alchemistdetective

[alchemistdetective]

It's either this or STARDEW VALLEY SO

I really like Mystia Izakaya so I'm asking you to vote for it to win the Steam Labor of Lobe award

[alchemistdetective]

Still one of my favourite Crescent pictures, both of them :DDD

... And these are the COMMISSIONED ONES, THREE BY FROZEN

In order by Sev, SpooKoArts, Dev, and Nep :DDD

[alchemistdetective]

"The biggest question I have is... how often do my friends take with managing their hair...?"

The long-haired ones like Sanae always takes a while to get ready for him. So much stuff to go through.

[alchemistdetective]

"Hello, welcome, welcome! Come on inside! You must be the pizza delivery man with that cheesy outfit of yours!"

"Chloe. Look at him. He's a boy. He won't find work anywhere. Also, his outfit is orange."

"GASSSP... So child labor managed to even make it's way over HERE?! Cress, WE'RE going to have a WORD with Pizza Hut!"

"But it's... not..."

They're already packing their bags.

//This Goku is at your muse’s front door. What they doing?//

[alchemistdetective]

"... Often enough. I had lots of practice. It helps that her form's great for sneaking in and out too." There was an extremely realistic dream a long time ago where he did see Weaver's naked body, but that's neither here nor there.

"I have! I did meet Reimu before! She's the one who's given me to turn into others, actually! There's a few limits on it, like not being able to impersonate divinity, but... again, that's another story time... Ahem."

Right, the shrine. Waving goodbye to Seiko as she drove off, Eri began helping Nise up the stairs of the Hakurei Shrine should she need it.

And of course, reaching up those stairs... something felt... off. He didn't know what it was at first, until she saw the woman in question.

Who... who is that?

"W-Wait... R-Reimu? I mean, you certainly FEEL like a Reimu, but... the Reimu I know is..."

Muscular, a goddess, and pretty much the opposite of whatever he's looking at now! This one looks so weak and timid, and... she doesn't talk much at all...

This... This doesn't make any sense.

"K-Kuma-chan? Nise?... This... I don't know this girl. But... maybe it doesn't hurt to explain to her the situation...?"

He's not too sure about this, but they're out of leads to saving Weaver right now.

"I don't think it wants my soul, but rather my soul is something that Should Not Be? It's hard to explain." She casts Nise a nervous glance, but the "magical girl" is too focused on her bottle of water. "My sould was not born on the same moment as everyone else's, don't ask what I mean that, it's take too long to explain."

"How... often have you done this, zo?" Yeah, she looked, at both forms too. She's not exactly in her girly mindset right now, so she doesn't feel embarrassed.

Nise at least averted her eyes the whole time.

At the base of the stairs, though, Eri says something Akiraka finds... odd.

"Well, I guess she does channel dvinity, but I wouldn't say Reimu has a lot herself. Moreso she has access to those that... wait, you sound oddly familiar with her. Have you met Reimu, zo?"

Something would feel off for Eri when they got to the top of the hill where the Shrine was situated. Something about the shrine felt a bit more... humble, rustic even. There's a sign that mentions baby turtles being available for adoption. And then there's Reimu herself...

Not only does she give off a very different feeling from what Eri remembers, she also seems surprised to see specifically Akiraka.

[alchemistdetective]

Late night gaming with Flan

[alchemistdetective]

"Hey, Cirno's not dumb! If anything, she's one of the few fairies who can actually read, isn't that right, Sunny?"

Wink wink, nudge nudge.

"But you know what you should do, Sunny? Feed her ego a bit. Tell her that if the snow youkai's staying around more, she wouldn't be the strongest among the ice element youkai anymore."

"... or even the fairies, since you've climbed up the mountain and not her."

“What?! That Baka? No way! She’d just make it last longer! Remember what happened during the Spring Snow Incident? She was so eager to keep it going that she was the first big one* to try shooting at those three girls. And you know what happened? She got stomped in seconds and they just as quickly beat up Letty. Might as well side with the better resolver for my own health!”

While Reimu was the main incident resolver, her light bullets could only do so much in terms of melting ice unless she came up with an alternative spell card specifically to end an unseasonal winter. Sure, her A7 parallels in Lost Word could do it with two different variants of her “Fantasy Nature” Last Word created for just that kind of thing, but this Reimu hasn’t thought that far ahead yet because that incident ended normally. Ergo, she didn’t turn away Sunny’s request since she could generate much more heat with her primarily-sunlight bullets.

*//Cirno was the first miniboss of PCB, followed by Letty as the stage 1 boss. Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya were the playable characters.

[alchemistdetective]

"Crescent sorry to bother you but have you seen Chloe? I was busy preparing a magic circle to make it warm around Fairy Tail's general area so I took my eyes off of her for a while."

"Chloe?..."

Blink blink. She looks left. Right. All under the cover of her bedsheets.

"Well... I haven't seen her either, I'm mostly in bed after everything's happening. But I don't think she's stupid enough to climb up the mountain filled with dragons flying around."

...

"I hope."

Ah, that's ONE MORE THING TO WORRY IN BED

[alchemistdetective]

"Oh... Huh. So even Reimu is investigating it, huh? And there's... 15... dragons...? Why are there so many...? What are they even going to eat all the way out here?"

...

"I hope Chloe isn't going up there, Rirune could kill me." Oh dear. "But Sunny, more importantly, maybe just leave it up to Reimu...- This kind of place isn't for a fairy to be in, especially with the both of us being fairies and everything. Maybe call Cirno-"

“Them? They’re also sick and in bed with all the blankets. I thought I went out there yesterday with Reimu to see who’s causing it, but… I dunno. Can’t remember. Something about at least 15 dragons and me trying to use a spell card on them?”

That’s exactly what happened. At some point during their investigation, both of them somehow ended up back the shrine, but neither of them could explain how or why.

[alchemistdetective]

And where is Rirune during Chloe's little adventure? Because if he knew what was happening, Chloe is going to be in a lot of trouble, I would think.

Resting.

Long story short, he ran into an enounter with a devil after his feral kitsune urges taken over, after a... struggle of his own.

He's out of commission. So is Crescent.

So long as he doesn't know, he can sleep well.

Probably.

[alchemistdetective]

“Crescent! I heard you were around here today, so I came over to say hi!”

Crescent is now dealing with a hyperactive Sunny Milk. Good luck.

(@paradise-in-k4)

"Oh... Hi, Sunny."

Here's Crescent. Sick. And alone. Mostly the former. Thanks to the blizzard AND the plague outside.

"I-It's fine, you shouldn't get too close to me or you'll get sick. Why not go look for Luna and Star? Remember, stay at home too."

[alchemistdetective]

Crescent is protecting others from Chloe and Chloe from others...

But no-one is protecting Chloe from Chloe

"I can protect myself! I have a hatchet!"

She has a hatchet.

[alchemistdetective]

"W-Wait... Wait wait wait..."

Ah, this is bad. She is cursed! Terrible! Absolutely terrible! And out of instinct, she's forced to take off three items from her bag... And juggle them!

And unfortunately for her, juggling is NOT part of the alchemist's skillset! Oh, woe is her! If only she were Cress, then maybe things might be better!

But fortunately, she has some kind of control off her actions, which means she could take out... at least ONE item of her choosing!

And so... ta-dah! She has withdrawn...

One healing potion

One batch of herbs specifically for curses (!!!)

And one bomb!

...

And not just any bomb, it's like the most powerful bomb she has

Which she is saving for the dragon... or any... other powerful... youkai.

.........

Oh no. Why did she take that out...?

W-Well, it's okay, as long as she juggles it and eats the herbs, everything would be okay, right?

And with such a life threatening situation?

IT'S TIME FOR A MINI GAME

"Wow, Chloe! Looks like you've gotten yourself into quite a pickle! What you need to do is to either juggle until the time runs out, or press the 'X' button when the herb reaches the bottom of the screen! Remember to keep balance with 'Y' with the correct timi-"

Blah blah blah, nobody reads these tutorials anyway.

All she needs to do is clear this, right? Juggling! Easy! Let's-a-go!

"........."

Ah. The bomb fell.

BOOM!

And like a huge alarm bell ringing ALL ACROSS THE MOUNTAIN, it's almost as if she's LETTING the dragons know just what happened!

And LOOK AT THAT, there's already a small avalanche coming down from the mountain thanks to the bomb!

"A-Aaaahhhhh!!!"

Managing to eat the herbs just in time and cure herself from her curse after being able to move her body, she quickly dived into the cave... and ran deep within!

Well, she's smart enough to bring a lantern to explore a dark cave anyway... with the avalanche outside...

... Hopefully nothing too bad happens.

Now let's see... what kind of ingredients could she find here?...

As she touches the mannequin, she'd feel a chilling sensation, and not the kind caused by it just being cold as hell out here. There was a black aura coming off of that mannequin, and it was spreading right over to Chloe. The mannequin spun its head 180 degrees to look at her, giggling at her despite not having a mouth.

Congratulations, Chloe! You are now a proud owner of one new [curse]!

Now then, let's spin the random curse wheel!

Without intending to at all, Chloe is immediately forced to take out three random items from her bag and start juggling them! Hopefully she's good at juggling, because this curse will make her keep doing it until the curse is dispelled!

All of the mannequins turn to look at her and start clapping simultaneously as if congratulating her on getting cursed. Thankfully, she did, in fact, find a cave nearby...Who knows if it'd be a good idea to go in there, but it was there! And probably a good place to hide while all the mannequins were making so much noise!

[alchemistdetective]

Ah, and there's... the woman screaming on top of her lungs! Welp, guess she has chosen the wrong... choi-

Okay that's enough! Back to our regularly scheduled programme before she finds you, Chloe!

"......"

But wait! What's this! Manneqins? In the snow?

Everytime she turns back, they turn to look at her.

Ah, she knew of them, of course. These mannequins are possessed by the spirit of the dead, and judging by the nature of these mountains, it's most likely that the victims died terrible deaths here.

Which brings the question... How did these mannequins come in the first pla-

Chloe stop looking back and forth to see how many faces the mannequin has, please thank you, there is no additional dialogue you'll get from these-

"Ohhh! Maybe if I'll chop the heads of one of these mannequins, I might be able to look inside the-"

And like the spirit of Thanksgiving coming to Chloe, Rirune, her Sensei's voice, rings inside her head.

"chloe there's a time and place for everything but not now, these mannequins may possess the spirit of the dead inside which you will disturb"

"also no you can't cut their heads off and put gunpowder inside, you'll-"

"Alright, as per my Sensei's instructions, you all are spared from the hatchet today!"

Pat pats the mannequins on the shoulder. They're good guards, and so long as they don't attack, so too she will not in turn!

She will continue on exploring! Looking for caves! There HAS to be some kind of way away from the dragons and making her way into a place filled with large quantity of alchemy ingredients.

and let's not forget hiding behind rocks

because the dragons are most likely going to find her if she walked in the open

"What in the world...?" She just looks at the book, growing increasingly confused at its contents and wondering when she even had time to prepare something like this. She never said anything about eating Chloe, or even killing her though...What the heck was this "pish posh" stuff about anyway...She'd look at one of the dragons, the dragon simply shrugging at her...

"Girl, this book is absolute-" She looked over at where Chloe was, only to find absolutely nothing where she had been. She ran away! As she was continuing to flee, Chloe would hear something echoing loudly.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

After throwing the book to the ground angrily, Anya would take off into the skies, sending her dragons to go hunt Chloe down. She normally wasn't one for cursing much, but being made a fool of like that was definitely pissing the yeti off.

As she searched around for a cave on the mountain, Chloe would find something very odd indeed all over the place...There were mannequins out here. Just...standing in the snow. Every time she looked away, though, it seemed like the mannequins' featureless faces would turn to look at her.

[alchemistdetective]

"DID SOMEONE SAY MAHJONG-"

[alchemistdetective]

"Flan, what idols need is charisma not pick up lines. Eri can do his job as an idol just fine, despite having so many issues." She's aware its a pot calling the kettle black situation in terms off can do their job fine despite having issues. "Really moment he starts speaking you don't get idol from him when he's off work. At school he's the school princess and that's because of his looks, not any pick up lines."

"He's the school princes..."

Ah, she stopped there. Eri? School princess???? She didn't know this at all! That's completely unexpect-...

Wait, no, she can expect it.

"Yeah, he's REALLY pretty, isn't he? Although I think Sakuya might steal all the glares if she were next to him, maybe... But hey, you're fine too, and I bet you can flirt really well! Mind giving a demonstration?"

[alchemistdetective]

"Flan, you know how Eri is. He has not tried out any pick up line he has heard others use."

"R-Really? But he's really experienced with that kind of thing, right? He's super popular, both in school and in work, I-I guess?..."