Well, at least it wasn't a whole year.Mirage_GSM wrote:Wow, has it really been almost a year since the last update?
Glad to see this continued, and especially with so many mysteries still unsolved…
Add curiosity to the list of things that kill the Hisao.Alpacalypse wrote:Glad to see the return of the Kagami pseudo route. My thoughts...
Dammit Hisao, this is just going to end badly and you know it.Hisao wrote:I pick Kagami’s journal up
Y'know, that Leaty and I. We're like peas in a pod. Except that she's a much better writer, and I'm a hack. But whatevs.HoneyBakedHam wrote:I see someone did the Leaty's method of updating.
Glad to hear you can settle back into it with relative ease. Having people forget a decent chunk of the earlier stuff and decide continuing on wasn't worth it was one of the things I was honestly afraid of. I'm sure that probably happened for some people. Hell, it's probably even my fault for not having updated in 11 months. Lesson learned, I suppose. Anyhow, I appreciate you saying that.brythain wrote:I am so happy. It's like turning a corner in a long-forgotten neighbourhood and bumping into a girl you once had a crush on. It's awkward at first, and then you notice the cafe conveniently just there, and you sit down and catch up. And everything is beautiful. Thanks for the update!
I think another thing to remember is that, while still in high school, Kagami is 20 years old. My parents' attitudes regarding me and anything sexual changed drastically in the period between when I was 18 and when I was 20. I think that, coupled with the fact that Ichiro is all bark and no bite, makes a decent amount of sense. Plus, Kagami isn't his child — I know that on some level it doesn't matter, but I think in certain situations it would probably cause you to have a little more of a laissez-faire approach to "parenting" ("child-rearing" has got to be one of the weirdest sounding phrases in the English language).dewelar wrote:I will note in passing that, from a meta-medial perspective, it would be interesting once in a while to actually see an authority figure get upset when their charge has sex.
It'll be interesting to see how Mei reacts if and when she finds out. And/or Kagami's actual parents, for that matter.
dewelar wrote:Looking forward to the more-and-more-apparent bittersweet ending to come...
Darkness before dawn, rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain, etc. etc. etc. Hopefully what I have planned isn't too sad.AntonSlavik020 wrote:God I hope not. I'm almost incapable of liking any ending that isn't mostly happy. Even bitter-sweet tends to be too sad for me. It does seem to be going in that direction, though.
Precisely. Although I'm sure it's still very much a don't-ask-don't-tell kind of situation. Also, probably no threesomes in this story. Sad, but an inevitable fact.NekoDude wrote:I dialed that up to eleven when it turns out that not only does Neko's Mum know, she watches the security footage (and in one case, shows it to someone else). I have to imagine that there was no secret in Kagami's case either. Leaving the place exclusively to her use like that is going to lead to this sort of incident, and everyone had to know it. (Let's just hope there were no cameras, or if there were, they were Kagami's.)
Mage plsPeorth wrote:Pfft.Blank Mage wrote:Oh hey, a thing! I'll pass on reading it for now, I need to reread everything up to this point. I've basically forgotten all the events that occur-
NO WAIT THIS IS PERFECT
You hit the nail on the head. There's a lot of Ichiro-specific dialogue that couldn't have existed without having planned out certain future events to the letter. I didn't want to have to retcon, so I decided to table this chapter for a while and flesh out some of the later chapters in act 3. Still a decent amount of work to be done, but there's more of a framework than I originally started out with.Leaty wrote:So for how long has this particular chapter existed? I get the impression from the text (and all the meta) that you've been writing pretty far ahead, but that you looped around and wrote this as a way of holding the fort down.
Not yet. I still have a few aces up my sleeve.Leaty wrote:I'm trying to remember—have we, on-camera, seen Kagami wake up from REM sleep yet? Because I'm getting the impression that when she finally does wake up next to Hisao, she's going to be confused in either a funny way or a scary way. (Clearly, I have to reread this fic from the top.)
I'm glad that's how you feel. I've said from day one that one of the subtle things I loved so much about KS is how much Hisao changes route-to-route. How each girl shapes him. I've tried my best to have him still be, at his core, Hisao, even if that concept is somewhat malleable. The fact that you recognize this makes me feel vindicated in that effort. Also, we will return to our regularly-scheduled Kagami momentarily.Leaty wrote:Honestly, as much as I've missed Kagami, I've also forgotten how much I've missed this Hisao. It's kind of funny; like, he narrates in so many other stories and yet I read him in this fic and I feel like it's a genuinely distinct version of the character, and I've been wondering how he's doing. I'm definitely sad Kagami slept through this whole chapter, though, because I also miss her unique flavor of japery.
I told myself early on that if I were to include a "plot decision" (which, at this point, I am planning on. Just one, a little later on) it would have to be incredibly morally grey. I'm of the personal opinion that if it's obvious which is the "good end" choice, and which is the "bad end" choice, why not simply ask your readers which one they'd like to read? I feel like this little indiscretion, while excusable, is still obviously an indiscretion. When it comes time for the actual choice? I intend on backing Hisao into a corner.Leaty wrote:Also, I wonder if, in VN terms, we just witnessed Hisao making a plot decision: [Read the diary.] [Put away the diary.] I wonder if we just narrowly missed a Bad End. Or a Good End.
As, yes. Crack. Truly one of this civilization's last great bastions of unimpeachability. In all seriousness, I'm glad you're still interested. Nothing like a good ol'-fashioned mystery.Leaty wrote:I wish there was something negative I could say about this chapter, but... honestly, it'd be like criticizing crack. The plot is still so captivating and obviously I can't tell you that anybody's out of character, because these are all OCs, other than Hisao. I'm so invested in what's gonna happen with Kagami's parents, like, you don't even know.
I suppose the plot necessitated OCs at this point, but I'm glad to be able to take a break from splitting hairs writing canon characters. It's like all the benefits of a Helbereth-style story, and none of the maintaining a personal wiki just to keep my head screwed on. If we see any more than one or two new OCs (who are yet to be named), I'll be surprised.
I hate not being able to discuss this more than a cursory "wait-and-see", because I think you of all people would have some extremely interesting insight into what is going to happen next. If you truly want spoilers, PM me and I'll lie out my ass to you so the next update will be even more shocking.Leaty wrote:I love this little bit of monologue. This is such an interesting question. (On the subject of Iwanako, we still don't know what happened to her letter. I wonder if Kagami has it, somehow? If so, it might mitigate the fact that Hisao's violating her privacy like this.)
Anyway, there's just something so existentially horrifying about the fact that there are parts of Kagami's memory she pretty much just... deleted. I wonder if those pages still exist, or if they were literally destroyed?
I'm absolutely flattered. And I hope I can deliver to that standard!Leaty wrote:I'm so stoked for the rest of this. You made me cry buckets with that Saki/Rika miniseries (which, btw, is still like my favorite fic on these whole boards) so I'm pretty well-prepared to utterly lose my shit on the remainder of the story.
Thanks for reading everybody! New chapter(s) coming soon*.
*terms and conditions apply