Discussion Friday

[geraineon]

This came up in a recent read-in-progress (I think), but what's the strangest/most unique spirit/Yao/youkai/etc. you've encountered in a novel/novel adaptation?

What kind of Yao/spirit/youkai would you like to read about?

Comments

[geraineon]

I think mine has got to be a pen spirit. The title of the novel is not coming to my mind right now but I'm sure I'll remember it at some point... Maybe after I sleep

[liliacs]

Are you thinking of the one in Nan Chan, maybe? Or if not, it also has a pen spirit and yeah, that has to be a contender for strangest yao I've seen.

[geraineon]

Nope, not the one in Nan Chan because I know I haven't read Nan Chan. Cool that a pen spirit appeared in at least two places!

[liliacs]

The one in Nan Chan also had a romance iirc! I remember nearly nothing else about it though.

[llonkrebboj]

Ohhhhhh! There was a pen ghost in a supernatural/unlimited flow novel I once read! It was very funny. I need to dig out the novel and show you!!!!

[geraineon]

This might be the same pen spirit? Oh wait, it's not UF, it's QT, the story I read.

[larryhammer]

The novel I'm reading now, I Am Average and Unremarkable, has a garlic chive yao. She's the title character and is in no way either average or unremarkable, and her claim tells you a lot about what flavor of yao she is.

A pen spirit would be fun to read about, as either yao or youkai.

[geraineon]

I wonder if garlic chive yao tastes good... surely there are all manners of vegetables/herbs yao as well

[larryhammer]

I refuse to eat sentient beings.

(Including edge cases like octopus.)

[ehyde]

I don't think the notebook ghost in They All Say I've Met a Ghost is particularly unique (haunted tomes being rather plentiful) but I enjoyed him a lot and he inspired my binding of the novel. (I'm also not sure he counts, as he was a ghost haunting a notebook, rather than the spirit of the notebook itself).

I haven't actually encountered many strange spirits, so I'll be watching this thread for recs!

[geraineon]

I think the notebook ghost is pretty cool but yeah haunted tomes is a little more common than others.

I think the pen spirit is still the strangest for me XD

[halfcactus]

I can't think of any unique one but I would more like spirit-of-the-week ones along the lines of Bai Yao Pu / Fairies Album... Spirits that make you cry haha

[geraineon]

Like Natsume Yuujinchou! I think you mentioned this title before (maybe?).

[llonkrebboj]

Also it's not a novel or novel adaptation, but my favourite song features a length of silk that stole itself from the moon and eloped with a bamboo immortal. They go though a process of joining themselves together to be formed into a fan and went on adventures to see the human world through the centuries.

First time I've heard of a combo being possible 🤣