Diarmuid.
diarmuid. his duel styles was analogous to duel wielding spears, his special technique of gradually weakening an enemy while he himself stayed strong was in reference to zero lancer's best strategy of using gae buidhe to repeatedly injure his opponent and then escaping.
His name, the elegant rose, bestowed upon by his loyal female fans, was a reference to his love spot and the fact that his spears were called roses.
Incidentally, I thought Medea would be utterly rutheless against a playboy type.
EDIT:sniped
Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Thanks, you two!
Since you told me it was okay to reply to the thread even though it hasn't been updated in the immediate-lately, here's most of the stuff I had to say about Chapters 2 and 3:
Chapter 2
I wanted to say that I am still really enjoying the way you are doing a resonant parallel to the base canon in this AU circumstance. I rarely see it done as well as it is done in this to the point that this is an outlier in a type of AU that I typically don't care that much about. I am loving the way you're layering in the characters, and I thought that Rin and Archer's (excuse me, Guardian's) dynamic, however briefly featured, also rang really true in a way that immediately involved me.
I'm very envious of your ability to carry a narrative and things actually progressing in much more concise narrative than my writing style allows for. I'm kind of beating my head against a wall for the past couple of days with a desire to right but just feeling like anything I could work on is too heavy a burden to push even though I have time and will to write. I really wish I could incorporate some of the energy you have behind the force of your narrative, even if I continue to like to describe things differently.
There were a lot of nice phrases here and there, but I thought this sentence was really good. It's working on a cliche and reinventing it in a way that struck me as nice:
Anyway good job, and I'll keep reading at some point.Some would say time slowed down, but that was not precisely accurate, it was more like there was so much riding on a single second that it could no longer hold the moment.
Chapter 3
“Managers have the final say over dosages. When they loaded me up, Rin panicked and gave them her own body weight instead of mine. I did not correct her.”
Actually made me laugh in public because I felt that it rang very true to their relationship and her characterization somehow.
I really don't understand what's happening as I read this fic. Boxing, again, is a total mystery to me and not of particular interest, and all the "boxing names" piling on top of each other is getting a bit difficult to take seriously, but at the same time I'm becoming more invested and think about its progression quite a bit.
Imagine that the world is made out of love. Now imagine that it isn’t.
Imagine a story where everything goes wrong, where everyone has their back against the wall, where everyone is in pain and acting selfishly because if they don’t, they’ll die.
Imagine a story, not of good against evil, but of need against need against need, where everyone is at cross-purposes and everyone is to blame.
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Spoiler:
yeah, I said in the VM conversation, sorry if I overload on boxing terms. I try to explain things or use context that makes it understandable, but ironically due to all the research I have done for this fic I occasionally forget whats common knowledge and what isnt
As someone who hasn't watched a single round of boxing before, I can honestly say it's all pretty clear, you explain the jargon well and, more importantly, the explanations tend mostly to flow pretty organically with the story itself so you don't get pulled out of the moment for an exposition.
I agree with what Vagrant said. There are times when I sort of glaze over when there are specific terms and have to reread it because my mind went somewhere, but that's a fault of mine in reading action scenes. Overall, I think that the boxing scenes read very nicely and keep me as engaged as any type of fight scene does. (I'm an odd duck in that I like things that involve fighting and action but it's more the aftermath and connective tissue that I'm reading for, not exclusive to this fic.) If you can engage me about an action-topic in which I have no vested interest, I think you're doing a good job. I actually think that this fic had some honorable mention in my dreams the other night, oddly.
I had actually wondered if you had a particular vested interest in boxing and were just applying that knowledge to this AU/fic for that reason. Reading that you did the research specifically for this fic surprises and impresses me. And yes, the thing with forgetting what is or isn't common knowledge is a problem I can relate to, even though I can't write my ABCs lately.
Imagine that the world is made out of love. Now imagine that it isn’t.
Imagine a story where everything goes wrong, where everyone has their back against the wall, where everyone is in pain and acting selfishly because if they don’t, they’ll die.
Imagine a story, not of good against evil, but of need against need against need, where everyone is at cross-purposes and everyone is to blame.
Blog of Fiction for You to Consume
Other Links
Spoiler:
actually no. funnily enough, the idea from this fic came from an old thread where people were making jokes about...hell I am not even sure at this point, I think it was servants saying movie quotes, and I randomly tossed off "I coulda been a contender!" for saber, thinking about kiritsugu short circuiting the battle for the 4th war and pictured saber saying that to him.
shortly thereafter, I happened to be joking around with verg avesta and he happened to see that gag, and he asked what saber would be like as a boxer. we started making jokes about the different servats and their fighting style, then that went to what the masters would be like as managers, and before I knew it I had a half written fic on my hands. all it needed was some world building.
Hell if someone could have gotten their hands on that IRC conversation they could have predicted about half the twists months in advance. I would talk about said twists more in depth except IIRC you are still reading through and I dont want to inadvertently spoil. but yeah, this whole thing just kinda fell together enough that all I really had to do was pull the trigger and start writing.
Plus, its kinda in my strike zone. the actual fic that I like doing, that I enjoy writing, tend to take a silly crackish idea and then try to write it seriously.
moral of the story, emohawk does serious crack.
:|
I do believe in fanfics! I do! I do!
All I want for Christmas is the conclusion to "Fight/Knight". Come on, Tobias, you can go the distance! :-D
Just caught up to this fic myself, over a two-day period, and hot damn is it good. It's not a simple "Water beats fire" kind of strategy, it really is more in line with the complex matchups of the original Fate. Loving the references too, like Arc and Diarmuid and Broskandar (Broskandar's had me laughing the most, tbh- though the name of Arc's tournament had me facepalming happily too). I haven't seen any sort of boxing or whatever beyond this, save for a few snippets of Hajime no Ippo manga and anime- and neither of those on their own could have prepared me for the mad, mad goodness this fic is. It's making me feel like just listening to manly 80's and 90's songs all day long with a helping of Hajime no Ippo, Shokugeki no Soma and other shonen stuff inbetween.
Like I said, I don't know anything about boxing at all- but the amount of research/interest you've put into it really shows, and just makes the experience more enjoyable, like I'm actually seeing it as 'real' in a way. Sasaki was fun, if a bit plain, and in one way or another every match from there on managed to ramp up the stakes with increasing intensity. Blood Writer's malicious determination and Sakura's sweet-and-spicy AU goodness (no worms means better things for everyone), Lancer's pure ham-ham aura of battlelust and then Heracles directly topping it in the very next fight, followed by the intense match that was Saber Alter vs Caster. As Gundam Build Fighters Try said the battle starts before you step on the field, after all.
Of course, they also said "Gunpla is freedom!"- and there's no reason it can't apply to Fate as well.
Rambling a ton, but basically this is awesome, you're awesome, and you've got a new follower for this story.
so!
Folks I had actually intended this as a new years surprise buuuuut regrettably one of my beta readers has declined to continue the project. Mad props to him for taking us this far. That however leaves me only able to say this. with some rare free time I have completed the next chapter in our adventure and would be happy to share, but right now I am very much in the need of the services of a new tester, preferably someone talented in grammatical structure and tightening up scenes. if someone has the time and motivation for such a role (and would like an early peak in the process, please let me know. for the rest of you (those loyal few still interested) I can only offer my apologies it has been this long.
for everyone else, new and old....
Nice! I don't have the time to volunteer, unfortunately, but I'll be sure to keep an eye out for new chapters!