And yet more fic

[tarigwaemir]

Blair Hall Apts., on the Feast of St. John Vianney

The Movement of Glaciers
Written for uminohikari

Once, when he was very, very young and still learning intermediate tsumego, he asked his father, then third time Meijin, for an even game. Without handicaps.

His father looked at him gently, though the lines of his face remained stern. "Are you sure, Akira?"

"Yes," he answered gravely, hands clenched on his knees.

"Very well," the Meijin--his father--said as he passed him the goke.

Akira knew that he would lose. A part of him even expected to be crushed, to face a swift and thorough deconstruction of his carefully wrought shapes on the board before they had a chance to connect. Did he anticipate, perhaps, the helplessness he would feel in front of such precise and overwhelming strength? Was it that very helplessness which made his small, clumsy fingers tremble as they placed the first stone?

He was surprised to find that there was no avalanche--no thorough invasion of his territory, no ruthless capture of his stones. His father played as cautiously as he would have against an equal opponent. Akira felt bewildered as he recognized small openings, chances for his stones to survive, and then a little angry, when the thought occurred to him that his father might be holding back.

He did not notice at first the gradual creep of white stones across the corners of the board, the inscrutable placement of stones emerging, many dozens of hands later, into a vast net that spanned the stars of the goban. When the pattern became too clear for him to miss, he paused in shock. He bit his lower lip. How--but when--

His mind whirled as he replayed the game in his mind. He saw how his father--no, the Meijin--had slowly but surely taken possession of the board, each of his hands anticipated in advance and assimilated into the strategy of the game. Oh, he thought, like sand eroding rock. Like the movement of glaciers.

He bowed. "I have lost."

"You concentrate so much on the details that sometimes you miss the larger picture," his father said and proceeded to point out his mistakes.

Later, Akira realized that even that game had merely been an exercise in shidougo for his father, but the memory stayed with him for years. It was the first time he understood what it meant to master the game.

END

Times are Changing
Written for qem_chibati and for hng_prompts

"So this is one of those 'konpata' machines?" Kuwabara said as he sat down gingerly in front of the screen.

"They're called computers. That's the keyboard, and that's the mouse. Here, let me turn it on for you, Sensei."

"Why does it take so long?"

Shindou suppressed an exasperated sigh and waited for Windows to finish booting up. "Okay, so you take the mouse and you click on this icon--"

"Wait, I want to try it myself." Kuwabara grasped the mouse awkwardly and inched it up. The cursor barely moved. He pushed the mouse a little more forcefully, and the cursor went zooming across the screen. Shindou tried not to laugh.

"Try it again, Sensei."

"Don't patronize me, you young punk," Kuwabara muttered as he tried to manipulate the mouse.

"Oh, good, you're at the right icon. Double-click--I mean, press the left button twice. Uh, you have to do it more quickly than that. No, I mean...let me show you."

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally got to the Net Go website. Shindou took a deep breath. "All right, Sensei, in order to play on the servers, you have to sign up first and create a username. What do you want to be called?"

"Kuwabara, of course."

Shindou typed in 'kuwabara' but the name was already taken. "Uh, Sensei, someone else is using that name, so--"

"What? Why?"

"Well, it's a common name. What about...what about using 'honinbou4eva' instead?" Shindou grinned.

"Pick whatever you want, just get to the actual game."

They set up the account and started up the Net Go program. "All right, Sensei, you can either wait for someone to challenge you to a game or you can challenge someone else."

"Who are these people?" Kuwabara squinted at the screen.

"Well, most of them are amateurs, but some of them are pretty strong, and more and more pros are starting to play online as well."

A dialogue box popped up on the screen: "'zelda' invites you to a game."

"What's that?"

"Oh, here's a name I recognize. It's Waya...uh, Waya Yoshitaka, 2-dan. He's asking you to play."

"Hah. I suppose you young ones have too much leisure time on your hands. Well, it's time that I showed you all that old dogs can be taught new tricks." Kuwabara grabbed the mouse and leaned in to study the board that had appeared on the screen.

"So, uh, to place a stone, you have to--"

Kuwabara held up a hand. "I can take it from here, Shindou. I may not know much about these 'konpata' but I do know something about go." He cackled loudly.

Shindou smiled weakly and backed away. "Poor Waya," he said to himself as he watched Kuwabara place the first virtual stone on the screen with a loud click.

END

Yours &c.

Comments

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

<3 You are the awesome.

[troisroyaumes]

::hearts back:: Not nearly as awesome as you, of course. ^_~

[emblem.livejournal.com]

honinbou4eva <333333

[troisroyaumes]

XDDDD

[hadriana.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I enjoyed these a lot. And I love Kuwabara's username. :)

[troisroyaumes]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed! ^_^

[lucathia]

Oh Waya. I bet he couldn't resist clicking on a username like honinbou4eva. XD;

[troisroyaumes]

Yes, I bet he thought he'd show the upstart who's who, until he realized that it must be the real thing. Poor Waya. XD;;

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

*squee*
ILU SO MUCH.

"You concentrate so much on the details that sometimes you miss the larger picture," his father said and proceeded to point out his mistakes.
this line amuses me a lot ♥

and and konpata and honinbou4eva are just awesome. *stares in awe*

[troisroyaumes]

Yay, I'm so glad you liked it! ^_^

[love_archived]

*hearts and squees* I loved both of them. (Poor Waya!)

[troisroyaumes]

Thanks! And yes, I feel sorry for him too. ::shakes head::

[owari.livejournal.com]

It must be issen4's influence at work here, but damn, I love fics with Hikaru and Kuwabara interaction. They're such a quirky pair, plus Kuwabara being a typically cranky old man when faced with new technology cracks me up ("it's too slow" is the complaint I get most whenever I teach older people how to use computers). And oh dear, Waya is about to get slaughtered by 'honinbou4eva', the poor boy. ^^;;

So much love for this fic. ♥

[troisroyaumes]

Yes, issen4 pretty much got me to enjoy Kuwabara fics as well. XD And thank you, it's means a lot to get feedback from you since I've really loved your own Hikago fics. ^_^

[qem_chibati]

*giggles* I love the interaction between Shindou and Kuwabara. And poor poor Waya. He's about to get a hell of a lot of practice! :D

[troisroyaumes]

Hee, I bet Kuwabara was pretty similar to Shindou when he was a teenager. ^_^ And yes, poor Waya doesn't know what he was getting himself into. ::shakes head::

[isolabela.livejournal.com]

"Don't patronize me, you young punk," Kuwabara muttered as he tried to manipulate the mouse.

Aha, that's so awesome. So perfectly Kuwabara! And poor Waya. *pets him*

[troisroyaumes]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed. ^_^

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Did he anticipate, perhaps, the helplessness he would feel in front of such precise and overwhelming strength?

Gah, baby Touya, so adorable! That's a really good description of a high-level aura. I like the title metaphor too.

"They're called computers. That's the keyboard, and that's the mouse. Here, let me turn it on for you, Sensei."

I love how Shindou is so liberal with the "Sensei"s. XD And oh man, I flashed back, those are exactly the problems I had when someone had to show me how to use a computer.

[troisroyaumes]

I half-worry that baby!Touya probably wouldn't have thought in such big words, but I'm trying to attribute it to him being precocious. ^_^

Yes, most of this scene is straight out of me teaching my mother how to use a computer. XD It was a lot less intuitive for her than I expected. But I guess Kuwabara only really needs to know how to get to the Net Go game.

[issen4.livejournal.com]

I adore the second one, because Kuwabara wins ^_^. But the first one, where Akira didn't realize that he was in a real Big People game (hee) even though he asked for one... that was really good.

[troisroyaumes]

Thank you! (And thank you so much for the recs too!) Yes, I thought Touya Kouyou would be the type to always take his son seriously and treat him with respect, no matter what. ^_^ And it's fun to think of Akira as a beginner at go.

[inkanaitis.livejournal.com]

love love both of these.

Of course this is how Touya learned to approach go, it seems fitting for both of them.

Also, poor Waya, if he only knew. honinbou4eva is great. lol

[troisroyaumes]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed reading them! ^_^

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Poor Waya indeed! I'm still giggling.

The shidougo game with the Meijin and Akira feels very real, something that could have happened in canon.

[troisroyaumes]

Thank you! ^_^

[tuesdayfic.livejournal.com]

Poor Waya. XD Kuwabara doesn't get enough fic. <3

[troisroyaumes]

No, he doesn't, although a few writers I know are pretty fond of writing for him. ^_^ Thanks for commenting!

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

I am getting to these late! I love them very much.

[qumabh.livejournal.com]

OMG>. I am so laughing my derriere off right now. This is fracking awesome.

~Mab