Gensokyo Island somehow hasn't been the same recently, despite having made use of the Time-Space Anomaly to send off a good quantity of travellers from its docks and free up the congestion and overcrowding there. But I don't mean that it has changed, in that it isn't just as filthy and disease-ridden as it was before. In fact, by demanding that no new Gensokyo Island-born travellers make their way to the docks, Okuu's Look-alike has simply made it more visible to the naked eye how pathetically squalid that place is without all those bodies in the way. No, that's not what's different at all.
But I think I feel it when doing my rounds in the evenings, trying to catch some scoop among the houses of Mii Apartments. It's not the nattering of this island's ever-unpleasable residents, ranting and raving about how somesuch or what's his face won't share their bear or disposable diaper or whatever. I've already gotten so used to it I'm able to tune it out of my head naturally.
You know what's bothering me?
Mmm... first Shou Toramaru's Tiger brand Hot Dogs, now her Strawberry too? Let the imagination run wild.
It's the eerie silence.
I mean, I don't want to bring up my memories of Toritori. But the truth is, when the ceaseless caterwauling of babies from just about every other bungalow here at Mii Homes was pushing me to do something reckless, Toritori was there to calm me down and prevent me from losing it completely. But now it's the absolute absence of those very same screams and wails that's driving me nuts.
And it's not that these children don't exist, either. It's been a week or more since we reported the eviction of yet another freeloader their parents are no longer obliged to provide for in their maturity. Perhaps their parents are content to allow them to continue dwelling at their homes and leeching off them in a tender yet disturbing form of neoteny. Or perhaps said parents don't really have a choice, given that Okuu's Look-alike has barred new travellers from being sent to the port for the time being to avoid a repeat of Massacre Monday's debacle.
And, for that matter, we haven't reported the birth of a new child either, despite several islanders having reiterated their intention to procreate. The world's longest pregnancy? Some new method of incubation? A bit of a mess-up with the alcohol supplement at the cloning vats? Someone's been shooting the stork on the way here? Who knows? After all, it's the lack of an explanation which makes the situation so much more mysterious.
With the lack of any growth or new developments, it feels like time has stopped abruptly. And yet, judging by the evidence, it most certainly hasn't.
Salvatore reports that she's stuck on a desert island with nothing but a deckchair. And Yves has learned to slurp steak. Yeck.
Ironically, it seems that it's the travellers whom Okuu's Look-alike has cast into the time spiral who have actually progressed through time, while Gensokyo Island and all who dwell upon it have remained frozen. Two recent cases, both from the same family, provide a shining example.
Salvatore, the only daughter of Tia Arlert and Tadakichi Mihama, recently wrote back to say that she was fine and well, despite being completely disoriented from her journeys and having nothing to eat beyond a fruity tropical drink and a crab that was still alive at the point of writing. A day later, Yves, the couple's eldest son, managed to charter a boat back to Gensokyo Island using his savings to repay his parents for having faith in his continued survival.
We tried to stop him for an interview but, being too late, we could not catch much other than a couple of photographs and the fact that Yves has now got quite a few adventures under his belt since we last heard from him. In fact, with four islands visited, he's now tied for joint second place for most islands visited among all of Gensokyo Island's travellers. And yes, that makes him more travelled than me - but I wouldn't say more experienced, given how much I've been forced to adapt to the ordeals that living here has placed upon my back.
But yes, the case of Salvatore and Yves serves to demonstrate a subtle, yet extremely worrying point. Perhaps it is not travellers like them, but rather Gensokyo Island itself, which has somehow been trapped in the mists of time. And perhaps the misuse and overuse of the time-space distortion, or maybe even the policy of temporarily barring new travellers from being sent to the port, may have been responsible for this predicament facing Gensokyo Island and its haplessly oblivious residents.
Not to say that nothing happens around here at all, though...
Normally news reports like this are just frivolous jokes, but the RNG conspired to make this particular one rather stomach-churning.
Some rather horrific news emerged recently over the airwaves of Gensokyo Island's local broadcasting service (which is, incidentally, far less reliable than even Aya Shameimaru's Bunbunmaru News. And that's saying something.).
In a hideously unfortunate accident, resident supervillain and ecoterrorist Maximillian Magma got his toe caught in a fan, stunning him for one whole minute. It's not clear what exactly that one minute was expended upon, whether it was dashing to preserve his dismembered toe in ice, or otherwise growing a new one in his cloning vat, since he eventually emerged no worse for wear within a short time.
But the most terrifying of all details had been laid bare before the eyes of the world - the disgusting state of the infamous supervillain's unshod foot, swollen to twice its size as blood flowed ceaselessly from the gaping wound left by the amputated digit, while the toe itself writhed about the planks of his apartment floor animated by the spilling of its ghastly ichor. Lesson to be learnt - don't stick your toe inside a fan, kids.
Oh, so that might be an exaggeration? That he didn't necessarily have his toe sliced right off despite running into a fan with it? Well, call that embellishment for a story designed to bring excitement to the everyday drudgery of Gensokyo Island. Of an island that has been trapped in time by the machinations of its dicator herself.
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 28th May 2015
Traveller Updates
A boat from Mattsland Island arrived. Salvatore departed.
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 29th May 2015
Traveller Updates
Salvatore, daughter of Tia Arlert and Tadakichi Mihama, wrote back from Streetpass Relay Point Island! She has visited 0 islands so far.
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 30th May 2015
Traveller Updates
Yves returned from Skidoonien Island to visit his parents Tia Arlert and Tadakichi Mihama! He has visited 4 islands so far.
Relationships and Marriage
Junya Ohta and Kyubey Incubator are no longer Best Friends!
Junya Ohta and Koyomi Saigyouji became Best Friends!
Margit Ravelli and Koyomi Saigyouji are no longer Best Friends!
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