Atario wrote:Good lord. I came to this story with a lot of hype in my ear about how amazing it was, and that's usually the setup for a letdown. NOPE. Total masterwork. I cried at this about as much as I did for the actual canon Lilly Good route — and that's given that I cried for that about things that also happened here, but which I didn't cry for here. (Did that make sense??)
Miss Yumi is such a fully-formed character, I have a voice in my head for her already.
The ballroom dancing scene between Lilly and Hanako is maybe the cutest thing I've ever read. I could not stop grinning like an idiot!
The canon scene where Lilly feels Nisao's face gives me a HHNNGGG, but this Lilly-on-Hanako version just made me sob with rapture. (And I will admit my dirty-mind radar went off many times at the many small hints regarding...
further interactions between them that some of us would not mind indulging in.
You glorious bastard.)
In short: you, sir, deserve some sort of Katawa Shoujo award.
On a side note: somebody around here is an arcade rat from years back, just like me.
Heh, I live in a village that never had an arcade hall, but during my childhood whenever we went on vacation I'd hang out in the places with arcade machines (usually just watching other people play or watching the attract mode) instead of building sand castles on the beach. So yeah, I do have a fondness of them.
Thanks for the kind words and good to hear you enjoyed it despite the "hype". I didn't know this until recently, but apparantly the title occasionally gets dropped in other places where KS is discussed...which is always nice.
The dancing scene was inspired by a scene from an old H-game called "Season of the Sakura" which featured a school dance involving the protagonist and the girl he had the largest amount of affection points for. I always thought those scenes were sweet so I wrote a variation on it involving Hanako and Lilly, which served to indicate the growing bond between them with just a little touch of unspoken romance. Which brings me to the next point...
Since you brought the subject of Les Yay up, I figured I'd give my opinion on it. I don't think a story centered around Hanako and Lilly would be complete without a few hints of Les Yay between the two...because that's also how part of their friendship is portrayed in the game. They both on separate occasions admit to Hisao that they love the other (and unlike Misha and Shizune they seem to be on the same wavelength concerning what their ideal bond would be like), there's a tender embrace between them in both their routes and the sleep cute on the train in Lilly's route is merely frosting on the cake.
I can see post-Sisterhood Lilly and Hanako doing a lot of things together. I can see them hanging out and going on "girl-dates" together like they've been doing during the fic, I can see them kiss the other on the cheek on occasion or cuddle on the couch when they both feel like it and I can even see them visiting a hot spring as long as there's nobody else around to stare at Hanako's scarring. What I don't see them ever doing together is making out or making love. There's plenty of fanfiction out there where the two eventually (or even quickly) cross the yuri-line, but that wouldn't ever happen in anything I'd ever write.
I personally think Hanako's and Lilly's relationship works best when there's a noticable hint of Les Yay between them yet neither of them ever feels like or thinks of acting on it or taking it further. If they actually became lovers, their relationship might end eventually when they'd decide to settle down and start a family. Going from lovers back to best friends tends to be extremely tough. But if both could maintain the friendship they have and keep that slight touch of "more than friends"-vibe between them alive, I can easily see them stay best friends for life...which in my opinion more than compensates for not having the brief-but-short-term thrill involving steamy yuri-action between them. Actual sex between them would, IMHO, cheapen what they share right now.
Put briefly; the main reason this fic isn't called "Sisterhood that eventually turns into full-scale yuri or threesome love (Hanako Epilogue)" isn't the fact the title'd be too long.