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thefarshore
Player Information
Name: Jade
Contact: drinksteapots@gmail.com or![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
drinksteapots
Age: 24
Other Characters: none
Character Information
Name: Sanae Kochiya
Canon: Touhou Project
Canon Point: Post Legacy of the Lunatic Kingdom
Age: 21... Yep. She's be 21 by now.
History:
Wiki link.
Okay but to break it down:
•• Sanae is born in the "outside world" (relative to Gensokyo). Early life is unknown, but at some point her talents are discovered and questioned by those in the outside world. Kanako takes her in to be the new shrine maiden. There is one more god at the shrine, a native/curse god named Suwako, although Sanae is kept mostly separate from her. Sanae doesn't even know that Suwako is the other god at the shrine. As it turns out, Sanae is descended from Suwako-- another fact that Sanae doesn't know at this point.
•• News of Sanae's oddities becomes more known. Some people respect her for it. Others even worship her.
•• Meanwhile Kanako realizes that she's losing influence over the people in the outside world, and that she's not gathering as much faith.
•• Kanako decides to move the entire shrine to Gensokyo. Sanae is either made come with or tags along by her own decision. Either way, Sanae does not appear jostled by the move, and is enthusiastic about meeting new people and to begin a new life as well as establishing Kanako's shrine in Gensokyo.
•• The events of Mountain of Faith occur. Sanae is sent to tell the other shine and its maiden (Reimu) that here is another shrine in town. She declares this rather proudly, in fact, which upsets Reimu. Remiu proceeds to make her way up the mountain to challenge Sanae and Kanako. There's not much of a resolution, as the fighting is mostly pointless: Kanako is allowed to keep the shrine in the mountain (later, she makes a branch shrine at the foot of it), and Sanae remains a priestess. In fact, it's their shrine that begins to gather more visitors and faith from both tengu and humans than Reimu's shrine, much to the latter's chagrin.
•• The events of Subterranean Animism occur. Kanako gives THE sun god to a hell raven to eat, all for a plan to give the humans of Gensokyo free energy after the hell raven is tamed. Reimu flies back up the mountain to confront Kanako about this and runs into Sanae before Kanako. After a brief conversation, it's revealed that the other god of the shrine is Suwako, the native/curse god, and that Sanae is descended from Suwako. Reimu basically just yells at the gods to stop messing with things and leaves.
•• The events of Undefined Fantastic Object occur. Sanae is determined to fulfill her shrine maiden duties by solving an incident. She ruthlessly confronts all the youkai involved and wins her battles. The leader of the UFO crew, Byakuren, is allowed to stay by the human village on her good graces, and is given a temple by Kanako to practice Buddhism.
•• The events of Touhou Histensoku occur. A nuclear-powered giant golem is rampaging around. Sanae mistakes it (excitedly) for a giant robot. But to solve this new incident Sanae once again sets off pretty much to beat the answers out of any and all youkai that cross her path. She eventually heads down to the hell raven's lair and after defeating the hell raven, she encounters Suwako, the curse god and her own ancestor. Suwako claims responsibility. It is confirmed by Suwako that Sanae is in fact a god. Regardless, Sanae is outraged by Suwako's behavior and fights Suwako and wins. The incident is cleared.
•• The events of Double Spoiler occur. Aya, one of the famous tengu of the mountain where Kanako has her shrine, and Hatate, another tengu, have it in their minds to take photos of all the other big names in Gensokyo while they battle. The final stage includes Sanae. Both comment how Sanae is fearsome when fighting, noting a youkai-like darkness in her power when she fights, possibly indicating her relationship to Suwako's curse goddess powers.
•• The events of Ten Desires occur. It turns out the Buddhist temple built by Kanako to give to Byakuren was specifically built over a mausoleum of a Taoist prince named Miko. Another incident occurs when the resurrection of this prince comes around. Sanae once again sets out to resolve it... by beating youkai up and the divine spirits that are to attend the resurrection. Miko warns Sanae of her ruthless behavior, but Sanae ignores it. She confronts Miko and defeats her. The incident is resolved.
•• The events of Hopeless Masquerade occur. Characters decide to fight each other to increase their popularity and religion among the people, specifically the Miko, Byakuren, and Reimu. It's a religious-themed fight. However, Sanae and the shrine she represents does not need any faith or popularity, and Reimu is a shinto priestess like Sanae, so she sits these battles out, just looking on.
•• The events of Double Dealing Character occur. Sanae does not participate in this incident, but as revealed in the manga chapter 19, Sanae knows that it occurred and is hurt by being left out of resolving it. She decides the best way to get back for being left out is to... give Reimu and Marisa crappy wine. Yep. That's the extent of it. In a later chapter, Sanae doesn't make any big appearances except to check on her friends again. It's revealed that mikos have the ability to read fortunes/fates, and Reimu was using this as a get-rick-quick scheme.
•• The events of Forbidden Scrollery occur during this time too. Sanae visits Marisa and Reimu, says that she's setting up small branch shrines towards which people can pray and ask for miracles. Specifically, there is an eat-an-run incident in the village involving a snake youkai. It's unknown if Sanae actually knows who the eat-and-runner is, but she proceeds to give the village a sermon about the dangers of snakes and the importance of paying tribute to snake gods. Sanae uses this to inspire both awareness of snakes in the village and hope that the incidents will resolve. Sanae constructs mini branch shrines in the area that allow villagers to donate food to. According to Sanae, this will decrease the eat-and-run incidents because now both eat-and-runners (and snakes) will have free food to grab from the branch shrines instead of stealing from restaurants. Either way, her main shrine is getting more faith now and her evangelism is successful.
•• The events of Urban Legend in Limbo occur. Sanae does not participate in this event, although she does hear of it and see the effects of it in Gensokyo.
•• The events of Legacy of the Lunatic Kingdom occur. And she actually does finally appear in a game again, hooray! She's given the Ultramarine Orb Elixir before going on her adventure. The player is given the choice for her to drink it or not. What does the elixir do? It removes the impurity of death and allows the user to experience the immediate future. And then upon death, you return to an earlier time. The would be dangerous to native gods (ie non-heavenly gods) like Sanae's greatnth-grandmother Suwako Moriya, and it was noted that it could render such gods completely human. But for in-game purposes, this means that you can restart at the chapter instead of the beginning of each stage. Regardless, even if the player does have her drink it, she still has all of her abilities as usual, meaning that her miraculous powers are not just because she is a god. I'm going to choose that she does not drink the elixir to bring about the true ending to the game. Anyway, Sanae returns from a successful trip to outer space and the moon, defeating a couple of goddesses, where she subsequently reports to her patron goddess, Kanako.
Personality:
There's a popular notion that "Sanae is a good girl". And she is! She's very much the selfless shrine maiden with great big ol' caring heart. She will put others first before her and will not hesitate to sacrifice herself. This idea to always be helpful, good, and most importantly benevolent comes from her idea of responsibility as a shrine maiden and as a god. She believes that as a god, it is her duty to care for the world and the people in it. She realizes that there are those who look to her with hope for her miracles, so she believes she must fulfill all of their desires to the best of her abilities to win their faith. She holds a strong sense of justice and empathy for the weak. A lot of empathy.
Sanae's emotions are often labile. At the hint of a sob story, she can burst into a waterfall of tears. If she's handed some rice, she'll beam a smile complete with sunshine and sparkles. She's someone who is easily read, as she wears her emotions posted on her sleeves. This, of course, makes her a bad liar most of the time. The times where she conceals her emotions are when she feels the need to stay strong and show that she's not hurt. Sanae is uncontestedly stubborn when she wants to ensure that others do not worry about her. She'll smile instead of admit being sad, and the phrase "I'm fine" becomes her motto during difficult times. As someone who grew up working and fighting alone, this is second nature to her. She wants to be a good friend, and to her a good friend means that she doesn't let her friends have a reason to worry. (Interestingly enough, the converse of this statement-- that friends can make her worry about them-- is completely fine for Sanae.)
Following the line that Sanae is a "good girl", she's rather innocent and naive. She has such a positive outlook on life and the world, she's also a bit of a ditz. She believes in the good in others and has a positive outlook. She easily trusts others, even strangers. She's in her own little happy bubble concerning the people of the world, and she won't hesitate to lend a helping hand, even if it's not needed. And when she does help out, she takes her job seriously, responsibly, and dutifully. When she isn't allowed to help out or when she misses out on helping others, she becomes upset and hurt. She takes it personally because she sees helping as part of her duty; if she isn't there, then she's failed her duty.
Having grown up in modern Japan, Sanae is much more knowledgeable of the outside world in comparison to Gensokyo. She has been shown to be enthusiastic about giant robots and aliens, which is ironic considering this means she's more into science fiction than anything fantastical such as herself. Additionally, Sanae has been shown to be book-smart and technology savvy. She flawlessly demonstrates her knowledge of famous experiments-- such as Fleischmann and Pon's cold fusion experiment, nuclear physics, and quantum mechanics. In the manga, she has described herself as the "science type" instead of a literally individual. Also unlike her Gensokyo acquaintances, she is familiar with the "outside world" technology.
She has a desire to be liked, possibly to a fault. She wishes to have friends and dislikes the idea of being alone or uninvolved with others. She will go out of her way to interact and help Reimu and the others, so far as to look after the former's shrine and do her chores. And she won't bat an eye if that work is thankless. She wants to be included and viewed in a positive light, to be like the others her age. Whereas in the modern world she was an anomaly-- although sometimes regarded as positive one when she was finally inducted into Kanako's shrine as a shrine maiden-- she was mostly alone and considered strange. When she first came to Gensokyo she was shocked that she was no longer considered "special"; she was a bit perplexed. On one hand, it was good to have the playing field leveled. On the other, if she didn't fit in now in a place where everyone had extraordinary abilities, that would just mean she's innately weird. Sanae basically tries hard to be liked not only by her rival shrine maiden Remiu, but the other humans (and later on, some youkai she does not mind as well).
Why, yes, Sanae is a god. The technical term is Arahitogami, meaning she is both fully human and fully god at the same time. As it is, at times she herself doesn't remember that she is a god. It takes Suwako, her curse god ancestor, to remind her. It is only in recent games where Sanae begins to cite herself as a god, but those times are rare. When she does, it comes off more reserved than not as if she knows that the title of a god can be intimidating, and she doesn't want to be intimidating to a human. So, while she is indeed a god, she's rather cautious about it. Her reservation about being a goddess stems from her insecurities on wanting to fit in, from back before she even knew she was a goddess. In the outside world, she had wished to be regarded as normal, have a life with friends, go to high school, etc. With powers like hers (not to mention her eccentric personality), it's to no one's surprise that she had been regarded as strange. Even in Gensokyo, others may still find her weird for her knowledge of the modern/outside world; thankfully over time she has cultivated strong friendships with the just as strange residents of the new world. She can't but help admire her friends, after all, for all of their power and courage and spirit. She finds comfort that they do not respect her on principle for being a god, but rather because she is herself-- and that ties into Sanae's personal philosophy of what behaving like a god ought to be. As someone who readily answers calls to prayers, wishes, and hopes, as someone who goes out of her way to help others, Sanae believes that the gods are not there to be served by their charges, but to serve them instead.
Sanae grapples with her godhood in a unique way. She knows she has no choice but to be a god, but the truth is that she didn't even know she was a god-born-as-a-human until later. And strangely enough, her mortal flesh and blood is descended from one of the native gods of the land, not the heavenly gods like herself. Sanaes knows that at one point, she will become a full goddess in her own right and ascend back into the heavens. That sounds all well and good, but to Sanae this means that she will have to leave her friends... if they even happen to be alive at that point. Losing those she cares about is something she regards warily-- and wearily, because this future has been on her mind often. To be alone is a great fear of hers, and she doesn't like to entertain the idea of a future of solitude among the clouds and without friends. Furthermore, Sanae sees her current humanity as precious, and something not to be looked down upon at all. She doesn't ever want to lose it, and she grateful to whatever powers that be that allow her to have an experience as a human, with all the joy and sorrows that it brings.
A part of her personality that contrasts directly with her kind and airheaded demeanor is when she fights, specifically youkai and those who threaten humans.Through her career as a playable character, she's demonstrated competence that rivals Reimu's and a clean-score record. She's confident in her abilities to bring a swift defeat to the youkai (and at times gods and humans) that oppose her. She can often get carried away in her fighting, driving other youkai to flee. She's ruthless in combo attacks, often developing plans in the spur of the moment. Some youkai even note that her style of fighting more often reflects something nefarious rather than that of a benevolent goddess, but Sanae will dismiss these points.
Abilities:
•• Ability to create/manipulate miracles. Well, she is the god, too, presumably of miracles. Kami literally translates to "force of nature". In canon, a god/kami is the manifestation of a concept or physical force; belief is given to give a god a consciousness, so-to-speak. When faith fades, the god vanishes. However, that doesn't mean the concept itself disappears (I.e. If the god of wind lost faith, the physical force of wind itself would still remain.) With Sanae being miracles, she's every single miracle.
•• Flight. All Touhous have it.
•• Mountain of Faith spell cards. Showcases her ability to part bodies of water, as well as a favorite of hers to call in stars and use them to fight.
•• Touhou Hitsentoku spell cards. It's depicted here that she uses a variety of Shinto things to fight, such as charms and paper talismans, among other things. Sanae fashions her charms in the shape of cartoonish frogs. She also shows her other abilities such as calling a falling star, elemental manipulation, or creating barriers.
•• Subterranean Animism spell cards.
•• Grimoire of Marisa's entry on Sanae's spell cards.
•• Double Spoiler spell cards. Shows her ability to take another's power to use it as her own and attack and use it against them, whether it's a youkai's or otherwise.
•• Obviously the spell cards that involve summoning gods of her world (Kanako and Suwako, for instance) will not be carried over. But in this game, will ask for permission beforehand (and also in the questions section to see if this will be allowed at all).
•• She carries around a gohei, a kind of Shinto wand in addition to the onusa, which has purification properties. She's often depicted waving it around to direct her attacks or even block others. Basically it's paper, but it becomes much more in her hands. The Hisountensoku game shows how she can use her gohei as... a weapon that's much stronger than what appears to be wood and paper. It can cut and block, and generally be used as a melee weapon.
•• Shinto priestesses are often trained in the arts of healing, purification, exorcising, meditation, barrier making, archery, and fortune reading.
Strengths:
++ Kindness. She truly believes the best in people.
++ Hopeful. She looks on the bright side of life, silver lining, and the little things that make people smile.
++ Fun. She likes to have happy conversations, not sad ones. She's the type of character that will drag other people to parties and into dances and play harmless pranks and games. You want your character to be dragged into an even he/she otherwise wouldn't go to? Your character doesn't want to dress up in some smelly costume or stuffy fancy-ass suit? SANAE IS YOUR GIRL.
++ Passionate. About helping, about life, about video games... almost anything! She always gives her 110%.
++ Wondrous-- of other things, not her specifically. She will rant on and on about outer space and the galaxy and stars and physics.
Weaknesses:
-- She doesn't have much physical strength. She's pretty weak in that department. She's a good cleaner, if that counts. Although it's down that she can survive being in a nuclear reactor as well as the vacuum of space, she still can be cut and bruised pretty easily.
-- She's naive and trusting, almost to a fault. She can trust people easily, she's easily distracted, and she's easily excitable, and she has a huge need to be helpful and viewed in a positive light.
-- She's forgetful. She even forgets she's a god at times!
-- She doesn't attack other humans, besides on ground to simply spar.
-- Her getting "revenge" on someone consists of her buying them more alcohol, to which there's really no other effect beyond that.
-- She's insecure about herself, and wants other people to like her.
-- Annoying. She can be overbearing in her eccentricity. See strength #3. As one can imagine, it can strain a relationship negatively.
-- Although her abilities give her a wide arsenal of attacks, she doesn't actually think of strategies beforehand. She's become reliant upon her power rather than strategy.
God/Shinki: God
Why?: Sanae is a god in her own canon already. But even if she was not, she is someone who already response to others's "prayers" anyway. She does what others ask for her, and she helps out when needed.
Top 3 Choices:
I checked the FAQ about apping in as a fictional god of their own canon. So, my first choice is to have her be herself! Sanae Kochiya, goddess of miracles.
Second choice is Marisha-Ten, Japanese goddess of light.
Third choice is Uzume, Japanese goddess of joy, happiness, and good health.
God Type: good natured, benevolent, helpful, caring, healing
Power:
The ability to create miracles. Now, she already has this ability innately (as revealed in canon, her powers remain even if she drinks an elixir that strips her of godhood). In canon, this power translates from creating food (such as rice or fruit) in the palm of her hand to creating stars on the tops of her fingertips. The ability to create miracles as an actual power would be the ability to make impossible things happen, not just improbable. Although she has these abilities, it's not as if she knows how to use them properly or correctly. For instance, she doesn't use her ability to create food on the spot to stop world hunger. And she doesn't bring the dead back to life, or change water into wine. Her actual demonstrative use of miracles is very rare, aside from when she uses them in fights, and even then she's not omnipotent at all. This is her own ability of miracles.
For an actual god-ability-of-miracles for the purposes of this game, I ask that the big miracles would be select to the wishes of others, not herself. They would have to be dependent on other's faith and what someone else wants; therefore, she would never be able to use a big miracle on her own. For instance, if someone wants empanadas to rain from the sky, they have to pray to her to make them; she can't just make it happen just because. Point is, Sanae can't use these god-created miracles for her own purposes, they'd be subject to whatever someone else wants.
Writing Sample
Sample:
Thread:Post with 10+ comments at a festival.
200+ Word Prose:
"Oh, that? That's a gameboy."
Cue the a soft, surprised gasp at her answer from the other shoppers. All of their attention, as well as Rinnosuke the shopkeeper's, now drawn on the young wind priestess, she flushes slightly before clearing her throat. The comment had just been to chime in informatively, but it appears they wish for more of an explanation. She realizes that to the residents of Genoskyo, such an arbitrary device in her homeworld might be beyond their comprehension here. Nevertheless, she will attempt to explain. "It's a handheld gaming device. It must have wound up here because it was forgotten about in the outside world..."
She trails off as she reaches for the gameboy. It shouldn't surprise her how this wound up here, as the new 3DSs have started to pick up in popularity. Explaining 3D to the people here, though, would take more than a miracle, so she continues with her explanation. She holds up the gameboy. "Do you see the small screen? That is where when the gameboy is turned on you'll begin to see images of the game-- a background, a character, some text. Think of it as having a book inside here, where how you play with the book determines on how the story goes. Oh! Or if how you play with the book determines if you can move onto the next chapter."
How one would play with a book already alludes some of the customers. Some of them politely bid farewell to Rinnosuke before they leave. A tad more desperate to educate her audience now, she speaks faster. "It's all electronic and digital. Um, the electrons are projected out and hit the screen, and their frequencies determine the color and shade that's seen from our perspective, and-"
And she's already lost all of the attention of the customers. A touch on her shoulder and a soft reassurance from Rinnosuke tells her that that's enough. Sanae apologizes, setting down the gameboy on the counter. She was just about to turn it on, too! She knows for certain that the people here would be astounded by how technology worked, if only they had an interest. They, too, would enjoy the classic games available like she did as a child. And then they might want to talk to her about it! It would give her something more in common with the humans here! Alas, their lack of interest is the case. What a dejected expression she wears.
If after a small, awkward pause of seeing the priestess so saddened, Rinnosuke reassures her that he has an interest and to return later to teach him. It is his shop, after all, and he should understand his merchandise.
Sanae immediately perks up, smiling brightly at the invitation. To be sure, she will be trying to teach him everything she knows about gameboys and how they work. Perhaps during a later day it will matter to her when the rest of Gensokyo will remark how odd she is to care about such "outside world" things, but for now she could not be more elated to share her interest with someone else. Enough youkai-hunting for today. It's time to jump on some spiked turtles and fall down green plumbing pipes.
Other
I would like Sanae's shinki to be Lu Meng (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
young_oldman) that's apping in. Thank you!
Anything Else?:
1. Sanae as a priestess has the ability to summon gods to her aide. Would this be allowed for the in-game gods (albeit with permission from the players)?
2. At this point in time, Sanae will still have the Ultramarine Orb Elixir on her person, still full. Is she allowed to bring this with her in game?
Name: Jade
Contact: drinksteapots@gmail.com or
Age: 24
Other Characters: none
Character Information
Name: Sanae Kochiya
Canon: Touhou Project
Canon Point: Post Legacy of the Lunatic Kingdom
Age: 21... Yep. She's be 21 by now.
History:
Wiki link.
Okay but to break it down:
•• Sanae is born in the "outside world" (relative to Gensokyo). Early life is unknown, but at some point her talents are discovered and questioned by those in the outside world. Kanako takes her in to be the new shrine maiden. There is one more god at the shrine, a native/curse god named Suwako, although Sanae is kept mostly separate from her. Sanae doesn't even know that Suwako is the other god at the shrine. As it turns out, Sanae is descended from Suwako-- another fact that Sanae doesn't know at this point.
•• News of Sanae's oddities becomes more known. Some people respect her for it. Others even worship her.
•• Meanwhile Kanako realizes that she's losing influence over the people in the outside world, and that she's not gathering as much faith.
•• Kanako decides to move the entire shrine to Gensokyo. Sanae is either made come with or tags along by her own decision. Either way, Sanae does not appear jostled by the move, and is enthusiastic about meeting new people and to begin a new life as well as establishing Kanako's shrine in Gensokyo.
•• The events of Mountain of Faith occur. Sanae is sent to tell the other shine and its maiden (Reimu) that here is another shrine in town. She declares this rather proudly, in fact, which upsets Reimu. Remiu proceeds to make her way up the mountain to challenge Sanae and Kanako. There's not much of a resolution, as the fighting is mostly pointless: Kanako is allowed to keep the shrine in the mountain (later, she makes a branch shrine at the foot of it), and Sanae remains a priestess. In fact, it's their shrine that begins to gather more visitors and faith from both tengu and humans than Reimu's shrine, much to the latter's chagrin.
•• The events of Subterranean Animism occur. Kanako gives THE sun god to a hell raven to eat, all for a plan to give the humans of Gensokyo free energy after the hell raven is tamed. Reimu flies back up the mountain to confront Kanako about this and runs into Sanae before Kanako. After a brief conversation, it's revealed that the other god of the shrine is Suwako, the native/curse god, and that Sanae is descended from Suwako. Reimu basically just yells at the gods to stop messing with things and leaves.
•• The events of Undefined Fantastic Object occur. Sanae is determined to fulfill her shrine maiden duties by solving an incident. She ruthlessly confronts all the youkai involved and wins her battles. The leader of the UFO crew, Byakuren, is allowed to stay by the human village on her good graces, and is given a temple by Kanako to practice Buddhism.
•• The events of Touhou Histensoku occur. A nuclear-powered giant golem is rampaging around. Sanae mistakes it (excitedly) for a giant robot. But to solve this new incident Sanae once again sets off pretty much to beat the answers out of any and all youkai that cross her path. She eventually heads down to the hell raven's lair and after defeating the hell raven, she encounters Suwako, the curse god and her own ancestor. Suwako claims responsibility. It is confirmed by Suwako that Sanae is in fact a god. Regardless, Sanae is outraged by Suwako's behavior and fights Suwako and wins. The incident is cleared.
•• The events of Double Spoiler occur. Aya, one of the famous tengu of the mountain where Kanako has her shrine, and Hatate, another tengu, have it in their minds to take photos of all the other big names in Gensokyo while they battle. The final stage includes Sanae. Both comment how Sanae is fearsome when fighting, noting a youkai-like darkness in her power when she fights, possibly indicating her relationship to Suwako's curse goddess powers.
•• The events of Ten Desires occur. It turns out the Buddhist temple built by Kanako to give to Byakuren was specifically built over a mausoleum of a Taoist prince named Miko. Another incident occurs when the resurrection of this prince comes around. Sanae once again sets out to resolve it... by beating youkai up and the divine spirits that are to attend the resurrection. Miko warns Sanae of her ruthless behavior, but Sanae ignores it. She confronts Miko and defeats her. The incident is resolved.
•• The events of Hopeless Masquerade occur. Characters decide to fight each other to increase their popularity and religion among the people, specifically the Miko, Byakuren, and Reimu. It's a religious-themed fight. However, Sanae and the shrine she represents does not need any faith or popularity, and Reimu is a shinto priestess like Sanae, so she sits these battles out, just looking on.
•• The events of Double Dealing Character occur. Sanae does not participate in this incident, but as revealed in the manga chapter 19, Sanae knows that it occurred and is hurt by being left out of resolving it. She decides the best way to get back for being left out is to... give Reimu and Marisa crappy wine. Yep. That's the extent of it. In a later chapter, Sanae doesn't make any big appearances except to check on her friends again. It's revealed that mikos have the ability to read fortunes/fates, and Reimu was using this as a get-rick-quick scheme.
•• The events of Forbidden Scrollery occur during this time too. Sanae visits Marisa and Reimu, says that she's setting up small branch shrines towards which people can pray and ask for miracles. Specifically, there is an eat-an-run incident in the village involving a snake youkai. It's unknown if Sanae actually knows who the eat-and-runner is, but she proceeds to give the village a sermon about the dangers of snakes and the importance of paying tribute to snake gods. Sanae uses this to inspire both awareness of snakes in the village and hope that the incidents will resolve. Sanae constructs mini branch shrines in the area that allow villagers to donate food to. According to Sanae, this will decrease the eat-and-run incidents because now both eat-and-runners (and snakes) will have free food to grab from the branch shrines instead of stealing from restaurants. Either way, her main shrine is getting more faith now and her evangelism is successful.
•• The events of Urban Legend in Limbo occur. Sanae does not participate in this event, although she does hear of it and see the effects of it in Gensokyo.
•• The events of Legacy of the Lunatic Kingdom occur. And she actually does finally appear in a game again, hooray! She's given the Ultramarine Orb Elixir before going on her adventure. The player is given the choice for her to drink it or not. What does the elixir do? It removes the impurity of death and allows the user to experience the immediate future. And then upon death, you return to an earlier time. The would be dangerous to native gods (ie non-heavenly gods) like Sanae's greatnth-grandmother Suwako Moriya, and it was noted that it could render such gods completely human. But for in-game purposes, this means that you can restart at the chapter instead of the beginning of each stage. Regardless, even if the player does have her drink it, she still has all of her abilities as usual, meaning that her miraculous powers are not just because she is a god. I'm going to choose that she does not drink the elixir to bring about the true ending to the game. Anyway, Sanae returns from a successful trip to outer space and the moon, defeating a couple of goddesses, where she subsequently reports to her patron goddess, Kanako.
Personality:
There's a popular notion that "Sanae is a good girl". And she is! She's very much the selfless shrine maiden with great big ol' caring heart. She will put others first before her and will not hesitate to sacrifice herself. This idea to always be helpful, good, and most importantly benevolent comes from her idea of responsibility as a shrine maiden and as a god. She believes that as a god, it is her duty to care for the world and the people in it. She realizes that there are those who look to her with hope for her miracles, so she believes she must fulfill all of their desires to the best of her abilities to win their faith. She holds a strong sense of justice and empathy for the weak. A lot of empathy.
Sanae's emotions are often labile. At the hint of a sob story, she can burst into a waterfall of tears. If she's handed some rice, she'll beam a smile complete with sunshine and sparkles. She's someone who is easily read, as she wears her emotions posted on her sleeves. This, of course, makes her a bad liar most of the time. The times where she conceals her emotions are when she feels the need to stay strong and show that she's not hurt. Sanae is uncontestedly stubborn when she wants to ensure that others do not worry about her. She'll smile instead of admit being sad, and the phrase "I'm fine" becomes her motto during difficult times. As someone who grew up working and fighting alone, this is second nature to her. She wants to be a good friend, and to her a good friend means that she doesn't let her friends have a reason to worry. (Interestingly enough, the converse of this statement-- that friends can make her worry about them-- is completely fine for Sanae.)
Following the line that Sanae is a "good girl", she's rather innocent and naive. She has such a positive outlook on life and the world, she's also a bit of a ditz. She believes in the good in others and has a positive outlook. She easily trusts others, even strangers. She's in her own little happy bubble concerning the people of the world, and she won't hesitate to lend a helping hand, even if it's not needed. And when she does help out, she takes her job seriously, responsibly, and dutifully. When she isn't allowed to help out or when she misses out on helping others, she becomes upset and hurt. She takes it personally because she sees helping as part of her duty; if she isn't there, then she's failed her duty.
Having grown up in modern Japan, Sanae is much more knowledgeable of the outside world in comparison to Gensokyo. She has been shown to be enthusiastic about giant robots and aliens, which is ironic considering this means she's more into science fiction than anything fantastical such as herself. Additionally, Sanae has been shown to be book-smart and technology savvy. She flawlessly demonstrates her knowledge of famous experiments-- such as Fleischmann and Pon's cold fusion experiment, nuclear physics, and quantum mechanics. In the manga, she has described herself as the "science type" instead of a literally individual. Also unlike her Gensokyo acquaintances, she is familiar with the "outside world" technology.
She has a desire to be liked, possibly to a fault. She wishes to have friends and dislikes the idea of being alone or uninvolved with others. She will go out of her way to interact and help Reimu and the others, so far as to look after the former's shrine and do her chores. And she won't bat an eye if that work is thankless. She wants to be included and viewed in a positive light, to be like the others her age. Whereas in the modern world she was an anomaly-- although sometimes regarded as positive one when she was finally inducted into Kanako's shrine as a shrine maiden-- she was mostly alone and considered strange. When she first came to Gensokyo she was shocked that she was no longer considered "special"; she was a bit perplexed. On one hand, it was good to have the playing field leveled. On the other, if she didn't fit in now in a place where everyone had extraordinary abilities, that would just mean she's innately weird. Sanae basically tries hard to be liked not only by her rival shrine maiden Remiu, but the other humans (and later on, some youkai she does not mind as well).
Why, yes, Sanae is a god. The technical term is Arahitogami, meaning she is both fully human and fully god at the same time. As it is, at times she herself doesn't remember that she is a god. It takes Suwako, her curse god ancestor, to remind her. It is only in recent games where Sanae begins to cite herself as a god, but those times are rare. When she does, it comes off more reserved than not as if she knows that the title of a god can be intimidating, and she doesn't want to be intimidating to a human. So, while she is indeed a god, she's rather cautious about it. Her reservation about being a goddess stems from her insecurities on wanting to fit in, from back before she even knew she was a goddess. In the outside world, she had wished to be regarded as normal, have a life with friends, go to high school, etc. With powers like hers (not to mention her eccentric personality), it's to no one's surprise that she had been regarded as strange. Even in Gensokyo, others may still find her weird for her knowledge of the modern/outside world; thankfully over time she has cultivated strong friendships with the just as strange residents of the new world. She can't but help admire her friends, after all, for all of their power and courage and spirit. She finds comfort that they do not respect her on principle for being a god, but rather because she is herself-- and that ties into Sanae's personal philosophy of what behaving like a god ought to be. As someone who readily answers calls to prayers, wishes, and hopes, as someone who goes out of her way to help others, Sanae believes that the gods are not there to be served by their charges, but to serve them instead.
Sanae grapples with her godhood in a unique way. She knows she has no choice but to be a god, but the truth is that she didn't even know she was a god-born-as-a-human until later. And strangely enough, her mortal flesh and blood is descended from one of the native gods of the land, not the heavenly gods like herself. Sanaes knows that at one point, she will become a full goddess in her own right and ascend back into the heavens. That sounds all well and good, but to Sanae this means that she will have to leave her friends... if they even happen to be alive at that point. Losing those she cares about is something she regards warily-- and wearily, because this future has been on her mind often. To be alone is a great fear of hers, and she doesn't like to entertain the idea of a future of solitude among the clouds and without friends. Furthermore, Sanae sees her current humanity as precious, and something not to be looked down upon at all. She doesn't ever want to lose it, and she grateful to whatever powers that be that allow her to have an experience as a human, with all the joy and sorrows that it brings.
A part of her personality that contrasts directly with her kind and airheaded demeanor is when she fights, specifically youkai and those who threaten humans.Through her career as a playable character, she's demonstrated competence that rivals Reimu's and a clean-score record. She's confident in her abilities to bring a swift defeat to the youkai (and at times gods and humans) that oppose her. She can often get carried away in her fighting, driving other youkai to flee. She's ruthless in combo attacks, often developing plans in the spur of the moment. Some youkai even note that her style of fighting more often reflects something nefarious rather than that of a benevolent goddess, but Sanae will dismiss these points.
Abilities:
•• Ability to create/manipulate miracles. Well, she is the god, too, presumably of miracles. Kami literally translates to "force of nature". In canon, a god/kami is the manifestation of a concept or physical force; belief is given to give a god a consciousness, so-to-speak. When faith fades, the god vanishes. However, that doesn't mean the concept itself disappears (I.e. If the god of wind lost faith, the physical force of wind itself would still remain.) With Sanae being miracles, she's every single miracle.
•• Flight. All Touhous have it.
•• Mountain of Faith spell cards. Showcases her ability to part bodies of water, as well as a favorite of hers to call in stars and use them to fight.
•• Touhou Hitsentoku spell cards. It's depicted here that she uses a variety of Shinto things to fight, such as charms and paper talismans, among other things. Sanae fashions her charms in the shape of cartoonish frogs. She also shows her other abilities such as calling a falling star, elemental manipulation, or creating barriers.
•• Subterranean Animism spell cards.
•• Grimoire of Marisa's entry on Sanae's spell cards.
•• Double Spoiler spell cards. Shows her ability to take another's power to use it as her own and attack and use it against them, whether it's a youkai's or otherwise.
•• Obviously the spell cards that involve summoning gods of her world (Kanako and Suwako, for instance) will not be carried over. But in this game, will ask for permission beforehand (and also in the questions section to see if this will be allowed at all).
•• She carries around a gohei, a kind of Shinto wand in addition to the onusa, which has purification properties. She's often depicted waving it around to direct her attacks or even block others. Basically it's paper, but it becomes much more in her hands. The Hisountensoku game shows how she can use her gohei as... a weapon that's much stronger than what appears to be wood and paper. It can cut and block, and generally be used as a melee weapon.
•• Shinto priestesses are often trained in the arts of healing, purification, exorcising, meditation, barrier making, archery, and fortune reading.
Strengths:
++ Kindness. She truly believes the best in people.
++ Hopeful. She looks on the bright side of life, silver lining, and the little things that make people smile.
++ Fun. She likes to have happy conversations, not sad ones. She's the type of character that will drag other people to parties and into dances and play harmless pranks and games. You want your character to be dragged into an even he/she otherwise wouldn't go to? Your character doesn't want to dress up in some smelly costume or stuffy fancy-ass suit? SANAE IS YOUR GIRL.
++ Passionate. About helping, about life, about video games... almost anything! She always gives her 110%.
++ Wondrous-- of other things, not her specifically. She will rant on and on about outer space and the galaxy and stars and physics.
Weaknesses:
-- She doesn't have much physical strength. She's pretty weak in that department. She's a good cleaner, if that counts. Although it's down that she can survive being in a nuclear reactor as well as the vacuum of space, she still can be cut and bruised pretty easily.
-- She's naive and trusting, almost to a fault. She can trust people easily, she's easily distracted, and she's easily excitable, and she has a huge need to be helpful and viewed in a positive light.
-- She's forgetful. She even forgets she's a god at times!
-- She doesn't attack other humans, besides on ground to simply spar.
-- Her getting "revenge" on someone consists of her buying them more alcohol, to which there's really no other effect beyond that.
-- She's insecure about herself, and wants other people to like her.
-- Annoying. She can be overbearing in her eccentricity. See strength #3. As one can imagine, it can strain a relationship negatively.
-- Although her abilities give her a wide arsenal of attacks, she doesn't actually think of strategies beforehand. She's become reliant upon her power rather than strategy.
God/Shinki: God
Why?: Sanae is a god in her own canon already. But even if she was not, she is someone who already response to others's "prayers" anyway. She does what others ask for her, and she helps out when needed.
Top 3 Choices:
I checked the FAQ about apping in as a fictional god of their own canon. So, my first choice is to have her be herself! Sanae Kochiya, goddess of miracles.
Second choice is Marisha-Ten, Japanese goddess of light.
Third choice is Uzume, Japanese goddess of joy, happiness, and good health.
God Type: good natured, benevolent, helpful, caring, healing
Power:
The ability to create miracles. Now, she already has this ability innately (as revealed in canon, her powers remain even if she drinks an elixir that strips her of godhood). In canon, this power translates from creating food (such as rice or fruit) in the palm of her hand to creating stars on the tops of her fingertips. The ability to create miracles as an actual power would be the ability to make impossible things happen, not just improbable. Although she has these abilities, it's not as if she knows how to use them properly or correctly. For instance, she doesn't use her ability to create food on the spot to stop world hunger. And she doesn't bring the dead back to life, or change water into wine. Her actual demonstrative use of miracles is very rare, aside from when she uses them in fights, and even then she's not omnipotent at all. This is her own ability of miracles.
For an actual god-ability-of-miracles for the purposes of this game, I ask that the big miracles would be select to the wishes of others, not herself. They would have to be dependent on other's faith and what someone else wants; therefore, she would never be able to use a big miracle on her own. For instance, if someone wants empanadas to rain from the sky, they have to pray to her to make them; she can't just make it happen just because. Point is, Sanae can't use these god-created miracles for her own purposes, they'd be subject to whatever someone else wants.
Writing Sample
Sample:
Thread:Post with 10+ comments at a festival.
200+ Word Prose:
"Oh, that? That's a gameboy."
Cue the a soft, surprised gasp at her answer from the other shoppers. All of their attention, as well as Rinnosuke the shopkeeper's, now drawn on the young wind priestess, she flushes slightly before clearing her throat. The comment had just been to chime in informatively, but it appears they wish for more of an explanation. She realizes that to the residents of Genoskyo, such an arbitrary device in her homeworld might be beyond their comprehension here. Nevertheless, she will attempt to explain. "It's a handheld gaming device. It must have wound up here because it was forgotten about in the outside world..."
She trails off as she reaches for the gameboy. It shouldn't surprise her how this wound up here, as the new 3DSs have started to pick up in popularity. Explaining 3D to the people here, though, would take more than a miracle, so she continues with her explanation. She holds up the gameboy. "Do you see the small screen? That is where when the gameboy is turned on you'll begin to see images of the game-- a background, a character, some text. Think of it as having a book inside here, where how you play with the book determines on how the story goes. Oh! Or if how you play with the book determines if you can move onto the next chapter."
How one would play with a book already alludes some of the customers. Some of them politely bid farewell to Rinnosuke before they leave. A tad more desperate to educate her audience now, she speaks faster. "It's all electronic and digital. Um, the electrons are projected out and hit the screen, and their frequencies determine the color and shade that's seen from our perspective, and-"
And she's already lost all of the attention of the customers. A touch on her shoulder and a soft reassurance from Rinnosuke tells her that that's enough. Sanae apologizes, setting down the gameboy on the counter. She was just about to turn it on, too! She knows for certain that the people here would be astounded by how technology worked, if only they had an interest. They, too, would enjoy the classic games available like she did as a child. And then they might want to talk to her about it! It would give her something more in common with the humans here! Alas, their lack of interest is the case. What a dejected expression she wears.
If after a small, awkward pause of seeing the priestess so saddened, Rinnosuke reassures her that he has an interest and to return later to teach him. It is his shop, after all, and he should understand his merchandise.
Sanae immediately perks up, smiling brightly at the invitation. To be sure, she will be trying to teach him everything she knows about gameboys and how they work. Perhaps during a later day it will matter to her when the rest of Gensokyo will remark how odd she is to care about such "outside world" things, but for now she could not be more elated to share her interest with someone else. Enough youkai-hunting for today. It's time to jump on some spiked turtles and fall down green plumbing pipes.
Other
I would like Sanae's shinki to be Lu Meng (
young_oldman) that's apping in. Thank you!Anything Else?:
1. Sanae as a priestess has the ability to summon gods to her aide. Would this be allowed for the in-game gods (albeit with permission from the players)?
2. At this point in time, Sanae will still have the Ultramarine Orb Elixir on her person, still full. Is she allowed to bring this with her in game?