Forgotten Friday #196 - 虹音リシ / Nijine Rishi

 There are many ways to work around the limitations of using this tablet. Buy a USB hub, use my combination keyboard / trackpad... But, I think maybe all of the weird ways I have to lean over to get around the keyboard to touch the screen have to eventually count as exercise.

Forgotten Friday #196 -  虹音リシ / Nijine Rishi

This UTAU has a pretty typical 2010 biography. She's pretty. but she's a tomboy. She loves to joke around, but she gets angry easily. If she starts making noise, do not stop her. If you try, you risk injury. But, she loves vegetables and screaming.

She is a self-insert of Sano, the person who made her. And that's totally cool!

Who is Rishi Nijine?

art by voice provider

This week on A Spectrum of Apple Skins, we finally meet Belinda!

"I'm sorry, Franz," Marissa took a deep breath. "If Belly says that she doesn't want to go, she's still going." She looked past Franz to the monitor disguised as a window above the sink. Playing on it was an artistic representation of the white sugar beaches of the Gulf of Mexico before climate change had engulfed all of the most beautiful islands.

"Marissa," Franz paused as he studied his wife's face. He could see the longing in her eyes as the water lapped up against the beach. "There's no sunlight like in the videos. That beach in the picture frame hasn't existed for nearly a thousand years." 

Marissa let out a soft hum as she looked down at a touchscreen display on the counter. She quickly swiped at the screen until a stark yet bleak video filled the window. It was drone footage of the very campus they would be living on. She sucked her teeth for a moment.

The first thing she noticed was the bold orange wall rising from the ink black sea. She leaned back and lowered her chin before letting her eyes dart to Franz. "This doesn't look like Hollywood."

"It isn't," Franz sighed. "Unchecked fracking caused one of the strangest geological disasters of all time." He turned to look at the display, folding his arms across his chest. "Hollywood went first. Just your normal sea level rise… but then…" He turned towards her and threw his hands into the air, "It cleaved! No one had any idea it was possible! But the San Andreas fault cleaved." He turned towards the window, gesturing frantically. "There's no reason for it to have had happened! And for everyone closer to the Mississippi, there wasn't even a rumble! But everyone living on the islands and peninsulas… just… in the ocean. And as if the people in Asia didn't already have enough… for all of our technologies even so long ago, we don't have actual on the ground footage of the tsunami, because it was that bad."

Marissa cleared her throat. As Franz turned to her, trying to remove the crazy from his eyes, she announced, "You could put me in a tiny coffin in the middle of space, and as long as I have a typewriter… I will be happier there than I am here." 

With that, there was a woosh coming from their front door air lock. A small girl with unruly brown hair and almost sickly pale skin made her way in, hugging her backpack to her chest. She blinked as soon as she saw her parents turned towards her. Her veins turned to ice as she registered that her mother had been ugly sobbing for an extended period of time. She noticed that the usual peaceful beach in the window was replaced by something that belonged in a horror movie.

"No," Marissa gave a small chuckle. "It was happy tears, Belly!"

Belinda nervously smiled as she made her way to the island to sit next to her mother. She pushed her bag up onto it and furrowed her brows. 

There was nothing wrong with her - Belinda was fully capable of speech and was a chatterbox. But with her parents, she knew better than to prattle on when they looked like they had something important to say. Both of her parents were easily excitable. Saying 'please sign this piece of paper' resulted in the paper being signed. Saying 'please sign this paper for my field trip' resulted in a family trip to a location vaguely related too many times. She did like it - a question about stars led to renting insulated suits and stargazing on the roof. But, this seemed like a situation where they needed to get directly to the point.

"We're going to play the game," Marissa smiled brightly as she turned to Belinda, "Where your father says something correctly, and then I say it authentically."

Franz cleared his throat. He gestured at the window as he calmly stated, "This is a video of San Andreas Bluffs University. I applied for a position, and I was accepted."

Marissa calmly waited for Franz to give her a small nod for her to jump in. As soon as she got the signal, she jumped up, her arms raised to the heavens. "That will be our home! We're moving to Earth!"

Belinda gasped.

How will Belinda react?! Find out next week in A Spectrum of Apple Skins!

How is Nijine Rishi's bank?

Though she has two acts listed, I believe that the act 2 is just act 1 with a few changes, such as hiragana support. The OTOs are zero'd out, so that is a thing.

Sadly, while her voice is a very nostalgic type, most of her consonants have been clipped out, and there are some issues where ... what exactly is that called? It barks at you because of a lack of pitch. However, if you like working with restrictions to get the best sound in less-than-ideal circumstances, this is a nice UTAU!

Where can I download Rishi Nijine?

You can download her from her Wikia page. She is pretty cool!