Postscript
Night after night, one walk with the protagonists of the story. In days one don't feel like it, one'll just do several minutes, usually pushing through (relatively) non-eventful part of the story. When the event is heartbreaking, emotional, it'll take a longer time for one to be immersed with them. And if one is emotional, one'll take a longer time to be with them too; perhaps because one's a coward that needs some cushion to face the calamities in one's own life. And having a fantasy character when no one else wants to be by one's side is what one can gathers.
From time to time, one want to postpone the story from finishing. So one took some diversions and wrote the "More About" section. It's not complete, for some other stories are either not related to the main story, or one just don't like the story (like Triton's, the story one don't like the most). But a story has to end. A story that has a beginning must come to an end. And one end it on the last day of 2024. What must one say, emptiness? Perhaps, but one could always start translating another story again, which perhaps one'll do it soon enough, another Xenoblade, and that's another story.
One was especially grateful for the emotional road it took me on, through one's ups and downs. One can't tough it up, but one can cry alongside them.
As one said, the story was not easy to write. From How to Know a Person by David Brooks, he mentioned; the good novelists don't start with a character and build a story around it; nor do they start with an idea for a plot, then create characters who operate in that story. Instead, they start with a relationship. The alikeness and difference between them, arise some tension in between, and cause relationship to grow, falter, or flourish; and in the process, change each other. This story grows around the relationship between each character in the protagonist -- the relationship between Noah and Mio are especially vibrant, for, in their words, they're off-seers that touch the lives of many others, and in turn, many others touch them. Nevertheless, we cannot deny the interaction of other protagonists with each other: the occasional brain-daft of Lanz teasing Eunie; that Eunie now had a guy to think for her so she can choose not to think herself; that Noah can push some analysis to Taion rather than do all by himself, having someone to discuss with analytically; and the interactions with various non-protagonists in the story (soldiers, commander, City dwellers, Monica, Ghondor, Ethel, the Moebiuses, Z, etc.) shape the whole story. Forget about the drawings of the background, what land they stepped on, the beautiful naturalistic scene they were in, and focus in on the most important: the conversations. Words are what kept and change and form a relationship in the most vibrant form possible. Without words, relationship can only be limited at best, far less vibrant.
Another book one read about while writing this, was Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz. As college now mostly abandon liberal arts and teach the science, we stopped learning how to live life. And worse, people like me didn't learn how to make friends properly in school. How? One used to ask my classmates, and they couldn't give one an answer, or even a direction, or just outright ignore one. Say, too emotional for them, or they couldn't face it themselves, or, they too don't know how; things just fall into place for them unconsciously, as if by magic. Alas, there's no magic for one. What can't be learned at college, we will have to learn ourselves in life. It's a sad truth, to require a fantasy story to take one on a relatively short journey through life, as a replacement of the missing liberal arts education in school that teach you how to be a person. Sure, it's flawed: the story itself has some perfection, and the director do make sure that everything get resolved; all these aren't true in real life. Taking the next step to facing crisis in real life is still vital. But still, a muted road is also a road to learn from, accompanied later with liberal arts books (They called it the Great Books, by Mortimer Adler), and the lifelong process of learning how to be a person begins. For example, Joran in the end felt convinced by them; but in real life, it might as well be, no matter what, he's not convinced. And second, it's too black and white. In real life, even if you're not convinced with the other parties, you can sit down and talk, and most importantly, you don't have to agree with them to understand their viewpoint! In the big, Democrats could understand the Republican (and/or Communists). Protestants could sit down and understand the viewpoint of the Catholics. In the small, you might decide that the most important things in nature are the rocks, but your friend decide it's the trees, and you can sit down and discuss about it without criticizing them, hearing why this guy loves the rocks and what makes them appeal, and why that guy adores the trees and what differences does it makes.
There are a lot of unanswered questions. Like, if Z created the world, who created the off-seeing tunes? Who made it part of the world, part of the culture, in a monarchy-controlled world? If the Moebius were the ones that made it, why, then? Does Z, the voices of those that wanted to live in the endless now, also tainted with their wish to send those that had parted, therefore he created those? Or is it originally not, but was introduced latter by some unknown people (soldiers), and as Z saw some 'productivity gain', therefore incorporate it into the whole culture? These are just guesses. We don't know. Ultimately, a beautiful tune in a sad world may be a lucky impossibility, but it could also be a 100% thing, for sadness can't last without happiness. The Yin cannot live without the Yang.
Another stuff to think about is the Flame Clock. The Flame Clock was no different to the 'railway clock' we use nowadays1, and let's skip the 'but'. In the old days, clock are local to each cities; but to ensure we have a universal time for the railway that travels, we standardized the clock, hence the railway clock. It was latter adopted by industrials such that, no matter whether you're hungry or not, you must eat between your allocated timeframe (say, 12-1), when in the past, you eat when you naturally feel hungry. The railway clocks make us unnatural today, being confined to it. And we become slaves to it, with all the "time management timetable" for the sake of "productivity". The slavery is no different from those confined by the Flame Clock -- to chase the Clock all the time, to do things for the clock, because of the clock. And there it is, high up there, overlooking us lowly worms. What differences does it make?
And one had to add: writing emotions is hard. Very, very hard. To express emotions in words, is a pain in the arse. Partly because one never learned how (nor searched how); partly because one never practiced before; partly because fiction writing is so different to non-fiction; and partly because, one just don't know! Though one hopes, with improvements, one could bring you something closer to reality despite.
When one was younger, one used to keep a diary; but because one don't know what to write back then, one only records down the content of the cartoon one watched almost everyday. That was for a few years. Latter when one no longer keeps a daily diary, one still have a random-entry diary where, when one feels like it, or when one have something stressed out, one will write an entry in it. The dates are random, depending on when one feels like it. Even later on, one stopped writing diary altogether, because one started writing blogs; that was in 2021 onwards. And because the content one wrote in a diary mostly equate those one wrote in blogs, one no longer write them. Though, one do make some censorship as blogs are public-facing, while diary is only read by one, if one even read back at it; or in the future, if anyone are to write any autobiography for whatever reason on one, that's a reference, if it survives till then. (It's paper, you know, and one isn't keying them into a computer by any method). Ultimately, at the end of chapter 1, when the Kevesis and the Agnians returned together and sat down by the campfire, and Noah walked to Mio whom were keeping entries in her diary while they started talking about philosophical-deep topics, and when she spoke about the shortness of life (10 terms/years = 520 weeks = 3652.5 days), every single day is a blessing. We who lives 8 times longer than them (80 terms = 4160 weeks) indeed, looked away from monday and looked forward to sunday, starting from when we're in school (if you hate school), and do that for about 4000 times, and you're gone. We're gone. Especially in adult life, all we see is, yes, time passed so fast because weeks goes by so fast; and if we predicted we have 6-digit weeks, you don't feel it; but 4-digit weeks? What if you're in your old age, when it became 3-digit? Every day is a blessing. So, make every day interesting by learning new things or doing something happy or anything that keeps life worth living.
For we should not forget,
to live, and learn, a whole lot more.
Mio do really changed one in keeping a proper diary that no longer records about cartoon but to be gratitude of what one did the day, to remember and be aware of what one did the day (than to pass through in fogs, can't even recall). If one wasted a day, say, "One wasted today in being addictive to reading x hours of Chinese novels," for example. Even that's a record that says, yes, life is brief, and one wasted it. What a shame oneself is.
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Footnotes:
1: Yes, railway was deprecated half a century ago, with the advent of personal cars. You still see railways in huge countries like US, Britain, and China; and you still see railways in crowded countries like Singapore; but otherwise, those that don't go through industrial revolution probably just skip railway and prefer cars, at least that's in one's country. Even buses are rare, now that mediocre family can afford cars, and rich families have more cars than family members.