And that's how I wound up with this dork as one of my central characters.
It all began the day Urban Legend In Limbo, the game Sumireko debuted in, was released. Chao, our resident Touhou expert, pointed out the intensity of the series' fanbase by showing artwork of Sumireko on Pixiv that was uploaded shortly after the game's release despite her being the final boss of the game, meaning people had IMMEDIATELY purchased it, then IMMEDIATELY played through the entire game to the final boss (not as hard a thing to do as usual, since this one was an arcade-style 2D fighter instead of a bullet hell shmup), saw Sumireko, and drew fanart of her. The below picture managed to be the very first one uploaded, save for a couple of "speculation" pictures that were what people thought Sumireko would look like when all that was known was her name.
The design immediately caught my eye. Cool hat, cool cape, cool hair, glasses (rare on a touhou character), and a pose that radiated confidence. This girl thinks she's a badass. But, at the end of the day, I ultimately considered her to be nothing more than a neat idea for a Fite Club. Specifically, a magician-off with Kaito. Sumireko is not a magician in canon, but I went with it for a few different reasons:
1: Her outfit makes her look like a magician
2: It made her fit in to the setting better (Las Vegas is famous for its' many magic acts!)
3: The personality I envisioned her with made "stage magician" a career choice she'd be likely to pick
And so ZFRP Sumireko was born. She was still only going to be a Fite Club opponent, and made only one brief cameo after that before Harpy began her oft-talked-about three-event Touhou plot that invited everyone with a Touhou character to send them. I went ahead and sent Sumireko to the first event, and as I tried to feel out her personality, her hamminess got emphasized. By the end of the plot, several people told me how much they enjoyed her, and on the spur of the moment I decided she would attend every other event in Harpy's plot as well. Then I decided she would also attend every event in the larger plot that Touhou Plot was part of. And she also attended every Alruthine event, because by that point I had researched Sumireko a bit more and found to my delight that she was an amateur paranormal investigator with a deep interest in the occult. Not only does the same subject fascinate me, I already had Viola, who shared Sumireko's interest, but approached it in a different way and had different focuses within the category. This was an easy hook to get Sumireko in with my other characters, and resulted in the forming of the Chaoservice Contingent thanks to Gloria also sharing some interests with Sumireko. Overall, the three of them just felt like a perfect fit to be friends.
It took a while, but Sumireko eventually managed to develop into a full and proper character after the initial "test run" of only sending her on certain plots. She began making normal appearances in the bar and also popped up on plots that weren't part of her initial scope. By then I knew she was sticking around for the long haul, but like a lot of my debuts, she didn't get her own plot right away. She's getting it this year, though, and I have grand plans!
You know, one of my favorite things about RP is when I manage to really make people happy with my writing. I've gotten a lot of you to smile or laugh with Sumireko, and that's just great. I'm happy I could entertain you with this nerd.
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