I seem to recall reading the summary of this somewhere before, but I can't seem to find it.
Anko1698: Reimu's Illness
A woman who lost her job due to downsizing is looking after her Marisa and Reimu while looking for a new one. Reimu asks for permission to have children, and she agrees. However, the Reimu of the pair of children turns out to be deformed, and dies after a few days. Reimu is depressed, and Miss and Marisa do their best to cheer her up.
Marisa asks for permission to have more, reasoning that Reimu can take it easy if there were little ones that looked like Reimu. However, Reimu keeps the newest baby Reimu apart, saying she'll do her best to raise the child despite its illness. Eventually, Marisa asks Miss to keep an eye on Reimu and the newest baby Reimu, having suspected something.
She finds out that Reimu has been abusing the Koreimus to death, so she'll get pampered after they died. Making up a story about Reimu being sick, Miss keeps Reimu separated from the others, with a toy koyukkuri to keep her company. She continues to live normally with Marisa and the other three koyukkuris.
Yeah, I was sure I'd done this one, and I was trying to figure out where I'd posted it--in some other illustration? In the wiki? In the forum? Nope, it was in my Google docs. ::forehead slap::
What the heck, posting it anyway. Can never have too much Yunchhausen Syndrome by Proxy!
Alt summary: FemAnon has a pet Marisa/Reimu couple. They give birth to a healthy baby Marisa and a premature Reimu. Reimu devotes herself to caring for the premature baby to the point of exhaustion, refusing to let anyone help. The baby weakens and dies, and Reimu becomes depressed. Marisa and FemAnon try hard to cheer her up.
Reimu gets pregnant again. This time, all three babies (two Reimus and a Marisa) seem healthy, but the next day, one of the baby Reimus is limping and has wandering eyes. FemAnon wants to examine the baby, but Reimu yells at her and says she’s taking care of it. The baby dies, devastating the parents. Again, FemAnon tries to cheer them up with treats.
Things seem to go on normally, but Marisa privately approaches FemAnon and tells her that Reimu is still grieving, so she should watch out for her and be extra-kind. Marisa also mentions that the remaining baby Reimu sometimes seems to be in pain. FemAnon puts a video camera on the yukkuri house, and when Marisa is away, FemAnon sees Reimu doing something to her child. She rushes over and finds the child collapsed near a straw. Mother Reimu denies doing anything, tries to prevent FemAnon from examining the child, and when FemAnon points out that her child is in pain and to be pitied, Reimu turns everything around as a justification for why she herself should be pitied. FemAnon finally realizes that after the experience with the premature baby, Reimu began hurting her own children to get attention for herself.
FemAnon feels partly responsible for spoiling Reimu and not catching on sooner. She doesn’t want to get rid of Reimu, but Reimu will claim another victim if she goes on. FemAnon tells Marisa that Reimu is sick, and Marisa must watch the children while FemAnon takes care of Reimu. She keeps Reimu isolated in a separate room and gives her a toy yukkuri that’s been set to make sounds like a premature yukkuri.
Skribulous said: ...I actually went looking for this, because the summary sounded familiar. So i missed platina's post. OTL
Anyway, it's not exactly the same story, but close enough. The first instance of Yuuhausen Syndrome (AFAIK): post #3884
Someone who's the leading tagger authority in OYP is going to have fits with what tag I used to finally find it.
Cool, I don't think I'd read that one before. m1's art is so cute.
For a slightly different use of the reference, post #28830 (on my to-translate list, but long and wordy so I'm in no hurry to tackle it) refers to yukkuris' power of belief as the "Yunchausen Effect."