Katawa Shoujo Forums

First post here, I want to write something to praise you...

... Sincerely, I can't come across any words for this. Really. But I have to say, I felt just like I finished KS again. Gave me the feels back. Thank you, sir/miss.

LOL WUT wrote:Wait so a Hanako bad ending and a Lilly Good ending within a Hanako good ending?

ENDCEPTION!

The only thing missing was Akira taking her boyfriend to Scotland with her.

Thanks for the comments.

griffon8 wrote:

LOL WUT wrote:Wait so a Hanako bad ending and a Lilly Good ending within a Hanako good ending?

ENDCEPTION!

The only thing missing was Akira taking her boyfriend to Scotland with her.

I had a little part in mind for the last telephone conversation between Lilly and Akira where the former suggested giving her ticket to the latter's boyfriend instead of canceling it. Akira would then reply that nobody would take up an offer to tie up your old life in 48 hours and start a new one just like that. Lilly would then ask Akira whether she simply ditched her boyfriend or whether he simply refused an offer to come along to Europe and if the former was the case and she felt bad about it, she at least owed it to him to give him an opportunity to decide things for himself.

In the end that part, like several other ideas, was left on the cutting floor because I wanted the last part of the final chapter to be about Hanako and Lilly and throwing a little side-discussion that was completely irrelevant to one of the main conflicts in there a few meters before the finish line didn't sit well with me.

Very much worth the (long) read. Dem feels!

One thing of note. I like how you characterized Hanako. Most of the time (including in Lilly's route in KS), Hanako is portrayed as merely very shy and nothing else and the crippling lack of self-worth and various anxieties are overlooked even though they drive many of her thoughts and actions.

No, make that two. Are Hanako and Hisao playing Street Fighter 2? And is Hisao playing Sagat?

Thanks.

I felt that in KS, Hanako judged her perceived value in other people's eyes by how useful she thought she was to them and I thought that was a pretty good trait to keep in there for this story since it's a bit of a double-edged knife. On the one hand by giving a slightly positive twist on it, it can be used as a motivator to become more proactive and play a bigger role in other people's lives and enhance your own self-esteem that way, on the other hand it's still a very disfunctional way of thinking that can blow up in your face pretty badly. It makes things more interesting than having Hanako being merely very shy and socially awkward.

And yeah, they're playing Street Fighter 2: CE. (it's the version I used to see most often in Arcade halls at home) All the games in the retro section are actual old arcade games. The rail shooter was made up and I'm sure I played that motorbike racing game myself once, though I couldn't remember the name of the game. Not that it mattered much.

By the way, you are going to write more...right? Because with talent like yours, I'll be extremely disappointed if I don't get to see more of your writing. Shit, it doesn't even have to be KS fanfiction, I'll read whatever you write.

Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not really sure at this point. I've never written fanfics before and this story came about completely by coincidence by two separate discussions on this forum. One of them explained Lilly's presence in Shizune's bad route by suggesting she stuck around in order to be there for Hanako. The other was about whether Lilly was going to move to Scotland after Hanako's ending and it was suggested she probably would since Hanako now had someone else to draw support from. I could understand those arguments since Lilly's kind of a pseudo White Knight herself (or at least someone with an extremely nurturing personality), but it also reminded me of a real life story I once heard where that "But now I must go"-attitude was pretty brutally deconstructed and revealed to be anything but heroic, honorable, noble or anything positive.

The story was about a petty criminal with a girlfriend who had White Knight syndrome (not a little bit like Lilly and Hisao, but full-fledged White Knightness born out of insecurity) and the guy spent most of his adolescence behind bars, usually for stuff like stealing a TV or being caught driving a "hot" car. Throughout it all she was always there, visiting him, exchanging letters, supporting him, faithfully waiting for him to be released and encouraging him to give up his life of dumb-fuck petty crime and straighten out his act. At some point, however, the guy got tired of wasting his life away in the slammer, so he started taking courses in jail to educate himself and after his release he managed to get a job and turn his life around. He expected his relationship with his nurturing girlfriend to improve since they could really be together now, but surprise...the relationship took a nosedive, they started getting into arguments and eventually she walked out on him saying that "the spark is gone for some reason". Of course, the girlfriend turned out to have some major issues herself and once her boyfriend no longer depended on her for support, pampering and comfort, she felt too insecure to be with him any longer and felt bereft of purpose for herself. She needed him way more than he ever needed her.

Of course that story didn't apply to Lilly whose White Knighting tendencies are more due to her personality and not due to insecurity issues (she's one of the most confident girls in the game), but I decided to have a little fun with the "my job is done here"-trope since that part of White Knight syndrome is never brought up during Hanako's route in KS. (rightfully so IMHO)

Anyway, if a premise that I like pops up in my head and sticks, I might write something more, but I'm not one to write for the sake of writing or one to go actively look for premises.

I really enjoyed this, for all of the reasons already given. It really did read like an extension of Hanako's route in the game.

Also, I guess I'll be one of the few voices of dissent here and note that the formatting didn't really bother me. It was easy enough to understand what was going on and that's all that really counts in the end.

Glad to hear you're at least considering writing again, I'll keep my hopes up.

Also, I guess I'll be one of the few voices of dissent here and note that the formatting didn't really bother me. It was easy enough to understand what was going on and that's all that really counts in the end.

Yeah, I feel the same way. I almost didn't read it because of the format, but thank God I stuck with it. As soon as I started reading it, I didn't care anymore.

EmiBro wrote:

Also, I guess I'll be one of the few voices of dissent here and note that the formatting didn't really bother me. It was easy enough to understand what was going on and that's all that really counts in the end.

Yeah, I feel the same way. I almost didn't read it because of the format, but thank God I stuck with it. As soon as I started reading it, I didn't care anymore.

Normally I wouldn't like so much VN style (though I'm not so bothered if the story is good), but in KS fanfics I think it fits nicely. I think it's because of the game format as well, makes us remember the original.

Wow... Just wow.

I've read the popular Ascended Flutist's "And to live in peace", giggling childishly at their cutesy ways the entire time.
(Bare with me for a sec, I do plan to go somewhere with this.)
I've read Mehkanik's brilliant "After school" epilogue, which is one of the few things in this world which has forced me to cry in an ever so manly way...
But your epilogue to Hanako's story is the ending I was dying to read at the end of her route, and there is no doubt I will end up reading this again and again.

Kudos, Guest Poster.
You have a talent, don't let it go to waste.

Welcome to my headcannon!

kw343 wrote:Welcome to my headcannon!

GAWD, HE SHOOTS HIS BRAINZ!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

(Lose a friend, but never, absolutely NEVER lose a joke. )

ShinigamiKenji wrote:

kw343 wrote:Welcome to my headcannon!

GAWD, HE SHOOTS HIS BRAINZ!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

(Lose a friend, but never, absolutely NEVER lose a joke. )

I'm not shooting my head off, i have a cannon ... um for head ... and um i'm welcoming him to it.
(yeah that sounds good, we'll go with that)

>You will never have a skullgun installed
>You will never kill someone without so much as raising a finger
>You will never have orange; you will be stuck forever with lemon-lime