Talk:Lilly's route/@comment-76.123.22.159-20200425200041
Possible spoilers for multiple routes! Read carefully~
As with my post on Shizune, I have to thank Fandom for allowing anonymous posts.
I have no words for how moving this route was to me.
I didn't really get Lilly's route at first. She seemed kind of plain, all things considered, but after a while (around Act 3ish) I realized she's holding you at arm's length, much like Emi. After that point, I couldn't stay away - I finished Lilly's entire route, start to finish, in one sitting.
The confession scene, in the field, got me good. Lilly making herself vulnerable like that struck me so deep, I couldn't keep myself from crying. But then a lingering feeling settled in- the school year's going to end, and I/Hisao is likely never going to run into Lilly or Hanako again. I had a tightness in my chest for the rest of the route after that scene. It hurt, a lot. But I pressed on.
'Farewell' nearly killed me inside. I knew that it couldn't end there; no VN author could be that cruel. Learning later that that was the "neutral" end was a shot to the heart, and I'm so thankful I didn't get it. Then the game continued, and the tightness got worse.
'False Cadence' was a struggle to read. I distinctly remember speaking directly to the screen - "Don't take this away from me", "Don't do this", "Not like this." Tears welled in my eyes while Hisao spoke with Yuuko. They stayed there while he examined the crane. They stayed there when Hisao rushed to the Hakamichi house, and then to the airport. I felt like I had my own heart attack when Hisao had his second. The tears stayed.
'Under a Maudlin Sky' felt like my own bout with depression. It sounds dramatic, but the helplessness and apathy were all too familiar. So did the inability to cry, as the tears stayed stubbornly. I wondered why I couldn't let it out. Little did I know that I knew better than that.
Scene changes. Hisao wakes and ponders a little more. Then BVW 1010 - Sarabande begins to play on a tiny mechanical instrument. My heart began to race. The tears stacked ever higher.
Lilly appears onscreen. The tightness in my chest melts in a wave of relief, and joy, and love. At last, the tears flowed unbidden. They wouldn't stop for the rest of the scene. It feels like years of my own troubles and struggles go with them.
The credits roll. I finally clean my face and smile, not unlike Lilly's trademark half-smile.
The after-credits begins. I read, tears returning to my eyes as I read some of the best words I've ever read. I cheer quietly when Akira says her boyfriend got a passport. The scene draws to a close.
"Our pasts may be scattered and at times overshadowed by sadness, but they're also an irrevocable part of our lives and personalities. Even if I could change a single thing, I wouldn't, because my past was what led me here. That's why, even with all that's happened to us before, and all that may well befall us... together, we'll keep walking forwards. Forwards... towards the future. Our future." These words mean more to me now, as I write this, than I first thought.
I write all this to say - I think Lilly's route may have actually cured my depression. Legitimately. I truly believe that. Even if no one reads this, I want to put it out to the world that this eight-year-old little weeb game did it. My only fear now is that I've seen the best route on my third run.
Thank you, KS author(s?), for writing this incredible work of art. Thank you, thank you, and once again from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you.
- some guy on the internet