Blood/Water: Inspirations and Resources
I’m a dork, and here’s the proof.
Here’s the “regional” map I drew of the Commonwealth of Karakura:
If you’re curious what the real region looks like, here are more maps I found:
I got the inspiration for Blood/Water from many weird places. When Adam first dared me to an AU challenge, I was thinking about it as I went on vacation a couple of months ago in Batanes s which is the northernmost region of my country. In one of the solitary moments I found, I idly thought it would make a great setting for a story -- any story, but particularly a mystery because it was so remote, the community so tight-knit, and crime a seemingly distant thing away. Batanes is famous for having an empty jail and a place called “the Honesty Store” where the owner leaves all his merchandise unlocked, plus loose change on the counter… and people are expected to write their names in the logbook, list what they bought, and to count out their own change. Seriously. If that store opened in Manila, it would be stripped clean even of its wood chips before an hour had passed.
Obviously, the setting changed a bit in tone when I eventually sat down to write it. Oh well. The Commonwealth of Karakura suddenly became became a place occasionally peopled with tourists wearing loud floral shirts, private beach resorts (if you happen to be on the Seireitei side of things) and a government not quite in control of everything, if one wanted to be understated about it. A little bit of Batanes, a little bit of Boracay, a little bit of Manila: not too shabby.
The history of the Commonwealth of Karakura was partly inspired by the territorial dispute over the Spratlys. These scattered islands all over the South China Sea are the bone of international contention - so many countries in the region are claiming them. It’s interesting to see that the other smaller island groups in the immediate area suffer a similar fate. I stumbled upon the history of the Ryukyu Islands, and how the Japanese annexed it. (I linked to the main page of Rykukyu Islands, rather than its history page: every time I access it, the account drastically changes. Fu-fu-fu! History is dead? Ha. History is constantly being re-written.)
I didn’t read up on the history of Formosa (better known as Taiwan), but it interested me to find out that several of their smaller islands within their territory, like Orchid Island is linguistically tied to Japan through the Tao language.
This odd coincidence makes it perfectly reasonable for the people of the fictional Commonwealth of Karakura to have Japanese names and occasionally use Japanese terms, especially the honorifics. I mean, how can I write Shunsui without him saying Nanao-chan or Rukia address Byakuya anything other than Nii-sama?
For more odd coincidences, one of the islands in this area is called Yami. Yes. Yami. It's a tiny speck on most maps, but who cares? It exists! If I ever write the Hueco Mundo arc of this AU… it’s making me sweatdrop, just thinking about it, when I’m not even totally done with Blood/Water. But in any case, if I ever write that fic, we all know where Yammi ends up. :P
Now, I have some stock knowledge on poisons due to my love of mysteries, and I have some non-fiction books in my collection, such as Poison: From Hemlock to Botox and the Killer Bean of Calabar by Peter Macinnis and Murder Ink, an anthology edited by Dilys Winn. I did a little bit more research on murders and forensics, because I’m OC that way. This was a very good resource on true crime while this one was helpful regarding heavy metal poisoning.
Oh yeah. For a better idea on British police ranks and stuff like that, there wasn't any better place to go to but the real Metropolitan Police. It's a nice website, and I got sucked into their history section. While I didn't follow everything to the letter -- that would be too much work -- Ichigo's Glock 17 is standard issue.
For the mystery part of the fic, I was inspired by Dorothy L. Sayers’ Strong Poison -- as easily identified by hu3long2. XD
It’s not my favorite novel in the Lord Peter series, but it’s the one where Lord Peter falls head over heels in love with the woman being tried for murder. Due to a hung jury, he has exactly one month to get to know her and to prove her innocent. Since it’s the novel where Lord Peter falls in love, it’s the turning point for the character -- detectives aren’t supposed to fall in love, according to the golden age rules for detective writing but Lord Peter does, anyway.
So yeah, the first and last chapters are homages to this novel - the rest, however, subvert the method of murder used in that book. So if you’ve read both Bleach and Strong Poison, hopefully there are still some twists in this story left for you. *crosses my fingers* It’s a difficult thing, trying to make people stay in character while pulling out some sort of surprise…
On how the murder is actually committed in my fic, that is perhaps the only thing I have no idea if it would actually work. There are people I could have asked, but such a question would be suspicious, right? “Hey Nee-san, can you tell me if poison X mixed with substance Z would result in death in less than 24 hours?” I was highly tempted to post a question about it somewhere on the web. But in the end I just chickened out in case it was actually possible. I sometimes take my responsibility as a writer to great lengths…
In any case, I’m not an expert on poisons, and in staging Hisana’s murder I probably created a situation that a trained toxicologist or forensic specialist would laugh at - but hell, that’s why it’s fiction. I just re-read a chapter of Terry Eagleton's After Theory (the book's in my bathroom) and there was a lovely quote: "You cannot lie in fiction, because the reader does not assume that you are intending to be truthful."
And since this is fanfiction, I'm pretty sure lots of people are going to be surprised I went through all this trouble in the first place. LALALALA. <3
Okay, this is enough rambling. In any case, I hope these resources amuse anyone reading this.
Here’s the “regional” map I drew of the Commonwealth of Karakura:
If you’re curious what the real region looks like, here are more maps I found:
I got the inspiration for Blood/Water from many weird places. When Adam first dared me to an AU challenge, I was thinking about it as I went on vacation a couple of months ago in Batanes s which is the northernmost region of my country. In one of the solitary moments I found, I idly thought it would make a great setting for a story -- any story, but particularly a mystery because it was so remote, the community so tight-knit, and crime a seemingly distant thing away. Batanes is famous for having an empty jail and a place called “the Honesty Store” where the owner leaves all his merchandise unlocked, plus loose change on the counter… and people are expected to write their names in the logbook, list what they bought, and to count out their own change. Seriously. If that store opened in Manila, it would be stripped clean even of its wood chips before an hour had passed.
Obviously, the setting changed a bit in tone when I eventually sat down to write it. Oh well. The Commonwealth of Karakura suddenly became became a place occasionally peopled with tourists wearing loud floral shirts, private beach resorts (if you happen to be on the Seireitei side of things) and a government not quite in control of everything, if one wanted to be understated about it. A little bit of Batanes, a little bit of Boracay, a little bit of Manila: not too shabby.
The history of the Commonwealth of Karakura was partly inspired by the territorial dispute over the Spratlys. These scattered islands all over the South China Sea are the bone of international contention - so many countries in the region are claiming them. It’s interesting to see that the other smaller island groups in the immediate area suffer a similar fate. I stumbled upon the history of the Ryukyu Islands, and how the Japanese annexed it. (I linked to the main page of Rykukyu Islands, rather than its history page: every time I access it, the account drastically changes. Fu-fu-fu! History is dead? Ha. History is constantly being re-written.)
I didn’t read up on the history of Formosa (better known as Taiwan), but it interested me to find out that several of their smaller islands within their territory, like Orchid Island is linguistically tied to Japan through the Tao language.
This odd coincidence makes it perfectly reasonable for the people of the fictional Commonwealth of Karakura to have Japanese names and occasionally use Japanese terms, especially the honorifics. I mean, how can I write Shunsui without him saying Nanao-chan or Rukia address Byakuya anything other than Nii-sama?
For more odd coincidences, one of the islands in this area is called Yami. Yes. Yami. It's a tiny speck on most maps, but who cares? It exists! If I ever write the Hueco Mundo arc of this AU… it’s making me sweatdrop, just thinking about it, when I’m not even totally done with Blood/Water. But in any case, if I ever write that fic, we all know where Yammi ends up. :P
Now, I have some stock knowledge on poisons due to my love of mysteries, and I have some non-fiction books in my collection, such as Poison: From Hemlock to Botox and the Killer Bean of Calabar by Peter Macinnis and Murder Ink, an anthology edited by Dilys Winn. I did a little bit more research on murders and forensics, because I’m OC that way. This was a very good resource on true crime while this one was helpful regarding heavy metal poisoning.
Oh yeah. For a better idea on British police ranks and stuff like that, there wasn't any better place to go to but the real Metropolitan Police. It's a nice website, and I got sucked into their history section. While I didn't follow everything to the letter -- that would be too much work -- Ichigo's Glock 17 is standard issue.
For the mystery part of the fic, I was inspired by Dorothy L. Sayers’ Strong Poison -- as easily identified by hu3long2. XD
It’s not my favorite novel in the Lord Peter series, but it’s the one where Lord Peter falls head over heels in love with the woman being tried for murder. Due to a hung jury, he has exactly one month to get to know her and to prove her innocent. Since it’s the novel where Lord Peter falls in love, it’s the turning point for the character -- detectives aren’t supposed to fall in love, according to the golden age rules for detective writing but Lord Peter does, anyway.
So yeah, the first and last chapters are homages to this novel - the rest, however, subvert the method of murder used in that book. So if you’ve read both Bleach and Strong Poison, hopefully there are still some twists in this story left for you. *crosses my fingers* It’s a difficult thing, trying to make people stay in character while pulling out some sort of surprise…
On how the murder is actually committed in my fic, that is perhaps the only thing I have no idea if it would actually work. There are people I could have asked, but such a question would be suspicious, right? “Hey Nee-san, can you tell me if poison X mixed with substance Z would result in death in less than 24 hours?” I was highly tempted to post a question about it somewhere on the web. But in the end I just chickened out in case it was actually possible. I sometimes take my responsibility as a writer to great lengths…
In any case, I’m not an expert on poisons, and in staging Hisana’s murder I probably created a situation that a trained toxicologist or forensic specialist would laugh at - but hell, that’s why it’s fiction. I just re-read a chapter of Terry Eagleton's After Theory (the book's in my bathroom) and there was a lovely quote: "You cannot lie in fiction, because the reader does not assume that you are intending to be truthful."
And since this is fanfiction, I'm pretty sure lots of people are going to be surprised I went through all this trouble in the first place. LALALALA. <3
Okay, this is enough rambling. In any case, I hope these resources amuse anyone reading this.