After The Dream—MAIN INDEX (and secret Hisao arc)

[brythain]

My editorial board, which I'm sure many of you have already met, has persuaded me to release a summary of the current state of progress.
It's also a crib-sheet of sorts for some people who've PM'd me to say that they're a bit lost.

As of our current timeline's date, here are the ongoing threads:

Akira Nakai's story is at end-2040 with 'Fathers'.
Rika Katayama's story received a one-shot set in 2042, 'Stirrings'.
'A Left Eye of Darkness' has reached 2043 with 'The Girl From The Village'.
'Mistaking Identify' has jumped temporarily into 2044 with 'Endgame'.
'Straw—A Dream of Suzu' has reached 2048 with 'Interregnum'.
'Sakura—The Kenji Saga' has reached 2048 and then 2052 as Book Six 'Silent War' continues.

Work that's complete, not quite in progress, progressing separately, or on hiatus—in alphabetical order:

Akio Mutou's story is complete for now, with 'Pavane' being the last major addition.
Akira Satou's story is complete for now.
'Crane—A Dream of Molly' has ended its establishing arc, with Molly graduating from Yamaku in 'Cracking' (2008). There's a lot left to do.
Emi's story is complete for now, with Akiko's secondary arc also complete.
Hanako's story is complete for now, but there is a secondary arc that hasn't appeared yet.
Hisao's 'secret arc' is complete.
Lilly's story is complete for now, both the initial arc and her testament.
Natsume's story is complete for now, but it has to dovetail with 'A Left Eye of Darkness'.
Rin's story is complete for now, with Miki's secondary arc also complete.
Shizune's story is complete for now, as are Hideaki's and Misha's.

[Kibaro]

Sorry if I don't "sound" coherent, it's late here and i'm tired but here goes:

I've read the index and the first story in chronological order(hideaki 1: origin) and i liked what i read so i want to continue...but when i clicked on next in the hideaki 1 post, i'm pretty sure it threw me over a lot of other chapters so yeah...i'm soooo confused as to how i should go about it...

there are SO many branches to this whole "DLC" world that brythain made that i'm not sure i understood the "right"/intended order of the chapters

he tried to explain what should be read after which arc but it just made me even more confused...if i want to read the WHOLE thing, start to finish, without skipping or misplacing the order of the chapters...what would that order be? would someone be kind enough to explain/help me with the correct order

thank you and sorry if it's something really obvious that i just blatantly missed

[brythain]

Sorry if I don't "sound" coherent, it's late here and i'm tired but here goes:

I've read the index and the first story in chronological order(hideaki 1: origin) and i liked what i read so i want to continue...but when i clicked on next in the hideaki 1 post, i'm pretty sure it threw me over a lot of other chapters so yeah...i'm soooo confused as to how i should go about it...

there are SO many branches to this whole "DLC" world that brythain made that i'm not sure i understood the "right"/intended order of the chapters

he tried to explain what should be read after which arc but it just made me even more confused...if i want to read the WHOLE thing, start to finish, without skipping or misplacing the order of the chapters...what would that order be? would someone be kind enough to explain/help me with the correct order

thank you and sorry if it's something really obvious that i just blatantly missed

Hi there! Thanks for reading. I'm sorry for being such a confusion-inducing writer.

Each person has a story and they intertwine (so you can read Hideaki's story, then read Misha's story, and so on, but they're running on parallel tracks). If you look at the first post, there's a suggested reading order for the main chapters that rotates through all the characters, but you'll have to bookmark the first post so you can follow that—and don't hit 'next' at the end of a chapter, because that will bring you to the next chapter for that character only.

So, here are your choices:

1) You can read each person's arc by going to the first chapter in that character's arc and then using the 'next' link until you get to the end. Each arc is 6-7 chapters long and tells only that person's part of the whole story.

2) You can read according to the chronological sequence in the first post. But that would mean returning to that page after every chapter, or opening a window with that page and using it as an index.

3) You can try to follow the timeline. This is complicated. It's like following option 2 above, except that the chapters not in the index can also be followed that way (for example, Kenji's saga). Some chapters are marked with links or dates (e.g. 'March 2024'). Some chapters are marked with a cryptic 'T-4' or 'T+12' or something like that. T represents the year 2024 (for reasons you'll figure out) and T-4 is 2020, whereas T+12 is 2036.

The reason I wrote it like this is that each arc you read gives you a better insight as to the relationships between characters. It's like a mystery that unwraps itself. In theory, you could read Shizune's arc, then Lilly's, Emi's, Hanako's, Rin's and Misha's (the order in which I wrote the main arcs), and you'd get the gist. If you wanted more, you might entertain yourself with the Akira/Mutou/Rika thread, or look for the secret Hisao arc. Or read Kenji's saga, which is his view of all the events.

[Kibaro]

Explanation

Thank you, this cleared up quite a lot of my confusion, I'll make sure to get to reading your creation as soon as I finish with my exams. Have a nice day and keep up the good work if you're still doing fics

[brythain]

Have a nice day and keep up the good work if you're still doing fics

Quite a while has passed. Natsume glares at me.

"You need to work on true stories, not fake ones."

I think I should take that advice.

[brythain]

The latest interview in A Left Eye of Darkness, 'The Girl from the Convent', is here. It gives a little background into that enigmatic character, Kenji's successor Chiaki Hasegawa.

Chapter 6c of Straw: A Dream of Suzu is here. In this one, Suzu's naturally poetic tendencies force her narrative into blank verse.

Chapter 6-4 of Sakura: The Kenji Saga is here. Kenji makes a critical decision, and the end of Book Six comes into view.

[Arcfault]

Late to the party, and posting after the guests have gone home. I feel like I always find these amazing fan fics that are so good long after the story is told.

Just wanted to say that I've loved reading through all of the arcs you've written, and truly appreciate the series bible you must've written to keep everything cohesive. I've and still love Lilly's arc and her character. I'm honestly almost Lilly myself, except for being male, and having married regardless of my feelings. But I still pine for a girl I'd fallen in love with in 3rd grade, and loved till senior year. If I was Hisao in KS, Lilly's story would've been vastly different since she and I are both horrible romantics at heart, and also stubbornly stoic at times so there's that issue.

I say that to anchor the fact that Lilly's arc in your story is very much possible and I appreciate how it was told. Your method of vignettes really gives great pieces of insight as each character grows.

One problem I did have, and no one said anything about this, but that it was a horribly dick-ish move on Hisao's part to put the metal plaque on his tombstone that only Lilly could read, that says "I loved you first". What was his point? He was married to Emi, and I get it, like me he still carried a torch for Lilly. But to commission that, while he's married… I just have to ask what was his end-goal? To twist the knife in Lilly when she finally reads it? To tell Emi, that deep in his heart he's still in love with someone else? Did anyone else know what it said? I assume no one else did, because I bet Emi would've been furious to find out her husband and father of two really loved Lilly still. Even if Hisao's goal was just to put Lilly's heart at ease, and to remove any doubt by creating something special just for her, I just don't see it being a good/healthy thing for anyone.

It certainly made me cry when I read Lilly's response when she starts sobbing with Shizune after she tells her what it says, but I couldn't help but feel that it was just… wrong. I'm honestly surprised Shizune doesn't say anything about it when Lilly tells her and ends up sobbing at his grave.

Barring that, all of the arcs, all of them were really well done and wonderfully explored.

Your story actually calls out the one simple thing what would've saved Hisao's and Lilly relationship… if they'd just f**king TALKED to each other. I mean, for crying out loud, girls dumped me in high-school for taking relationships too seriously, so 18 year olds doing that isn't crazy. Hisao kept telling Lilly to not worry about him, he could see the mask she wore to hide her frustrations and worries start to crack and yet he "decides to not say anything". She's not 100% absolved in this, but she's the one having to make this tough decision and Hisao does nothing to try and shoulder her burdens, to be there for her. Until it's damn near too late and he almost dies because of it. In Lilly's plot line Hisao is honestly the dumbest, in that he doesn't take care of himself at all, doesn't take his meds seriously, and doesn't try to save the relationship or even try to talk to his girlfriend while he knows something is bothering her.

It's a mark of great writing that you forced me to take a reevaluation of my favorite storyline, and to see just how messed up it was until they finally, honestly, talk to each other in the hospital (which Hisao still isn't doing a great job, but I'll give him some credit at least. He is finally talking to her).

Thank you for writing all of these stories, and even possibly continuing to do so. You've certainly encouraged me to start writing my own KS based fan-fiction as well.

-Cheers

[brythain]

Thank you for writing all of these stories, and even possibly continuing to do so. You've certainly encouraged me to start writing my own KS based fan-fiction as well.

Thanks very much for your encouragement and the review above. I too was encouraged to write my fanfic by the sterling work of the people in this forum who wrote before me, most of whom I've managed to acknowledge in the first post of this thread. Readers like you make writers feel that somebody out there is actually bothering to read their stuff, and even appreciate what has been written.

As for Hisao doing something dick-ish—I struggled with that bit. Then I decided it was well in keeping with the conflicted individual we've all come to know and love. He did love Lilly, and it was the second great trauma of his life. The problem with trauma is that it doesn't go away, and I suppose he must've suffered a lot, subjectively. The plaque was commissioned five years before he hooked up again with Emi in 2018, and the year after they broke up for the first time in 2012. I guess at that point, he didn't think he was going back—and the problem was that he didn't work out what to do with it until he died. At which point I suppose his earlier wishes took effect, and made him look like a dick.

It's complicated—as are so many things in our lives. Maybe I over-dramatised things a bit, but I have to say in my defence that everything I write tends to be based on real-life people, dick-ish or otherwise. Thanks again for reading your way through all this material!

[Arcfault]

Thanks for responding Brythain, I'm both surprised and happy to see you're still on the boards here. I'd basically figured I was just getting it out of my system, as it were, but I'm so happy you provided additional info.

The plaque was commissioned five years before he hooked up again with Emi in 2018, and the year after they broke up for the first time in 2012.

I'd completely missed that part. So that does frame the plaque in a different light. Which makes me feel much better about Hisao. Like I said previously, I still pine for a young woman whom I'd fallen in love with in 3rd grade. We'd been friends, became close, but never dated. She even asked me why we never did, and I still didn't tell her the truth.

As such, when you say your work is based on real people, I 100% agree. Many don't understand Lilly the way I do, as I've been her, and still am. People who say that she wouldn't marry is unrealistic are wrong, as I almost didn't get married myself until I was convinced after seven years of dating. Even then, I'm still haunted by the memory of what my school love was, not what she is now, and that's what is the most insidious part. No one can match the ideal they become.

You captured the essence of who these characters are quite well, so again, thank you for the tears and the wonderful conclusions to their stories. I love your work.

[camerone0420]

Lucky me, I'm very late to the party and got to read all the stories in chronological order.

It's an interesting world you built, and I enjoyed every chapter of it. Thank you so much for writing this.

[brythain]

Thanks for responding Brythain, I'm both surprised and happy to see you're still on the boards here. I'd basically figured I was just getting it out of my system, as it were, but I'm so happy you provided additional info. …

You captured the essence of who these characters are quite well, so again, thank you for the tears and the wonderful conclusions to their stories. I love your work.

Argh! Forgot to reply. You're most welcome, and I am very much privileged to have readers like you. What a response!

Lucky me, I'm very late to the party and got to read all the stories in chronological order.

It's an interesting world you built, and I enjoyed every chapter of it. Thank you so much for writing this.

That's a lot of material! Thanks for being such a dedicated reader. You're most welcome—writing it all was rewarding to me as well.

[Udlice]

Brythain this story of yours is truly awesome. Thanks for writing it.
I read the main and secondary arcs character by character a while ago so now I'm beginning a chronological read through and I'm surprised by how much it changes the experience of the story.

By the way, Misha 1 (Regrets) is listed as starting in 2008 on the main index but on her arc thread it says 2007...?

[brythain]

Brythain this story of yours is truly awesome. Thanks for writing it.
I read the main and secondary arcs character by character a while ago so now I'm beginning a chronological read through and I'm surprised by how much it changes the experience of the story.

By the way, Misha 1 (Regrets) is listed as starting in 2008 on the main index but on her arc thread it says 2007...?

Thanks very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and even more that you did the chronological as well as character-based sequence.

The chronology has always been difficult for me, what with flashbacks and all. Misha1 actually starts after Lilly leaves in late 2007, but is written in early 2008. It gets worse elsewhere, I think. Thanks for reminding me that I really should figure out what to do with all that.

[Feurox]

The chronology has always been difficult for me, what with flashbacks and all. Misha1 actually starts after Lilly leaves in late 2007, but is written in early 2008. It gets worse elsewhere, I think. Thanks for reminding me that I really should figure out what to do with all that.

The good ol' Brythain bug; is it broken, or is it canon ~

Nice to see AtD still getting the love it deserves.

[pheonixelf]

My god you have made a universe of Epic proportions here. I started fer about a week ago only really interested in what you though Shizune's path would be. I am here now Having dug through EVERYTHING (or close to it ) only because the original narrative was too little and too far inbetween. Not only that you got me invested in new characters along the way (as well as some old ones ).

Also, I'm not usually one to indulge in Fanfic's actually I almost never do for works that I've finished, Currently Consuming or otherwise but you have me wishing there is a Wikia for your universe here (or atleast a Family Tree for the entire cast of sorts)