Panel redraw because damn this chapter

Curiosities of Lotus Asia ch. 35 has an Aibo in it and I'm gonna be a nerd about it.

Ok I have no idea just how many touhou fans are aware of Laika, Rinnosuke's robot dog introduced in CoLA ch35 but if you're not aware, he finds this robot and it causes all sorts of chaos and wrecks his shop, and they eventually find out its possessed by a puppy spirit. If you're at all curious, go read it on the touhou wiki if you haven't already.

How do I know for sure that it's an Aibo? Well, on top of the fact it definitely resembles one, Sumireko suggests naming it Aibo and in BAiJR Aya literally says it's an aibo. This is one of the few things she probably didn't lie about in this book bc how the hell would she otherwise even know what an aibo is TO be able to lie about it.

(Side note, the official name is just "AIBO", im not sure why she calls it AIBO buddy here, maybe bc aibo is a pun on the japanese word meaning buddy but why tack it onto the end? Idk)

Ok for those who don't know what an aibo is, it's a series of robot dogs Sony made, there were several models released between 1999-2006, and later had the ers-1000 in 2018 which is still available (and I personally have an ers-111 :3)

Pictured: aibo models ers-310, 220, 110, 210, and 7

Ok, so, what kind of AIBO is Laika then?

This is where it gets.. confusing.

this line from sumireko would imply it's an ers-110, as it was the very first model of aibo ever released.

But.. laika doesn't look much like a 110

Ok the way she's drawn doesn't look that close to ANY real model of aibo, but the drawing makes her look more like a 210, with the (probably) white coloration, visor shape, and upturned ears.

(110 vs 210)

It's also possible she doesnt resemble any model too closely to avoid copyright issues, but even then she visually resembles a 210 much more than a 110.

Other than that ch35 doesn't give us much else to determine her model, she doesn't display any particular behaviors that would indicate it, rinnosuke says her expressions can't be read implying her eye lights are non functional, and that she's completely silent. Aibos LOVE to make noise, and usually communicate through music and tones, so it's likely the animal spirit is simply pup-petting (hehe) a nonfunctional aibo body. Rinnosuke also mentions that it's begun to actually listen to him, which would imply a 210 or later (110 and 111 do not have voice recognition) if it weren't for the possibility that again, it's just the puppy controlling it.

So there's a few possibilities here.

- zun didn't depict her to be any particular model to not get smited by sony's lawyers

- she is a 110 but for whatever reason, be it a miscommunication or just zun or the artist deciding it didn't matter that much, that isn't reflected in the art

- sumireko is wrong, and she is a 210

Or maybe she's just a 110 with some cool customization, like paint and custom ear pieces. Then again, she did pass into gensokyo meaning she's been totally forgotten, and that seems less likely if someone took the time to customize her.

So now im curious. Given the evidence, what do YOU think laika is? Even if you didn't know shit about aibo before this post, hell, ESPECIALLY if you didn't, what do you think?

Personally I kinda like to think she's a 210 bc I think they're neat. Maybe even a gold 210, since the yellow tinge in the cover art makes her look like the very pale gold of the pale gold 210s. But as an existing aibo enjoyer I'm a little biased

I really hope laika gets to come back at some point, I have a little bit of hope since beast spirits as a plot point have become a lot more significant. She seems like a very good doggy :]

If you for some reason read all of this thank you for indulging my insanity

soo, I stumbled across some pictures that inspired me for this post. I'll write Sucheon and Gangseok, as always, but feel free to suggest your characters too (I'll do that type of thing for Lookism too).

If it happens to be your birthday and you fortunately came across this post: I wish u a happy bday! 🌼💕

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𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘀𝗲𝗼𝗸 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀/𝗼'𝘀 𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗱𝗮𝘆 +:｡.｡

webtoon eleceed: Sucheon Kang, Gangseok Choi

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੭ﾞ* 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗻𝗴

"Happy Birthday!" - How will you hear it?

🍈Sucheon is an early bird and wakes up early in the morning, even on weekends. His alarm will go off and his calendar pops up: Y/N's birthday. He will get ready, knowing you're still asleep. While he's preparing everything he got you and calling a restaurant, he texts you casually.

🍈 "Good morning, dummy. You're getting older again this year. I'll come around at 8am, if you're still sleeping I'll spit in your face. <3 cya later."

🍈 Sucheon will get everything prepared and ask Suman to drive him to your place. Suman wants to greet you too, of course. He's very grateful for you, cheering his nephew on and making him feel valid for good things.

🍈 He rings at your doorbell when he arrived, holding flowers in his hands and being curious about your sleepy face. You rub your eyes as you open the door but the fierce face of Sucheon shakes you awake immediately. "Happy Birthday Y/N." He and Suman say synchronizing, it wasn't wanted but somehow happened. Now: your day filled with tiny dates with your boyfriend will start.

Flowers - What flowers will the they give you?

🍈 Sucheon brings them to you as a first act of kindness and as a gift. As this man is mysterious and dark, somewhere caring and loving, he got flowers that resemble himself. He's in your head whenever you look at the dark flowers and white roses.

🍈 Another surprise: Sucheon smells similar to the bouquet. The light but characteristic smell remind you of his room. He has a room freshener that smells like it and so does he, and everything else he owns.

Food - Cake? Fries? What will they feed you?

🍈 As mentioned, Sucheon called a restaurant beforehand. He made sure to give you a good experience and he wants to go out for lunch. The weather is expected to get rainy in the afternoon and Sucheon wants you two to be out in the sun.

🍈 Now you're wondering: what would he possibly arrange for you two? An expensive restaurant with the weirdest dishes? A fast food shop? He makes it a big secret. You hate when he makes secrets because he gives you no hints and is so stubborn about them. After you got ready he takes you out.

🍈 After a short ride you see a small Japanese restaurant. It looks really adorable. He opens the car door and lends you a hand. You shall look like a couple going in there. You see a table full of balloons in your eye color and small wrapped gifts laying on it. The waiter greets you smiling and leads you to the table.

🍈 "The starter dish will be there in a second." He smiles. You wait some minutes while cherry juice and tableware gets displayed. Sucheon smiles adorable. "I found this restaurant because I were looking for dishes at look like you." - "Is that an insult?", you laugh.

🍈 Turns out, it's not:

੭ﾞ* 𝗚𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘀𝗲𝗼𝗸 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗶

"Happy Birthday!" - How will you hear it?

🍈 Gangseok planned your birthday some weeks before. You tried to make it not a big deal, as it's just a day were you got pressed out of your mother's womb. Gangseok in the other side wants this day free for you and him. He's usually pretty busy and full free days are rare. But your birthday - he seduced everyone to make his day free.

🍈 He wakes up, leaving his phone next to him. Texting you sounds really cold to him. He showers and shortly after 9am he starts baking something for you. The other presents are already on his sofa table. Since you come around today, he wants to make sure everything is perfect.

🍈 You were told to come around 11am the day before and so you do. You come in cute clothes, marking your body and making you comfortable in your own skin. When he opens the door, he smiles shyly at you, with a light blush on his cheeks. "Happy Birthday, dear."

🍈 You'll be blessed with a tight hug. Gangseok gives you a big bear hug before inviting you into his apartment. Lovingly, he offers you to sit down at the sofa.

Flowers - What flowers will the they give you?

🍈 Gangseok is a minimalist but he sort of loves tulips. More than usual because he thinks you resemble a tulip, a beautiful tender flower. He got you a small bouquets of pink flowers, hoping it will be decently enough for you.

🍈 The flowers sit in the middle of the sofa table in a vase, shaped like a heart. You know he usually keeps the flowers his mom gets him in there. Gangseok his apartment keeps many secrets you can only know when you've been there. You are charmed when you see your flowers in that important vase. More importantly, his smile when you said you love them is priceless.

Food - Cake? Fries? What will they feed you?

🍈 Gangseok baked something for you and planned more food. He knows you like desserts and pastries. Baking is a hobby of his which no one ever expects. Gangseok seems to be a tough guy always working hard on his fighting skill - which is true. But on bad days he wants to relax and he does that with baking.

🍈 You get pastries for dates and other meetings. Even when you go out with friends he'll be there with some muffins for everyone. You love his hobby though - it makes him way more innocent and nice than people think.

🍈 The most adorable thing is, that on your birthday he took his talent to the top. Did you know he'd open a bakery if he wouldn't have an awakened power? Well, now you know. Gangseok is curious about your reactions to his experiment; let's put it that way tho: it's delicious and heaven.

🍈 Right after you sat down he come with three cake holders and places them on the sofa table. You know what the deal is but you never imagined he'd be this good at baking cake:

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btw here's the concept doodles i did for the halloween art ^^ i spent way too much time on research just to come up with these... they're very simple costumes, but the thought process i went through was anything but simple, lol. if you're curious, feel free to read about it! (lots of text below)

my goals were 1. i wanted to imagine what would be reasonable for them to wear to a small kind of family gathering 2. i wanted for Susato and Ryunosuke to stick to their culture's mythos for this occasion 3. and ideally, i wanted their getups to be in character Iris was the easiest one, because to dress up as a "Witch" was a rather popular choice back in those days, as many photoprints would prove. she would have no problems finding materials or sewing patterns for her outfit, i thought. i considered making her dress more colorful... but decided against it. after all, despite her love for colours, Iris normally wears clothing with a rather 'calm' colour palette... and too much colour on her would potentially only harm the picture, anyway :P i figured the Japanese duo wouldn't be able to spend a lot / find materials in a foreign land for their costumes. so even if they wanted to dress up fancy, it would be difficult and impractical to seek out accessories or clothing just for this occasion... and it would be entirely too troublesome to try and sew something (materials needed, different sewing techniques than what was common in Britain, where to find pictures to use as a reference for something elaborate, etc etc). so, they wouldn't try do anything too complex, i thought, which means they'd either choose to dress as characters that require cheap, ragged outfits (would be relatively inexpensive to make), or they'd use things they already had. i've given a lot of thought about their choices of characters, but long story short, i've decided that a somewhat devious or fearsome, but not necessarily evil, creatures, that were very well known and easily recognizable even with minimal accessorising, were the best option. i don't know if Ryu has anything like this kimono on him, but if he had, it'd be very dark or black, i think - makes sense with his design ^^ finally, i wasn't sure what to do with Sherlock at all... would he be lazy and forget to make a costume? possibly. he loves to dress up, though, (and one pout from Iris would motivate him enough anyway) so he'd probably have fun with this holiday. i thought of making him dress as a vampire at first, then a Grim Reaper or some kind of skeleton... but ultimately stopped at 'ghost'. i definitely didn't want to just throw a sheet over him, and photos from the end of 19th century showed ghost costumes that were made for little kids and were very, well, childish... not to say that Sherlock wouldn't wear something like that, lol, but i decided to make him wear his own ghostly theme. his outfit is based on fashions from a few decades earlier, so these articles of clothing could still potentially be sold somewhere in London, and they'd give him kind of a vintage look. i have no idea if anyone would be interested in this enough to read this far, but here we are xD here's a couple of other random details: they have carved turnips for lanterns (those came out looking a bit too big, i think) i also thought they'd have soul cakes on the table, to give away/share with others, or maybe eat by themselves, but the bowl is barely noticeable at all, lol ok, that's it!

Hey there! I got a prompt for you(if you're still doing these), narumitsu highschool au I know you already did one but here it's just the stereotypical Japanese one and miles asks phoenix to stay after school to study but he wants to confess his feeling and if you can awkward first kiss

confession; narumitsu; g

Phoenix opened his locker, blinking in confusion when he saw a folded up piece of paper placed delicately atop his books. 

“What’s this?” he mumbled to himself, reaching for the paper and unfolding it. Larry, who stood nearby, peered over his shoulder, curious.

Phoenix,

I want to study after school if you aren’t busy. I’ll be waiting near the football field since I have track practice. I will be done around 4. Please meet me if you can. 

-Miles

“That’s kinda weird,” muttered Larry, too close to Phoenix’s ear. Phoenix yipped in surprise, shoving his friend back. 

“Gimme some space, c’mon, man!”

“Sorry, just wanted to read. I think Miles might be the only guy to communicate through notes in lockers. He wrote it on super fancy stationary, too.”

Phoenix double-checked the paper, confirming just how fancy it was. He breathed out a chuckle, pocketing the note. That seemed like something Miles would do.

“He doesn’t really get on his phone much, so we don’t text a lot. Anyway,” Phoenix said with finality, reaching for the Letterman’s jacket in his locker, “I should head over to the football field.”

“Wha–” Larry was dumbfounded, mouth hanging open. “C’mon, you’re just gonna bail on me like that?”

“You really wanna walk home with me that much?” doubted Phoenix, shrugging on his jacket.

“No, but you brought an umbrella and I didn’t and it’s supposed to rain today!” Larry whined.

“If you hurry, you’ll beat the rain,” Phoenix advised with a shit-eating grin, hurrying down the hall with his umbrella in hand, laughing as Larry cursed him relentlessly.

Phoenix arrived early to the field, taking in the scenery. The mild spring sunlight warmed his skin and he took in a breath of content, treading up the too-bright aluminium stairs that lead to the bleachers. 

He took a seat and decided to watch the latter part of Miles’ track practice. The guy could really run. He didn’t seem to notice that Phoenix had arrived, too absorbed in running around the track at a constant speed. If Phoenix ran like that, he was sure his stamina would run out within minutes. 

The track coach blew her whistle and the students gathered around her. She briefly talked to them before the practice broke and the students began to file toward the downstairs locker rooms beneath the field. Phoenix managed to catch Miles’ eye when he saw his friend looking at the bleachers, and he offered an excited wave and a grin.

Although rather far away, Phoenix spotted a smile on Miles’ face as the other boy waved back.

After about fifteen more minutes, Miles emerged from the locker rooms and made his way over to the bleachers. Phoenix met him halfway, hiking his backpack on as he wrapped the other student in a half-hug. “Hey, you were great!”

Miles seemed slightly uncomfortable, fidgeting in the embrace. He smiled uncertainly, shrugging a shoulder. His hair was slightly damp from the shower he’d just taken, and he smelled of shampoo and a slightly floral body wash. 

“I really wasn’t. It’s just running.”

“Just running? I can’t do that, your stamina was amazing!”

Miles nudged his friend off, rolling his eyes. The gesture was playful, though, and Phoenix grinned in response.

“So, you wanted to study?”

Miles’ smile left as quickly as it’d come, his body language suddenly shy. “Yeah… uh. Yeah, I did.”

“Wanna head to the library, then? I think they’ll stay open til five.”

“Um,” Miles stalled, eyes on the grass as he toed at the dirt. “Yeah. Actually, Phoenix, no. I didn’t–” he stopped himself, fingers digging into the skin of his forearm, “I didn’t actually… want to study.”

“Oh?” asked Phoenix, idly thumbing the handle of his umbrella. He tilted his head in question. “Then what?”

Miles wouldn’t meet his gaze, staying silent. Phoenix furrowed his brows, confused by the behavior. While Miles had originally acted like this, over the school year, the two had gotten fairly close. He wasn’t sure why his friend was behaving so oddly. 

“Is… something wrong, Miles?” he asked, genuinely concerned as he took a step closer. Miles jolted upright, stepping back with a quiet yelp.

Phoenix snorted. “I’m not gonna hurt you, weirdo!”

“I… I know that,” Miles muttered, breaking eye contact yet again, “I just… Okay, I’ll cut to the chase!” He squeezed his eyes shut, head lowered. “I have to tell you something!”

Phoenix raised a brow, wondering where this was going. “Okay. Shoot.”

“Promise you won’t hate me.”

“Promise.”

“And… we can still be friends no matter what.”

Phoenix, slightly scared now, frowned. “Miles, what’s this abou–”

Though his lips were parted mid-sentence, Miles went for a kiss, mouth clashing clumsily to Phoenix’s. The touch lingered for a couple seconds before Miles pulled back, a determined look in his eyes. 

Phoenix stared up at his friend in disbelief, mouth ajar.

“I… like you, Phoenix,” admitted Miles, his face rivaling the color of a tomato. “I’ve… always liked you. Even before we were friends. I didn’t want to ruin anything, but I couldn’t… I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to… t-tell you,” he finished in a mumble, gaze cast to the side.

Phoenix gulped, his own face growing a bit hot. He had never been kissed before. All these sensations were a little too much.

Just as he was about to reply, a loud clap of thunder echoed miles away. A couple drops began to fall, and before they knew it, rain was pouring down above them.

Phoenix struggled to open up his umbrella, cursing under his breath. He finally got it to open, and he held it above the two of them hurriedly, forcing their proximity to be even closer.

Miles met his gaze, expression steady and calculated. His eyes, however, held hints of fear. “So?” he asked, so quiet Phoenix wasn’t sure if he’d just imagined it.

Phoenix searched the other boy’s eyes before his gaze wandered lower. He’d never really noticed how pretty Miles’ lips were. They were so pink, a little bruised from the earlier impact, and slightly shiny. 

“My… eyes are up here,” mumbled Miles, a weak attempt at comic relief, though the blush on his cheeks sort of gave away his true feelings.

Phoenix couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of his friend, leaning in to rest his forehead on Miles’ shoulder. Miles tensed, but relaxed shortly after, standing still and allowing his friend to stay there.

“It wasn’t that funny…”

“You’re right, it wasn’t,” breathed Phoenix, still chuckling, “but when you say it, it’s just perfect.”

Miles chuckled softly, reaching for the umbrella in Phoenix’s hand. He held it instead, free hand coaxing Phoenix back.

Phoenix obliged, meeting Miles’ gaze with a wide, reassuring smile. “Is it too cheesy to say that I like you back?”

“No, it’s…” Miles cleared his throat, looking away. “It’s the preferred response.”

Phoenix laughed once more. “Then I like you back. Wanna walk me home?”

Miles tried to hide a smile, but it was quite obvious his aura was brimming with excitement. “I suppose I could.”