The sun gives a blinding welcome as you emerge from the train car, landing onto beaten boards of the platform with a thump. A good stretch and a few paces shakes off most of the stiffness from hours of uncomfortable sitting.

Framed by reddish foothills, the town sprawls out before you. It has the chaotic arrangement typical of a gold-seeking surge and the usual decay after the rocks had been picked clean. Painted, worn facades define the uneven contours of the main street. Overlooking this central axis is a prominent peak-roofed building that you’d guess would be the town hall, but even this monument reveals fading colors and lost shingles. Further away from the center, the structures dwindle, houses giving way to shacks, giving way to boulders and sand. A narrow stream glimmers its way between the mountains, through the town, vanishing under a bridge supporting the tracks. Spindly trees and mats of grasses huddle by the precious water and you can imagine the find it was for the first arrivals in the area. Hanging off the station is the name of your destination: Sage Springs.

All in all, you must admit the view was nicer through dust-coated windows.

A wagon-scarred road parallel to the raised railway separates you and the station from the main body of town. It joins the main street almost perpendicularly, forming a bent “T” shape. The handful of passengers who had also gotten off are already dispersing across it, leaving you alone on the platform.

The train’s bells and impatient whistling slice through the air and you give the machine more space. Turning your head to follow the departure, a few bored faces can be spied through open windows and underneath, cast iron wheels turn as mechanical might heaves against its own weight. The gust from the rolling mass ruffles your clothes and forces you to intercept your hat before it can take flight, but it also feels pleasant against the late morning heat.

The train slides away to continue its eastward journey, leaving behind a backdrop of pasty dryland and scraggly bushes. The flatter land allows the valley’s mountains to circuit the horizon unimpeded. The train leaving also means

I have been suffering for a while from a disease called, watching too much disgaea and my brain going all tingly when I just happened to see an image of Seija and Renko traveling through hell. Hence this now exists too.

---

Your head hurts like a motherfucker, and you’ve had extensive experience with exactly the kind of person who warranted the term during your search. (Isami somewhat more so, if her drunken rambles could be at all trusted) so you knew exactly what you were talking about. Or thinking about. Whatever.

You just know it’s not due to alcohol, because you’ve sworn it away the day you saw drunkards fly about in a bar and throw booze and chopsticks around like it’s a normal sight and not something that almost stopped your heart.

The air is strongly scented with something like a cleaner version of a diesel-fueled firebomb, a sort of thin but intense burning scent of rotten eggs like aroma, and the ground on which you’re sprawled on in your typical thrashing prone posture felt warm and soft and moist, sort of like you’ve fallen onto a bucket full of glue on the beach, not that that ever happened to you.

You push yourself up on addled limbs, raising a heavy head, blinking the sleep from your eyes – which is immediately a sign that something is off, because your left arm hadn’t worked in a while, ever since that bitch with the cat claws had torn you up actually. But, well, that could wait, because the rough stony ceiling not a few feet up, combined with the scent of blood coming from the hexagram beneath you, promises nothing good. You move to draw your ‘legally’ obtained taser to no avail, neither do you find your ‘totally not looted’ firearm, instead only finding a flashlight and some minor girl stuff in your handbag alongside some survival items. Still the flasher is hard enough to really send off a blow to someone’s skull if you swing it hard enough so you’ll make do.

Anyway you scan your surroundings again, as expected you’re in some cave, the soil of which is made of a blackish, warm stone? The ground is too smooth and even to be of normal origins. That aside the e

Dear Reader.

If your reading this, then...let's just say you're not in the place you call home anymore.
I can't say too much, but let's just say that I'm an interested party wanting to help.
I wanted to write this message to help you in this little prediciment.
I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Don't worry. I actually arrived in this land a while back, so while I like to think my
knowledge about it is pretty limited, I'll try to explain how things are around here to the best of my ability. Okay?

Alright, I think the biggest question you have on your mind right now is "Where the heck am I?!"
Well my hypothethical reader, I'm glad you asked.
This is Gensokyo, the Land of Illusions. It's a mystical land where humans co-exist with creatures from Japanese Folklore
known as "Youkai". It also home to gods, and other creatures from myths and legends.
Think of it as kind of like a nature reserve for these magical and mythical creatures, located somewhere in Japan.
Of course actually getting into Gensokyo isn't just some walk in the park.
You see, Gensokyo is actually protected by a barrier called the Great Hakurei Barrier. It's what hides Gensokyo away from what
the folks around here call the "Outside World". I don't know which part of the world you come from (hopefully you can
understand this message to begin with), but to give you an idea, your homeland would techincally be apart of this hypothetical
"Outside World". Anyways it allows youkai to survive even when people from the outside don't believe in them anymore.
Don't question that, please. That is WHOLE 'nother can of worms.

Okay, so concerning you...let's just say you should probably find somewhere to stay before nightfall.
I mean, hopefully, you're not actually reading this in the middle of the night, In middle of freaking-who-knows-which-part-
of-Gensokyo. And if you are...well just keep your chin up. Just try not to let any youkai find you at night.
Let's just say humans need to be wary of these beast. Especially humans who ca

♫: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiK7nqraLAo
[祭炎 - 東方PARTYBOX02 (GET IN THE RING)]
Lyrics: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Lyrics:_%E7%A5%AD%E7%82%8E
Music Collection: https://mega.nz/#F!1BdBzIKZ!bhLzijfM3iyphpueDOKf0g

The sky is changing.

Note: Don't be afraid of letting me know what you think. I like compliments, I like criticisms.

Histories of Yatsugatake, a Suika backstory short: >>>/shorts/2180
THREAD 1 >>65260 THREAD 2 >>65548 THREAD 3 >>65922
THREAD 4 >>66462 THREAD 5 >>66845 THREAD 6 >>67429
THREAD 7 >>67966

>You awake in a small dark space, and feel a stabbing pain in your chest.
>Would you like instructions?
>Y/N

Edit: Updates will be fast when I'm actively in the thread. Every 10 or so minutes fast. Check back a few times after posting.

The Human Village was devoid of sound. A chilly fog lurked around the canal, and the grass on the bank glittered with morning dew. Rays of the early morning sun shone over empty streets, most inhabitants still sleeping soundly in their bed or are already working at the fields outside.

The silence is soon filled by the breath of a Shrine Maiden in red-white as she kicked against the shutters of a small book-renter shop. One kick, two knocks with her fist against the door, then another third kick, were enough to bend the shutter slightly. A Witch covered in black was hunched over beside her, mini-Hakkero in hand and the same troubled expression on her face as her close friend. They had flown to the village as fast as they could, and they couldn’t afford to stop and catch their breath. Not if they wanted to finish this in time. Neither exterminator had any idea if their target was still in the shop, or if her parents were awake or asleep, but the crash of boots against wood would attract attention sooner or later.

Resting or taking it slow wasn’t an option either, for they might start thinking within that time and then the whole miserable business would become ten times harder.

Finally, with one final blow, the shutters broke apart. There was no sound within the shop. Still the debris was kicked aside and the two women rushed inside. There was no sign of their target still or her parents, or even, thankfully, some troublesome youkais that’d love to stand in their way.

No, it was only Hieda no Akyuu standing in front of the desk, her body completely still and her face like stone despite the telling red puffiness and dark bags under her eyes. “She’s not here, Reimu.”

“Then where is she?” said Reimu with a cold tone, her air of indifference already on the burst of wavering now that she knows they at least are making an attempt, that it doesn’t end here and now.

“As if I’d ever tell you.” Akyuu barks back with a heavy edge, one of her hands slowly moving under the desk, an obvious threat really or a true attempt to take out a weapon, it won’t matter.

“Akyuu, w

"What's this, a crossover episode?"

---

The alien woke up and found, to its bafflement, that it didn't have any memories to recall. He may not have remembered anything, but he figured he knew enough to be confident that this was not natural, at least not natural for him.

He had awakened somewhere warm, probably provided by the great burning mass resting far above where he stood. Claws shifting uneasily in the dirt, his single, great eye roved around at what looked to be miles of green vegetation, intermittently spliced through by streams of water. Nothing was strikingly familiar.

Ack, he said inwardly, This might be where I live. Or work. A clawed appendage rose to rest just beneath a gnarled, hideous gape. Do I work? What kind of work am I supposed to do with all this green stuff? How will I know if I ever worked or not? It doesn't matter. The thought was terminated shortly. Although he knew zilch about himself, he quickly latched on to the notion that he was a thinking, rational, whatever-he-was. While his current predicament would've been a cause for concern to someone else, he felt it wasn't the same for him, that he was made of something stronger. He lifted one of his longer appendages and flexed.

After all, I do seem to have...considerable muscle mass. Hah.

Yes, he was a thinking, rational, and strong creature, and he would find a way to reorient his poor, frazzled mind. That was all that mattered now.

[] - He had a strange-looking device attached to one of his lovely appendages. It squirmed.
[] - Perhaps a clue would lie in the plant-life that surrounded him. Was it edible?
[] - That great ball of heat was a little irksome.
[] - His keen eye spotted another lifeform not too far from him. Communication would be a good thing to test out.

---

So hear me out, I know this is a little strange. I just came up with this idea and decided to run with it. The beginning is short and a little rocky, but things will ge

The red dusty land around you has been thoroughly baked by the unblinking noon sun. Innumerable green and gray brittle shrubs speckle the hills like a forest for inchlings. Against this backdrop you ride casually. Broomstick, your trusty horse, had been pushed quite hard the last few weeks, and not being pressed for time, you are happy to give him a break. Head and neck shielded by your signature navy blue broad-brim, you hum gently, savoring this peaceful moment as your destination crawls forward. The rhythmic thudding of hooves on dirt is the only other sound in the still desert air.

At the end of the dirt path is a ramshackle settlement reclining against a stony mound. Plenty of pebbles line the faded streets. Judging from the shoddy buildings and gaps in the rows of tents, there appears to be little silver. Silverpebble makes an appropriate name for the dying mining town. Your current map marks it as a full town, but you have the feeling by the time of the next survey, nothing but bleached wood and rusty tools will remain.

Hope does take a while to snuff out, though. Closer now, you can see a man smoking by the single remaining saloon. A couple of children gather water from a well. A woman hangs laundry over by the miners’ tents. They, and a few others, stare at you warily. Midday, no actual miners are seen, away and busy, you presume. You locate the stables and dismount. Unsurprisingly, a stablehand has already seen you, a freckled boy grinning at you as he approaches.

After arranging for a single night’s stay for Broomstick and handing over a couple coins, he attempts to unload your luggage while you are distracted putting away your money. The kid yelps, his skinny arms straining. Your swaying bags prove to be heavier than he expects. Metal and glass clink through thick cloth.

“Careful now! Hup!” You reach over and relieve him of your precious equipment, gently placing the bags on the ground.

“I’m really sorry, miss.” He quickly apologizes.

“Nah, I should’ve warned ya.” You reassure him. You need to double-check of course, the long journey being just as dangerous as a careless child.

“We don’t see many visitors thes

A land of illusions on the brink of civil war meets the man who once declared he would plunge the world into chaos.

This is a crossposting of a fic I have been writing on AO3. It is a crossover between Touhou and the VN/anime Steins;Gate (part of the broader Science Adventure franchise). The original can be found here: archiveofourown.org/works/35380462

Soft winds brushed his hair as he awoke, he winced as he opened his eyes, shielding them with his armored hand. Looking around he found himself to be supported by a tree in a field of odd red flowers, quite a change from the Badlands. Though, how he ended up here, he really didn’t know, the last thing he could remember was the damn cyborg stabbing him through his gut. Patting himself down, he found that all of his wounds were healed, even the wear of his Exo-Suit was repaired, the man sighed, shaking his head he decided that he was not going to question why God deigned him worthy of being saved


Standing up, the man took a look around, seems as if there were more of the red flowers all around him, hills upon hills of red flowers, the air thick with their spores of sweet nectar. Though that was not what caught his attention, all around him were cobblestone paths stretching from the tree all the way beyond what he could see, snaking around the hills until out of sight.
Smiling, the man simply shrugged, if he was still alive and kicking, then he wouldn’t question why someone built these cobblestone paths in the middle of nowhere.


He expected the stone to either crumble or chip beneath his weight, he was pleasantly surprised when they simply held him up, whatever those stones are, they certainly are made from the tough stuff. He had to stop a few times, the air in this place was thick with the sweet smell of the nectar that the flowers secreted, with his head swimming he had no other choice but to wait until the nausea went away, if the vertigo wasn’t the enough, his limbs were getting heavier and heavier to move. Despite all of this he finally managed to get up the hill.


And what lay beyond stole the rotted stale air from his throat.


Gargantuan cherry blossoms now occupied the landscape, their petals slowly falling through the air in a way that spoke of peace and finality, the red flowers from before were now fully bloomed, showing their purple innards to whatever unfortunate soul wanted to gaze within.


An unexplainable feeling of sadness washed upon him, as though something of great value was lost, grabbing one of the petals that the c