gig was up she still tried to hide it. Alice watched with amusement as Marisa turned around to fiddle with a new rocket. All she said was a sheepish, “Dunno what’cher talking about, Alice…” The second rocket was set off and Marisa seemed intent to keep her effort hidden. Enough so that she didn’t budge from her spot as the rocket shot into the sky. Alice would have to get her to budge herself it seemed. Keeping her eye on the sky, she walked over to Marisa. Awed by both the fireworks and Marisa’s bashfulness, Alice knelt down and hugged the witch. “Thank you.”

#touhousecretsanta #sonofdysonsphere #marisa kirisame #alice margatroid #2018 gift