Mukyū?s Quill

[Hieda no Mukyu]

Salutations!

Some people here might already know most of what you will find below in the future, since I have published my works elsewhere; but a friend has encouraged me to put them up here as well. Let me try, at least.

I have a handful of headcanons that often mix and overlap but are not entirely compatible. Their foundations were laid between 2009 and 2013, based on a mixture of various fan works by other people and what I knew about official canon at the time.

Characters like Mima and Shinki do exist in this small multiverse, yet most of the PC-98 canon is ignored. This can be seen, among other things, in the fact that my Alice Margatroid is older than Patchouli Knowledge, not younger.

Fan artists I would like to mention as influences include Arnest, Black, Charin, Coffgirl, Fu, Hisame Futatsuki, kamS, Kiriuzasu, Namatarō, Nezumi, Tsukimido, and I should add more later. In addition, I have been heavily influenced by a number of fantasy classics such as Ursula K. Le Guin and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Most of my English-language Tōhō works so far have been filk texts. I also write fanfic stories ? one-shots and very short series ? and might produce poems of my own if the inspiration hits me.

English is a foreign language to me (as is German), and I welcome all kinds of commentaries including harsh criticism, as long as there is a constructive aspect to it. However, I can be stubborn and often want to understand my own mistakes very thoroughly before changing anything ? ?sometimes better outright wrong than lost in translation?. (I could imagine collaborating with somebody to get my Finnish-language fics translated, but that person should be extraordinarily patient.)

[Hieda no Mukyu]

Let me begin with a travel account.

In this headcanon, word about a new refuge for supernatural beings located at the other end of the world has reached two Britons, Patchouli and Alice. Young Patchouli Knowledge has left England or Wales right upon hearing the news, while Alice Murgatroyde has been living overseas for a lifetime ? from human point of view. During the late summer of 1897, the two witches reach the bustling port city of San Francisco and get ready to cross the Pacific in high spirits. Little does Patchouli anticipate that she will end up returning to England, to her best friend?s house, before two short decades have passed.


Wonderland

(Originally published in June 2016; based on ?America? by Simon & Garfunkel.)


1.

?Let us be lovers, we?ll marry our fortunes together.?
?I?ve got some Russian dolls here in my bag.?
So we walked to the Chinatown for orange pekoe tea
And sailed off to look for the Wonderland.

2.

?Patchy,? I said as we boarded a steamer in S.F.,
?Cambridgeshire seems like a dream to me now.?
It took me four weeks to get here from Tennessee;
I?ve left to look for the Wonderland.

3.

Laughing on the ship,
Playing games with the faces:
She said the man in the single-breast coat was a priest.
I said, ?Be careful, he?s really a ruthless exorcist!?

4.

?Pass me a spring roll, I think there is one in my basket.?
?We ate the last one an hour ago.?
So I gazed at the ocean waves, she read her travel guide,
And the moon rose over the open sea.

5.

?Patchy, I'm lost,? I said, though I knew she was sleeping,
?I?m empty and aching and I don?t know why.?
Counting the stars in the darkening night sky...
We took off to look for the Wonderland.
All leave to look for the Wonderland.
Monsters just long for a wonderland.

[nav']

Very nice. I like how it smoothly goes from playful happiness to evocative melancholy over a very short form.

[Hieda no Mukyu]

Out of the very minor Tōhō characters, my favorite is doubtlessly Koakuma. However, I have also developed a special relation to Kisume. I have been a Yamame fan for a long time, and once, years ago, I heard this fragment playing in my head: ?I swing around, under the ground, in a spider-yōkai?s...?

There was no return. Kisume became an integral part of my Fantastic Blowhole headcanon. Yet I have never finished Kisume?s origin story, which is a spin-off of this song.

The original song is ?Octopus?s Garden? by The Beatles. It is currently not available on Youtube, but this cover will give you a good enough idea, if you are not familiar with the tune. However, I highly recommend finding the original if you have any means to do so.



Spider-Yōkai?s Bucket

(Originally published in April 2012.)


1.

I swing around
under the ground
in a spider-yōkai?s bucket in the dark.
She?d let me in,
knew where I?d been
with her spider-yōkai?s bucket in the dark.
Please ask your friends
to come and see
a spider-yōkai?s cavern with me.
I swing around
under the ground
in a spider-yōkai?s bucket in the dark.

2.

I?d like to eat
more human meat,
but the ones they send down here are tough to beat.
There is a breeze,
could make you sneeze;
when I hear you, I?ll hurry down to greet.
We would shoot
and dance awhile,
because, you know, it makes me smile!
I swing around
under the ground
in a spider-yōkai?s bucket in a cave.

(Solo... er, I mean, danmaku.)

3.

Swinging by,
I might be shy,
hiding my legs and feeling safe (Darkness makes me feel so safe)
In a twirl,
like any yōkai girl
I?ll land by your side and call your name (Call you by your name)
I would be
so happy seeing you,
no one there to tell me what to do.
I swing around
under the ground
in a yōkai?s bucket waiting for you,
in a yōkai?s bucket waiting for you,
in a yōkai?s bucket waiting for you.


❧❧❧


As you can see, my Gensōkyō lies towards the grim end of the fanon spectrum. However, I rarely go even near the grotesque details of how dangerous it can get. Our heroines are happy-go-lucky folks, and more familiar with incidents involving broken hearts than ones involving severed arms.

❧

I like how it smoothly goes from playful happiness to evocative melancholy over a very short form.

That aspect of ?Wonderland? is all thanks to the original text by Paul Simon. ☺

[Hieda no Mukyu]

Sometimes a text only requires a handful of changes, if any, to go perfectly with the Tōhō characters. In such cases it becomes doubtful if the filk should be considered a work of mine at all.

Such is the case with ?Der Rote Rache?. The text is a cosmetically altered version of ?Der H?lle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen?, the famous aria from ?The Magic Flute? (Die Zauberfl?te), composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Emanuel Schikaneder, possibly together with Ludwig Giesecke.

This Miku Hatsune version was probably the main reason for my mind connecting the aria with the Scarlet Devil. This link leads to ?Der H?lle Rache? sung by Sabine Devieilhe, for those who want to refresh their memory of how it sounds when performed by a 3D person.


Der Rote Rache

(Originally published in May 2017.)


Der Rote Rache kocht in meinem Herzen,
Tod und Verzweiflung flammet um mich her!
F?hlt nicht durch dich Marisa Todesschmerzen,
So bist du meine Schwester nimmermehr.
Versto?en sei auf ewig,
Verlassen sei auf ewig,
Zertr?mmert sei?n auf ewig
Alle Bande der Magie,
Wenn nicht durch dich Marisa wird erblassen!
H?rt, Racheg?tter, h?rt der D?mon Schwur!


❧❧❧


We are told that Remilia Scarlet is in friendly terms with Marisa and Reimu. However, it has been a long road. At first, the Scarlet Devil found her defeat by the black-and-white witch girl extremely difficult to swallow. As soon as she foresaw Marisa?s encounter with Flandre, Remilia went to her little sister and spoke dreadful words, pressing Flandre to act as the tool of her vengeance.

Fortunately enough, lady Remilia forgot that her sister had been exposed to continental languages a lot less than herself, being that Flandre became a vampire at a rather young age. To Remilia, switching between languages is natural like it had been to their noble human parents. To playful little Flandre... practicing German with Mystia could be helpful.

(Special thanks for inspiration go to Sandels of the Finnish Tōhō fan community, as well as the ?Pri?re? music video. And yes, I am convinced that Mystia Lorelei is of German descent, most probably born in the Rhine Valley.)

[nav']

A simple alteration, but elegant and fitting. Is it actually possible for Flandre to have met Mystia at some point?

[Hieda no Mukyu]

Let me move on to one of my top favorite characters: Marisa Kirisame!

The song I am rewriting here is ?Watch Out for This (Bumaye)? a 2013 dance hit by Major Lazer, which in turn is based on The Flexican and FS Green's song ?Bumaye?.

The featured toaster is called Busy Signal, who uses thick Patwa (Patois, Jamaican Creole), much more difficult for me to follow than the average reggae song sung in English with a Jamaican accent. I could not have fully understood ?Watch Out for This? without checking out the lyric video, and I do not think I can write filks in Patwa. So, I attempted to mimic the rapping style of some Jamaican-born U.S. East Coast MCs. Not sure how well I managed that, but some of the feedback I?ve gotten seems to confirm that I did match the song with the right character.

Refrain B draws heavy inspiration from ?Boom Shack-A-Lak? (1993) by Apache Indian.

I am neither a singer nor a rapper, but I usually test my filk texts multiple times by singing over the original, until I can manage it somewhat fluently. The assumption is that if I can reach that level myself, then it should be no problem for someone more skilled and devoted. This text is an exception. Unfortunately the original is just too fast for my ability.


Watch Out for Dis Witch (Master Spark!)

(Originally published in august 2013.)


1.

?Ey!
Pull up, pull up!
Bullets bouncin?, de sky is full of
Fairy girls an? I can't get enough.
Bosses go down when I shoot, dat me love!
A murda when I do de danmaku,
Convictor write it down inna ya book.
Simply for fun, spell cards by de tons,
I?m an ?igh grade witch from de woods.
I?ll fire me

Major laser:
M-Ma-Ma-Ma-Master Spark!
Watch out, da ze!
Watch out, da ze!

Refrain A:

Watch out for dis witch! I cannot be tamed,
Smashin? ya place while ya still takin? aim.
Just call me ?Miss Number 1? in de game,
Di ordinary mage, I?m more ?n far famed.
Watch out for dis witch! I cannot be tamed,
Smashin? ya place while ya still takin? aim.
Just call me ?Miss Number 1? in de game.
Smashin? ya place
? Master Spark!

?Ey!
Watch out, da ze!
Wa-wa-watch out, da ze!
Watch out, da ze!
Wa-wa-watch out, da ze!

Watch out for dis witch! I cannot be tamed,
Smashin? ya place while ya still takin? aim.
Just call me ?Miss Number 1? in de game,
Di ordinary mage, I?m more ?n far famed.
?Ey!

Refrain B:

Margatroid in me arms make me glad.
Said I?d beat cha! (Aaaaah!)
Kappa girl in me arms make me glad.
Said I?d beat cha! (Aaaaah!)
Blast even gods violatin? de rules,
It?s a murda! (Aaaaah!)
Library witch in me arms make me glad.
Said I?d beat cha! (Aaaaah!)

2.

I play di ?ardest, yes I play di ?ardest,
Me style is lunatic, de miko is a novice!
Right into de storm, buzzin? more buzzin? more,
Grazin? more till I?m scorin? way ?ighest.
Aye!
I got clout! Me an? me broom on a mission,
Ravens can?t stop me wit? fusion or fission!
Flames in ya face, for me rays gonna blaze
? You know you shouldn?t fuck wit? magicians!
?Ey!

Watch out, da ze!
Watch out, da ze!
Watch out, da ze!
Watch out, da ze!

Refrain A:

Watch out for dis witch! I cannot be tamed,
Smashin? ya place while ya still takin? aim.
Just call me ?Miss Number 1? in de game,
Smashin? ya place
? Master Spark!

?Ey!
Watch out for dis witch! I cannot be tamed,
Smashin? ya place while ya still takin? aim.
Just call me ?Miss Number 1? in de game,
Di ordinary mage, I?m more ?n far famed.
Watch out for dis witch! I cannot be tamed,
Smashin? ya place while ya still takin? aim.
Just call me ?Miss Number 1? in de game,
Di ordinary mage, I?m more ?n far famed.
?Ey!

Refrain B:

Margatroid in me arms make me glad.
Said I?d beat cha! (Aaaaah!)
Kappa girl in me arms make me glad.
Said I?d beat cha! (Aaaaah!)
Blast even gods violatin? de rules,
It?s a murda! (Aaaaah!)
Library witch in me arms make me glad.
Said I?d beat cha! (Aaaaah!)


☆☆☆

Is it actually possible for Flandre to have met Mystia at some point?

I am not qualified to answer that based on canon. My firm belief is that Flandre and Mystia had not met before ?Tōhō Kōmakyō ? the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil?. But what has happened after that? Also, different fanons treat these characters very differently. Many light-hearted dōjin comics let little Flandre out of the basement so she can play with Cirno, and with the notorious ice fairy comes often the whole Team ⑨. Thus there are alternate realities where Flan and Mysty know each other rather well.