Iwanako: Mean Time to Breakdown {updated 2015-4-1}

[griffon8]

Exciting, although terribly unexpected, to see Hanako enter the game. I trust you have a good reason for her to be there.

This is so weird to me. I was totally expecting Hanako & Lilly to show up at the hospital. If not for Iwanako's observation that school was still in session for the first visitors, I would have expected Hanako & Lilly then.

Besides, this avoids a time skip to Saturday when Iwanako can leave. Also, this will likely put a stop to any plans to leave Yamaku.

[Kyler Thatch]

>that seems to follow me around like goldfish feces

...is that a thing? I don't own gold-fish, so...

My dad used to own a couple of fishes, but nobody at home had any time to take care of them, so they died one by one.

Anyway, yeah, that's a thing. Their waste material doesn't always detach right away, so they end up trailing for a while.

[forgetmenot]

>Victorian memento mori daguerreotypes

>lachrymose

I by no means want to imply Iwanako isn't intelligent or well-informed, but...those two words strike me as 10-dollar words that even an intelligent teenager would not know, let alone use to describe something in their head.

Funny you should mention these... I have a sneaking suspicion these word choices may have something to do with having read Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as both the phrase "memento mori" as well as the word "lachrymose" feature prominently in those stories.

Their waste material doesn't always detach right away, so they end up trailing for a while.

Eww.

[Bad Apple]

Incidentally in relation to the above post. Seems like another series of coincidences.

I could always fix that, I guess. I feel like a phone conversation would be too awkward, after all this time, but I don’t know… Maybe I could send a letter.

heh

I shouldn’t be living in the past, anyway. It’s only going to make me more unhappy, and it only person really affected by it is me.

the only person

“I have visitors?”

“Yes, there are two people here to see you.”

[...]

I haven’t the slightest idea who this is. My eyes meet hers...

…!

…With a flash of alarming clarity, my entire body goes rigid with tension.

Called it! ...In my head anyway, even if it appears incredibly obvious in hindsight, I didn't want to ruin it for anybody

...How are you any different from a drunk driver who only feels bad after he finally spins out and murders half a family?”

She makes a noise that’s somewhere between a gasp and a sob, as though I’ve touched upon a particularly sensitive spot, but I’m too far gone to stop now.

...Ouch. Can't wait till this one comes back to haunt Iwanako. That will sting.

That went slightly more awful than I imagined. Although to be fair, I had two guesses. It was either Emi or Hanako, but obviously that's not going to---

“I… Iwa…o..”

Huh? What was that?

“I, Iwanako?”

The soft voice is so quiet that, for a moment, I think I’m imagining it.

I lift my head, surprised to hear my name. To my surprise, when I glance over to the doorway, a very familiar amethyst-eyed girl is peering at me cautiously from behind the doorway, her nose hidden behind the door frame.

Huh?!

“Hanako?!”

Oh. Damn you. Damn you damn you damn you I should have seen this coming. Attack on Titan has exhausted my Epic Cliffhanger-O-Meter for a decade as it is, and now this? I think I'm gonna have a stroke, here.

Yeah, I was going to comment to the effect of Hanako's assertiveness but you've already duly noted that. Besides excellent first impressions, I'm guessing Lilly has something to do with it, but beyond homework or the Festival I can't quite think of anything concrete. Unless it's the typical "I told Lilly and she convinced me", I'm totally stumped. In fact, I'd say bhtooefr nailed it. Although I must say, the "Word of God" concerning Lilly at the end of this post renders this chapter in a whole new light...

More to the point, I'm more surprised at that it didn't come down to Emi or Hanako as the visitor, but both. Quoth Rin Tezuka, "It sure is suddenly very crowded in here. I didn't know I was this popular." It almost feels silly, but genuine concern tends to have that effect on the cynical. But it isn't as if Iwanako was feeling exactly chipper before.

You pulled all the stops for this one, Leaty. Personally yes, I believe you have turned Iwanako into her own person and a fully fleshed out human being. She has friends, a family, hopes, dreams, struggles, baggage and regrets like the rest of us. I even forget that she is canonically just the one-scene catalyst for Katawa Shoujo's male main character, sometimes, instead of a quasi-OC you created wholecloth.

The twists and turns in MTB are always a thrill to read through. My hat's off to you.

Now all that's left is Rin and her "diagnosing" the "chest problem thingy"...

I also have a new competing hypothesis as to who's gonna fix Iwanako's heart, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, here. More evidence required and all that scientific method stuff.

[Mirage_GSM]

Can't wait till this one comes back to haunt Iwanako. That will sting.

If Iwanako somehow learns about Emi's accident, she'll realize that they both did awful things to each other.
Given what happened in this chapter, it would be hard for Iwanako to forgive Emi, but now they have a chance to forgive each other, which makes forgiving much easier.

[Leaty]

(deadfic)

[bhtooefr]

This isn't a spoiler, so let me just clear the air on this once and for all. Emi isn't at Yamaku right now. She's living in downtown Sendai with her mother until the suspension is lifted. She won't be at the Festival because for the time being she's not even permitted on school grounds.

As somebody who has enjoyed quite a few out-of-school suspensions back in the day, let me just say that I really don't understand how they constitute a punishment. Wow, you're telling me I can stay home while my parents are at work, eating junk food and watching the box set of Dawson's Creek? Well, hot damn! (Yeah, yeah, I know it's different in the context of private school.)

You know, I actually was going to comment on that, but how would a school like Yamaku specifically handle suspension? An out-of-school suspension is a surprising one for a school like that, I'd think, especially given that they're a boarding school housing physically disabled students. Then again, this is one of the few scenarios where an out-of-school suspension makes sense in Yamaku - not as a punishment, but rather to keep the other students safe.

I went to a K-12 that specialized in behavioral handicaps among other things, and they never used out-of-school suspensions (although the school districts that sent kids there would sometimes suspend kids from the bus, so they'd have no way to get to school). They usually used in-school suspensions - you wouldn't go to your normal class, you'd report to a much stricter suspension-specific class and your school work would be sent to that class.

I wasn't sure how to answer this at first. The best answer to this question is that when I was writing the Iwanako/Emi encounter, I read through Misstep again (Hanako's bad ending, not Doomish's bad fic), and much of Iwanako's explosion at Emi was deliberately meant to be a parallel to Hanako's eruption at Hisao. (In fact, read those scenes side by side if you want what I daresay is a damn good illustration of how Hanako and Iwanako differ as characters.) The Iwanako/Emi encounter can definitely be described as Emi Misstepping Iwanako, and much of the logic in that scene applies here as well.

I did notice the echos of Misstep in there, but not quite enough to comment on it.

And, now I've got a vision of Iwanako abusing a thesaurus just to sound smarter than she is. (I've actually known people to do that. Hell, when I was 16, I did it.)

[Leaty]

(deadfic)

[Reese8]

I want to point out here that even if Hisao had tried this in that scenario, he would not have been received nearly as successfully.

Oh, really? Interesting. Why?

Mean Time to Failure is probably the more widespread term. I don't actually have any engineering background. A quick Googling turned up the phrase (and a graph) in a thesis about power cable defects for an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree, so there you have it I guess.

Ah, thanks. For what it's worth, I think that "breakdown" sounds better here.

[AntonSlavik020]

I want to point out here that even if Hisao had tried this in that scenario, he would not have been received nearly as successfully.

Oh, really? Interesting. Why?

I figure it has something to do with the fact that Hisao, being a guy who she may or may not like at that point, would make her more nervous than a girl who might be shorter than her and is about as un-intimidating as possible.

[Mirage_GSM]

In my original envisioning of this scenario (back in 2012!), called "Missile Crisis,"...

I think you made a good choice writing this version.

I get nervous about Iwanako getting the best of Emi (and to a lesser extent, Shizune) because I'm trying to keep her out of Suesbekistan, and emotionally crucifying a main character can constitute taking a step inside.

Well, in this case getting the best of Emi wasn't really much of an achievement. It was like going into a 100m sprint with ten seconds headstart.

I'm more than a little surprised that most people think Emi had it coming, especially since she's so well-liked.

Well, she's my favourite girl, but I think she's not as well liked as she deserves
Anyway, that doesn't change the fact, that what she did was dangerous and irresponsible, so she kind of did have it coming...

[Reese8]

I want to point out here that even if Hisao had tried this in that scenario, he would not have been received nearly as successfully.

Oh, really? Interesting. Why?

I figure it has something to do with the fact that Hisao, being a guy who she may or may not like at that point, would make her more nervous than a girl who might be shorter than her and is about as un-intimidating as possible.

May or may not like? This is the introduction, though.

[bhtooefr]

TheHivemind did just pretty explicitly say in the Ask thread that every girl except Rin wanted to have sex with Hisao on day one...

Then again, there was the thing about not trusting word of author.

[sanduba]

TheHivemind did just pretty explicitly say in the Ask thread that every girl except Rin wanted to have sex with Hisao on day one...

Then again, there was the thing about not trusting word of author.

He only met Shizune and Misha in day one lol

[bhtooefr]

Hanako saw him too, though.

And, I interpreted that as wanting it the first day they met him.