Alas, the author isn't a random number generator, so that's impossible.Originally Posted by Amatsumi
Alas, the author isn't a random number generator, so that's impossible.
I'm pretty sure he was referring to how the author of Worm decided who would survive the Leviathan fight, by rolling dice for each character to determine their fate.
I guess he wants Fallacies do to the same thing here?
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What.
Seriously?
If that's true I just lost a ton of respect for Wildbow. Considering how he nicely planned out the rest of the story, this is going in the complete opposite direction and I don't like it.
Honestly, that's the best way to do a fight like that. An Endbringer's meant to be the ultimate chaos factor- when one comes into play, you don't have any clue what's going to happen, who's going to die. I actually think more of the guy for that- he might've actually cut out characters he wanted to work with, and had plans for, instead of just going from the beginning "right, and I'll have this guy do this, and him go there, and her that".
The story might've grown more organically thanks to that.
FGO Supports
And he did have plans for how he would handle various important characters (including Taylor) dying.
I am of the personal belief that the Tsukihime Remake is two years from release. It will remain as such until a release date is announced, at which time its actual release date is 6 months after that date.
From another angle, who at that fight was really important for the future story arcs? The Travellers, the Undersiders and the Triumvirate? Everyone else I think could easily have been subtituted, and even then the Travellers were only important by association with Noelle.
Last edited by Siriel; March 20th, 2015 at 07:57 PM.
Ragnarok, come day of wrath
That fallen souls might bear our plea.
To hasten the Divine's return.
O piteous Wanderer.
Hm. In that case I guess it's fine.
Cite on this?
Spoiler:
Did not know that.
I'm reminded of the First Tournament arc in Negima where the author did a similar thing. Then again, that wasn't a life and death decision.
Binged All Of Gundam In 4 Years, 1 Week and All I Got Was This Stupid Mask
FF XIV: Walked to the End
Started Legend of the Galactic Heroes (14/07/23), pray for me.
Well now I know what to do when I write climatic battle scenes.
Only if you have a large cast of mostly one dimensional background characters. Or you want to really shake things up.
Binged All Of Gundam In 4 Years, 1 Week and All I Got Was This Stupid Mask
FF XIV: Walked to the End
Started Legend of the Galactic Heroes (14/07/23), pray for me.
Apparently he had a different structure in mind if the protagonist died, too.
http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com...0#post-2724834
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Knowing how I write, probably both.
I'm kind of honored that this sort of thing is the very first post you would make in the forum? Out of curiosity, is having randomly determined wins/losses the measure of a good story?
That said, Shirou will win and lose as the plot dictates, and not via random number generator. Presumably, if you ran a statistical analysis on this fic if it ever finishes, Shirou would win owing to being a protagonist the vast majority of the time -- but winning in a fight isn't necessarily a victory. His first win in the story attracted a load of unwanted attention from the authorities.
I don't think it was ever clearly indicated that they stopped running the fights, as far as I remember. This story presumes that they never had a reason to.
Though it might not seem like it at first glance, neither Hookwolf nor Kaiser are deeply committed to the idea punishing Shirou to extreme ends. Hookwolf is mostly in it for his own entertainment, and decided with Purity's proposition that he would derive it from watching Shirou inside the cage. Kaiser proposed his plan of humiliation because, from a utilitarian viewpoint, this sort of image management is necessary when a nobody randomly takes out a junior officer of the organization. However, the moment that Purity objected, he prioritized getting her onboard with the Empire again. In the end, he doesn't care one way or another what happens to Shirou.
That doesn't mean that they won't decide to kill him at a whim if the occasion arises.
In an older questions thread, it was pointed out that Shirou had a bunch of non-sword projected junk sitting in his shed. It was given as an example of how long a projected mundane object would last (several months, iirc). I don't think it was indicated as to how physically complicated any of it was, or if said junk explicitly qualified as "machines," but I presume that even if "objects stored within UBW" must absolutely be limited to weapons applicable to close combat, there's nothing that outright prevents Shirou from projecting non-sword objects -- they just wouldn't be "stored," and he would presumably have a harder time of it.
As Archer, Emiya could apparently materialize a bow. We don't know if he pulled it out of UBW, but I suppose you could still whap people over the head with a bow in close combat if came to that. Relatedly, I suppose that you could maybe shove people around with the Rho Aias, so that qualifies as a close combat weapon as well.
I would reason that the most complicated gun is -- being a mundane mechanical object -- still a fair ways simpler with respect to the common sense of man than the mystery that goes into a Noble Phantasm.
However, keep in mind that this isn't a perfectly canonical Shirou.
Last edited by fallacies; March 21st, 2015 at 08:14 AM.
0.3
//
An adult magus of average circuit count could, given a reasonable amount of training and sympathy with the proper foundation, reinforce their flesh to the point of being able to able to dead-lift a normal sedan car for a very brief period of time. 'Exertional rhabdomyolysis' -- a breakdown of muscular tissue owing to physical stress -- was the primary risk of the spell, resulting from an incapacity to impose phenomenon interference at the precise levels required, over the appropriate conceptual substrates of the pertinent structures of the anatomy.
Shirou's relatively rare talent with reinforcement was such that he could physically perform on level with a parahuman of a low Brute and Mover rating indefinitely without risking serious injury. However, it wasn't such a simple matter to boost himself just enough to safely navigate a fight while maintaining the fiction that he was unpowered.
Versus one opponent, it was manageable -- but versus three or four?
Narrowly, Shirou dodged the black man's punch -- blocking with his forearm as the tattooed East Asian man immediately followed up with a kick to Shirou's side. His opponents weren't prepared for team combat, but they were obviously experienced brawlers -- better than he was, skill-wise. So long as they put a slight bit of effort into avoiding one another, it made no practical difference that they weren't coordinated for teamwork.
Shirou was certain that he could outlast them in a competition of sheer physical stamina, but the repeated initiation and canceling of reinforcement was very quickly depleting his available reserves of focus and willpower. Probability of casting error was gradually accumulating -- but victory without rendering serious injury to the other parties didn't seem likely in the absence of the combat management that reinforcement afforded.
'Bruising to the face and limbs, a split lip, and a bloody nose,' he thought, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand as his opponents warily gave him reprieve. 'Enough to convince the Empire that I'm too weak to possibly take out Rune? Either way, I need to end this quickly.'
Ducking beneath a clothesline, Shirou leapt forward, ramming the Indian with his full weight and knocking him to the ground. Rolling into a crouch, he dropped the approaching East Asian with a sweep of the leg -- causing the man to slam into the steel plate of the platform with his head.
'Tattoo should be out for the count,' thought Shirou, watching as the Indian man stood again. 'That's two down and two remaining.'
He took the initiative, grabbing the Indian again by his wifebeater and kneeing him in the stomach -- forcing him against a beam in the chain link fence with a reinforced shove.
'Minor fracture to the ribs should put him over his pain threshold,' thought Shirou, turning to his one remaining opponent.
He'd thought it strange that the African American had eased up on his attacks, but the reason was apparent at a glance; the last man standing was covered in sweat, panting more heavily than warranted for a mere twelve minutes of fighting. The way he was favoring his stomach suggested an internal injury.
"The outcome's pretty clear, going by your condition," said Shirou. "Just surrender, and we can both walk away."
The black man laughed bitterly.
"You don't get it cause you're new," he snarled, "but there ain't no walkin' away from this shit unless the Wolf says so. You lose, and the only future you got is the dogs."
At a higher speed than Shirou thought he could muster, the black man dashed at him. It looked for a moment as if he were going low, but once the man entered range, the attack that precipitated was a high kick toward the side of Shirou's head. Reaction time put Shirou just out of the path and into position to deliver a swift kick to the man's groin -- followed by a forceful punch to his face.
Breathing hard, Shirou stepped back amidst the booing that filled the chamber and examined his handiwork.
'Four down,' he thought. 'They'll definitely need medical attention, but at least there's nothing that won't heal properly.'
From a raised platform that faced an unobstructed corner of the ring, a masked man standing to the left of an empty throne performed a hand gesture, and the elevator opposite of Shirou descended again to the stage.
The person that emerged was an athletic girl with a buzz-cut and a cage-like wire mesh mask that concealed her features. Wearing a skin-tight sports top and a loose, long pair of khaki shorts, she had a mechanical device attached to a choker along the scar that marred her throat, and the exposed skin of her midriff and limbs were rough with the blemishes of past injuries. Shirou got the feeling that it was out of some sort of twisted pride that she openly displayed her wounds.
[For the climax of tonight's event,] said the announcer, [Cricket of the Empire Eighty-Eight will face Shirou Emiya as his final opponent. Let's all give her a round of applause!]
For the first time since Shirou's arrival, the sounds from the audience became noticeably positive.
In a mechanical voice absent of tone and inflection, the girl commented, "I was wonderin' when you'd be done with these fuckers. Took you longer than I expected."
'An electrolarynx?' Shirou wondered. 'Low level mystery and no apparent power source. Tinkertech.'
"You say that as if you were sure I'd win," he replied aloud. "I wasn't aware that I had any fans."
The girl made a clipping noise that sounded like a laugh.
"Don't flatter yourself," she replied. "You're better than them only 'cuz your daddy managed to spunk up some white chick. It's practically genetic destiny that you'd win." She began to bounce on the balls of her feet. "But you ain't got anything on a thoroughbred."
In one bound, she hit the fence of the cage and kicked off, propelling herself toward Shirou at an angle. On the theory that she wouldn't be able to change her trajectory in mid-air, Shirou attempted to strike at her with his fist -- but missed as she jerked her head suddenly aside. The hook of her arm caught him by the throat, and he lost his balance.
If it weren't for a well-timed application of reinforcement, he might have dislocated his neck.
With a handspring, Cricket flipped upright and into a stance that placed her center of weight on her hind foot. Shirou had just barely regained his footing when she invaded his guard again, forcing him back with a low snap kick to his stomach.
'Low Brute and Mover,' he thought, coughing as he backed off defensively. 'Probably some training in gymnastics, so her muscular build isn't just for show.'
She leapt again -- backwards this time -- and clung to the surface of the chain link fence.
"Two exchanges with me, and you're still conscious," she said. "Why'd you have such a hard time against these guys?"
"Who knows?" Shirou answered. "Maybe you're just not taking me seriously?"
She laughed again.
"In that case," she said, "you'll get yourself a taste of serious."
A high-frequency noise filled the ring, and Shirou lost visual tracking of Cricket to a sudden bout of vertigo that brought him to his knees. A blow impacted the rear of his skull, and he fell face-first to the ground.
'Breaker or Shaker power,' he thought, unsteadily pushing himself up and holding his forehead. 'She's resonating with the fluid inside my ears.'
Cricket casually walked before him.
"You see?" she asked tonelessly. "The minute I get serious, the only choice you have is to kneel. That's genetic destiny for you right there."
"... just a trick."
"What'd you say?"
"I said, 'It's just a trick,'" Shirou repeated. "You won the lottery and received a parlor trick to get ahead in a fight without any skill or effort. Even if genetics did play a role, it wouldn't be anything to brag about -- and coasting through life entirely on your ancestors' merits isn't particularly admirable in any way."
He couldn't see Cricket's expression, but felt her face twist in anger. With no further warning, the noise started up again at twice its previous intensity, and the girl delivered a roundhouse kick with enough force to cripple him.
Shirou caught her ankle and twisted, throwing her to the ground.
"The fuck!?" she shouted.
Shirou couldn't hear her.
The magecraft known as reinforcement could be applied to any conceptual substrate within a body of matter. Inertia was one of these, and Shirou's inner ear structures were presently augmented to resist resonance across a select frequency spectrum.
"I've got a few tricks too," he said, holding Cricket down and reaching into the jacket of his Fortress uniform. "Trace on."
Within his mind, the hammer of a revolver was knocked back, and the trigger was pulled; the tranquilizer bolt that Shadow Stalker had threatened him with was extruded into his grip. Pulling it out of his jacket, he plunged the tip into Cricket's shoulder.
He'd heard before that real tranquilizer darts didn't work as quickly as they appeared to in Earth Aleph movies, but when he'd self-administered the contents of Shadow Stalker's bolt over the weekend, he'd knocked himself out within moments. Cricket seemed similarly affected, and within five seconds of contact with the sedative agent, she'd ceased her struggling entirely.
'Hopefully there wasn't enough in there to cause an overdose,' he thought, standing away from her and restoring his hearing. 'She's quite a bit lighter than me ...'
Beyond the ring, the crowd had fallen surprisingly silent, and Shirou felt the approach of the wolf-masked man that had signaled for Cricket to join the fray. He glanced over his shoulder.
"You disappoint me, Shirou Emiya," said the man. "You really do."
"Hookwolf, I presume?"
The man didn't appear to deem the question worthy of a response, and instead began to pace along the edge of the moat, past the armed, neatly uniformed guards that stood before the audience.
"I brought you in tonight, expecting you to entertain me," he said levelly. "Put you into situations to give you a chance to show off your guns. What do you do instead?" He stopped and faced Shirou. "You pretend to be a fucking weakling."
"I was fighting for my life," Shirou softly replied.
The man broke into laughter.
"'Fighting for your life?'" the man asked, chuckling. Beneath his mask, his expression hardened. "No you weren't, you little shit. Not even once. You were just fuckin' around in make-believe land the whole time. Don't even bother to pretend that I'm misreading you. You don't got any talent for acting."
Shirou met his gaze.
"What do you want, then?"
The man turned his back to Shirou, facing an aisle of steps that ascended to one of the chamber's exits.
"I'm gonna give you one more chance to amuse me tomorrow night," the man answered. "Fake me out again, and I deal with you personally." He raised a hand, and the guards stationed about the moat stood to attention, tapping together the heels of their boots. "Take him to the guest's quarters."
Sixteen submachine guns were instantly trained at the center of the ring.
---
Ten minutes after the last guard had cleared the hallway, Shirou sat up from the bed in his jail cell. Contrary to his expectations, he noted, the place was spotlessly clean, and even included a built-in shower and toilet.
"Bigger than my studio," he muttered. "Wonder what the rent costs."
He stood, walking up to the door and tracing the replica of a key-chain.
"Not the time to be appreciating the amenities," he told himself. "Let's see if I can't get myself home in time for breakfast."
//
Notes:
Smith & Wesson 460 (x1) acquired.
Mauser HSc (x1) acquired.
Heckler & Koch UMP45 (x1) acquired.
Barnett Ghost (x1) acquired.
.460 S&W Magnum (∞) acquired.
.380 ACP (∞) acquired.
.45 ACP (∞) acquired.
AM Tranquilizer Bolts (Nonlethal) (∞) acquired.
Headhunter Bolts (∞) acquired.
Facility S Keys (x1) acquired.
Please press the lower left corner of your touchpad to access your ̴̥̖͍͊̇̏͠b̶̛͍͙͇̠̟̙͕̲̋́ṟ̶̢͇̻̣ͨͫ̋ͫͩ͗͠t̛̲̜̳̻͍͕̄̏ͪ͌͋͆͝ ͓̱h̨͔̱ͨͣͨ ̴̧̭̙̺̣͇̹͕͛͊̒̃̕ͅs̓̎̓҉̲͇̣̩b̷̶͇͕̃͊ͩ̓r̼̾̋͌̌͢͠͞d̀̎͋ͣ̓ͥ̀ ̴̜̰̻͖̲͕̫y̯̭̯̻̹̌͆ͦ̀͑̄s͍͉̪̪̩̣͈ͥ̆ͫ͋͌ͭ͘ menu.
Last edited by fallacies; March 22nd, 2015 at 02:45 PM.
Shirou is quite a bit more capable here in magecraft and hand-to-hand it seems. Part of me wonders how this Shirou would've done against Lancer in place of OTL FSN Shirou in their first fight.
Still get his ass kicked, I assume.
Yawp. And just as easily.
FGO Supports
He'd defend a bit better. Which might be problematic, considering this means he might not get chased to the shed where the magic circle is.
I am of the personal belief that the Tsukihime Remake is two years from release. It will remain as such until a release date is announced, at which time its actual release date is 6 months after that date.
As the others indicated, he would've still gotten murdered. At the moment, this Shirou is only really strong versus conventional unpowered humans who don't have access to magecraft. Somebody like Lancer is so far above that that there would be practically no difference.
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