Submission #2 -- Arae, "From Whence We Have Fallen"

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Title: From Whence We Have Fallen

User ID: Arae
Rating: PG

Characters/Pairing: Subaru Sumeragi

Warnings: Descriptions of the nuclear blast at Hiroshima and recollections of canon violence.

Summary: The Japanese built to withstand earthquakes. Subaru reflects on those things that remain.

Author's note: Thanks to Drew for betaing this.

Comments

[thenakedcat]

The scars on his hands prickle, and the ground beneath his feet trembles as the first stars come out, welcoming him home.

The parallels with Hiroshima and its memorials were exquisite, but the last line is just OH OW SUBARU <3.

[akk_]

I love the parallels drawn between Aioi and Rainbow Bridge, the rebounce of real Hiroshima after 1945 and fictional Tokyo after 1999.

still aware that the symbolism of a gesture is sometimes more important than the belief ...is so painfully post-TBX!Subaru. Perfect.

[7owti5]

I need a cigarette after that piece. Very, very nice.

I especially liked this:

...humanity believed that the worst was behind them, that someone, something, maybe just a benevolent emptiness filled with the all-too-human desire for control over one's own future, was listening to the whispered wishes cast on origami birds and would somehow save them from themselves.

Our existence is just that precarious and the world doesn't care enough to save us; but while humanity is able to place ungrounded faith that "it'll all be fine in the end", Subaru never will which is why he needs many, many hugs.

[starstruck272]

That was so... wow. All those painful feelings.. and then Subaru.. ;__;

[ariss_tenoh]

This is lovely. The quiet sense of loss and memory pervades the fic, all the better because it's not emphasized. I imagine the saddest outcome for Subaru is to be the one left behind when everyone else he loves has died.

Thanks for writing this. I do believe it could easily be the last few pages in X if Clamp ever does finish it.