"Can You Open Your Heart?" - a Rika pseudo-route

[Goliath548]

So here I am, being all insomniac and such, when on a whim I decide to check that fanfic forum I go on from time to time.

Now I'm all

[Meadows]

I thought I was dreaming when I saw this update. But damn, you actually did finish it. I think I might owe somebody money

I'll come up with some words later, but for now this sums things up quite well:

[DaGarver]

Oh, hey, Hearts updated.

Wait. Hearts updated.

*reads*

...Damn you. These feels. That's what I want in an ending. Bravo, sir, bravo.

[Oddball]

Nice to see you've finally finished it up, but it feels like Rika turned around rather quickly at the end there.

[Bagheera]

First, grats on finishing! I told you we'd wait for you, and so we have (well, those of use who count, anyway! ). That said, I hope I'm reading the following bits wrong:

She stifles a chuckle. “I’m mean to you, Hisao. It’s a trick question. The answer is that you don’t have to live with yourself. Not if you’re lucky.”

“Somewhere I want you to promise me you’ll never go again. Follow me.”

Now I know what I want my last words to be. But there’s so many of them, and I can only hope we have enough time for everything that needs to be said. I just need to be careful. I just need to make every word count.

“Aren’t we lucky, Hisao? Everything’s so much better here, and nobody knows but us.”

Am I the only one who thinks these cast the last few chapters in a bit of an ominous light?

[Oddball]

First, grats on finishing! I told you we'd wait for you, and so we have (well, those of use who count, anyway! ). That said, I hope I'm reading the following bits wrong:

She stifles a chuckle. “I’m mean to you, Hisao. It’s a trick question. The answer is that you don’t have to live with yourself. Not if you’re lucky.”

“Somewhere I want you to promise me you’ll never go again. Follow me.”

Now I know what I want my last words to be. But there’s so many of them, and I can only hope we have enough time for everything that needs to be said. I just need to be careful. I just need to make every word count.

“Aren’t we lucky, Hisao? Everything’s so much better here, and nobody knows but us.”

Am I the only one who thinks these cast the last few chapters in a bit of an ominous light?

You want to know something else creepy?

I like listening to music when I read stuff (not the game's soundtrack, but actual songs). Want to know what song came on when I was reading over your post? Suicide is Painless. (classic version, not the crappy Manson version.)

[Mahorfeus]

I'm sure you're just over thinking it. They live happily ever after, miraculously surviving their conditions until the ripe old age of 110, where they both die of heart attacks while riding a roller coaster.

That's what I'll tell myself before I go to sleep at night.

[CBuM]

I finished this 12 hours ago before going to school.
I hold this story close to me since it was one of the first fics I read, along with thanatos's Miki scenes.
I'm glad we finally got to see it finished, but honestly, I feel sad seeing it finally end.

To be honest, you had written yourself into a corner throughout the whole route, and ended up with a couple problems near the end. I always thought that this was why you hadn't updated.
Still, the ending is very fitting of the character and the last line stuck with me all day.

It's been a great five months for me since finishing KS.

[Gilrond]

Wow, that made me feel very morose for some reason. It's been a very nice ride from beginning to end, so I'm a bit sad seeing it end. Thank you for finishing it

[Scissorlips]

First off, congratulations on, and thank you for, finishing this story. I'm sure it's been a long and bumpy ride, but you have my respect and gratitude for seeing it all the way through to the end, even if it took a while.
Looking back on the story as a whole, I think this final addition wraps things up really quite well. While I can tell that you had written yourself into a corner or two and there were some minor things that were left unanswered, the final scenes of reflection in rooms of the school, and Rika and Hisao's understanding on the rooftop wove an ending to the story that was frankly quite powerful. Rika seemed a little bit warmer and cheerier than I remember her being, but part of that might be just from time and distance. The amount of philosophy and psychobabble that Hisao and she traded throughout the entire route was always a little heavy, but I think you managed to keep things clear enough for the reader to follow along, which is more than I can say for even a few points in the original game.
Rika was never going to be a character that was loved, or understood, by all. But you took her from being a short blurb to a fully fleshed out person, complete with needs, desires and faults, and you led that person from the rocky start of her relationship to Hisao all the way through to the final resolution. I hope you feel proud of what you've accomplished here, even if the story wasn't perfect, and I hope you continue to write and create even more characters, dynamics, and yes, good ends.

[Dawnstorm]

Am I the only one who thinks these cast the last few chapters in a bit of an ominous light?

No, you're not. I think it's the light of a solitary firefly going around aimlessly in an open glass (where it may or may not drop dead).

I never posted in this thread, did I? Loved the story. It addresses things that I missed in the VN. I'm especially impressed with the imagery. I'm seeing the story, and some of the images are just beautiful.

[Helbereth]

Perhaos it's a little late, but I wanted to add my final thoughts, as well as the image I conjured as a result of the ending:

[BlackWaltzTheThird]

Oh snap, man, nice artwork. Really like your style. Can't help but notice Hisao's right hand though; the shadow and outline there should be a little wiggly to indicate the knuckles, should it not?

[griffon8]

“I just don’t know what that’s like. It would be easier if everyone were just wrong. But you’ve seen all the things I’ve seen now, and they don’t… consume you the way they do me. It might not seem like much, but you don’t know how much I’ve changed ever since meeting you. I used to go days at a time without speaking a word to another living soul, just to see if I could. I was so awful to Miki when I met her, too, and she had no idea why. But I’m trying so hard to figure out how it is that you manage to make me laugh, make me care about you… and I’ve been trying it out for myself, too. Last weekend I asked you to show me the person you were before, but it wasn’t a different person at all. It was just Hisao. It’s always just been you.”

I think this is my favorite paragraph from the whole story. I'm reminded of Batman's speech to Joker towards the end of The Killing Joke.

"So maybe ordinary people don't always crack. Maybe there isn't any need to crawl under a rock with all the other slimey things when trouble hits… Maybe it was just you, all the time."

[Guest90206]

So I finally got around to reading this... and...

...suffice it to say, I couldn't find a reaction gif appropriate for my reaction.

So I made this for you. I think it illustrates sufficiently.