![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Inuyasha | Rhapsody in Eight Movements
Title: Rhapsody in Eight Movements
Fandom: Inuyasha
Universe: Alternate (Modern day Japan)
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Rating: T
Warning(s): Mentions of death, the treatment of mental illnesses
Summary: When a mysterious man washes ashore on Halloween night, it becomes a race against time to uncover his identity – and the circumstances that left him there.
Links: DW | FF.net | AO3
Finally, our mystery man breaks his silence!
Well, it had to happen eventually, LOL =) So, here is the breakthrough everyone has been searching for: finally, our man has surfaced back into reality, and speaks for the first time, offering the tiniest of hints as to what, exactly, is going on in his head.
And at just time right time, too. The hospital's administration has laid the pressure down hard on the medical team, wanting this mystery solved and this patient out of their collective lives. The less they have to deal with the authorities (or the public), the better - no need in them hanging around and possibly sniffing out other skeletons in the closet, so to speak :P
So everybody wants to know who he is, albeit for very different reasons. Doctors tend to be a proud, competitive bunch, and make-or-break cases liek this don't just fall into their laps every day. Some of them are fueled by ambition, by potential fame, and some purely by competitiveness. Everyone seems to be losing sight of their end goal, which is to help this guy, not just themselves.
So, I thought it only fitting that our breakthrough comes when the one person who still has sight of that goal is the only one around :P If only it happened this way IRL more often, but hey, this is the fun of writing fic, no? :) Kagome has become precariously attached to this patient, empathizing with him quite deeply, as well as feeling protective and defensive of him. This is, indeed, a very dangerous path for any doctor - but especially a psychiatrist - to wander down, and I think only she, as a mere resident, is so susceptible to it. You always remember your "firsts" - and since this is such a unique case, it would be very difficult for someone with Kagome's compassion *not* to get sucked in.
I hope it's making more sense now, why I chose her for this role. The size of her soul - and her heart - are legendary in the canon, something she grapples with over and over again: with Kikyo, with Inuyasha, with her own strength and abilities. She hasn't crossed the line into inappropriate behavior here, but the intensity of her feelings is the same. She doesn't care about becoming famous off the back of his case; she simply wants to do the right thing - and is realizing just how jaded and cynical life in medicine really is.
Anyway. So she practically has a stroke when she hears him speak, but manages to gather her wits (and remember her training!) before approaching him. She's calm, cool, and collected, and her brain is in overdrive as she attempts to place his accent, from what few words he's shared. I was going for an edge-of-your-seat sense of excitement/trepidation, sort of like you're in Kagome's shoes here. She doesn't want to startle or frighten him, but she does want answers.
Writing this scene was greatly benefited by another story I wrote about a piano virtuoso last year, The Dangling Conversation for the Baby-sitters Club fandom. There is the same sort of divide here between our patient and his doctor as there was between Susan Felder and James Hobart, a surreal gray area between perception and reality. I don't mean to suggest our patient suffers from the same problems as Susan, but I found the experience of working on that final scene - those interactions - very useful here. I kinda like it when research comes in handy more than once, LOL! =)
Finally, there is the song at the center of this installment: Scherzo #1 in B-minor, Opus #20, by Frédéric Chopin. It is linked in the DW & AO3 versions of this chapter, but since I think most of my audience is coming from FF.net, I'll provide it here as well:
I chose this version specifically because of the position of the camera - its very similar to Kagome's vantage point in the fic. You can see the player sitting at the piano, and you can see him as he plays, his fingers on the keys. As you can clearly see, this is not an easy piece of music to play - from memory, no less - and it was chosen specifically because it has so many dips and crevices, so many different movements played continuously. I think there's a great deal of emotion embedded in it, even conveyed by a fairly somber pianist. It also has an intensity that's haunting, at least to my ear.
I wish I could say I had other, Deep Thoughts-type reasons for choosing this piece, but really, I pretty much just took a shot in the dark, listening around for something that might fit into my story. I tend to favor Handel and Tchaikovsky myself but they generally wrote beyond solo piano. (Tchaikovsky, tho - if you aren't familiar with his work, I strongly suggest you check it out. Talk about an emotional beating! Breathtakingly gorgeous and haunting and just - so Russian. But, I digress, LOL.)
I think most of you have probably correctly guessed our mystery man's identity, and now all that's left is to figure out what happened to him - and since we only have one more chapter left... =)
no subject
I was going for an edge-of-your-seat sense of excitement/trepidation, sort of like you're in Kagome's shoes here.
You may have managed a little TOO well here. :P
Each time he spoke and NOT answered her questions I just noticed how much chapter was left and would he PLEASE just speak to her directly before the chapter was over???
Now I have to spend a day going through the what-ifs... ;)
First of all, while we readers have probably all correctly identified him now, the hospital staff still doesn't know. I wonder if his identity will be revealed by himself or an outside source.
Secondly, that parting sentence of his has SO MUCH potential. The chance that he landed himself in the ocean has just increased.
Then again, torture could mean anything.
He could have been drilled by family and/or teachers (especially on this piece), which drove him insane and he acted while not thinking clearly. That would work with the first chapter. He may have "woken up" when his strength left him. Same goes, if HE was the perfectionist driving himself insane. ;)
He could have been held captive by a criminal (or group of them) who forced him to play this thing for whatever reason... Although, if crime was involved, it would make more sense if they played a recording to him to make him crack and do or say whatever they want him to. Maybe it WAS an incorrectly played version that made the perfectionist in him cringe. If that recording was the only thing he remembered after waking up in the hospital, it could have translated to "you have to play it perfectly" to his damaged mind.
Or it could a combination of drill in his youth and a criminal making use of that fact.
I do think it more likely by now that there's no crime involved, though. The explanations I came up with for a crime sound too farfetched to me. *shrug*
A few words on the Scherzo he played:
Of the 3 identifiable parts I only liked the middle one. I prefer music with an actual melody over randomly arranged notes that are supposed to show off the player's virtuosity. I take harmony over mastery, no questions asked. If the two things meet, all the better. But if it's either or, I go for harmony.
Meaning to say, if I was a musician and had to play a thing like THAT, I'd go insane, too. ;)
Looking forward to tomorrow, when my own torture finally ends. :D
no subject
I could've done worse, I suppose - I think I started off with Rachmaninoff and went from there, LOL :P
As for your speculations - all I can say is, you're on the right track =) and its pretty cool to see your thoughts coalescing on the matter, narrowing down the possibilities but still keeping them open. All's fair in love and mysteries, no? =)
no subject
I very vaguely remember Verdi and Tchaikovsky from school. But that's been ages ago. ;)
I'm on the right track with which of my speculations exactly? :P
But I'm guessing you mean the self-inflicted drowning. It does seem like the most logical conclusion at the moment. :)
God... can't wait to see how it all ends, especially with the questions about the characters' relationships that are still unanswered... *wishes it was morning already* ;)
no subject
I went through a phase of classical music, which I still very much enjoy to this day - but it was the first time I truly felt the emotions of music, and I've always loved it for that. I tend to favor highly emotional composers, most of them Russian (because I also have a huge fascination/interest in Russia and its culture). Tchaikovsky is probably the most famous of these for his many ballets, and of course this:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'll shut up now. /nerd
no subject
And wow, the part around minute four of Tchaikovsky's Overture I actually knew. Just didn't know it was by him. :D
aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'll shut up now. /nerd
Awww, no worries. There are worse nerds. ^^
Now I can say I've at least heard something of Rachmaninoff. :D