It feels odd taking an extra day's break, indeed, the schedule is all upset now. But there really, truly wasn't anything to report for the last couple of days, which would make publishing a report rather dull and boring. Yeah, real newspapers don't stop publishing simply because there's nothing interesting going on, but we're not real!
Ah, ahem, excuse me. seems like our fourth wall's fallen over for a bit. Let me prop it back up... yes. That also explains why journalists like Aya Shameimaru are so crazy about snatching up every single piece of scoop they come across whenever they can... or creating more to soothe the demands of their savage psyche, er, I mean their readers. But that makes them come off as irritating more often than not, so we're just striking a happy medium here, aren't we?
Jokes aside, on with the much belated news and special report!
Suspicious appearance of Mothra at the birthday party of the other giant insect on Gensokyo Island...
Sure, even when news is scarce it's impossible to dodge the passage of time itself, and it's time that started the ball rolling in our news windfall today when Wriggle Nightbug, the third islanders ever to join Gensokyo Island, celebrated her 11th birthday today. Eleven, huh? That's about the time when most kids start experiencing puberty if they haven't already, so now we can finally find out of Wriggle is... what do you mean that's not open to question? I was just wondering if a giant bug like her ever moults or anything. It's insect puberty of a sort, isn't it?
Ah, serves me right for asking so many questions. But Wriggle's birthday party was certainly buzzing with excitement, with her wife Kyouko Kasodani, as well as best friend Gary Oak in attendance. It was quite a treat for the genial Shou Toramaru to turn up at the party of her Hi-Jump-Kicking friend, but the fourth visitor was none other than the mysterious and enigmatic Mothra Kazamatsuri, which surely fits the theme of grossly oversized insects but was also unexpected given that Mothra's only just be introduced to Gensokyo Island and hasn't had all that much time to build up relationships. Perhaps Wriggle and Mothra have a closer connection than it seems on the surface? Or is Wriggle's ability to command other insects just that overarching?
Funny that their only kid without a Japanese name happens to be their most successful traveller... in Japan.
A second piece of rare good news dropped in today as Justine, the third child and eldest daughter of Chiyo Mihama and Shikieiki Yamaxanadu wrote back to tell of her adventures on faraway shores. More specifically, she's just visited her fourth island, Shinkon Island, which almost puts her on the coveted pedestal of most islands visited by a traveller from Gensokyo Island, just behind Reimu Hakurei and Junya Ohta's son Junichiro.
While we're certainly glad to hear of Justine's continued existence, it's unfortunate that the owner of the island that she's currently visiting refused to permit her to send out a picture with one of Shinkon Island's residents. Ah, that's just too bad, but at least Justine survives to hopefully seek out a more generous island owner in some other place. Say what you want about a jerkass like Gensokyo Island's supreme dictator Okuu's Look-alike, but at least she lets travellers like me send off all kinds of photographs, no matter how unflattering they might be. Censorship? Gotta catch me first! That speed training with Aya might have had some value after all!
Speaking of Okuu's Look-alike, she hasn't been seen outdoors all that much. I mean, she usually does her rounds as Gensokyo Island's one-person welfare state provisory board, taking a look at islanders' demands and doing something about them, but she just hasn't done all that much lately. Apparently, there were a few times over the last couple of days where she clocked in only to find that none of the residents were demanding anything of her, so she just wandered off without actually doing anything. That could explain the lack of news - as per Okuu's Look-alike's policy, if there aren't any demands, there shan't be any welfare payments coming in to keep the demands of Gensokyo Island's rabble satisfied.
Come on, riot, you sheeple, is the proletariat really going to take this mistreatment lying down? And I also do find it kind of odd that the new children announced back in our last update have yet to be born... could this be due to funding difficulties at Gensokyo Island's maternity facilities? Not enough birdseed to feed the stork? Outrageous! Down with austerity! No ifs, no buts, no more cuts!
Opiiate of the masses? Who needs drugs when you have... DISCO!!! No, it's not DESCO's sister.
With that being said, to make up for the lack of newsy news we have our latest interview report which we've had sitting on the display shelf for quite some time, regarding the eldest of Gensokyo Island's second-generation residents.
Although she's the second of the second-generation islanders to be interviewed, it's quite clear that she's the kind with a life of her own, who won't put up with being played with like a muppet with someone else pulling the strings. Not bratty but barby, she's grown up from being a little girl's dream into someone who can really stand up for herself. Meet the infamous living doll of Gensokyo Island, miss Shanghai Margatroid!
Shanghai Margatroid
All information correct as of 18 April 2015
Wait, so to make a sock muppet, you're basically sticking your hand up the muppet's, er, nether lands?
Name: Shanghai Margatroid
Nickname: Shanghai
Date of Birth: 23rd November 2014
Personality: Easygoing Optimist
Favourite Colour: Yellow
Quotation: "Shanghai."
Shanghai Margatroid is a semi-original character based on the most well-known doll created by the doll master Alice Margatroid, from the Touhou Project series by Team Shanghai Alice. In canon, Shanghai refers to the doll that is most often portrayed accompanying Alice, running errands for her or assisting her in battle. Given that Alice not only controls multiple similar dolls at one time, but also uses them in battle by filling them with gunpowder and detonating them, it's also likely that Shanghai refers not to a single doll but to a specific variety of dolls, as seen in the spellcard "Eerily Luminous Shanghai Dolls".
Here on Gensokyo Island, it was thus only natural that the first-born of Alice Margatroid's children was named Shanghai after her most well-known creation, her most frequent companion, and most beloved "child" of a sort. However, she's still a semi-original character because she isn't directly based on the appearance of the actual Shanghai doll, which has a blue colour scheme and long hair. Instead, she just looks like however she was born, and indeed it was a miracle she was born relatively normal-looking, considering that her father Kyubey Incubator is a horrific space alien with eyebrows on his head and a non-existent nose hidden by his giant mouth. She's like Gensokyo Island's own little miracle child.
Shanghai has the distinction of being the eldest second-generation resident on Gensokyo Island, which is to say, the very first child ever born on Gensokyo Island, who also happened to be the first child invited to move in as a resident. This gives her a sort of special authority among the other kids as their onee-sama of a sort, and it also helps that she's was rather tall for a kid, and even taller as an adult. Although she's sensible and straightfoward, like many other so-called "Easygoing" residents she's also got a snarky side, so one would be ill-advised to dismiss her as simply another doll to be toyed around with.
It was a will she, won't she sort of affair, with lots of sabotage by Okuu's Look-alike, but eventually love won through.
Husband: Kanako Yasaka
Best Friend: Suwako Moriya
Parents: Alice Margatroid, Kyubey Incubator
Children: Shinichi Yasaka, Oranda, ???
While Shanghai was the first child to be born on Gensokyo Island, the resolution of her complicated love life was nowhere nearly as speedy. Perhaps it had something to do with her cynical, sarcastic personality, or maybe all the good people were just snapped up beforehand, but Shanghai took the longest time to settle down with someone.
Shanghai's love life got complicated very early on when she asked to be administered with an Age-o-Matic, which meant she would be eligible for pairings with adults rather than with her fellow children. The doll-like debutante that she was, she was quickly noticed and became the target of Maximillian Magma's affections, but the fickle embers of a relationship between them was quickly extinguished by the arrival of the sexy and seductive Yuyuko Saigyouji to Gensokyo Island, who quickly stole Maxie away for her own.
With Augustine Sycamore paired with Yuuka Kazami, Kanako Yasaka was the last remaining unattached "male" character on the island, but with two female adult characters remaining, Shanghai, and also Suwako Moriya. And it just so happened that Shanghai and Suwako were also best friends, while Kanako seemed to strongly detest both of them, refusing to pair up whenever she was set up on blind dates with either.
Between the choices of Shanghai and Suwako, I decided to adhere to canon and try to get Kanako and Suwako together whenever possible and to get them to like each other over repeated blind dates. And yet, with Shanghai meeting Kanako in just as many blind dates (due to the proposer not knowing Suwako and thus not having her as an option), Kanako slowly started to develop an affection for Shanghai. And one fateful day, against my hopes and wishes, Kanako and Shanghai finally decided to become a couple at the instigation of Minamitsu Murasa. Tying the knot came very quickly after that.
Sure, Kanako and Suwako did really detest each other (and they still do, to some extent), but this complicated will she, won't she sort of love games was another one of those episodes that really helped cement the reputation of Gensokyo Island's second-generation residents as being scheming little minxes and players in this little game called love. And backstabbing.
Shanghai chilling with her parents and her significant other. She's the lanky sort who's normally pretty stoic and pleasant, but don't tick her off...
Food Preferences:
Worst: Spaghetti Peperoncino
Worst Ever: Chocolate Sundae
Okuu's Look-alike Rating - Chocolate Sundae: Love! Of course I bloody love Chocolate Sundaes. A generous helping of ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, even the cherry on top... the only thing I'd have to dislike, if any, are those nasty peanut sprinkles people are fond of adding. Shanghai, what kind of weird freak are you to hate a lovely Chocolate Sundae more than, say, a rotting, festering pot full of garbage food? Maybe she's on a diet. Or maybe she really is a muppet.
Song Participation:
Gotta Slay 'em All, Rap, instrumentalist for the Recon Corps
While Unyuho Morichika and Aliasse Foerster put on the smooth moves for the kid brigade back in the days when they were all still kids, the slightly more composed Shanghai took on the role of disc jockey, scratching those tunes while the rest of the kids strut their stuff on stage. Conveniently, being in the background also helped to hide the fact that she was the tallest of all of them.
Shanghai is actually the last islander to participate in a song on Gensokyo Island, so the Song Participation category will be empty and thus obsolete from this point forward, and will no longer be mentioned. Suffice to say, all Gensokyo Island residents are trained in every song and can put on the moves if they're invited to do so, but it's merely that I haven't come up with any new songs for them to sing yet. A pity, really, but that's something to look at in the future.
... or else she gets mad. Really mad. Blazing-in-the-middle-of-a-snowstorm mad. SHANGHAI SMASH!!!
Apartment: Apt. 405, formerly Apt. 401
Islander Rating: Average Tier
Shanghai, like other fourth tier islanders, isn't very exceptional in terms of her standing in Gensokyo Island, although like Unyuho she has a slight advantage in being introduced to the island shortly before her peers in the same tier. Fond of clothes and hats, she's able to gain a foothold in the rich race, but she's hampered by her tendency to be rubbed the wrong way by others, getting into lots of fights. Without even a Favourite food to cheer her up should she be dumped by her so-called friend after the fight, it's hard to break her out of a funk should she fall into one. So much for being an Optimist, huh.
Although she's mostly a nice person, Shanghai also has a very strong snarky side and she can often be caught out making snide comments about her fellow islanders when out of earshot. Maybe it's her height that leads her to believe that she's above it all. At the same time, she's a good person, and, considering the sheer number of villains, psychopaths, and mass murderers in residence on Gensokyo Island, that's something to be thankful for. She's also the crux of presently the only three-generation family on Gensokyo Island, that is to say being the middle generation between her parents Alice and Kyubey, and her son Shinichi Yasaka, and that gives her a very unique place here on Gensokyo Island.
Unfortunately, familial relations won't be preserved if you import related Miis to your island, but Shanghai is a well-developed character in her own right who has really earned her status among the halls of Gensokyo Island's illustrious ones. Perhaps the time will soon come for her to cut loose from the strings controlling her, shut the door on the doll house, and stride out, pridefully, into the wider world.
Looking back.. it's so hard to believe how lucky I was to have a perfectly ordinary kid as Gensokyo Island's first child. You go, Shanghai!
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 16th April 2015
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 17th April 2015
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 18th April 2015
Happy 11th Birthday, Wriggle Nightbug!
Traveller Updates
Justine, daughter of Chiyo Mihama and Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, wrote back from Shinkon Island! She has visited 4 islands so far.
Relationships and Marriage
Overlord Mao and Mokou Fujiwara became Best Friends!
Relationships and Marriage
Overlord Mao and Mokou Fujiwara became Best Friends!
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