Patchouli Knowledge

Patchouli Knowledge, or Patchy, is the librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Or rather, that's what she was. Currently she is the knowledgeble bookworm located in 34-B. She likes to spend most of her free time learning and solving problems. She has a fight ranking of 8.0

Under the codename Quikt, she is a Jack in the suitDIAMONDS. Currently she is recovering from the events of Week 103, and is not actively taking place in the resistance.

Her complete application can be found here.

Appearance
Besides her long purple hair and violet eyes, there is virtually no way to distinguish Patchouli from a normal human. She has several red and blue ribbons tied into her hair. She wears a night cap with a yellow crescent pinned to it. She also wears pink and purple striped pajamas with a purple robe over it. resembles

A picture is fine too.

Abilities
As a witch, Patchouli commands a vast array of magical power. Although she's capable of casting any spell she can learn, she specializes in elemental magic. The elements she uses most frequently are the seven elements: "wood", for life and awakening; "fire", for change and movement; "earth", for foundation and constancy; "metal", for wealth and abundance; "water", for silence and purification; "sun", for activeness and offense; "moon", for passiveness and defense. She is capable of combining elements with other elements.

For example, casting a water spell could be able to do something along the lines of filling a cup with liquid. An earth spell could be used to help steady her footing on unstable ground. A sun and water spell could send a high pressure jet of water at an opponent. Moon and water could be used to create a shield of solid ice to block attack. Moon, water, and fire could be used to create a steamy fog that could be used to obscure her.

However, in order to cast a spell she must have the appropriate grimoire, or magic book. These are not simple books of spells, but magical items with magical power sealed inside. Their contents are not simply how to cast various spells, but rather the key to use the magic itself. However, there is a drawback to this. In order to be able to distinguish the glyphs in a grimoire, one must possess equal or greater skill than the person who wrote the spell in the grimoire.

It is also worth noting that Patchouli suffers from a bad case of asthma, anemia, and vitamin A deficiency. She tires very easily from physical activities, and sometimes complex spells are enough to wind her. The recent events of week 103 have only made this problem worse.

Personality
For the most part, Patchouli is not very social. She spends most of her time either reading books or creating new spells for her grimoire. She doesn't often leave her room, the library, and when she does it's more often from necessity than want. She has a habit of referring to those who invade her room as "rats." She tends to be a shut in having once spent six months in her library, her meals being brought to her. She's also quite annoyed by people who come to ask her questions due to her encyclopedic knowledge. However if you tend to be polite then she'll be willing to answer any questions and even perhaps have a pleasant chat with you.

She doesn't have a very proactive personality, but rather always walks her own path. However, she is always interested where knowledge is concerned and will proactively go and try to acquire it. She does everything by the book, but still makes a lot of mistakes.

She tends to be rather picky in her choice of rooms. She prefers a room without sunlight, so as not to ruin her books. While not essential, bookcases are highly desirable. If she lacks bookcases, her room will most likely become little more than a giant pile of books. When not sorting her books, she can often be found buried in them. She's affectionately called "The Unmoving Library" by her friends due to her ability to do nothing but stay in one spot and do nothing but read.

In addition, she tends to utter "Mukyu~" when surprised or pouting.

The following is a lot of head canon and speculation. Proceed at your own risk.

Although Patchouli appears to be quite anti-social, there are a few things that point to her not being a total and absolute recluse. First, she lives in the Scarlet Devil Mansion and seems to be rather amicable with the people there. There are also a few other people that she seems well disposed to, namely Reimu and Marisa. That leads me to believe that Patchouli functions best with a tight cadre of intimate friends, intimate in the sense of close, not romantic.

History
Touhou canon is notoriously confusing, so I will do my best to try to make sense of it.

Her past before she came to the Scarlet Devil Mansion located in Gensokyo, a mystical land in Japan that had been sealed away due to the dangerous youkai inside, is relatively unknown. The mansion was owned by the vampire Remilia Scarlet, who allowed her to take residence in the mansion. She's lived in it long enough to collect a rather substantive library. It's not only filled with regular books, but also a variety of grimoires, some of which she wrote. She has also accumulated several familiars, including Koakuma the demon.

She rarely exits the mansion, but when she does it's generally for a good cause. Once after a particularly harsh winter, an Oni called Suika was attempting to prolong the cherry blossom viewing festivals. In order to do this, she transformed into an odd mist that covered all of Gensokyo. The strange mist caused those in Gensokyo to continue the festivals. Only those attuned to spiritual things could sense the mist, and several people came to Patchouli asking her if she knew anything about the mist.

Later, when geysers started erupting and spewing out spirits in addition to hot water, Patchouli was one of the few to take it seriously. Concerned, she talked to Yukari, youkai of boundaries and one of the oldest people in Gensokyo, about the issue. Yukari informed her that there had been an agreement that the youkai of the worlds above and below the ground should not disturb each other. Concerned, Yukari commissioned the aid of Marisa Kirisame the magician to go to the subterranean world to investigate this breach, while the Patchouli stayed behind and communicated with her via magical artifact supplied by Yukari.

Descending toward the lowest levels of what used to be Hell, they discover the cause and purpose of the spirit geysers. Utsuho Reiuzi, a hell raven, received the power of nuclear fusion from a mysterious god of the mountain. Fascinated at this newfound power, she plotted to fan the fiery flames of Hell and burn the world above into a furnace. Utsuho's feline friend, Orin, worried about Utsuho's sudden change of character, set off the geysers to alert the world above. With Patchouli's help, Marisa was able to defeat Utsuho and prevent her from destroying the world.

Links

 * Profile
 * HMD
 * CR - rarely updated