Dude...their horsing around goes into the kitchen...and completely wrecks it. (*-*)Originally Posted by shikyo21
Edit: ahhh ninja'd
Dude...their horsing around goes into the kitchen...and completely wrecks it. (*-*)
Edit: ahhh ninja'd
Someone right a snippet of the discussed scene please.
Words to live by: Fate is a B****, Destiny is a whore, while Karma is just doing her job.
Violence solves all problems. If its not working then you are not using enough.
Even though I am male after taking a 'Which Fate/stay night Character are you?' quiz I am...
Tohsaka Rin You are Rin. Cool and collected, you think logically about most situations. You strive for self-perfection, and rely on others only for your benefit. You may be cold toward most people, but you can be friendly when you try. Indeed, it could be said you enjoy helping others that you care for. Whatever the case, you tend to think logically and don't let emotions cloud your judgement.
So just VN, huh? Yep, I can do it. Taiga, at the beggining of the novel, manages to hit her head into unconsciousness to just wake up seconds later when she heard the word Tiger. Rule of funny at its finest.
The myth says that inside a kitchen Shirou develops an strange form of invincibility. Said invincibility manifest as a pseudo-reality marble that boost him to have five times the sum of the stats of all his enemies. And if the kitchen or the food is threatened, it is multiplied by 10. It also grants him inmortaility, invulnerability and the ability to unleash prana bursts.
Spoiler:
Laevatein, a cursed sword of flame. Entirely different than Leviathan, the sea-dweller of the three most powerful animals in Judeo-Christian mythology (the others being Behemoth and Zuz).
F/GO SUPPORT
And here you go, denizens of Beast's Lair, the one I promised. I didn't really think it'd be posted over the time limit (even if just a few minutes late), but I had to spend one more hour at work than I'd have liked to (and thus I only got back less than an hour ago), due to the incoming staff meeting and my contribution to it. But that's not important for you (unless one of you is a workfellow of mine, in which case you'll forgive me), and the important thing is that the snippet is there.
This chapter of my snippet series is called "Alliances". As said (posted) a few pages ago in this thread, it's another Rin-centric chapter, and the story in this one resolves around {here be title drop}. You'll also see a certain cripple, seeing whom will probably awaken some of you to the pleasures of Schadenfreude. There's no real action in this chapter, but I think it's good not to have too many fighting-centred chapters in a row (ideally, there should be a comparable number of action and non-action scenes), and the next chapter will undoubtedly remedy that if you really want to see people hurting each other here. The previous ones are "Reinforce", "Darkness Falls", "Duties", and "The Dark Time". And the next one will be called "Diary of War" (that's probably a downer for those waiting for "Lost Things", but whatever, consider your suffering a tribute to my muse).
As always, comments of critique and praise are both appreciated.
And thus, snippet start:
- - - - -
'This isn't a familiar, Rin. I don't know if the other ones were, but this one, somehow, is Emiya Shirou.'
As the battle in front of her was getting to the end, Rin thought about Archer's words with frustration. From the very beginning, nothing made sense. The incident at school. Shirou being a magus living in Fuyuki for years without her knowledge, and getting the same Servant as his adoptive father. And being completely different from how he was supposed to be, using magic he should not be capable of using, and having his own familiars. Heroes from the future being summoned into the Holy Grail War. Kirei not killing Lancer's Master before the Holy Grail War begun. Weird Servant-like magi appearing out of nowhere and fighting Shirou's familiars, or whatever they were. And now Shirou being this weird thing that was closer to being a Caster-class Servant than a human. And Saber turning black during their battle for no apparent reason and running away.
Trying to think about all this made her head hurt. Or rather, her head started to hurt when Archer explained all that to her, and probably never stopped hurting since that time. Kirei getting himself a Servant she could understand, even if he was this War's supervisor, as he was one of the Masters in the previous War. But that meant he would have to be close to Lancer's Master to do that, and as far as she knew, he didn't really have time for that. With Rin being a very common visitor of his after Shirou's familiars started appearing, she would've noticed if he was preparing for something like that. Probably, but he still didn't do it, and it's not like her visits would stop Kirei from doing something if he set his mind to it.
Heroes from the future being summoned also wasn't impossible. For the Holy Grail, time itself did not matter, so one could summon anyone with the right catalyst, as Archer told her. It was unheard of, but most probably because it was almost impossible to become a hero nowadays, and getting a catalyst linked to a person from the future was a gamble. When Archer told her how her father's pendant became a catalyst linked to him, she had to restrain herself not to start laughing. That truly was something she could expect from Shirou, was it not?
The more difficult ones were all connected to Shirou, strangely. The incident at school, with so many students and teachers having had to be sent to the hospital. The unknown familiars that she tried to catch for a long time, who spent most of the time before the Holy Grail War not doing anything other than simply living. Unknown magi, who protected the civilians from finding out about magic, with their sole purpose seemingly being defeating Shirou, and with power that could rival Servants. Shirou sometimes using magic that she knew wasn't possible, or at least not reachable for one that should be a mere amateur. The fact that Shirou even could use magic, other than simple projection and reinforcement, which according to Archer was everything he ought to be capable of. And now, him becoming this sort of thing.
- 'Why do you have to be involved in this, Shirou?'
If that Servant-like familiar they were fighting really was Shirou, then it was quite easy to see just what would they want - they tried to prevent him from changing into this… thing. Just by looking at it one could tell that it was something that shouldn't appear. But why would he change into it? Why would *he* change into it? Did that mean he lied to her when she asked him about the drains and he really was the one behind them? Did that mean what happened at school was deliberate as well?
- 'I want to believe you wouldn't do that, Shirou. I want to believe that you are just someone who wants to help others and has a problem of his own, but now, I don't know what should I believe in.'
- - - - -
Having told her Servants to switch to spirit form to conserve prana, Rin was still battling her thoughts against each other when a figure landed in front of her and disrupted her internal debate by producing a clanking sound. Surprised at the appearance of another person on the roof she was on, she raised her head and saw who the guest was.
It was one of the magi that fought Shirou's familiars in that battle, one with the energy scythe. She appeared to be Rin's age, but in her black outfit with metal gauntlets and shoes, she could only be described as the bad guy. Fair complexion and light blonde hair only added to the image, which would be complete if the magi was holding the weapon she fought with.
- "I'm sorry to bother you, I'm enforcer Fate Harlaown from the Time-Space Administration Bureau." - And the image she had formed fell apart quicker than it appeared, her voice not really one of a villain. Wait, what the heck was "Time-Space Administration Bureau" supposed to be? She would guess that it is one of the departments in the Magic Association, but she highly doubted that anyone there would use a name like this. - "Seeing as you are capable of using magic, and involved in what happens in this place now, we would like to ask you to come with us and answer a few questions."
Unsure what to say, Rin nodded slightly. She wasn't looking forward to being abducted by magi from hell-if-she-knew where, but that might be her only chance to learn what exactly was happening in Fuyuki. So as the town's supervisor, she had to take it.
The magus in front of her smiled, and soon Rin found herself transported into some sort of room. Or perhaps "teleported" would be a better word. She wasn't sure, but with these people it didn't really matter. A moment after she arrived, a voice greeted her.
- "Welcome aboard this TSAB patrol ship. I am the ship's commander, Chrono Harlaown."
- - - - -
- "So what you are saying is, Shirou has a Mystic Code sealed inside him, which is why he was capable of summoning these familiars of his and why he changed into that thing. Said Mystic Code is called 'Book of Darkness', and it handicaps its owner seriously before killing them, unless he somehow fills all 666 of its pages by draining prana, at which point it kills both that person and everything around it and appears somewhere else. Even though it is supposed to be a library of spells." - Rin stopped talking for a moment. - "And what you were trying to do was getting Shirou to stop gathering pages, so that you'll be able to stop the book for good. And now that it's not longer possible, the only solution is to freeze him forever?"
- "Not exactly, Miss Rin. I don't know what 'Mystic Codes' are, but the Book of Darkness is a Lost Logia. A leftover artifact from Ancient Belka, also known as Al-Hazard." - So, in other words, an ancient Mystic Code. Or perhaps it was a Noble Phantasm. She didn't really want to think it could be the latter. Or maybe a kind of Magic Crest? One that moved to a new host after the old one died. No, that made no sense, there would be far too many problems with incompatibilities for it to work like that. - "And it was a magic library, known as Book of the Night Sky. At an unknown point of time between its creation and the present, it became corrupted and changed into the Book of Darkness. It is supposed to fulfill the wish of its master when all 666 pages are gathered, but until now every time it tried to do so through destruction."
- 'Wait, doesn't that mean it's like another Holy Grail, but one that is broken?' - Rin's sudden thought caused her to speak up and interrupt Chrono. - "But if the Book of Darkness you are speaking about kills its masters even if they fill it, why does any one of them bother to do it in the first place? It's not like they all desire the world to be destroyed, is it? And if they have to fill it by draining other humans, then they couldn't do it unknowingly." - And if Shirou was filling that thing consciously to destroy the city? But what if he doesn't know and he thinks it's something good, doesn't that mean that he is just stupidly sacrificing himself and isn't bad here?
- "Those are good questions, Miss Rin. Yuuno, can you explain that in-depth to her?"
- "Ah, yes. Based on the data we managed to find in the Infinite Library, the Book of Darkness' choice of master relies on two parameters. Latent magical power, and emotions. The first one is pretty simple, Book of Darkness cannot be bound to one that has no magical power or very little of it, and any unique abilities of the host make it more likely for the connection to occur. The second one is more complicated. What Book of Darkness seeks in its potential hosts are strong dark emotions. Not just momentary emotions, like being angry at someone after an argument or sad because it's raining. But long-lasting ones, like grief after losing the whole family, feeling of guilt after failing to save someone, or hopelessness one feels when he knows he'll die soon and won't be able to achieve anything he desired to. It wouldn't be incorrect to say that Book of Darkness is drawn to misfortune." - He paused for a moment, before continuing his explanation. - "An all it means is that this Lost Logia binds itself to mages whose existences weren't happy before it appeared. But through history its known masters were different. It can bind itself to a researcher who wishes to find cure for some incurable illness, or to a soldier who wishes to avenge his fallen comrades. To someone unaware of his potential who wishes for magic to be real to be able to help people, or to a power-hungry mercenary wishing to destroy his world. Or to an orphaned child that had not yet learned about its magic potential and merely wishes to have a family." - He stopped once again, this time for a little longer. As if he wanted her to think. And the question was obvious - "Which one of these is Shirou?". - "But even then, it seems that none of them gets the full explanation of its abilities, as if the Wolkenritter tried to deceive their master to activate it. And in the end, all that remains constant is that they are left with an unusable artefact that cripples them, with speed of the process varying from person to person. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, and sometimes as much as about a year, but symptoms always show. Progressing permanent paralysis, loss of ability to use their own magic, sometimes also other symptoms."
- "Then that means Shirou only got it recently. But why would this thing bind itself to him? I observed him for the last few years and he wasn't really unhappy. And he lives in a normal family, or at least as normal as a family of familiars can be." - Chrono raised an eyebrow upon hearing these words, but said nothing. She didn't really say anything strange now, did she? Oh, wait, she totally did.
- "Actually, those you know as his family are the Wolkenritter, guardian programs of the Book of Darkness. I came into contact with them a few years ago on another world. And the Wolkenritter can only exist when the Book of Darkness is bound to someone, meaning that he was its master for at least a few years." - Yuuno replied to her question.
- "But wait, doesn't that mean he should be a cripple by now?" - Rin tried to remember when was the last time she saw Shirou without his "family", but to no avail. Even when she just started looking at him, they were already there. Did the Book of Darkness really bind itself to him when he was a child, and because he wanted a family? - "If he had this thing for at least a few years, then why is his body still acting normally?"
- "That is what we are wondering, too. But even searching the Infinite Library brought us nothing on it. It appears to be simply a special ability of his, one that supplies the Book of Darkness with energy for him, or one that protects him from the draining effect. But for all we know, there are no such abilities, and the only ways to slow down the draining effect are either having extraordinarily high magical power, or acquiring another Lost Logia." - Yuuno answered. Rin tried to match his words to what Archer told her. Shirou's magical potential certainly wasn't that high, and his special abilities had nothing to do with that. Maybe that pendant he carried around, then. It wasn't a book, so it would make sense if this was something he got to keep the Book of Darkness at bay.
- "And that is the reason for the alliance, Miss Rin." - Chrono got back into the discussion. - "Normally we would simply bind the Wolkenritter and retrieve their master, but this time it's different. Even if we can overpower them in combat with the use of surprise tactics, this 'Saber' person with him appears to be completely impervious to our magic, and without neutralising her we couldn't get close enough to him. And our records of this place indicate that there are a few more beings like that. The ones we found out about are 'Lancer', 'Berserker', 'Rider' and 'Caster'. Other than the last one, every one of them was involved in combat against one of the other ones, or against this 'Saber'. Other than one fight, which is recorded as 'the red barrier incident', every one of those battles is fought is the area where the risk of other people seeing it is low, but using powers that appear to be magic, as if it was a secret tournament for magic users. Either way, after temporary loss of two of our mages, we can't afford to run into the activated Book of Darkness on a random chance." - He paused for a moment, sighed, and continued talking. - "And with you being both one of the confirmed participants, and if that one is true, the supervisor of this city, we think it to be in your best interest to work with us. Shirou Emiya, now being inherently dangerous to his surroundings, is both a participant and someone we want to capture, so we can help each other fulfil our respective duties. For us, help is required to stop this 'Saber' from interfering with our plans. And you will benefit from our intelligence on other ones, and from us creating isolating barriers whenever the fights occur."
- "And after you capture Shirou, what will you do then? You said something about freezing him, right? But shouldn't there be anything else you could do about it?"
- "We can try to do that, Miss Rin, but you need to know that it's not an easy task. Separating the Book of Darkness from its master can result in it awakening without control. The last time that happened, my father died because of it, and every member of his crew with him. And destroying the Lost Logia itself would only result in it regenerating somewhere else, possibly somewhere that we wouldn't be able to reach in time to stop it. Either way, we already tried freezing once, and for reasons we know not it failed to work properly. Unless we can find the cause of that and neutralize it, freezing Shirou Emiya might also be impossible."
- "I see. And those two mages you lost?"
- "Hayate is suffering from heavy mental trauma, so we don't know how long will it take her to recover. We hope she'll be ready to act the next time we need her, but we cannot be certain. And Nanoha, her injuries were physical and rather serious, so she's not in the medical bay with the one we recovered from the red barrier incident." - Wait, wasn't that "incident" what happened at school? Why would they keep anyone here instead of letting normal doctors deal with it? - "She'll probably be recuperating for some time, even if she'll say differently once she wakes up."
- "And why would you keep anyone from Fuyuki here instead of letting doctors fix it?" - Rin asked, narrowing her eyes.
- "The answer is quite simple, Miss Rin. But I think it will be better if you see it personally. Yuuno, can you lead her to the medical bay now?" - After a while, Chrono continued. - "You can give me the answer when you get back, Miss Rin. For now, please think about what you want out of it."
- - - - -
Led by the blonde man named Yuuno, Rin quickly got to the medical bay. When getting there, she also paid attention to anything around her, and what she made it clear that these men possessed access to technology she didn't really understand.
When she entered, she noticed that only two beds were used right now. In one of them laid a red-headed girl connected to machinery. She was the first one to be hit, with what Archer described as a blade moving at very high velocity. And the machinery either helped her in recovery, or kept her alive. In the second bed there was someone whom she knew very well. That face, that hair colour, that figure.
- 'Ally with me, Tohsaka, and together we can stop Emiya. I have a few countermeasures set up at school, he won't be able to win against us there even if he's the strongest Master. And when we win the Holy Grail War, our lives will change for the better.' - Those were his own words, ones that he used before the whole thing happened. The one who was the Master of Servant Rider.
- "Shinji." - So he was alive. But still, he looked pretty worn out. His body barely moved as he breathed slowly through an apparatus, and on the left side of his face and neck there was a massive scar that was either a result of bad burn, or contact with acid. Looking at its shape, it was possible that a bigger part of his body was scarred.
- "So you know him?" - Yuuno asked from behind her.
- "His name is Matou Shinji. He's a student of the academy where that incident took place. And he's involved in the same tournament I am." - As she said that, Rin turned to face Yuuno. - "So what's wrong with him?"
- "We don't know what exactly happened, but he was drained by the Book of Darkness while inside the red barrier, to the point of temporarily becoming paralysed. After that, the red barrier started melting his body, just like what happened to the other victims. But since he was near the epicentre and very near the Book of Darkness when it happened, it was much faster than in other cases. He was the only one whose body became so scarred, and it's only here that we are able to take care of him before he regains the ability to move, without alerting other people. After that we'll probably hear his testimony and release him. Fate and Chrono argue about that, but there's no concrete evidence." - Wait, evidence for what? If they were arguing about what to do with Shinji, then one of them has to think that he is an important witness, or that he is the one who activated the barrier. And if they were working on that, then it's possible that they knew about all the other things, and she would know for sure if Shirou was involved in all that.
- "I think I know enough." - Rin walked to the doors of the medical bay, and looked back to Yuuno, who stood there thinking about something. - "Take me back to Chrono, Yuuno. I agree to your offer."
Last edited by YamiheKazeto; February 9th, 2012 at 07:29 AM.
“Evil or not, I refuse to accept this 'fate'.”
Spoiler:
Interesting...
I await further snippets with bated breath.
^---took the words right out of mine mouth...still can't wait to see what happens with Saber after Shirou shrugs off the BoD effect...
Yeah, I can definitely say that my muse is happier because of you two...
“Evil or not, I refuse to accept this 'fate'.”
Spoiler:
...
...
Well. They want Kotomine's help. This can't possibly go wrong.
... Does anyone remember this thread: http://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread...-input-welcome ?
So, according to D&D's alignment check, I'm a True Neutral. Huh.
Skimmed through it and it's pretty interesting, of course...there are still a few typos
The very last line for example...
"Take be back to Chrono, Yuuno. I agree to your offer."
@yamihekazeto
Going to rant for a bit.
I find the Characters in your snippet to be a bit too OOC. Rin is far to calm, and far to collected and accepting of the TSAB. She is the second owner of Fuyuki, and even if she doesn't act like it all the time she still is the one overseeing the land. There's no way she would just 'accept' the TSAB like that.It would be more likely that she would try to order them to work with her, which would most likely irritate Chrono who most likely is on edge wit the whole' artifact that killed his father on the loose' situation.
They might team up, but it won't go smoothly, especially with the strong differences between a Magus and a mage philosophy. If Shirou is a heretic Rin will kill him to protect the secrets of Thaumaturgy ( or so she tells herself), while Nanoha( or Yuuno in this case) will try to find a better way until the very possible end.
Also, I might have misread, but did archer really Blab everything to Rin at this point?
Anoher thing is SHinji. I might have not said this enough before, but the Shinji in this verse is going to be an eve bigger vengefull ass, most likely going down the slippery slope the moment SHirou surpasses him socially ( by becoming the captain of the archery club, and later beating up Shinji after catching wakame beating up Sakura). Shinji has no mana to drain, as he is just a muggle, as I once stated:
"Shinji........." Shirou murdered almost apologetic as he looked down at the boy trembling on the ground against the wall.The false command spell, bound by the booklet in the boy's hand burned away, and Shirou closed the book of darkness in response as hit returned to it's place as the pendant resting around his neck. No magic circuits were even present in the Matou boy to absorb, he was just a ordinary boy who had gotten himself in a fight he never had a chance of winning from the very start. Shinji's expression was a mix of fear, anger and loathing as the boy crawled back onto his feet, pushing himself up against the wall with limbs trembling.
"D-Don't look at me like that......." The trembling boy murmured, before hatred steeled his resolve once again.. " DON'T YOU DARE LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!"
Illya is best servant
That's what happens when my muse is busy and can't try to help me with errors like that before I post it (it was midnight, after all, and I was trying to post it as soon as I could). I tried running it through a grammar checker, but I must've lost those in the sea of "stilted/archaic/contraction in formal writing" errors.
But yeah, that's no excuse. Fixed some of the more obvious stuff, though I'll appreciate it if you post about anything that remained there.
I accept the challenge.
She just saw what Shirou's "alternate form" can do. And by extension, she saw that every one of them (or so it appears) is pretty much Servant-level. So she knows she needs their help, and she knows they could do whatever they wanted to her if she got aggressive (she is the one to constantly state in F/SN that a magus can't beat a Servant). And since it ended when she told Yuuno that she'll accept, there's nothing about her actual answer to Chrono, and she might have a plan. I do agree that she might be too calm for someone who had just seen a battle like that, but her mind was occupied with other things, and there are actually two time cuts in the story - one between her arrival on the TSAB ship and them discussing the situation, and one between her departing for medical bay and arriving there. The first cut is kinda important, because that's when the whole "she wouldn't accept TSAB" thing really happened.
Time skips in discussion, man. They do wonders. Because I can show the disagreeable side be calm, and then write about the whole ruckus from the other side's perspective.
They aren't even sure if they can kill him at that point, so they're liable to try anything if it would help them deal with the situation. As of now they know that the permafrost of Durandal had failed, and were pretty stunned over what to do next.
And Rin will try to do it if she gets around to thinking that Shirou is a heretic. Right now she knows that he has the book and that it's doing something to him, but she still doesn't know if he did that out of his own volition or not. Then again, even if she does try to do anything to Shirou, will she have the guts to do it, or will it be like with Sakura?
It's based on Fate, fraggle. "Alliance" doesn't mean "friends forever {here be hearts}". It means "for now our goals are the same, so we might help each other if that's beneficial for us".
No. Only the outline. She still doesn't know about 90% of what is happening. What she knows is that Archer is Shirou from the future, what Archer's ability is ("I can do projection magic to fight", or something like that), that Servants are the same as then, that something's wrong with Shirou and he has no idea what (but he thinks it's *bad*), and that Kirei had Lancer the first time around.
There's this fragment fro "Duties" (two snippets ago, my dear):
She considered using a command sigil to get more, but decided against it. She might do it if she really needs information, but she knows (or thinks) that Archer knows nothing about her main problem this time around, so it's unlikely.And there was also Archer's story. He only told her the outline, saying that sharing any of the more detailed information about the whole war could change its course needlessly, but she still learned much from him, in a way. He was a hero from the future, a version of Emiya Shirou that managed, or would manage, to make it to the throne of heroes. And compared to his version of the 5th Holy Grail War, this one is very different. Because this Shirou is not the same Shirou Archer was. Archer hadn't been living with four other people as his family. He did not have the cross pendant Shirou is carrying around. He did not use this weird magic that Shirou is using. And he had her father's pendant, the one she used to summon him and the one that, according to him, became the catalyst that linked them together. He was an amateur magus who only got involved in the Holy Grail War by accident, and cooperated with her. The draining attacks had also happened in his Holy Grail War, but now that the whole thing got off the roads, it wasn't like she could rely on this particular issue to be exactly the same as in his memories.
Because of that a mere attempt to do that drained absolutely everything, meaning he suddenly became so vulnerable to the Bloodfort that his skin is now patterned.
And since TSAB can only detect the fact that he has absolutely no prana but think he is a mage, the natural conclusion for them is that Shirou got a few pages out of him.
And I really didn't want him to become the same "uh oh, I'll kill Emiya because I feel like it" ass who comes back for revenge and that nobody cares about, while I also really wanted to give an image of him suffering to you, so I decided to burn him a little. It was workable into the story, seeing as the guy confronts Shirou pretty much in the centre of the Bloodfort, and the only thing that protects him from it is his pseudo-contract with Rider. He might appear later, or he might not, but for now he's suffering, so just enjoy his pain.
Last edited by YamiheKazeto; February 9th, 2012 at 08:15 AM.
“Evil or not, I refuse to accept this 'fate'.”
Spoiler:
Is it bad that I hope Tohsaka kills him in front of the TSAB mages for activating the bloodfort?
Don't know why, but imagining the shocked faces of Nanoha and company brings indescribable joy to mine heart.
Sadistic aren't you .... I like it.
While canon Shinji was a dick, in F/NS the guy manages to cross the line:
Spoiler:
Nah, just kidding. It's not like me to kill the joke character like that--------------
right?
Illya is best servant
You do that and Taiga will come back from the dead and end you.
;_;
Y U DO THAT?
Though it does add some more tragedy...
... Does anyone remember this thread: http://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread...-input-welcome ?
So, according to D&D's alignment check, I'm a True Neutral. Huh.
Don't ask me, fraggle. But I don't think -killing off Taiga- would be good for you. =.=
F/GO SUPPORT
That ... is awesome I really hope that happens in the story.
...rajvir wants to let Shinji -kill Taiga-...
*tosses rajvir to the Einzbern woods' wolves*
F/GO SUPPORT
