'why are umbrellas still umbrellas?' [blind_go + author's notes]
I have a lot of things to say about this fic. It was my first Hikago fic, and for a public "exchange", no less, so I was really nervous about the whole thing at first. I had other ideas for fics, but I chose to go with this one because Sai is a character that I simply adore, and the series revolves around him so much -- he's the one who starts the chain reaction by inhabiting that goban, and without him nothing would have happened. If Hikaru had never met him, he probably wouldn't have developed an interest in Go, and that would have affected all the other characters in turn. I thought, if I managed to pull off a fic that could explore the possibilities, I would like it to represent my writing in this fandom.
(Also, I don't know if anyone's noticed, but rain appears in all the scenes. I just like that about this fic.)
[1] Sai as the Emperor's only tutor
Initially, what I had in mind for this scene was an old Sai, who had earned his place as the Emperor's tutor and played Go everyday inside the Palace, happy because of that. Summer and I discussed this one and we both agreed that, for Sai to "earn" the right to be the Emperor's tutor, he'd have to be free of blame in the eyes of the Emperor and his court. We decided that, either the other tutor had to be found cheating, or Sai's protests would lead to a rematch, which he would rightfully win. But I realised the second option could seem like a tainted win, so eventually I decided the Emperor had to be the one to realise the other tutor's trick, because nobody was going to question his word. And that took old!Sai out of the scene completely, because I knew writing the match as a flashback or a memory would ruin the scene, so I centered on the match and forgot about writing an old Sai. I think this happens a lot to us writers, because even if we think, 'ok, I'm going to write this and this' ultimately the characters have a will of their own so it's better to just let them do and see how it turns out.
I watched the first ep, and then, because I didn't know where to start, I listened to one of the theme songs (In yeon) and read the lyrics, and just, yes, because it was all because of fate that Sai went to Hikaru, and fate can be seen as ineludible - even Sai, who had 'defied' destiny by winning the match, had to be haunted by the ghost of it. I thought this was incredibly fitting, and that scene in which Hikaru tells Sai that man has walked on the moon is one that will always stay with me, so there. I remember Summer asking, "what if the other tutor had drowned himself after being run out of the capital, like Sai did, and gone to Torajirou and Hikaru?", and I thought it was an interesting possibility, but I don't believe Sugiwara (ontogenesis tells me that's the other tutor's official name, oops!) would have killed himself over Go. You have to care about something very much to die for it, and to care for something means to respect it, which Sugiwara obviously didn't, because he cheated. But that's just my opinion ^^
[2] Man on the Moon
Not long after I had signed up; I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night with Touya's face in my mind, and he said, "Maybe he lives in the moon. Closest to God." I loved the idea (partly because of that scene from the anime I mentioned before) and thought it was solid enough to write a short piece revolving around it. But I didn't have a clue which characters I wanted to use for it, and for some reason, after much thinking, using Waya and Akira seemed like a brilliant idea. They are two characters who dislike each other in canon (actually, Waya dislikes Akira; I don't think Akira has had too many sleepless nights worrying about Waya's reasons to dislike him, XD) so there was no way they would willingly engage in a soul-bearing conversation, right? So I decided on the party at Waya's flat, partly because then Waya would have to talk to him out of duty (as the party's host), partly because the thought of Touya as a moping kind of drunk amused me to no end. But I never thought these two could have this kind of conversation until I wrote it, and it just worked, for some inexplicable reason. There was a spark of chemistry between them there, somehow, and they could understand each other and see each other without being blinded by their opinions of each other because they were bonding over the one thing they have in common (aside from Hikaru). Of course Waya would deny everything afterward when Hikaru asked him something like "What were you and Touya talking about? I thought you hated him", and Waya would be like, "Who says I don't?". Oh, boys. <3
[3] Superior Artificial Inteligence
I couldn't stop thinking about Proof by Contradiction when I came up with the idea of Sai as an AI -- that fic had already done a wonderful job of exploring that possibility and at first I felt that my scene about AI!Sai would inevitably fall in its shadow. I'm in a go club, and sometimes people talk about AI and speculate about how far they'll come, if they'll ever be able to beat humans in 19x19, and I wanted to write something like that. I knew Touya Meijin, who left the world of the pros to chase after Sai, had to be in this scene, but who would he discuss this idea with? I thought about Ogata at first, because he's the one that taught him how to use his computer to play Go, but then I remembered Yang Hai tells Isumi something about wanting to make a Go-playing program, and so he was chosen for the part. I thought I should have them discuss it in the watchers' room during the Hokuto Cup, and it seemed like a brilliant idea. I felt incredibly smart, really. Then I re-read that part of the manga to refresh my memory and realised, oops, the conversation they had has been written already, haha. *fidgets* I didn't know how I was going to get around that to include the AI conversation without forcing the scene too much, so I just started writing and thought, "what the heck, I'll think of something along the way" (and I really hoped I would think of something, because it was May 3rd already.) Despite the rush, I like how it turned out, and Yang Hai turned out to be really fun to write. I think he knew, even when he was saying all those things about SAI being an AI, that it was impossible, but he wanted to see Touya Meijin's reaction (and also because he has a dreamy side to him, in my opinion). The only worry I had about this scene was that there was too much tech stuff and it would be too dull, especially when Yang Hai mentioned algorithms *laughs*
[4] Sai with Heihachi
I think I really understood Heihachi while I was writing this scene, even though I'd never given him that much thought before this fic. Hikaru has endless potential (his progress in the series shows that) and I sometimes wonder, what would have become of his life if he had never met Sai? He has no interest in academics, and we don't ever see him playing any other sports; would he have grown to turn into one of those grey salarymen, waiting for a train they missed long ago? I think Heihachi thought about this, and I think he realised that Hikaru's answer in that scene would decide his fate, that's why he took him to meet Touya (who, incidentally, is so incredibly cute as a 4th grader that I had to stop writing at random times to pull an Ichikawa and flail.) I like this scene because of the contrast: in my mind, it looks bright and happy (everyone’s being nice to each other, Hikaru’s being an adorable brat, Sai’s giggling) and yet it’s such a sad scene, because it’s Hikaru without Go. I’ll probably write more about this verse in the future, because I have a lot of ideas and a lot of thoughts I’d like to share with everyone. I don’t think Touya would have given up on Hikaru at that stage, because after seeing Hikaru’s talent, he’d inevitably realise that Hikaru might be able to rival him (and he would want him to).
[5] Sai with Akira
At the beginning of the series, Sai says, “Why couldn’t I have gone to this kid [Akira] instead?”. In this scene, Akira has already played Go for some years before he meets Sai, which makes him the same as Torajirou. He’s strong, so he realises Sai’s strength and lets him play, even more when he sees that Sai is probably the only one who can rival his father. I think Touya Kouyo was shocked at first, when Akira suddenly became a Go genius overnight, but I think for him, who doesn’t have an equal even in the world of the pros, it was easier to ignore that possibilty that there may be something wrong and just chalk the progress up to his son’s natural growth. He’d know he was being selfish, but at the same time, I don’t think he wanted to throw away that thrill of having someone who can challenge him. Akira, who is without rival, understands his father’s joy to have one, which is what stops him from playing for himself whenever he feels the need to do so. I think he’d feel guilty if he put his own desires before his father’s, but on the other side he’s human, and as such he’s selfish, he wants the Hand of God for himself. I don’t know if I managed to fully convey my view of this possibility in the fic, because it was written in such a rush. Also, there is a small symbolism in this scene: I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the hand that Akira plays at the end (11-8) is the same one Hikaru plays at the Junior High School Tournament at Kaio, in his 3rd board match against Touya, when he stops listening to Sai and decides to play for himself. ;)
[6] Canon
What can I say about this? Just, Hikaru’s gaze is so green and so intense, and I love that even though he’s not a kid anymore and has an actual job and earns money, he still needs his mother to tell him not to run up the stairs <3 I think Sai is proud of him, wherever he is.
________________________
PS: OH GOD I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS. <3
[19:18] Me: Oh god, I'm thinking of Touya Meijin, Hikaru's gramps and Kuwabara going out for drinks together, LOL
[19:19] Me: The holy trinity of Go
[19:19] Summer: LMAO
[19:19] Me: *laughs*
[19:19] Me: But Sai would be so scared of Kuwabara because he'd laugh like a toad XD
[19:20] Summer: XDD
[19:20] Me: I've always imagined Sai would influence Hikaru's dreams, by living in his subconscious
[19:20] Me: Hikaru'd dream of toads and Sai's screaming would wake him up XD
[19:20] Me: And then he'd shout at Sai and Hikaru's mom would be like... "Exactly what do you get up to in your room, for god's sake?"
[19:21] Summer: And in the morning Sai would spend all his time yelling at Hikaru for what he dreamed
[19:21] Me: LOL Totally
[19:21] Me: "But... Hikaruuuu~!"
[19:21] Summer: He;d be like 'why can't you dream something fun? Dream about go!'
[19:21] Me: LOL
[19:21] Summer: "I want to play!!!"
[19:22] Me: Hikaru would be dreaming and Sai's voice would be going, "Invade the corner! Invade the corner!"
[19:22] Summer: and Hikaru would be like "I can't control my dreams" and Sai would get all huffy
[19:23] Me: But Hikaru would threaten him with dreaming of toads again *laughs*
(Also, I don't know if anyone's noticed, but rain appears in all the scenes. I just like that about this fic.)
[1] Sai as the Emperor's only tutor
Initially, what I had in mind for this scene was an old Sai, who had earned his place as the Emperor's tutor and played Go everyday inside the Palace, happy because of that. Summer and I discussed this one and we both agreed that, for Sai to "earn" the right to be the Emperor's tutor, he'd have to be free of blame in the eyes of the Emperor and his court. We decided that, either the other tutor had to be found cheating, or Sai's protests would lead to a rematch, which he would rightfully win. But I realised the second option could seem like a tainted win, so eventually I decided the Emperor had to be the one to realise the other tutor's trick, because nobody was going to question his word. And that took old!Sai out of the scene completely, because I knew writing the match as a flashback or a memory would ruin the scene, so I centered on the match and forgot about writing an old Sai. I think this happens a lot to us writers, because even if we think, 'ok, I'm going to write this and this' ultimately the characters have a will of their own so it's better to just let them do and see how it turns out.
I watched the first ep, and then, because I didn't know where to start, I listened to one of the theme songs (In yeon) and read the lyrics, and just, yes, because it was all because of fate that Sai went to Hikaru, and fate can be seen as ineludible - even Sai, who had 'defied' destiny by winning the match, had to be haunted by the ghost of it. I thought this was incredibly fitting, and that scene in which Hikaru tells Sai that man has walked on the moon is one that will always stay with me, so there. I remember Summer asking, "what if the other tutor had drowned himself after being run out of the capital, like Sai did, and gone to Torajirou and Hikaru?", and I thought it was an interesting possibility, but I don't believe Sugiwara (ontogenesis tells me that's the other tutor's official name, oops!) would have killed himself over Go. You have to care about something very much to die for it, and to care for something means to respect it, which Sugiwara obviously didn't, because he cheated. But that's just my opinion ^^
[2] Man on the Moon
Not long after I had signed up; I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night with Touya's face in my mind, and he said, "Maybe he lives in the moon. Closest to God." I loved the idea (partly because of that scene from the anime I mentioned before) and thought it was solid enough to write a short piece revolving around it. But I didn't have a clue which characters I wanted to use for it, and for some reason, after much thinking, using Waya and Akira seemed like a brilliant idea. They are two characters who dislike each other in canon (actually, Waya dislikes Akira; I don't think Akira has had too many sleepless nights worrying about Waya's reasons to dislike him, XD) so there was no way they would willingly engage in a soul-bearing conversation, right? So I decided on the party at Waya's flat, partly because then Waya would have to talk to him out of duty (as the party's host), partly because the thought of Touya as a moping kind of drunk amused me to no end. But I never thought these two could have this kind of conversation until I wrote it, and it just worked, for some inexplicable reason. There was a spark of chemistry between them there, somehow, and they could understand each other and see each other without being blinded by their opinions of each other because they were bonding over the one thing they have in common (aside from Hikaru). Of course Waya would deny everything afterward when Hikaru asked him something like "What were you and Touya talking about? I thought you hated him", and Waya would be like, "Who says I don't?". Oh, boys. <3
[3] Superior Artificial Inteligence
I couldn't stop thinking about Proof by Contradiction when I came up with the idea of Sai as an AI -- that fic had already done a wonderful job of exploring that possibility and at first I felt that my scene about AI!Sai would inevitably fall in its shadow. I'm in a go club, and sometimes people talk about AI and speculate about how far they'll come, if they'll ever be able to beat humans in 19x19, and I wanted to write something like that. I knew Touya Meijin, who left the world of the pros to chase after Sai, had to be in this scene, but who would he discuss this idea with? I thought about Ogata at first, because he's the one that taught him how to use his computer to play Go, but then I remembered Yang Hai tells Isumi something about wanting to make a Go-playing program, and so he was chosen for the part. I thought I should have them discuss it in the watchers' room during the Hokuto Cup, and it seemed like a brilliant idea. I felt incredibly smart, really. Then I re-read that part of the manga to refresh my memory and realised, oops, the conversation they had has been written already, haha. *fidgets* I didn't know how I was going to get around that to include the AI conversation without forcing the scene too much, so I just started writing and thought, "what the heck, I'll think of something along the way" (and I really hoped I would think of something, because it was May 3rd already.) Despite the rush, I like how it turned out, and Yang Hai turned out to be really fun to write. I think he knew, even when he was saying all those things about SAI being an AI, that it was impossible, but he wanted to see Touya Meijin's reaction (and also because he has a dreamy side to him, in my opinion). The only worry I had about this scene was that there was too much tech stuff and it would be too dull, especially when Yang Hai mentioned algorithms *laughs*
[4] Sai with Heihachi
I think I really understood Heihachi while I was writing this scene, even though I'd never given him that much thought before this fic. Hikaru has endless potential (his progress in the series shows that) and I sometimes wonder, what would have become of his life if he had never met Sai? He has no interest in academics, and we don't ever see him playing any other sports; would he have grown to turn into one of those grey salarymen, waiting for a train they missed long ago? I think Heihachi thought about this, and I think he realised that Hikaru's answer in that scene would decide his fate, that's why he took him to meet Touya (who, incidentally, is so incredibly cute as a 4th grader that I had to stop writing at random times to pull an Ichikawa and flail.) I like this scene because of the contrast: in my mind, it looks bright and happy (everyone’s being nice to each other, Hikaru’s being an adorable brat, Sai’s giggling) and yet it’s such a sad scene, because it’s Hikaru without Go. I’ll probably write more about this verse in the future, because I have a lot of ideas and a lot of thoughts I’d like to share with everyone. I don’t think Touya would have given up on Hikaru at that stage, because after seeing Hikaru’s talent, he’d inevitably realise that Hikaru might be able to rival him (and he would want him to).
[5] Sai with Akira
At the beginning of the series, Sai says, “Why couldn’t I have gone to this kid [Akira] instead?”. In this scene, Akira has already played Go for some years before he meets Sai, which makes him the same as Torajirou. He’s strong, so he realises Sai’s strength and lets him play, even more when he sees that Sai is probably the only one who can rival his father. I think Touya Kouyo was shocked at first, when Akira suddenly became a Go genius overnight, but I think for him, who doesn’t have an equal even in the world of the pros, it was easier to ignore that possibilty that there may be something wrong and just chalk the progress up to his son’s natural growth. He’d know he was being selfish, but at the same time, I don’t think he wanted to throw away that thrill of having someone who can challenge him. Akira, who is without rival, understands his father’s joy to have one, which is what stops him from playing for himself whenever he feels the need to do so. I think he’d feel guilty if he put his own desires before his father’s, but on the other side he’s human, and as such he’s selfish, he wants the Hand of God for himself. I don’t know if I managed to fully convey my view of this possibility in the fic, because it was written in such a rush. Also, there is a small symbolism in this scene: I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the hand that Akira plays at the end (11-8) is the same one Hikaru plays at the Junior High School Tournament at Kaio, in his 3rd board match against Touya, when he stops listening to Sai and decides to play for himself. ;)
[6] Canon
What can I say about this? Just, Hikaru’s gaze is so green and so intense, and I love that even though he’s not a kid anymore and has an actual job and earns money, he still needs his mother to tell him not to run up the stairs <3 I think Sai is proud of him, wherever he is.
________________________
PS: OH GOD I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS. <3
[19:18] Me: Oh god, I'm thinking of Touya Meijin, Hikaru's gramps and Kuwabara going out for drinks together, LOL
[19:19] Me: The holy trinity of Go
[19:19] Summer: LMAO
[19:19] Me: *laughs*
[19:19] Me: But Sai would be so scared of Kuwabara because he'd laugh like a toad XD
[19:20] Summer: XDD
[19:20] Me: I've always imagined Sai would influence Hikaru's dreams, by living in his subconscious
[19:20] Me: Hikaru'd dream of toads and Sai's screaming would wake him up XD
[19:20] Me: And then he'd shout at Sai and Hikaru's mom would be like... "Exactly what do you get up to in your room, for god's sake?"
[19:21] Summer: And in the morning Sai would spend all his time yelling at Hikaru for what he dreamed
[19:21] Me: LOL Totally
[19:21] Me: "But... Hikaruuuu~!"
[19:21] Summer: He;d be like 'why can't you dream something fun? Dream about go!'
[19:21] Me: LOL
[19:21] Summer: "I want to play!!!"
[19:22] Me: Hikaru would be dreaming and Sai's voice would be going, "Invade the corner! Invade the corner!"
[19:22] Summer: and Hikaru would be like "I can't control my dreams" and Sai would get all huffy
[19:23] Me: But Hikaru would threaten him with dreaming of toads again *laughs*