My dream last night was actually kind of odd, and might be rather creepy for some of you.
I shall describe it as much as I can. It's Touhou-related because Renko, Maribel and Yukari were in it.
It looked sort of like a different version of Live-A-Live, a game by Square Soft.
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It really was a video game, with me playing it no less.
The game was sort of a clone of Live-A-Live, except that each of the chapters were replaced by seven different video games. To clarify...
There's the Friendship Chapter, which is a retell of Earthbound;
the Adventure Chapter, a retell of Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening;
the Demon Hunter Chapter, which is Devil May Cry;
the Dream Chapter, Final Fantasy 10;
the Love Chapter, Disgaea: Hour Of Darkness;
the Truth Chapter is... gulp... Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty;
the War Chapter, as much as I know, was a fictional game that I "played" in my imaginations for the past 2 years. I called it "STICK: Extinction"
And like Live-A-Live, an eighth chapter was unlocked upon beating those seven. The eighth chapter is... well...
Fantasy Chapter: Touhou Project
The Fantasy Chapter wasn't a retelling of any one of the Touhou games. Instead, it's sort of like Renko Usami living through the lives of those seven protagonists, one of which would've caused a normal person to go insane (and I thought Oersted from Live-A-Live had it bad..)
You know how there is a room at the Devil's Peak in Live-A-Live that contains the statues of all seven final bosses? Well, I still came across that same room, but after going past the statue of Oersted, which has replaced Odio's, I find myself (controlling Renko) in a room, with the statues of...
My gosh...
Gigyas, from Earthbound;
Ganondorf, from Legend Of Zelda. Specifically, Link's Awakening;
Mundus, from Devil May Cry;
Yu Yevon, from Final Fantasy 10;
Archangel Vulcanus, from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness;
Solidus Snake, from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty;
and of course, the antagonist of my imagined game, whom I call "General Stickler"
They all have "*noun* Of Sin" as one of their attacks during their respective battles, which they clearly don't have in their original games.
Gigyas: Curse Of Sin; Ganondorf: Runes Of Sin; Mundus: Hells Of Sin; Yu Yevon: Choirs Of Sin; Archangel Vulcanus: Wings Of Sin; Solidus Snake: Blades Of Sin; and General Stickler: Guns Of Sin.
That aside, "Demon King Odio" played in the background during the cutscenes before the final boss battles, and you know which music played in the final boss battles?
"Megalomania", instead of the final bosses' own themes.
Back on topic, I proceeded through that room, and entered another room, this one with the statue of the game's Odio equivalent. It has a secret door on it's pedestal, just like Odio's. I guessed the final boss battle is coming, so I saved before proceeding through the followed up corridor.
And I'm at the top of Devil's Peak, with Yukari Yakumo standing where Straybow/ Odio should have been.
I don't remember the following conversation, but I can remember that Yukari said something about taking away everything Renko cared, which sent Renko into a fit of rage, and she vowed to put the Gap Hag to "an eternal sleep!" Boss battle ensues. I, as Renko, won.
After the battle, Yukari said something about how she's supposed to be undefeatable, before she exploded in a shower of Danmaku, and reverts back into Maribel.
Renko rushed up to Maribel's side, still calling her Merry.
Merry asked Renko what happened, and she replies by saying that she (Maribel) has finally woken up from a dream.
Just as they both decide to go home, a completely original character from earlier in the chapter fired a shot from off-screen at Maribel with a hunting rifle, and then...
Maribel drops dead, lying in her own pool of blood.
Both Yukari Yakumo and Maribel Hearn has been slain...
Said OC, called Black Fox, appears from the only entrance to the Peak, hunting rifle pointed at the dead Maribel. Black Fox then declares that he has liberated Gensokyo from communism.
Renko has a flash back of everything she went through in her chapter. How she was pulled into a gambit, how she lost what she treasured most, how she lost the Outside World to Yukari's militants...
...And how she has just been betrayed by the one she trusted most...
Renko drops, knee and hand on the ground.
Renko: "I have nothing left..."
"Nobody to love... Nowhere to go..."
"Nothing to care about..."
"Absolute nothingness..."
"Nothing..."
"Nothing but sins..."
(italics represents her voice getting more like a wicked witch's)
Black Fox: "?!"
At that moment, several attack helicopters, piloted by Sinsacks, appeared in the background, all pointing their miniguns and missiles at Renko.
Sinsack: "Avenge Lady Yukari!"
Renko emotionlessly stabs the magic staff, her main weapon in the Fantasy Chapter, into the ground. Demonic blue aura emits from her body...
Renko: "The realms have seen enough of the filthy sins..."
"...And I will erase all traces of it..."
Maribel's/ Yukari's corpse turns into a yellow energy sphere.
Renko: "With the powers of she who traverses dreams..."
"...She who controls the boundaries of all..."
Reimu's Ying-Yang Orb flies out of Renko's inventory.
Renko: "...The core of the so-called Eastern Wonderland..."
Two more energy spheres, one white and one purple, flies out of her inventory.
Renko: "...The powers of the so called Moriya goddesses..."
"...The demon goddess of Makai..."
All the objects merge into one multi-colored sphere.
Renko: "...And..."
"...THESE SINS!"
The new sphere merges with Renko. A flash occurs in that split second, and...
Renko is still humanoid, but judging from the change in her overworld sprite (red eyes, grayish hair, and what looked like demonic talons), I guess she isn't human anymore...
"Demon King Odio" starts playing in the background.
Renko: "From now on..."
"I am no longer Renko Usami..."
"I am..."
"...The Keeper Of Space And Time..."
"...MEDIATOR SIN!"
Sinsacks: "Shoot her!
Renko get's peppered with minigun bullets and missiles, but none of them even makes her flinch despite being direct hits.
Renko: "Foolish sentient beings..."
"...When will you be remorseful of your Sins...?"
"DISAPPEAR!"
The Sinsacks and their helis literately vanished into thin air, and that's where my dream self ask myself "By playing this game... What have I done?"
Black Fox unloaded his hunting rifle at the no-longer human Renko. The bullets all ricochet off her body. Black Fox throws the rifle off the Peak, and proceeds to unload his revolver into her.
Renko: "You, like all these sentient beings..."
"...Should never have existed..."
"ROT IN THE DEPTHS OF THIS SO CALLED PARADISE!"
The screen goes black, Black Fox's scream, without subtitles, was heard (the game has legit voice acting). When the Devil's Peak was shown again, Black Fox was gone, and Renko is facing the statue of the Demon King. Credits for the Fantasy Chapter rolls, ZUN was credited with the production of Touhou, so are the VA of the 2hus. At the end of the credits...
Renko: "It isn't just humans..."
"...But all sentient beings..."
Humans, Youkai, Demons, Celestials, Goddesses, Space Aliens..."
"...Even Dolls, Robots, Computers..."
"...And..."
She turns around, and ends her sentence with a breaking of the Fourth Wall.
"...YOU!"
"...The one looking at a computer screen!"
"...Are you satisfied with the results?!"
"I dare you..."
"...To come..."
"...AND FIGHT ME!"
"WITH YOUR SO CALLED PROTAGONIST!
She causes a Blue Screen Of Death, which spooked me out. But calmed down when I accidentally hit Shift 5 times and brought up the StickyKeys windows. I closed the StickyKeys window, and pressed enter. Turns out the BSOD was a fake, like the Fission Mailed screen from the Truth Chapter. The screen goes black again, and the title of the entire game appeared.
GAME-A-LIVE (with the LIVE written backwards, which made it looked like EVIL)
Save menu appears. I saved the game over my previous save, and the save file turned to show "Renko Usami cleared; *all eight characters in complete brown to signify the end of their respective chapters*; Location: Finale Protagonist Select Screen"
And I was taken back to the character selection, except the text at the top now says "Select Finale Protagonist".
Renko Usami was among the selectables, but I think her finale will play out like Oersted's.
The other Protagonists were there too: Ness, Link, Dante, Tidus, Laharl, Raiden, and LT (the last one being from my imagined game)
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I was going to select Renko and see what she will say, but that's when I woke up IRL.
Still on my bed, I asked myself: "What the hell?!"
How will you react, if you found out that the Antagonists of all video games are incarnations of one single being?
I have a feeling it will continue next time I sleep...