After the Dream—Hanako's Arc (Complete)

[Blasphemy]

You know, I'm still not sure what to make of this author persona in all this but I do kinda like it. Mind you, that's partially because overall your 'After the Dream' world feels a bit surreal anyways with how closely intertwined all the Katawa Shoujo characters' lives are, so it doesn't bother me that there's this kind of 4th-wall persona or how something like that is called correctly.

The dialog between author-san and the characters is just really fun for the most part; I enjoyed it particularly much in Misha's arc.

If you can answer that, is this author-san supposed to reflect your own character (a bit self-insert in that way) or rather something on its own?

[brythain]

You know, I'm still not sure what to make of this author persona in all this but I do kinda like it. Mind you, that's partially because overall your 'After the Dream' world feels a bit surreal anyways with how closely intertwined all the Katawa Shoujo characters' lives are, so it doesn't bother me that there's this kind of 4th-wall persona or how something like that is called correctly.

The dialog between author-san and the characters is just really fun for the most part; I enjoyed it particularly much in Misha's arc.

If you can answer that, is this author-san supposed to reflect your own character (a bit self-insert in that way) or rather something on its own?

Thank you for those comments!

I do think that part of it is 4th-wall-breaking, because I do sometimes seem to be making a statement that the KS world is unreal, an imaginary which tries to play by 'real' rules. So surrealism and strange coincidences (like Hisao having five+ available options when he enters the final year of school, second semester; how likely is that, and why?) are part of the 'game'.

On the other hand, I do appear as 'author-san' because it's through me that their stories get told, in whatever sense they're real. They live in my head and my heart, as they do in the heads and hearts of so many in this community.

Sometimes, they appear to have more agency in the sense of getting their story told in a way which I'm not sure I ever wanted it to be told; sometimes, they have less. Sometimes, it is as if they would like to jump in and edit the text as I've presented it. Some of them, including Mutou the science teacher, Shizune the bossy leader (sorry, Ms Hakamichi) or Hanako the shy writer, are better fits for me. Some fit other people I have known. The effect on my writing varies.

So author-san does reflect my writing character, and also the characters of my friends, lost loves, and such. I won't appear in the main mosaic; the leakage through the 4th wall is mostly one-way.

[Yukarin]

Brythain, can you explain to me exactly what is the Zelazny Process?

I just reread Hanako's vignettes and I was wondering about that.

[brythain]

Brythain, can you explain to me exactly what is the Zelazny Process?

I just reread Hanako's vignettes and I was wondering about that.

Hi! The Zelazny Process is my tribute to a very old book, Lord of Light, authored by the late Roger Zelazny. In that book, human consciousness can be uploaded into the ionosphere, but nobody quite knows what happens after that. So in Hanako's arc, which ends around 2080, the idea is that she has a choice—to become physically long-lived through technology, or to just have her consciousness uploaded, not knowing what will happen next or whether she will just die. Hanako decides she will go peacefully into the unknown.

[Yukarin]

Very interesting. There's something new to learn every day!

[brythain]

"Hello, my friend."

"Hana-chan, you do me great honour when you grace my humble rooms with your presence."

She shows me a starkly beautiful face shrouded in darkness, her night-black hair merging through imperceptible degrees with the evening.

"So, all my secrets are to be revealed?"

"No, not all. Those you have told me to keep, I have kept."

"I am in no position to mind, you know."

Her voice is melodious, gentle, not so shy, but sweet. It is the voice of someone who has survived tragedy and decided to forgive all things.

"But I, dear lady, am in a position to keep faith with you."

"It is honourable of you. Thank you for bringing back the good old days for me."

After she has gone, I feel I would have liked her to stay just a bit longer. She, of all of them, has worked with me the most.

[brythain]

"Have you finally got everything off your chest yet, my husband?"

Sigh. I'm trying to sleep and here are two people starting a little bout of marital conflict right next to me.

"Beautiful lady wife! You know how I feel about those years, don't you?"

"You mean the cycle centred around our friend's death?"

"Yes! Twelve wasted years of my life, six before and six after!"

"Oh? Weren't those the years in which you courted me? Or was that too a waste of time?"

"Ah no, no, I was only jesting with you, dearest."

"HMPH!"

I groan, turn over and go back to sleep. But before I finally fall into the darkness…

"Okay boss, back to normal programming it is."

[brythain]

What is it with these two?

"That's what happens when you don't let me edit."

"I think I pulled off the drama pretty well, wife!"

"No, no, my husband—you put on the drama, if anything else. Our b-business negotiations now look like a bad Sch-sch-warneg-zegneg- whatever movie!"

"Hey, some buildings got blown up, you know."

"Arson! And 'burnt down' is not 'blown up'!"

"And the guardsmen did bow to Shizune!"

"My friend, your sister, she is not Princess L-L-… well, they d-did, but it was because that's tradition, she became President of Hakamichi Industries!"

"See? It happened!"

I'm watching in fascination. It's like all my fanboy dreams come true. Any moment now, Cylon raiders.

"Husband, you really did miss me at the end, didn't you?"

"Need you ask, beloved wife?"

Before I can protest my rude awakening, they have linked their arms—the large fiercely uncertain man in the dark suit, and the slender lady in the purple gown—and they vanish into the light of day.

=====

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

— W. Shakespeare, The Tempest, IV-1

[brythain]

"Happy birthday!" I say to her.

She smiles, a faint tracery of wrinkles suffusing her fine, thin skin. This is Hanako Ikezawa in her forties, I guess. She's in a fawn jacket and a long leather skirt, her long hair unbound.

"Hello, colleague. I see you've been busy. Is that Kenji behaving himself, or is he telling stories as usual?"

"Well, as to the telling of stories…"

"True, that's what we all do. What is that, if I may ask?"

"Something light, just a Monkey Bay merlot for your good health and happiness?"

The faint smile turns into an appreciative grin. "Akira taught me that I liked merlot the best, with pinot noir a close second. You remembered. It's kind of you."

"No, the honour is mine." I unscrew the cap—no corks these days—and serve a round.

And indeed, it is.

[YutoTheOrc]

Goodbye Hanako.... Now to curl up in a ball for a few hours before starting the second layer of this "Literary onion", love the work!

[brythain]

Doctor/Tennant

Goodbye Hanako.... Now to curl up in a ball for a few hours before starting the second layer of this "Literary onion", love the work!

I hope this doesn't start looking like the other Onion! Yes, I do think Kenji is a Tom Baker fan, and that he thinks Mutou is a David Tennant fan. Hanako's story, at least, isn't a sad one!

[azumeow]

Hanako's story, at least, isn't a sad one!

uwotm8? That was so painful to read. So, so painful....

[brythain]

Hanako's story, at least, isn't a sad one!

uwotm8? That was so painful to read. So, so painful....

It's not sad overall, right?

(Oops, I hope you don't mean that it was such a bad piece that it hurt your eyes to read it.)

[azumeow]

It's not sad overall, right?

(Oops, I hope you don't mean that it was such a bad piece that it hurt your eyes to read it.)

No to both. It was, relatively, not that sad. Still sad as all hell, though. Just this whole story is...just sad. It's not fair!

[brythain]

It's not sad overall, right?

(Oops, I hope you don't mean that it was such a bad piece that it hurt your eyes to read it.)

No to both. It was, relatively, not that sad. Still sad as all hell, though. Just this whole story is...just sad. It's not fair!

I think that's partly a side-effect of continuing the epilogue to the very end… After all, 'happily ever after' sometimes seems like a cop-out, but 'happy to the end' is more realistic. I hardly dare to point out that Hideaki's own story must be the complement to this one, and thus it is just as happy or sad. Thanks very much for appreciating this, though!