Parallel Hearts

Fate/Crimson Dusk

𝙼𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚊𝚔𝚒 𝙷𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚖𝚒

"Apologies, I may have gone a little too far when I questioned the director's ability as a magus," Hifumi said, answering not to Orson's fit of rage but rather to the Church ape who perhaps was a more sensible person at some level. Nevertheless, even though she said so, she never meant it, not that it would be evident from her usual neutral voice. This circus was more than proof enough that Orson was no doubt one of the many who bought his position at the Clock Tower, instead of earning it.

Either way, that didn't matter at the moment. Not when the others were finally coming in, or getting up, to leave.

While Hifumi couldn't agree more about the fact that this meeting had been nothing but a massive waste of time, she hadn't said everything she wanted to yet.

"I believe you have misunderstood my words. I said that the Greys are laughable. I never said, or meant to say, that I would be underestimating them. That they are hardly worth the title of magi and, nevertheless, spit in our face with their so-called 'superiority' is a major offense that any real magus wouldn't take lightly."

"That said, I do question the purpose of this reunion in the first place. How are we supposed to build a strategy based on flawed——no, nearly non-existent information?" Hifumi said, looking at the files provided by Orson.

"If there's no information to be had about our opponents' abilities, what good is it to know that they are entrenched within a fortress protected by a powerful bounded field? That's only natural of any magi. Only a fool would rush into their territory without thinking ahead."

"Just knowing that their forest is 'impregnable', and 'hidden from commoner's eyes', without knowing anything specific about their individual abilities, and the identities of their Servants, tells us nothing. So, what kind of strategy are we even supposed to come up with?"

"However," Hifumi said while tracing her fingers over one of the photos of the dead scouts, "I do have a strategy—actually, two—that no one seem to have come up with yet. I can speak it if you are interested. Otherwise, I'll keep it to myself until you are willing to listen to it. That said, I too would like to move forward with the ritual. What I have to say can be explained in the journey to our destination. There's no point in remaining here if there's no actual information to be gained from these files."

Fate/Crimson Dusk

I'm not trying to make you fear them. Be she views them as paltry mages, or not is her view point. Even simple magics can be trained to be something worth reckoning. In many pieces of media you can see characters who through generations, or years of training take the bare basics to refine something into something special. I'll give you one bit of information out of character that Orson doesn't have. The Grey's magics can influence not just the brain, but the body as well. They can cause insanity, paranoia, permanent loss of memory, and cause the body to react irrationally. A person can try to move their leg and suddenly their tongue muscles are the ones moving. They're not poor mages. Just because they don't fart dragon fire doesn't mean they don't have tactics that suit them. They also have other tricks but I'm not spilling the whole enemy's bag of tricks open before we even gotten out of the office. Orson's actions are in character for a prideful man. And they aren't malicious on my end because I had Anderson publicly get up and gently reprimand both parties then had Orson apologize personally afterward.

I will say that I am becoming very agitated at this point if it wasn't clear enough. You haven't stated a single positive thing about me, or the roleplay in general and from my point of view been acting very antagonistically. I already apologized for my own actions be them intentional, or not towards others in this but so far I've seen nothing but critical comments about my choice in villains, the plot, the servants, and myself. From my point of view all of your comments are making me out to either be incompetent, or downright malicious while you're doing nothing wrong. If someone has a comment about the roleplay I'm willing to listen but just on the basis of this so far apparently you want me to restructure the roleplay's primary antagonists just because you think the characters suck talent wise, or because your character believes them so. This is a roleplay not every single thing needs to be adherent to canon.

However I will warn you I will remove you from the rp if you keep trying to nitpick everything I'm doing. The purpose of my actions are to attempt to either balance, or make a fun roleplay. Not everything needs to make sense within the lore of canon if it works for the aesthetic of a roleplay. If you want me to give the Grey Family more offensive magic so be it. I figured I've already made the apparent danger of enemy caster, and later in the long term Saber clear, and as you've already said yourself the main proponents of combat in the roleplay will be the servants. Save for two of the enemy masters who actually are combatant fighters I don't intend the Grey family to present in direct combat. Their spells can be negated with time, and their actions are all dependent on how we act. Charging headfirst in isn't the best way to fight them. Attrition, and twiddling down their numbers, and space to breath is how best to fight them.

@vancexentan

You truly didn't get what I mean, did you?

I'll explain myself once more just to make it clear. But first, let say that I wouldn't just to "troll" someone else's RP. What would someone even gain from that?

I'm not asking you to change anything you have in mind. That would be presumptuous of me. I'm not even asking you to adhere to canon, since blindly following it isn't a very smart thing to do.

What I said so far is that you are fundamentally mistaken about many of the core concepts of the Nasuverse in general despite linking posts to the wiki so often. Not that all the information there is credible by any means either way.

As a proof of such. What you described are effects of some pretty run-of-the-mill curses. Gandr itself can do most of that "unconventional magic" you've described. A mage that focuses on "spitting dragon fire" for is usually no good either so don't think that I'm asking, or suggesting that.

Not only that, but magic like that is supposed to be easy to counter for other mages. Interfering blatantly with other mages' bodies and minds is very hard to do because the magic energy from within them counters that of the outside.

Think of that like how you push the water off a pool out of the way when you get into it, but the water also pushes back also. Or how a spring deforms under a force but also pushes back against the thing pushing it.

Either way, I'm not asking you to change anything if that's what you are thinking. I suppose that this much is clear at the very least, right? If I was being antagonistic, I wouldn't bother to talk about these things, in the first place.

Fate/Crimson Dusk

@vancexentan
PS: By the way, I don't even want more exposition (or a reason to fear them IC), if that's what you are thinking.

In fact, it's pretty likely that more information will only trigger more quips from Hifumi if it's something that feels wrong to her.

She has no reason to fear these Grey fellows IC (and she's not even the only one in the group who thinks so), Orson being forceful won't really change her mind.

Fate/Crimson Dusk

Well its certainly coming across that way to me personally. Orson just had his name, title, and the skill of his men insulted by a girl less than half his age. More over I'm not sure what you're expecting from me at this point in terms of exposition. What Orson said happened, or at least appeared to have happened. You don't need to shuffle through every single thing I say in the OOC, or IC as incompetence.

@vancexentan

I, huh... didn't say that.

My character is just a simple run-of-the-mill magus. Even someone who's supposed to a really good personality like Rin is quick to insult inferior mages that anger her, that's not to say anything of truly proud people like Kayneth who got instantly abhorred Kiritsugu's disrespect towards magic.

Hifumi's opinions are just compatible with her view of the world and knowledge as a magus, nothing else. I'm not commenting it OOC anymore, am I?

But the world view of a mage who's well educated and proud of their craft is very narrow.

Nothing that doesn't completely turns her word upside down will change her opinion. And, even then it may be hard, since stubbornness is a characteristic of most mages simply because of the way they do things.

I just want to be sure you are not taking this as an attack. You seem to be a rather defensive person so it's better to be proactive in making my point clear when I'm going against the flow.

Again, I'm not mocking you, but everything that Orson said about the Greys are super generic paltry tricks from the point of view of a mildly-trained mage considering what we know about the world of Fate. It's only natural to react with astonishment when you are told you are part of an elite group formed to fight apparent amateurs.

So, why don't you take the time to actually make them be as threatening as you are saying they are, when they appear IC? Then, maybe Hifumi will change her mind, even though that's unlikely to happen.

Fate/Crimson Dusk

By the way, I'm not trying to be antagonistic IC.

It's just that from the point of view of the Nasuverse's lore that we are aware of, everything Hifumi heard so far is nothing other than absurd.

- Illusionism is a blatantly weak style of magic in the Nasuverse because of the way magic works here. As well as hw magi resist to other's magic.

- Memory alteration magic is a parlor trick for magi. Countering it is just as simple as countering any other kind of external magic influence. If you are good enough to be a family head you should be able to deal with magic of all but someone worth the title of Brand or Grand and even then, over the course of time, the spell would grow weak and be countered automatically by your magic.

- Dark Magics (which I suppose are things like witchcraft, and curses) is something so unimportant to European magi that the Mages Association doesn't even teaches people about these subjects, only of general ways of countering them if need be. The Middle Eastern and Far Eastern magecraft traditions are light years ahead of Europe when it comes to these subjects.

These three things are so basic that a properly trained mage like Hifumi, couldn't help but feel flabbergasted by the idea that anyone would take the Greys seriously because of this.

Fate/Crimson Dusk

I'll have an edited CS here later.

It's nothing really special. Just the tools needed to round up Hifumi into an archetypal magus.

Fate/Crimson Dusk

𝙼𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚊𝚔𝚒 𝙷𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚖𝚒

"And that's why only some of us are actual magi," Hifumi said, following up on the executioner's words. "In first place, why is the Church even taking part into this conflict? You are supposed to be overseers. This breaches any code of neutrality you ever preached about. But, I suppose that's only what can be expected of a nest of hypocrites such as the Vatican," she added in the same nonchalant voice from before.

The Church and the Mage's aren't even allies. Far from that, in fact. So, why in the world was this boorish musclehead even here to begin with?

"Oh, so that's what you think that we are supposed to fear about them? Amateur level tricks?" Hifumi said, this time with obvious disdain as she picked one of the photos of the dead scouts and analyzed it.

"You do realize that, no matter how good you Western Magi are, you'll never match the Witchcraft from the Far East, right? If illusions and 'dark magics' are everything you are apprehensive about then I suppose I understand now why I'm even here."

"But really, what kind of second class magus can claim the title of family head of even a mildly influential family and be unable to counter a trick as ordinary as memory alteration magecraft?" Hifumi made an effort not to laugh when Orson spoke about why they didn't know the name of the Brandford son's fiance.

"Excuse me if I what I'm about to say sounds inappropriate. I truly respect anyone who does practice magecraft with the required dedication and discipline. But," she made a pause, placing the photo back and directing herself to Director Orson before continuing, "for someone who achieved the title of Director and carries the same name as Lord Kayneth El Meloi... you truly aren't that impressive of a magus are you? Nothing I've seen or heard so far is impressive by any means other than the location of the Grey's stronghold, which seems to be proper—but not truly special—for a family of Second Owners. And their plan is so infinitesimally likely to succeed, thanks to the Counter Force, that it could be safely ignored and we would lose nothing. So, why are all of you making such a fanfare about legitimate second——no, third rate magi like them?"

"Also, bear in mind that I'm not saying this because of ego. I'm far from reaching a level where I can say I'm even in the top 100 of the Association's magi. That said, what I've seen so far truly are childish games for any well trained magus. So..."

"Is there anything else you are hiding from us? If not, I suppose we could just move on with the rituals, right? After all, the 'end of the world as we know it' waits for no one."

Fate/Crimson Dusk

𝙼𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚊𝚔𝚒 𝙷𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚖𝚒

"𝙷𝚖𝚖? 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚘 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙰𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚘𝚍𝚜? 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜. 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸'𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚜𝚘 𝙸'𝚕𝚕 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚒𝚝 𝚊 𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝 𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚕 𝚠𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎," 𝙷𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚖𝚒 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚐 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚌𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚊𝚌𝚝. 𝙸𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚛—𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚍—𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐.

𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍, 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚔𝚎 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜—𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑, 𝚒𝚗𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚕𝚢, 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚐𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚒𝚗.

"𝙸𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚘? 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚜 𝙸 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚋𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎. 𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚜𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒, 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊 𝚏𝚎𝚞𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚙𝚎𝚜. 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚢𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒, 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎," 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚟𝚘𝚒𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚊 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚑𝚒𝚖.

"𝙰𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚕𝚕, 𝚠𝚑𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚊 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚞𝚜 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚏𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚊 𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚞𝚜 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚜?"

Fate/Crimson Dusk

@vancexentan

By the way, I would like to do a few adjustments to my character. Especially where it concerns mystic codes (since they were never mentioned the in the character sheet, so I didn't know whether or not we could ever have any meaningful ones), as well as a few modifications to my character's magical foundation to make it more like Shikibu's Witchcraft(Lyric/Poetry).

Fate/Crimson Dusk

𝙼𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚊𝚔𝚒 𝙷𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚖𝚒

"I see. Thank you for your explanation, Mr. Moroz," Hifumi nodded again as more people came in and one of them—Mr. Moroz it seems— spoke to her. It was just as she thought after all. Just a case of classic lack of efficiency Westerners are so fond of.

"You mean that we are going to do the summoning here? As far as I know, we will be sustaining the majority of our Servant's upkeep if we summon, or bring them outside of the Holy Grail War grounds. Is it really a wise idea to cripple ourselves before we even step into our enemies' doorstep?" Hifumi said, once again finding more inconsistencies, or blatant misinformation, in the stories told to her.

As far as the others are concerned, though, she mostly ignored their presence. Those who didn't have even a spec of propriety in their behavior were not the kind of people that Hifumi would bother herself with.