Learning To Fly - A Saki pseudo-route (Completed)

[hdkv]

Oh god. That's rough. Get well soon and I hope the changes will turn to the better going forward.

[Blackmambauk]

When it rains it pours indeed mate.

You truly have no luck at times with the amount of moves you've had to do over the years, but glad you have a place to breath for the next year and hopefully beyond it

A relationship ending is always so hurtful and leaves us questioning ourselves, evaluating our perception and of the people we know and love/loved.

Glad your grandfather has recovered from his strike, hopefully, there won't be any further scares to his health in the near future.

Had a scammer do the same to me in the new year, set up a credit card in my name. got it sorted but it was a real hassle to deal with for a while.

Losing the companion that has been by your side for many years is truly a loss that is always so terrible for anyone to go through and I know Mara treasured every moment she spent with you, even the ones where she crawled at you, shitted out of her litter or brought home any animals if she ever did.

And screw Covid and all the stuff it keeps doing to people. Its like the boomerang that keeps coming back no matter what

Hang in there with everything and know that we remain ever patient with you, knowing the wait is always worth it.

Thanks Euro

Kind Regards

Mamba

[guthrum06]

So sorry to hear about all that. Hopefully things take a turn in the other direction.

The good news is we'll all be ecstatic to get more Learning to Fly whenever it is you have the time and/or energy.

[BlueButterfly_]

I've read through a few of these posts including your most recent one and I hope you're okay, that's all just awful and I can't even imagine. I only found out about this pseudo-route recently as I first played Katawa Shoujo back when I was a clinically depressed teenager about 12-13 years ago and it's always stuck with me in wonderful ways, so I decided I'd have another playthrough at now nearly 30!

I've just played Act 1 of the Saki route through the mod on the Katawa Shoujo r7 version of the game and I already love it and could see Saki becoming my new favourite girl purely based on your writing! I'm in two minds on whether to wait however long for the whole route to be released in the game or to just read it all now! But basically just wanted to say thank you for now over 10 years of hard work and passion for this game that's obviously meant a lot to all of us and bringing even more content after all this time!

[scott1and]

I have not been on these forums for absolutely years and I remember thinking, "Right, I'm reading that Saki pseudo-route when it's finished." I don't know why I thought about it recently but I'm insanely glad and surprised to hear it didn't get abandond way back in the day. I'm very much looking forward to the final story!

But look after yourself. I saw your recent post and you're well-being is the most important thing right now.

[scott1and]

I've just played Act 1 of the Saki route through the mod on the Katawa Shoujo r7 version of the game and I already love it and could see Saki becoming my new favourite girl purely based on your writing! I'm in two minds on whether to wait however long for the whole route to be released in the game or to just read it all now! But basically just wanted to say thank you for now over 10 years of hard work and passion for this game that's obviously meant a lot to all of us and bringing even more content after all this time!

I've gathered that r7 is an improved version of Katawa Shoujo, and that the version of Learning to Fly you're referring to is a mod for it, but how to updates work? Do other fans create and install it, or is it updates with the story?

I'm also almost 30, by the way I played this game all the way back on release and is a massive nostalgia boost for me.

[Eurobeatjester]

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone. They mean a lot. Life feels really hard right now.

I wanted to share a piece of NSFW art I got commissioned many years ago with the idea of including a scene for it in the route. I never found a way to weave it in, unfortunately, but I assure you all it is most definitely canon.

I commissioned this from eguana a few months after I had commissioned them for the picture of Saki and Hisao kissing in Kittyhawk.

I need to do a deep dive into ten years of files as part of cleaning up/finishing this route. I think there might be a few more pieces of unused artwork.

[Sharp-O]

That's such an amazing piece, Euro. I love equana's style!

Totally understand having assets you intend to use but never get round to as well!

[Blackmambauk]

Excellent stuff as always mate from the artists you commission to do art for Learning to Fly.

Looking forward to seeing to other artwork you had done and never got used for the fic chapters.

[SurviVR]

Hello, I just wanted too say that I was recommended your story a few days ago I started reading it yesterday morning the 24th and I finished it around 1 am on the 25th, I just wanna say that even though I might have not waited the many years other people have waited for this story, I spent all day in bed just captivated by your writing, i didn’t want to move from my bed because I was just stuck reading and reading.
I’ve been reading your updates and stuff as I went through it and I hope everything gets well soon, it will eventually. Keep up the good work and I can’t wait to finish up the story, your work when you finish it will probably leave me with the feeling I got when I finished KS, utter sadness that it ended. Good luck and thank you again for your amazing work and time.

[Wetworth]

Euro, you can do it! The finish line is in sight, we believe in you!

But at the same time, take the time you need. This is a patient thread after all.

[maestrokami]

Following in the footsteps of many other people it seems, I’ve finally decided to actually register. I’ve been lurking on these boards for a few months now, absolutely blown away by the sense of community that’s been fostered, and the sheer creativity and passion of the creators. Having finally caught up on this absolute masterpiece you’ve created Euro, I’m beyond excited to see how this continues and concludes, and I’m so glad I could board this ride before it ends.

Wishing you nothing but the best going forward, and thank you for everything you’ve given us thus far.

[Peorth]

Following in the footsteps of many other people it seems, I’ve finally decided to actually register. I’ve been lurking on these boards for a few months now, absolutely blown away by the sense of community that’s been fostered, and the sheer creativity and passion of the creators. Having finally caught up on this absolute masterpiece you’ve created Euro, I’m beyond excited to see how this continues and concludes, and I’m so glad I could board this ride before it ends.

Wishing you nothing but the best going forward, and thank you for everything you’ve given us thus far.

Welcome!

['Lov]

Absolutely hooked on this story, please keep it up!

[Eurobeatjester]

1200th post! Holy crap.

No, this wall of text isn't the finale. Not just yet.

Life has stabilized a bit for now. I'm slowly but surely - with the help of friends, medication, and therapy - getting back into a better mental state. Things got a lot worse before they got better.

One of the biggest roadblocks I've had to writing (and life in general right now) has been my breakup with my fiancee. Not just because I haven't been in the headspace I wanted or needed to be in, but given that I just wrote a marriage proposal scene, I hope you can see why I've had an exceptionally hard time with it.

A few other things have gone downhill. I ended up quitting my job over broken promises on their end. I’ve been scraping by with gig work, and I’m thankful for it.

I remember the first major setback I had in writing this story - it was the conversation between Saki and Hisao at the pool for reasons mentioned here. When I first wrote it, I was in a really good place in my life. I know a large part of me thought that the "hard part" was over, having been living in my car for two and a half years to getting established in a new city and a career that let me see the entire country. So much has happened between then and now and oh, I was such a sweet summer child...

Well, if you've followed this thread over the years, you've had a pretty good glimpse into my life and what a roller coaster it's been.

I realized that right now, at the end of the story, that Hisao and I have completely traded headspaces. At the beginning Hisao was bitter, but trying to find a sense of optimism; I was writing him while being really happy with how life was going.

Now here I am - bitter, and trying to find optimism…and Hisao is on top of the world. With one chapter left, I‘m pretty sure I won’t be subverting anyone’s expectations as to how it ends or what Saki's answer will ultimately be.

I feel truly, deeply honored that there are those of you that have read my writing and reached out to let me know that it’s been able to give you something comforting - whatever that may be. Those messages and the friendships that some of them developed into have really kept me going when things have gotten hard the last decade.

This story feels like a strange time capsule to me, when I go back and read it. I read a chapter and I immediately remember what books or media I was consuming around the time I was writing it. I can see my skill as a writer grow, develop, and finally evolve into something I can really feel proud of.

But more than that, it’s a reminder of who I was at that moment. I’ve made no secret about how much of myself I put into my writing, and how cathartic and therapeutic it’s been to write this. It’s been a fun and rewarding challenge to find the balance between drawing from experiences in your life, and being a self-insert. I hope I did well. It makes me happy that a lot of people enjoy Hisao as much as Saki and the others.

I don’t know if it sounds conceited or narcissistic to draw comfort from your own creations, but I’ve come to think of this thread and story as a unique form of a diary that I can look back on; milestones on how I change as a person and take comfort in the progress that I’ve made. I’ve never had anything in my life take over a decade, or worked on any project this long.

I tried to put a lot of positive energy into my characters, especially when they were down.

Maybe they can let me borrow it for a while.

I’m waxing poetic a bit, but I’m also trying to organize my own thoughts on the realization that this story is ending for me as well. Honestly, I never imagined I would make it this far. Not that I thought I would get a few chapters or an act in and abandon it - even though I ended up having some very long times between updates - I never once thought, imagined, or entertained abandoning it. I just honestly couldn’t envision what it would be like to be at this point.

If this is a diary, I’m going to have a really thorough afterword, heh.

So in the spirit of everything above, there’s also been good changes! I was gifted a new-to-me vehicle. My grandfather bought a new truck and gave me his old one. It’s an older model truck but it was his baby and very well maintained for twenty years. Now I can hopefully sell my old one and wipe out a good chunk of my remaining debt.

Second, after a lot of thought about it, I’ve decided to go back to the place I worked before Covid; the escape room. Looking back on the last decade, I really was happiest working there. It’s nowhere near the pay of what I was making, but after working in the fabrication industry for the last four years, I’ve learned that it’s extremely hard to have a work/life balance.

There’s another reason I want to go back there. When I had that job, it allowed me to be down at the makerspace constantly, and build things to put the rooms together. I learned so many skills that opened so many doors for me. There are chapters of Learning to Fly that I can go back and read, and remember “Oh hey, I wrote that paragraph on the computer at the makerspace while I was waiting for the laser cutter to finish running!”

It gives me room to be creative again, and have engaging problems to solve. I want to get back to the person I was back then. I haven’t been to a makerspace since they shut down at the beginning of lockdown.

Thirdly, one of the perks I get from doing well at the gigwork I do is free tuition for online classes at the local college. I’m looking forward to see what they offer, and I’m excited to learn some new skills, and re-approach fabrication once I get more familiar with modern CAD programs and the like. I’m about ten years behind current trends, but I know I can catch up quickly.

As far as the last chapter goes, it’s about 80% completed. Before finishing and posting it, I’m going to give LtF one last editing pass - not change things like the story or my writing, but when rereading I can see grammar and spelling mistakes. I only want to fix those errors and some smaller little things like making formatting consistent. There are some technical errors that I want to fix, especially since Kyledaboss and his team is adapting LtF into its own visual novel mod - something that just blows my mind.

The second reason I want to do the editing pass is to get in these headspaces one last time, to see if there’s anything I missed or want to say as I finish the final chapter and look at it as part of the whole.

This shouldn’t take long hopefully. I’ll do a chapter or two a day and should be able to knock it out fairly quickly - well, quickly for me anyway.

Finally, if you’ve followed me in the various Discord servers over the years, you know I’ve spent the last few years learning a program called Koikatsu! It’s a hentai game developed by Illusion that has one of the most robust character creators ever for anime style characters, along with a studio that allows you to create and place them in scenes. I started using it because I was inspired by Witchanon’s work making the Katawa Shoujo cast, and I ended up making Saki, Rika, Chisato, and Noriko in the program as well.

In several years I’ve become very adept at, having initially downloaded it to create characters from LtF and Katawa Shoujo; I now use it for reference model work along with DnD characters and animation.

I never got any artwork commissioned of Kayoko, but I did make her in Koikatsu. Here’s a few renders of what her and the other girls would have looked like their first year at Yamaku, such as the pictures on the corkboard in the music room.

Thanks for indulging this semi-update post. You all are amazing.