Underdone Topics for Strips

boom said:

Speaking of which, isn't that the problem people were having with Game2002's stories? Basically that his stories were more or less moralization against yukkuri abuse? Or was it just bad storytelling?

Both, plus his failure to accept constructive criticism.

It's also crucial to note here that this is why you rarely see abyuse comics involving yukkuri like Medicine and Utsuho, given the potential for humans to get seriously hurt according to established fanon rules. The so-called "common types" are the ones most used for those comics because you don't have to worry about shoehorning established consequences into the abyuser's actions.

Actually, there's not much artwork on those two at all. And I can't recall when they've been portrayed as shitheads. But when you say "established fanon", isn't that essentially canon?

Myself, I don't see yus as WMDs. Sure, I think Medi will give you food poisoning and/or contact rash, but she's not the hopping canister of Sarin she's made out to be. To me, Okuu isn't an enchanted suitcase nuke but rather absorbs radioactive material. Dangerous in its own right if the radiation is high or her paste is used for a weapon.

mad_hatter said:

Actually, there's not much artwork on those two at all. And I can't recall when they've been portrayed as shitheads. But when you say "established fanon", isn't that essentially canon?

By "established fanon," I mean the generally agreed-upon characteristics that most artists use.

Myself, I don't see yus as WMDs. Sure, I think Medi will give you food poisoning and/or contact rash, but she's not the hopping canister of Sarin she's made out to be. To me, Okuu isn't an enchanted suitcase nuke but rather absorbs radioactive material. Dangerous in its own right if the radiation is high or her paste is used for a weapon.

Interesting interpretation. That'd be worth a few stories.

Well, I think Okuu's nuclear usually inclined to nuclear bomb/reactor rather than poisonous radioactive material.

Usually the use case would be:
- Okuu explode, the whole world went crazy and make the world a living hell for the yukkuri monster who could destroy the world (no, most of then are just harmless but totally annoying nuisance)
- Okuu as bomb used by special ops
- Okuu as powerless nuke(lol) that means nothing in front of the noblest most superior creature in the universe (human) and they are used like cattle to generate clean energy (convenient science made the radiation harmless)
- Punchline bomb, because this is in some definition, a Touhou manga

Yeah, fanon/canon has Okuu as a small atomic bomb. I just can't see Okuu that complex. To me, she's just a clay-filled ball. Actually, she doesn't have a means of detonation other than going super critical. In fantasy theory, I suppose Okuu+Rumia could be weaponized.

A discussion on just how dangerous yus might be (or peaceful use of the inherent properties) would be a great topic for a story.

The on going battle between a yu and large mean Goose over water chestnuts or water cress

Ok so this didn't get much traction before so I'll elaborate, I was thinking that a Yu would going back and forth with a goose or swan and usually losing but then after the Yu gets his ass handed to him one to many times he seeks out help from dosu who is sorta like Mafai don who not only takes care of the goose,the dosu then has his minions clear out all the eatable plants. Leaving the Yu with a worthless and muddied pond. Additionally the Yu means the rivalry with the now dead or gone bird.

Personally I think yukkuri are portrayed as much too fragile, particularly koyukkuri. A few years ago I performed an experiment with some freshly made manjuu I bought at a local store. Basically I wanted to see what it would take to make a manjuu splatter apart like is commonly shown. I laid out some waxed paper on a baking sheet and I started dropping manjuu onto it.

The result(which I somewhat expected) was that they didn't break. The mochi skin is elastic and fairly resilient and anko is similar in consistency to playdough which means it absorbs impacts and deforms but doesn't really break. Furthermore the light weight of a golfball sized manjuu means there just isn't very much force behind an impact, they easily withstood falls from a three story height with minimal deformation and no breakage. Even throwing the manjuu as hard as I could didn't break the skin or deform it significantly.

I think a basketball sized manjuu could survive a drop of a few feet but would be much more likely to break from a significant height. What this means is that a koyukkuri could survive a fall that would kill it's parents which might make for interesting orphan yukkuri stories.

There are description that koyukkuri's skin is closer to dumpling. Thinner and more fragile.

And I want to eat dim sum.

The skin on the manjuu was only a millimeter or so thick, the resilience comes from the elasticity of glutinous dough, the malleability of the anko filling and the general lack of weight of the manjuu. It's similar to how a giant ant would collapse under its own weight but on it's own scale is capable of feats that humans are incapable of in out own scale. The pistol shrimp which is 2cm in length is capable of snapping it's claws together to create a 122 decibel sound which generates a shock wave which shoots a tiny jet of water that travels at 60mph and reaches temperatures of over 8000 degrees F (Mini Marisa Dosu Spark!).

The characteristics of Yukkuri are already established and in general vulnerability is a useful characteristic for storytelling but sometimes I think it is taken too far. Rocks tearing holes in koyukkuri when they walk on it? You can put manjuu or a pork hash dumpling on the edge of a knife and it won't even cut the skin, there is just too little weight.

I think a really underdone story-type is the good ending-type. Like, sorely underdone in recent months. Recent good ends almost always end up with wild yukkuri killing one-another in order to resolve some kind of issue. I almost never see a good end involving humans helping yukkuri, and there's always consequences for the good end if said human helps, as well.

Hitosura said:

I think a really underdone story-type is the good ending-type. Like, sorely underdone in recent months. Recent good ends almost always end up with wild yukkuri killing one-another in order to resolve some kind of issue. I almost never see a good end involving humans helping yukkuri, and there's always consequences for the good end if said human helps, as well.

A variation of this would be a yukkuri that actually earns its good end. But then again, writing a story where it's possible to feel empathy for a yukkuri demands more writing skills than blunt abyuse. Even more so when you also have to write an anon that isn't either a complete asshole or a limp noodle. I think that's what I liked about pool #615 : while you raged about anon being so damn idiotic, you could "empathize" with little Reimu, and at the same time, witness abyuse without the entire "mohawk-sama" thing that is a bit worn by now.

Artistical said:

A variation of this would be a yukkuri that actually earns its good end. But then again, writing a story where it's possible to feel empathy for a yukkuri demands more writing skills than blunt abyuse. Even more so when you also have to write an anon that isn't either a complete asshole or a limp noodle. I think that's what I liked about pool #615 : while you raged about anon being so damn idiotic, you could "empathize" with little Reimu, and at the same time, witness abyuse without the entire "mohawk-sama" thing that is a bit worn by now.

Yeah, except that the level of stupid on that kid was passed the level of, 'have a nice bleach cocktail.' I mean, he meant well, but it all went so poorly, I couldn't help but not finish that story.

I actually spent some time on it -- I'd like to see a story where a bully human gets interrupted by another human, who actually stops them.

Has anyone ever actually done that yet? I mean, the human doesn't even have to take them home and care for them -- just not put up with someone picking on them.

Speaking of stupid, another topic we rarely see is how a yukkuri's life is saved by sheer human stupidity.

After seeing marisa vs the snapping turtle. I would like to re-irradiate that Yu vs nature under done and greatly awesome. a group of Yus could battle squirrels for acorns. of course the for the Yus think they are in a war fighting a horrible foe. the squirrels are just gathering nuts and eating kos

It would be nice to see some rare type stories actually finish for FF stuff. It seems like most are unfinished or trail off into the middle of nowhere.

Nobody ever really covers the training of patchies and other village elders either.

exitstrategy said:

It would be nice to see some rare type stories actually finish for FF stuff. It seems like most are unfinished or trail off into the middle of nowhere.

Nobody ever really covers the training of patchies and other village elders either.

I -kind of- touched that subject -- that the Patchouli of the clan was given a lot of survival books before being set out as a stray. That knowledge was parlayed to other yukkuri, who joined up in cooperative survival. I haven't worked out the whole story on that, though I doubt it'd be necessary, nor would Patchouli (at this point) probably be able to remember it all.

Also, I had a really fun/ny rare-type idea that was gonna show up. x3

captperv said:
a group of Yus could battle squirrels for acorns. of course the for the Yus think they are in a war fighting a horrible foe. the squirrels are just gathering nuts and eating kos

Well...a Reimu didn't fare so well against one squirrel and wasn't even aware of him.

captperv said:
a group of Yus could battle squirrels for acorns. of course the for the Yus think they are in a war fighting a horrible foe. the squirrels are just gathering nuts and eating kos

Well...a Reimu didn't fare so well against one squirrel and wasn't even aware of him.

Ruukasu said:

Well...a Reimu didn't fare so well against one squirrel and wasn't even aware of him.

the abuse comics are fine and as others have said they are old hack. i think yus vs other things would be fresh. One Yu could find a boiled egg to eat that was left behind by an anon and then another yu tries to adopt the boiled egg. hilarity ensues.

mad_hatter said:

My own thoughts on hair loss is a yu is like a Mr. Potato Head toy; start with a snack cake and add decorations. So anything not part of the pastry they are based upon doesn't regenerate, even eyes. That said, I don't think it's unreasonable for orange juice to regenerate hair but not accessories. The Akyuu Guro pool had a pregnant Marisa whose hat was part of her body. In that case, it's fair to assume the "hat" would heal.

I do remember seeing..reading something where an Anon was going to give a Maricha a bath and undid her braid. IIRC, the hair couldn't be re-braided and was explained something like "the magic escaped". Myself, I don't see if the hair is there and your sight/dexterity is good why you couldn't re-braid hair.

Just want to point out a comic where a Marisa redid her own braid. Yukkuris ain't canon and there's no canon lore to ground them, so creators can go hog wild. http://yukkuri.shii.org/posts/68717?tags=fav%3Aboom

*cue yukkuris with laser beams*
(that only put out as much power as a laser pointer)