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Re: Interlude (20140509)

Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 4:34 pm
by SpunkySix
dewelar wrote:
SpunkySix wrote:
brythain wrote:This one's for SpunkySix. Keep the faith, man. :)
Okay... I told myself that I'd wait to read this stuff after I finished all of the canon routes, and that I'd read Developments first, (which I still plan to do after reading said routes) but I just sort of wandered in here and ended up reading it all on a whim and... holy shit, that was beautiful. Tragic, but pretty. Sort of like life. I'm tearing up a little bit as I type this.

Thank you very much. And you tell Emi with your authorial mind link that at least one fan hasn't forgotten.
I cannot for a moment begrudge you wanting to read this first. It's good stuff (and I am honored to have been part of the...er...development team on this ;-) ).
Okay, glad to hear it. I didn't want any feelings borked.

Re: Interlude (20140509)

Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:34 pm
by brythain
dewelar wrote:
SpunkySix wrote:
brythain wrote:This one's for SpunkySix. Keep the faith, man. :)
Okay... I told myself that I'd wait to read this stuff after I finished all of the canon routes, and that I'd read Developments first, (which I still plan to do after reading said routes) but I just sort of wandered in here and ended up reading it all on a whim and... holy shit, that was beautiful. Tragic, but pretty. Sort of like life. I'm tearing up a little bit as I type this.

Thank you very much. And you tell Emi with your authorial mind link that at least one fan hasn't forgotten.
I cannot for a moment begrudge you wanting to read this first. It's good stuff (and I am honored to have been part of the...er...development team on this ;-) ).
I'm very glad you enjoyed this, SpunkySix! And Emi's happy too… :)

And also, yes, dewelar's Developments was a pretty major influence on me writing this thing in the first place, plus the occasional nudge that pointed me to a better place and helped shape the outcome we've got here. :)

Interlude (20140808)

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 2:52 am
by brythain
I've never seen this before. What on earth?!

On the edge of my desk are two little figures, dangling their… well, one is dangling his legs and the other is dangling something in a steely bronze hue.

"Hello?"

I am startled when the twin-tailed bronze-legged figure replies quite loudly, "As Hisao was saying, it's a matter of scaaaaale! Heh, you've a huge nose!"

The male figure swings his legs up and stands on my desktop. "Hi! It's our anniversary, at least in this reality. Just dropped by to thank you, and also to remind you, because Emi's too shy—or she pretends to be—that we've not heard much about the kids yet!"

"Requests are prohibited in this forum, Hisao."

"They are? But this isn't a request really, it's words spoken by a character, right?"

"Right! And it's Akiko's birthday too." says the smaller figure. She scrambles to her prosthetic feet and kicks Hisao gently in the ankle. "That's for saying I was pretending!"

"Owww…" he groans. But he turns to her and kisses her anyway, very carefully but firmly.

"Happy anniversary!" I say, just as they fade away, still ignoring me.

Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 4:15 pm
by Serviam
Impressive. One of the things that give the AtD-verse its distinct nature is how you've managed to fuse the 'verse and real life, interacting with the characters...

Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 6:20 am
by brythain
Serviam wrote:Impressive. One of the things that give the AtD-verse its distinct nature is how you've managed to fuse the 'verse and real life, interacting with the characters...
It's not my fault! Really! :) But thank you anyway...

Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:01 pm
by YutoTheOrc
Ah, my personal favourite girl. Her end has come and I like that she went peacefully. Went for the longest run she has ever went on, leaving us to cry in her wake. Loved this arc as well, probably my favourite so far. Looking forward to reading Rin in a few moments. I wonder if you can get me to cry again :P, I'll let you know.

Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:47 pm
by brythain
YutoTheOrc wrote:Ah, my personal favourite girl. Her end has come and I like that she went peacefully. Went for the longest run she has ever went on, leaving us to cry in her wake. Loved this arc as well, probably my favourite so far. Looking forward to reading Rin in a few moments. I wonder if you can get me to cry again :P, I'll let you know.
Hey, don't do it all at once! You might get dehydrated! Thank you so much. I do feel good when others enjoy my writing. :)

Interlude (20140826)

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:17 am
by brythain
"You're mean!"

Wha-at? I've had a hard day so far and now someone's yelling at me. Naturally, I turn around, all ready to be pissed off and all. And then I find that I can't bring myself to do that.

"Oh. Hello, Emi!"

"Don't Emi me, mister! It's Ibarazaki-san to you. When I asked you to write about the kids, I didn't ask you to start the year after I left them! You're MEAN!"

I look closely at her. This isn't Emi Ibarazaki the teenager. It's Emi Nakai, former national athlete and mother. She's outraged, and very, very sad.

"But you know all about what they were like when they were younger… " I begin, already sensing how weak my excuse sounds.

Emi looks at me with her big, round eyes. "I was… too depressed in the last few years to really know them. Maybe even Rin knew them better. Heck, maybe even Hanako knew them better! Couldn't you just show them to me properly, as they were when I wasn't looking?"

I can't deny her that. I nod, not trusting myself to say anything.

"Thank you," she whispers. Then she perks up. "And now I have to make sure that Hisao gets his daily run! Bye!"

Interlude (20140828)

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 10:33 pm
by brythain
"Hey!"

I'm preparing a revision exercise for my final-year organic chem students. But this particular greeting is familiar to me in pitch and intensity, so I look up.

"Hello, Emi! Sorry, I haven't had the time to finish up Akiko's material…"

I know she'll be disappointed, so I'm dreading that 'you kicked me' puppy-dog look.

"It's OK, we've got time for that, just don't take too long. But I really wanted to thank you for digging that up!"

"Digging what up?" I reply, although I have a pretty good idea what.

"The poem that Hisao wrote for me! I mean, he wrote a lot of crap, but that's mine, and… well, thanks!"

"You're very welcome!"

I'm rewarded with a shy smile, that fades away only after the rest of her has.

After the Dream—Akiko Nakai (Letter dated 31 Jul 2036)

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 2:34 am
by brythain
Akiko Nakai
A Letter to Mother (Thursday 31 July 2036)



To my most esteemed mother,
who is no longer with me and who was named Emi Ibarazaki at birth:

Greetings from your beloved daughter,
who is named Akiko because she looks like you and smiles a lot.


Dear Mother,

I respectfully apologise, sincerely and from my deepest heart, for not writing sooner. It is summer now, which is our season, the season of our family. The leaves are all brown and gold, and the sky is very bright, your favourite colour. I will be visiting, especially to see Father soon, on the anniversary of his anniversary, and I will stay over with Gramma until after my 16th birthday on 8 August. I believe that Aunty Hana and Uncle her husband will be joining us too.

I will now tell you about school, and my classmates in 1-4. School is now the Sendai-Aoba Mountain District Academy of the Yamaku Foundation, or Yamaku High, as we students say. My principal is the most famous Dr Shizune Hakamichi and people say she is very kind and dedicated. The Foundation looks after children with no parents or other lacks in their lives, but there are a few who are different. But I think you know about all that, because you and Father used to teach here, so I should tell you about my classmates.

My classmates are amusing. There is Daisuke, who has an impairment that makes him go unconscious when he looks at certain colours and patterns. He is a handsome boy, better looking when asleep. When awake, he looks spaced out, and he lacks coordination. Also, there is Haruna, who tells stories and claims he is not Japanese. But he looks like one and smells like one and so he must be a duck. Sorry, that is a joke. I learnt it from Motoko, who is always joking. She has a twin named Sumiko, who is always serious. They sit next to each other and reflect each other’s actions. They used to be joined together, but now they are not, and they only have one real leg each. I don’t think they are really Siamese Thai, but they say they are. I think I have no sense of humour. That is my impairment.

There’s this exercise they’ve made us all do to end the term. It’s about writing to a family member that you don’t normally see, and we have to do it in English because this is an English lesson. So although I’m not very good at turning our language into English, I’m trying my best. Also, the format is very different.

I miss you, Mother, because I don’t see you normally. I only see you in my imagination, and in pictures. They have a big one of you in the Sports Achievements section of the main hallway. Some of your medals are in the trophy case. I want to be like you some day. But that belongs in a different paragraph.

I don’t know what to write, so this is the different paragraph. I am training for the heptathlon. My coach is Miss Takara Shimane (I am putting family name last because this is English) and she says you were her coach before. She would probably ask me to send you her regards if she knew I was were was writing to you. I am growing a lot of muscle but I’m also fast. I try to compete in many sports at a school level but only the track and field events at higher levels. My weakness is throws, so I am spending more time this semester with javelin and shot. I throw discus for fun too, because I like it, and I play Ultimate Frisbee, but I am sure you would make that farting sound cheeky noises about that. I miss that a lot, but it has been seven years and I’m not supposed to miss it so much.

I want to tell you many things and I never thought of writing you a letter until it was too late. I think if I write all the things I want to write now, they will ask me to visit Kaneshiro-san Dr Kaneshiro’s office and see one of his counselling staff. But I’m stubborn like you and I will say things nobody wants to hear, like Aunty Rin. Aunty Hana will probably scold me in her soft and understanding way, but maybe it’s too late for that now.

Do you know that the woman Shizune Hakamichi never mentions you? She is always talking about Father. I think she loved liked Father a lot but she avoids talking about you. We have dinner and she will wave her fingers like: [It is your father’s thirteenth anniversary, would you like me to come with you?] And of course I will say [No] and kick Younger Brother’s ankle so that he won’t say anything different. Then she will look sad like she has eaten bad fish and she will go off and check to see if Aunty Hana will be in Japan. But if it’s May, she’ll just say: [It is almost May, so if you would like to go off for a few days in Golden Week, it is fine with me.]

I will never ever call her ‘Mother’. I understand that she has given me and Younger Brother a home now that Gramma and Dr Kaneshiro are getting older. However, she’s not you. She keeps trying to be you, or better than you maybe. It just makes me angry and I think it makes her sad because she can’t be you. Or at least, Father’s wife.

Maybe I’m not being kind to her. But I have no sense of humour, and I think you need something like that to be kind to Shizune Hakamichi, my esteemed Principal who is so good at everything, and whom everybody thinks very highly of. Younger Brother has a better sense of humour. She loves him much more.

I don’t know how to properly end letters, because they have formal endings like in Japanese, but too many of them, and they don’t seem right. I wish that you and Father are very happy and that I will see you some day soon.


Sincerely yours,

Your daughter Akiko Nakai,
who has Father’s brown hair and your eyes.
and who loves you very much.

=====
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After the Dream—Akiko Nakai (Letter dated 06 Jan 2039)

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 11:17 am
by brythain
Akiko Ibarazaki Nakai
A Letter to Mother (Thursday 6 Jan 2039)


To my most esteemed mother,
who is no longer with me and who was a great athlete:

Greetings from your beloved daughter,
who is named Akiko because she is coloured like the season of autumn.


Dear Mother,

I humbly apologise for not writing more frequently to you. It is winter now, and it is soon the day of coming of age for many who are older than I. There are few leaves on some trees, but the air is sharp and clear and easy to breathe despite the frost. It was good to visit you and Father, but it was sad to say goodbye again.

It is not that I am boasting, but Aunt Hana, whom you and father named to be my first guardian and ‘godmother’, tells me that my English letter-writing has improved. Yet I regret to say that writing makes me restless, and I am happier to be on the track, burning like fire, and remembering what I can of you.

Aunt Hana and her husband are to celebrate their 10th anniversary soon. I have come to an understanding (if that is the right word) with this ‘uncle’. He is a nice man, although a bit loud, and while he is the brother of the woman who calls herself my mother, he is a good person because he loves Aunt Hana very much. I think of him as my ‘uncle’ because he is her husband and not for other reasons.

Clearly, he is sometimes unhappy that I am not on better terms with Dr Hakamichi. But it is hard to look at her stern black eyes while remembering the warmth of your gaze. It is harder to understand that you went away almost nine years ago and never held my hand again.

Yet maybe as one grows older, one forgets some of the things that may cause one pain. I will always know that I love you, and I hope you will forgive me if I ever forget what made me feel that way. I do not think I will ever love another person the way I loved you, Mother.

That brings me to the difficult part. I am sure you wanted me to be loved and to love someone else like you loved Father. I am nineteen later this year and Daisuke, who cannot see properly without fainting, confessed a few weeks ago that he loves me very much. He said that he could not stand the idea of graduating and going to a place without me.

He is a nice boy and I have told you about him before. But at the moment he said that, I felt very cold, and I told him I could not love him back. I even made a joke that my bright eyes and striking hair had made him go unconscious. He did not think it was amusing. So I still do not have a boyfriend. I probably never will.

When I graduate, I am going to Ochanomizu just like you did. I am not as fast as you were in some ways, but I have tried hard. Miss Shimane helped me to get into the national youth team last year. Maybe I will be in the Olympics in 2044. If I ever win a heptathlon medal, I will dedicate the first one to you and the second one to Father. It is not that I do not love Father, but that I think the Ibarazaki heritage is where my roots are, and I think Father would have approved.

Sometimes I talk to Aunty Rin when I am lonely and need someone who is not family. She is very strange, but she has the ability to make you think about what is important. It is a bonus that she lives with Miura-san, who is very encouraging and understands what I am going through sometimes.

I know that you were not really fond of Miura-san, but I am sure you will be glad to know that she got me a sports scholarship so I did not have to get one from Hakamichi Industries. Then again, she works for them, so maybe it is still Hakamichi money after all. There is no escape.

Aunt Hana has just called to say that she and her husband are coming to pick me up for our skiing weekend in Hokkaido. We are going to Furano and I am now quite experienced on the slopes there. Furano means ‘stinky fire’ or something like that, and I am sure you would get the joke. It is what you called me when I came home all hot and sweaty from training. Ha ha.

But I have to stop here because I need to help Younger Brother pack. He is always dreaming and he is not ready yet. Sigh. I miss you.


Sincerely yours,

Your daughter Akiko Nakai,
who is trying to have a sense of humour,
and who loves you very much.

=====
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Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete; Letter 20150114)

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:21 am
by azumeow
That''s okay, I wasn't planning on feeling happy tonight anyway.

Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete; Letter 20150114)

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 8:54 am
by brythain
azumeow wrote:That''s okay, I wasn't planning on feeling happy tonight anyway.
Quick question: of all the main girls in KS, which one do you think is MOST like Akiko Nakai in terms of temperament? :)

Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete; Letter 20150114)

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:08 pm
by azumeow
brythain wrote:
azumeow wrote:That''s okay, I wasn't planning on feeling happy tonight anyway.
Quick question: of all the main girls in KS, which one do you think is MOST like Akiko Nakai in terms of temperament? :)
I'd have to say Shizune.

Re: After the Dream—Emi's Arc (Complete; Letter 20150114)

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:11 pm
by brythain
azumeow wrote:
brythain wrote:
azumeow wrote:That''s okay, I wasn't planning on feeling happy tonight anyway.
Quick question: of all the main girls in KS, which one do you think is MOST like Akiko Nakai in terms of temperament? :)
I'd have to say Shizune.
I thought so too. And that is where one part of Akiko's tragedy lies.