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I create a world of finite somethings

I Am There

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by
Arashi_Leonhart
, April 18th, 2012 at 04:29 AM (2969 Views)
There's an inverse point to I Am Not There that I've been kind of doing the writing equivalent to "doodling" on. Whereas IANT is about the people Shirou affected in his pursuit of ideal-land and told from their perspective, I keep wanting to make something that is the inverse, of Shirou's perspective as he goes about attempting to save lives in a post-Fate setting. Part of the reason I haven't attacked it head-on is that some of it goes to the darker spaces and I always feel like I have to prepare myself mentally for that.

Here be spoilers as I just kind of ramble-outline, but I don't feel like tagging it.



Pinnacle of Night, Horizon of Dreams

Escaping Fate Prologue Redux
-I alluded to it briefly in IANT, the "letter writer" having a similar story to Yumi from Escaping Fate. I've rewritten the opening scene to be from Shirou's perspective, the first moment he has in a Fate scenario where he actually saves someone (since Saber is gone and Illya has since died, I guess he doesn't count those).

Snake
-Shirou trashes the organization that created Kuzuki. I might combine it with another bit...

Gutter Trash
-A dying (prostitute? drug addict?) is found in an alley. Shirou stays with her in her last moments. He then hunts down the killer?

Sharpshooter
-Shirou deals with having to make his first preemptive strike against a target that is, without a doubt, going to cause the deaths of others if he is not shot down.

Cold War
-Dead Apostle fight in Russia. Action-y to show his progress toward EMIYA-level abilities.

Mongrels
-Shirou saves a boy abused by his (parents? step parents? unrelated?), kept in a dog kennel. In the process, Shirou kills two guard dogs to do so and laments over their "sacrifice" and the boy's living conditions.

Rice Grains in Somalia
-Shirou smuggles rice into Mogadishu. He ends up killing a local warlord who has been completely abusing his power (as opposed to forming something of a symbiotic relationship like many actually do).

Home Sweet Home
-While resting in Fuyuki, Taiga mentions a student at school who has fallen in with a bad crowd. Shirou looks into it and finds the kid has joined a street gang. Shirou roughs the kids up when they end up attacking a drunkard and giving the kid a warning. Might allow for some levity, because Taiga.

Natalia
-Shirou saves a teenage girl from rape gangs during the 2008 South Ossentia War, not unlike how Kiritsugu saves Maiya. Her name is, ironically, Natalia. He also fights off Russian and Georgian soldiers alike? Hint at reincarnated Maiya? (but damn, that implies origin of suck, "reincarnate to just be a female victim"...)

Bred For War
-Something of a plot-bunny that hasn't left me alone since FMP!:TSR came out, and possibly combined or mirroring Snake: the idea of Shirou coming across a figure like Kuzuki or the twins raised by Gauron in FMP! that only know killing. Unlike the Natalia bit above, or Yumi's story in Escaping Fate, they would not be "just" victims, but active in their own destruction and antagonistic toward Shirou. I guess it stems from my mind going, "What would happen if someone like Shirou had come across the Xia sisters and, unlike his fight with Kuzuki in UBW, actually had the capacity to survive in battle with them, thus presenting him with options other than keep self alive?"


Probably others as they come. I just doubt this sort of thing will let go, but I also don't have any particular motivation to get any of this posted in a timely manner.
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Comments

  1. Mike1984's Avatar
    Wouldn't the obvious first person for him to save be Sakura (particularly since she is still around in I Am Not There)?
  2. nununu's Avatar
    So waiting in great anticipation for these~
  3. Arashi_Leonhart's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike1984
    Wouldn't the obvious first person for him to save be Sakura (particularly since she is still around in I Am Not There)?
    "Save" means "save the life of" and Sakura, unless you're talking HF, is not in danger of dying.
  4. Dark Pulse's Avatar
    Interesting choices. As you know, I heavily enjoyed IANT, so I'll definitely look forward to a sequel.
  5. Neir's Avatar
    Re: gutter trash
    Shirou hunting someone down and killing theminstantly rubs me the wrong way. It seems like more of an eye for an eye thing. Pure vengeance instead of pursuing his ideal. After all, you can't save someone who's already gone.

    Bred for War gives me a reader boner. Want.
  6. Arashi_Leonhart's Avatar
    It wouldn't be vengeance, just that he comes across someone who is killing, and has to pursue them to stop them from continuing. Stopping Jack the Ripper before she he kills again, not just because "I witnessed their victim, now I'm out for you."
  7. Mike1984's Avatar
    "Save" means "save the life of" and Sakura, unless you're talking HF, is not in danger of dying.
    Yes, she is. Zouken will certainly kill her eventually. And, even before that, she's being horribly tortured on a regular basis. The kid Shirou rescues from a dog kennel is no worse off than she is, certainly.

    But, still, I guess I was being too optimistic in assuming that someone might write a hero Shirou who actually helps one of the people he cares most about for once, rather than ignoring her and leaving her to be tortured to death....
  8. Arashi_Leonhart's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike1984
    Yes, she is. Zouken will certainly kill her eventually. And, even before that, she's being horribly tortured on a regular basis. The kid Shirou rescues from a dog kennel is no worse off than she is, certainly.
    The dog kennel story is based on an actual event that happened in the news, and the boy in question did in fact die.

    As for Sakura, we don't know what happens to her post-Fate or UBW and Zouken comments in Zero that he wants to keep her alive for producing further Matou heirs for future Grail prospects. And as stated, Sakura's plight has nothing to do with being a seigi no mikata. It is certainly something Shirou would want to help with, but it isn't relevant to the story point.

    And you're seeming to miss the point that this is within a continuity where I've already addressed Zouken anyway, and/or have Sakura, years later, happy and with a family.

    And I don't appreciate the passive-aggressive "Well I guess you aren't going to write a good Shirou..." Take it somewhere else.
    Updated April 19th, 2012 at 02:08 PM by Arashi_Leonhart
  9. Mike1984's Avatar
    Well, yeah, things like that happen, and they are undoubtedly terrible. However, Sakura's situation is no better than that, ultimately, if not worse.

    As for Sakura, well, you didn't say that she was saved in another fashion. If her situation has been "addressed", then obviously Shirou doesn't need to save her.

    And, with Shirou, I'm just annoyed at the way people seem to want him to become a hero but yet to ignore the suffering of a girl he cares so much about. Again, though, if her situation is dealt with in another fashion, then I apologise.
  10. Arashi_Leonhart's Avatar
    Shirou's dream is that of a seigi no mikata. It has a different meaning to "hero" in the Western modo. It does not mean "protect lives" or "make life better" even though that might be a byproduct. It means to "defeat evil." If Zouken is a clear enemy, then yes, obviously, Shirou would push for his defeat in pursuit of his ideals. And yes, his ultimate goal is a world "where everyone is smiling." But when I talk about a fic where he has to struggle in pursuit of the ideals, the end result is not going to be the focus. The journey is. Perhaps I'm giving the wrong impression with how these notes are set up, but the point is not the aspect of "save people" which is what IANT is about. It is about "pursuit of justice and what happens to one who pursues it so purely."
  11. Mike1984's Avatar
    Zouken is about as evil as you can get. Also, I don't recall that ever being Shirou's dream....
  12. Arashi_Leonhart's Avatar
    It's the clear point that he runs up against throughout the novel. In Fate, he has to face the victims of the fire still suffering in the church basement whose suffering cannot be erased if he pursues justice. In UBW, the idea that he will probably have to kill others in the name of something ephemeral like "justice" which isn't even his original idea. In HF, he abandons the dream of justice for the sake of loved ones. I dunno how much more clear you get. "I will be a seigi no mikata in Kiritsugu's place" is his dream.
  13. Mike1984's Avatar
    No, his dream is to save people, not to kill villains.
  14. Arashi_Leonhart's Avatar
    Again, you're not understanding. Seigi no mikata. Taiga: "It's like helping the weak and defeating the strong. In the essay he wrote as a child, he said 'My dream is to become a superhero.'"

    Translation really doesn't cover it, but seigi no mikata means "one who stands by justice" and carries the connotation that they save the weak from the strong. The whole paradox of his situation is that it does mean "to kill villains in order to save the weak" which is why EMIYA exists at all. Though his ultimate goal is for the salvation of the weak, to do so means facing the strong and defeating them. Hand in hand, you can't get the "save weak" without the "strike strong."