Truly how important it is that Liz finds a grail specifically in Singularity Orleans? Because it's very clear that FGO cares very little for canon continuity or plot consistency. And the grail has more or less become a shorthand for 'we are too lazy to write up an excuse for whacky events. Just accept whacky events'.
Story wise it's incredibly important. Chaldea loses, flat out if they don't occur. They fail without the connections to those events. Game wise it doesn't make a lick of difference because it has to be accessible to late adopters, but the characters met in those events are just as vitally important as the rest of the Canon cast from the Singularities. They still show up as if you've done those events in the game. In universe they wouldn't do that without Chaldea interacting with them.
So Liz not showing up and sending out to Chaldea the invitation to Castle Csejte for Halloween? That's not a good thing.
I'd agree if the Singularities weren't a multiversal constant. They always are present in the Nasuverse. So the people and Servants present in them are just as constant. Someone from outside the Nasuverse like Taylor won't have changed a thing, as the Human Incineration plan has been in the making for 3 millennia and isn't going to change. It's always happening, it just usually fails because Lev offs himself before he gets possessed.
Story wise it's incredibly important. Chaldea loses, flat out if they don't occur. They fail without the connections to those events. Game wise it doesn't make a lick of difference because it has to be accessible to late adopters, but the characters met in those events are just as vitally important as the rest of the Canon cast from the Singularities. They still show up as if you've done those events in the game. In universe they wouldn't do that without Chaldea interacting with them.
So Liz not showing up and sending out to Chaldea the invitation to Castle Csejte for Halloween? That's not a good thing.
Well it's a good thing this story isn't the mobile game where everyone loses just because Liz doesn't show up. I mean yeah it's incredibly important to canonFGO which this story isn't, by virtue of both versions of the protag existing as siblings and Taylor being a master in Chaldea. I mean what's stopping some other servant from finding a grail an inviting Chaldea to another event?
That is the ideal solution, the problem with that is it will require either a completely original scenario and/or characters to pull off. Doing so is going to need a lot of effort to create those thing(s). As is shown thus far, it might be too much for James to create that. It might not be of course, but the poor handling and general lack of downtime shown between the Story "chapters" in Orleans aren't painting a good picture that he can pull off such things thus far. I'd gladly be proven wrong, but sticking to the stations of Canon can be useful to a writer. Grand Order is already a massive story, adding Taylor and the Twins various impacts to Canon from just existing will be an interesting story in and of itself. Adding additional challenges might be reaching for too much, and I'd hate to see the potential of this story go to waste because James burnt out.
Honestly, while I can see more downtime as having a place, I'm not certain it's strictly necessary. The one thing that's kind of missing in the gap between Orleans and Septem is probably more talk with Sieg and Bradamantine, and even then, it's hard to picture anything that needs to show up, and James strikes me as a "no padding" sort of writer.
Is first Halloween event is important in itself, or just it's first event? Any next canon event that fits to fanfic narrative can become first, with minor edits, even without creating new one from whole cloth.
None of the OC Servants I'll be using in Septem are tacked on just to be there. They each have a role to play and the effects of that role will not be limited solely to their screentime. The narrative for this arc should feel much more like one of the Lostbelts than canon Septem did.
EDIT: And these OCs aren't going to be buffed up super amazing OMG-look-at-my-cool-Servant characters, either, which is what tends to put people off of OCs to begin with. Aife can feel like that, I get it, but Aife kinda has to get scaled against Cu and Sca, and when the myths specifically say she's better than Miss "I kill gods for a light workout before breakfast," well, she has to be built like she actually is.
I'm pretty confident you're not going to be creating an Overpowered OC Servant anyway, but just to keep in mind: when was the last time Miss 'I kill gods for a light workout before breakfast' won a fight in Grand Order? I remember in a different thread over on SB the only thing someone could come up with was 'killing some demon boars in the 2016 summer event' or something. Now I haven't played through anywhere near all of FGO (I'm only just finally getting to Solomon), but from the sound of things Scathach is mostly a character that gets hyped up but then the story fails to give them actual feats to back it up.
On the other hand she does have that hype even if the story generally fails to deliver, so it's not like there's anything stopping you from making Aife awesome either.
I'm pretty confident you're not going to be creating an Overpowered OC Servant anyway, but just to keep in mind: when was the last time Miss 'I kill gods for a light workout before breakfast' won a fight in Grand Order? I remember in a different thread over on SB the only thing someone could come up with was 'killing some demon boars in the 2016 summer event' or something. Now I haven't played through anywhere near all of FGO (I'm only just finally getting to Solomon), but from the sound of things Scathach is mostly a character that gets hyped up but then the story fails to give them actual feats to back it up.
On the other hand she does have that hype even if the story generally fails to deliver, so it's not like there's anything stopping you from making Aife awesome either.
Ironically, Sca tends to take the role that Aife was given in the original myths: she's hyped up so hard precisely so the audience can know how seriously powerful the bad guy is because he beat her.
Is first Halloween event is important in itself, or just it's first event? Any next canon event that fits to fanfic narrative can become first, with minor edits, even without creating new one from whole cloth.
Beyond the fact that every other Halloween occur directly and overtly because of it, I want to say no it's not beyond being the first event in a Singularity of its own. But there's a part of me that keeps poking my brain saying that it's connected similarly to the Da Vinci Counterfeit event as well, and that event is certainly very important because it's the reason Jeanne Alter exists as a real Servant instead of the semblance she was in Orleans. But even my prodigiously fantastic savant memory is capable of misremembering sometimes, so I could be wrong.
On them other hand, a kid (possibly Conla) complaining to an old man (could be any male Servant really) about him ruining their fun doesn't really tell me anything.
I'd agree if the Singularities weren't a multiversal constant. They always are present in the Nasuverse. So the people and Servants present in them are just as constant. Someone from outside the Nasuverse like Taylor won't have changed a thing, as the Human Incineration plan has been in the making for 3 millennia and isn't going to change. It's always happening, it just usually fails because Lev offs himself before he gets possessed.
That doesn't follow at all. Especially since we know of at least one Singularity that went completely off course due to random chance. I agree that the locations that Goetia targeted are set, but I don't really see why that means the servants counter-summoned by the world can't be dependent on other ripples that have been present for weeks. Plus there's a big excuse of there being a lot of Servants fighting battles that our protagonists just don't normally find due to the immense amount of space the singularities cover, but here they're taking different routes. ...Also the thing with Events is that they don't really seem to fit the established time the story seems to follow, especially when you start counting holidays.
Edit: Though speaking of events, I am kind of wondering how some of the "all in the protagonist's dreamscape" will be distributed. Like, having an aggressively normal innocent like the Gudas be in the Chatteau D'If really helped win Dantes over, but Taylor... Taylor would be different. It would also really have some ripple effects in the rest of the story, because the Count lurking in the protagonist's soul is a recurring plot point and I don't think he can be in all three masters at once.
There's this old, old quote from I believe the original Tsukihime, maybe Melty Blood, where Arcuied pretty blatantly comments on how long Beast I has been plotting. But yes you're correct that there is some wiggle room. Mainly I've just been advising caution against deviating too far from Canon because this has the potential to be a monster of a Fic if it's done right, and I really want to see that potential fulfilled. Adding additional challenges may not be in the story or James' best interest.
As for Events not lining up, the first one I'm able to recall that doesn't line up to its real life start date in the in story calendar is Summer 3 (The Hawaiian one). But generally they do actually line up to the actual Japanese release calendar. There's a weird period of FGO that starts in the beginning of Part 2 till about Lostbelt 3 that is speculated to be that certain events actually took place in the past and we're remembering them while traveling in the bleached out world. But I'm not 100% sure on that. But yeah the actual time spent in the main story chapters is weird.
There's very obvious and blatant weird time dilation fuckery going on in the Singularities as has been stated in this story, but it's 100% Canon. There's one chapter in Babylonia that has a time skip of an entire freaking month where Ritsuka and Mash literally are just running around Uruk doing odd jobs and errands and nothing else in order to prove their willingness to follow orders to Gil. But if that was to actually occur in sync with the present day it'd cause Chaldea to miss its very literal deadline of December 31st 2016 to stop Beast I, so something weird is obviously going on.
Ironically, Sca tends to take the role that Aife was given in the original myths: she's hyped up so hard precisely so the audience can know how seriously powerful the bad guy is because he beat her.
Part of the problem with stupidly powerful characters who should by so rights be unbeatable, in a Grand Order fic, is that they're kind of innately devalued because there are at least twenty of them running around and almost every one of them has had to lose a fight to us eventually. Saying that this one really is unbeatable, no really, unless you figure out their trick, just isn't that interesting.
But also, as part of Grand Order, with few exceptions you've got to remember we're not dealing with the actual legendary hero, but a fragment of them channeled through a Class. Much like with Cu, we shouldn't be meeting Afie, and Afie Caster should be missing most of her melee skills while Afie Lancer lacks the majority of her magical talents. Meeting Afie Full Power would feel off, especially after already meeting Cu in a way that made this distinction.
Not like, story breaking bad or anything, it's just going to stick out as obvious favoritism. And to be fair, she's a pretty decent pick fit a favorite.
(Musashi for life!)
Part of the problem with stupidly powerful characters who should by so rights be unbeatable, in a Grand Order fic, is that they're kind of innately devalued because there are at least twenty of them running around and almost every one of them has had to lose a fight to us eventually. Saying that this one really is unbeatable, no really, unless you figure out their trick, just isn't that interesting.
But also, as part of Grand Order, with few exceptions you've got to remember we're not dealing with the actual legendary hero, but a fragment of them channeled through a Class. Much like with Cu, we shouldn't be meeting Afie, and Afie Caster should be missing most of her melee skills while Afie Lancer lacks the majority of her magical talents. Meeting Afie Full Power would feel off, especially after already meeting Cu in a way that made this distinction.
Not like, story breaking bad or anything, it's just going to stick out as obvious favoritism. And to be fair, she's a pretty decent pick fit a favorite.
(Musashi for life!)
You have to consider timing and location. For Aife, her legend will still be new enough to be fresh in people's minds, but old enough to have spread a decent distance, and Brittany, particularly the Armorican Peninsula, is one of the places theorized for where her kingdom might have been located. She is quite literally sitting on her staging ground very close to the peak of her popularity.
No, I didn't do that on purpose, why do you ask?
But seriously, no, it was a happy accident. Aife is in Brittany for an entirely different reason, if we're talking Doylist. You might figure it out next chapter.
For the Roman Servants, they will have been summoned in the midst of the Roman Empire at its height. Everyone is going to be performing above what should be normal for them.
But seriously, no, it was a happy accident. Aife is in Brittany for an entirely different reason, if we're talking Doylist. You might figure it out next chapter.
Brittany is in France. Its the spike on the North East West.
E: How did multiple hours pass and nobody mentioned that I can't tell east from west? I just got an informative.
The first thing I noticed upon coming to was the headache that was making a very concerted effort to split my head open.
The second thing I noticed was the cacophony of screaming voices that were conspiring to make that headache worse.
Every scream and every shout and every yell as whoever it was argued and bickered and tried to cow the other side made my head throb and my brain feel another size too large. Searing lines traced agony from the nape of my neck, up over my crown, down above my eyes, and back into my temples, and every word just made the pain hotter and sharper, and I just wanted it to stop.
"SHUT UP!" I roared. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Blessed silence. Slowly, the pain started to subside, dulling down from the torture it had started as to something a little more manageable, a little more familiar. It was at least enough for me to feel like I could do more than lie there and wait for it to stop.
A groan slipped out of my lips, and I groped blindly as I used the floor to leverage myself up, first into a sitting position, and then to standing. My head swam, and when I tried to crack my eyes open, the searing light made a valiant attempt at driving another icepick through my skull, but I pushed past it, because where the fuck was I?
At first, the people around me were indistinct blurs, but as I blinked to clear my vision, they slowly resolved into more coherent shapes. Leather and spandex. Frills. Fatigues and flags. Smooth plates of armor. Masks, bandages, bruises and blood.
Arrayed around me, split clearly into two sides, were people from my old life.
To the one side, there was Defiant in his old Armsmaster gear, one arm missing entirely, Miss Militia in her familiar fatigues, the wispy green of her power wafting off the gun she was warily pointing towards my feet, and Legend in his famous bodysuit, watching with a grimace. To the other…
My stomach did a flip-flop.
To the other, the old Undersiders, battered, beaten, but more intact than they had been when I'd last seen them all. Grue, whose death I had never had the courage to confirm or deny, Regent, who had died while I was off playing Ward for the Protectorate...
Tattletale, her face unmarred by Jack's knife.
For an instant, a heartbeat, I was fifteen again, and the last pillars of my view of the world were crumbling as the realization that one of my tormentors was a goddamn hero sank in.
But it only lasted an instant, and then I was furious.
My hand snapped up and my prosthetic went to my wrist, and I ignored Miss Militia raising her gun now to point it directly at my chest as I mashed the buttons on my communicator.
"Romani!" I snarled. "Pick up the goddamn line, Romani!"
Silence. There was no response.
"Da Vinci?" I tried next. "Da Vinci, I swear to God, if this is some kind of prank, I will find a way to lock you out of your workshop for a week!"
Still nothing. My brow furrowed.
"Shakespeare! If you're behind this, I'm going to graffiti every single page of all your books! And then I'm burning my copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream! In front of you!"
Again, nothing, and that was my last guess. Not that it was necessarily a wrong one, but I thought I'd had enough of a grasp on Shakespeare's personality that he would definitely show up if he was called out directly. He was too flamboyant to let the chance pass.
But if it wasn't him, then... what?
"She's clearly unstable," Armsmaster began. "We need to detain her, begin Master-Stranger Protocols."
My patience was worn too thin to be nice.
"You, shut up!" I pointed at him with one finger. "We don't have anything to say to one another, and I refuse to speak with you — and I can't believe I'm about to say this — until you've had your character development!"
God, that sounded like something Rika would say.
Lisa let out a startled "ha!" Defiant — Armsmaster, as he must have been right now — looked like he didn't know what to make of that.
"Something is obviously wrong here," Legend said, stepping forward, both figuratively and literally.
You think?
"You, I don't want to talk to, but there are too many fucking fires to put out and I need you for some of them," I told him, swinging my finger around in his direction. "That bitch you hang out with is also a pain in the ass, but I'm going to need her, too. And the flake with a messiah complex!"
Legend's eyebrows rose, and from the other group, Alec chortled. "She just called Alexandria a bitch!"
My finger swung around towards him and the Undersiders.
"You —"
I faltered. There was an old pang in my chest, one that mourned for Brian, who was probably dead, and for Alec, who had died fighting Behemoth in India, and especially for Lisa, who it felt like I had just learned to accept I would never see again. The friends I had lost, all in one way or another, who had been so dear to me just a few years ago and who I had gone through hell together with.
Only these weren't them. Not really. Not totally. Even if this was some kind of miraculous time travel nonsense — and given I worked at Chaldea, where time travel was part of my job, that wasn't impossible — and not a simulation or the effects of some Servant's Noble Phantasm, all of the shit we'd waded through together had yet to happen. Bonds had yet to be forged.
The only ones who truly resembled the people they would have become were Alec, who never changed much at all, and Lisa.
"We can talk later," Lisa promised quietly.
Right.
I took a long, slow breath. It didn't help much.
Now, I just had to figure out how to pull off saving the world again. This time, hopefully, without the brain surgery. Or losing any body parts.
Da Vinci would kill me if I wrecked this prosthetic.
No idea if this will go anywhere. Maybe it will get converted into the first part of a particular event, or maybe it'll just sit here. Either way, don't take it too seriously for now. I know I didn't.
As total counter-point to the above.. People talked a lot about how to classify Servant Khepri, but one idea missing - what it would look like if summoned like Orion/Artemis?
