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Fuyuki, 2014
It was a calm, chilly night when the Sixth Holy Grail War was announced.
The unfortunate circumstances of the Fourth and Fifth Wars were what had led them to this position—two incomplete rituals that resulted in the destruction of incomplete Grails, forcing the time between Wars to shorten to a mere ten years. Father Iwata paced the halls of the property as he contemplated the outcomes of the one to come. The saying went, "Third time's the charm," but at this point nothing could be certain. The Masters, the Servants, the overall outcome; compared to all of those, the fact that this church was neutral ground was the only certainty Iwata could think of.
Iwata had been briefed over the phone earlier regarding which mages from the Association had been selected to be Masters. Despite being part of the War as a safe haven for those without Servants, Iwata was ashamed to admit that he barely recognised some of the names listed off to him. Most priests in his position were just putting up a front, being mages first and men of the cloth second. Iwata was the lucky deviation from the trend. He may have been a mage, but his focus rested solely on his livelihood and beliefs first. He could only hope that he'd remember all the names and circumstances, all the relics that had been sent out as catalysts thus far.
He did recognise the name Oshiro, though they weren't as prominent as previous mage families involved in the Holy Grail War. According to the Association their heir passed away the previous year, leaving behind a wife who'd taken the role of Master vehemently. And then there was someone from the Okami family—a family Iwata knew just a little bit more about after tonight's phone call compared to the rest. The son of the great Ritsuka Okami was apparently taking part, which left Iwata at a loss to do with regards to the young man's circumstances.
Everything seemed to be in order for the time being, rooms clean and the chapel free of dust. Not many people came here, but Iwata was diligent when it came to how the area was presented to those in need. If this place was to serve as a haven, it would first have to look like a haven.
More often than not Masters didn't utilise the church. He'd heard of maybe three examples from the past few Wars, and most of them left within days after finding a new Servant. He hoped it would be different this time around, that there would be less bloodshed between Masters. That was all he could call it: A shard of hope. Foolishly optimistic hope, but hope nonetheless. Regardless of what happened, though, Iwata was going to make sure he prayed for each Master once all of them had gathered.
He began to pace the halls once again. Sleep was going to be difficult to catch with the storm mere days away.
Heyo! This is a Fate SYOC, if the description wasn't obvious enough! I'm not really sure what to put here, so I'll leave some (abridged) details about this AU to help with becoming familiar with the story: In this AU, the Fifth Grail War ended in a pretty similar manner to the Fourth: The Grail, incomplete, was ultimately destroyed by an Excaliblast from Saber. This left another ten year gap between wars as opposed to the normal, longer gaps most others share. And that's how we get to 2014, where a Sixth Grail War is happening in Fuyuki. (You'll have to forgive me if any of this sounds off with how I've worded it—if you need any other info just hit me up and I'll do my best to explain further.)
Just a few rules to go with this!
1. You have to PM the characters to me. No exceptions. I wanna keep things like motivations and history a secret, as well as personality in the case of characters who put up fronts.
2. You don't get a say in Servant. This goes for identity and class. Those were predetermined beforehand, and distribution of Servants is entirely based on chance. This is to also keep the Servant identities a mystery, since it'd be much too easy to just outright announce who they were :P
3. Just have fun I guess? In the end that's all I hope for with this story, so have this pseudo-rule to promote it?
That's it! I'll see you next time, where I'll hopefully start introducing Masters (and maybe even showing a few Servants!)