Rigor and Vigor

[strange desire]

You know it's gonna be a weird day when I wake up early. It's not my alarm that wakes me up, even though my hand is halfway to slamming the snooze button. That's called a reflex, right? Yeah, I think so. With a sigh, I let my hand drop. It hits the edge of the night stand and the pain shocks me awake.

I'm awake now. Great. I've got a funny feeling about today. It's going to be an annoying day. I hear a distant droning sound that reminds me of feet on the ground.

No, wait, it's Sunday! Hell yeah! No classes, no clubs! Just me and whoever I can get to—

BA-BOOM!

No. No, no, no no no no...

I spring up out of bed and fly to my window. Everything I can see through the wet glass is a dull gray. Water is puddling up in the grass between this wing and the next. Wind and rain pelt the brick walls of the dorms. Figures I wait all week for a nice, relaxing Sunday, and it's raining cats and dogs.

"Crap."

What now? I can't go outside when it's raining. I mean, I could, but it'd be god-awful. Okay, so what can I do inside? Looking around, I see a bed, a desk, and some clothes here and there. My school bag is under one of these somewhere. Eh, I'd never find it, it's lost now. Other than that... Nnnnnnothin'.

I'm trapped inside on a Sunday. I look at the clock, and my worst fear is confirmed. It's too early for Suzu or Ikuno to be up. Hell, it's too early for me to be up. Ikuno probably stayed up all night again, like she always does Saturday night. Suzu is either sleeping or insomnia-ing, and if I try to get her up out of bed, she'll be pissy and moany all day long. As tempting as that sounds, I'd lose my mind if I couldn't go outside to get away from her and catch my breath.

Defeated, I let my head fall against the window. Through the rain and smudgy glass, I can make out the shape of my classmate Natsume in the dorm across from mine. I guess she's defeated, too. She, like me, just stands at the window for a few minutes and watches the rain. She's up early, too. Usually, she'd wave or something if she saw me. We won't see each other in class, so maybe I'll see her walking around the dorm.

Ah crap, Natsume! She's going to be miserable today. But not like my miserable. I'm just normal miserable, but she's gonna be miserable miserable.

I decide to wave to her. The white bandage wrapped around my wrist should be easy to see, even through the gulf of misery between the windows. She doesn't wave back. It must be bad. I don't see Naomi in the room with her. It's hard to miss that head of hair, so she's probably not over there to help Natsume out right now.

Should I...? Hey, why the hell not?

I throw on some shorts, then run to the next wing over and knock on Natsume's dorm door.

"Yo, Natsu. You decent?" I say.

"It's open," she calls weakly.

I open the door to find that Natsume is mostly decent, so I close it behind me to keep her modesty. Her hair is a mess, but she's got on a shirt and shorties, at least. She makes a slow, shaky half-turn towards me, one hand supporting herself on the bed frame and the other held half-relaxed stiffly near her hip.

"Good morning, Miki," she says.

"Doesn't look like it," I grumble.

"You're supposed to say, 'Good morning,' back."

"I'll tell ya next time we have one. How you doing?"

"U-uhm..."

Uhm? That's not the retort I'd expect from the silver tongue of Yamaku's premier student-published newspaper (the newspaper that flatters me with titles such as "first runner-up in three events" and "top scorer in unofficial non-member points"). The way she holds herself still is telling, too. She's moving as little as possible.

"I'm okay, Miki. You didn't have to rush over. Why are you here, anyway?"

"I didn't see Blondie," I say.

"Oh..."

Natsume grumbles something I don't hear.

"You don't have to hover over me, I'm okay," she says clearly.

"Alright, alright," I say, "but I'm just sayin', you wouldn't be up without someplace you needed to be."

Natsume sighs through her nose and hangs her head. Worse, she goes silent. With a couple glances around the room, she makes it clear she's ignoring me, and then she sort-of leans toward her desk. I can tell she wants to walk over to it, but she doesn't.

"Natsu~" I sing.

Forced to acknowledge my presence, she turns her eyes at me. I raise both of my arms.

"I'm here to lend a hand," I say.

She laughs through her nose. She tries to hide the smile on her face, but she can't. Actually, with a shake of her head, she does it. I was so close, too.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh at that," she says.

"Yeah, you should," I say, "because it's a joke."

Natsume gives me a stern look, which just makes her eyes look as stiff as the rest of her. Another BA-BOOM! of thunder almost makes her somewhat intimidating.

"Alright, I'm leaving," I say.

I take an exaggerated step towards the door before—

"Miki, hold on..." Natsume says, "I... I need to use the bathroom."

I turn back around to see a not-all-too-happy Natsume not looking at me.

"Well, what a coincidence," I say, "me too."

Bingo. I can do my good deed for the day. This weather has nearly immobilized her, but Naomi isn't up yet to help. Natsume doesn't seem to believe me, but whatever.

"Girls just gotta pee in the morning," I say as Natsume totters towards one side of her bed. "It's what they do, and everyone else better get the hell outta the way. Especially when they wake up to rain."

I manage to get another chuckle from Natsume as she grabs her walking cane and turns back my way. It's kind of sad to see an eighteen-year-old girl move like an old woman, but Natsume's not bad looking, so she manages to make it look okay. She kind of has this scruffy dog thing going, especially when her hair is the unbrushed mess it is now. I might help her with that, too, if she'll let me.

Natsume reaches me and I hold up my short arm like a hand rail.

"Miki..."

"It ain't gonna bite."

Carefully, she grips onto my arm and then puts a lot of her weight onto it. We make our way out of her room together, slowly and carefully. Natsume walks as smoothly and steadily as possible, shifting her weight from her cane to my arm following her feet. I can feel her grip on my arm through my bandage wrap. It's weak, but it's there.

You know, I could probably just carry her. She's not exactly heavy, and I'm not exactly average. Trying to pick her up wouldn't be difficult, but it would still be a bad idea. She made it clear last year that anything more than an arm to lean on is a no-no.

Natsume doesn't say a word as we walk down the hallway. Luckily, her dorm is the closest one to the bathrooms on this hall. Huh... I wonder if that's a coincidence or not. It doesn't take us long to get there, probably because when a girl's gotta go, she goes.

"You don't have to follow me in," Natsume says as she picks a stall. All the stalls have handrails, so I believe her.

I take the next one over, and we do our business. The hard part comes after I'm done. After helping Natsume to the sink, I wet my hand in the running water and squirt a little soap into it. I swish the soap around pretty good in my hand and then use my thumb to scrub my fingers, and the fingers return the favor to the thumb.

I can't reach the pinky side of my palm, nor the back of it, but I think I do a pretty good job. I could scrub it against my other arm below the bandage, but that's messy and I'd probably get the bandage wet trying to rinse it. The bandage is still clean and I don't want to throw it away so soon.

"I'm ready," Natsume says.

"Me too. Where to?" I ask.

"My room, please, Miki."

"Sure thing."

As we're walking back, Natsume asks me something.

"Miki, why are you doing this?"

"'Cause I thought you might want some help?" I say.

"I mean seriously. Is it because Naomi wasn't with me?"

"Well, I mean, you kinda rel—"

Ah! No, shut up! It's not your business, Miki. Rely is such an ugly word. I'd be better off saying, You give Naomi a lot of trouble, so lay off her. It's a damned lie, and it'd still make her mad, but not as much since it's more of a convenient lie kind of thing.

"What was that?" Natsume says.

Time to play the fool again.

"Well, I just thought that maybe, if I could use a hand or two someday, maybe, y'know, my window mate would see my S.O.S. through the window and gimme some help," I say.

Natsume's face softens a little. I think she buys it.

Just as I turn the door handle, a gleaming little beacon of distracting perfect hair rounds the corner into the hallway. As soon as she sees me and Natsume, she runs over.

"Natsu! You okay?" Naomi says.

"I'm fine, Nao. Good morning," Natsume says.

"Mornin', Blondie," I say.

"Good morning, Miki," Naomi says, "are you helping Natsu?"

"I just followed her to the bathroom," I say and wink at Natsume. She looks at me like she doesn't know what a wink is. Looks like Naomi caught it, though.

"Hey Miki... thanks," Natsume says.

"Yes, thank you very much, Miki," Naomi says, as if she knows what she's talking about.

"No problem. You need somethin', you let me know," I say. Ah crap, I said the N-word. Oh well.

Naomi takes Natsume's arm from me. Even though Natsume's a little bigger than her, I've never heard Naomi complain. Granted though, Natsume doesn't nee—I mean, it's not common for Natsume to get so stiff.

"Natsu, what do you want for breakfast?" Naomi asks as the two of them enter Natsume's room.

Oh, breakfast sounds good... but I don't want to bother them. I could... I could... I'll find something.

"Do you want eggs? or rice?" Naomi's voice flows around the closing door, "...or me?"

Natsume's laugh is the last thing I hear before the door closes. How does Naomi do that? I can barely get her to chuckle. Am I just not funny? Nah, I'm pretty funny.

My thoughts turn to food. Ikuno! Ikuno can cook me something. I run to Ikuno's dorm, but her door is totally not going to open anytime soon. Around the door handle hangs a Yamaku-green Do Not Disturb sign. Crap. I probably won't see her until almost noon.

Suzu! She lives next door! I turn the handle, only to remember that Suzu keeps this door locked literally all the time. Who's she keeping out? As if I'd try to take advantage of our relationship, right? Suzu needs a Do Not Disturb sign too, tied right around her scrawny little neck.

So I'm alone again. There's gotta be something I can do. I could... uuuuggghhhhh... go back to my room?

BA-BOOM!

Today is going to be a long, boring day.

[swampie2]

Nice little chapter, I enjoyed it

Miki was written well, I can imagine her stepping around the word "need" and "reliant"

insomnia-ing cracked me up, all In all it's great

[strange desire]

Thanks for reading. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Any and all feedback is appreciated.

The previous post and the next were exercises in seeing if I could put out a decent scene in a day. Since my next exercise ended up following after this one, I'll stick it below rather than make a new thread.

[strange desire]

"Aw, shit!"

"Language, Suzu," Ikuno warns me.

"Yeah, I know."

I regrip the controller in my hand and force my character to take defensive actions. So far, the monster hasn't let up its attack.

"This is bullcrap," I say.

"Tell me about it," Miki says. "The rain woke me up early, and now I can't even go outside. This is the worst."

The monster manages to scratch me, bringing my status down from a safe green to a cautious yellow. I pop open my inventory and use a healing spray to bring myself back to top condition.

"This looks difficult," Ikuno says. She sits next to me on the bed, watching the TV screen, absorbed in the action as I play. Miki, meanwhile, is leaning back in my desk chair, balancing dangerously on its narrow legs. Thunder pounds distantly outside the window.

"It's not bad," I say. "I can do it."

I grip the controller a little tighter and try to keep my character moving.

"How's the latest story coming, Ikuno?" Miki asks.

"Oh, remember how I couldn't get past that one part?" Ikuno says, "Well, I spent a long time last night hammering out some more side details and rough ideas for the sequence of events leading up to and after it."

"Uh huh..." Miki mumbles.

"So, I got another chapter down."

"Well, that's good," Miki says, her voice betraying her lack of comprehension.

If she was so disinterested, then why did she ask?

"Keep it up, Ikuno. I want to read it when you're done," I say.

"Sure. You can both read it," Ikuno says, "and Hisao too."

"So hey, what's up with Hisao?" Miki asks.

The monster's spear-like tendril pierces me, bringing my status to a critical red.

"Uh-oh..." Ikuno mumbles.

I search my inventory for a healing spray, but I've used them all.

"What about Hisao?" I say.

"Anyone else think he's been kinda moody lately?" Miki asks.

"When is he not moody?" I say.

"Well, it seemed like he was doing better, but lately he's been kinda quiet. It's a little... I dunno, uncomfortable?"

"Disconcerting," Ikuno says.

"Yeah, something like that."

I must be as comfortable as a big comfy sea urchin, then.

"I been thinkin' of changing up his workout a little. He might be getting bored or something," Miki says.

"I don't think so," I say, "he seems to have fun with you. He looks forward to it, you know."

"Well, there's a reason he lets me be his coach three days a week," Miki says.

"Is that what you call it?" I say.

"Somebody's grouchy."

"Is that what you call it?" Ikuno says.

"You get him the rest of the time, anyway," Miki mutters.

"I don't 'get' him; he's not property to pass around," I say. "He spends his time with whomever he wants."

"I'm just sayin', he spends a whole lot of it with you, Suzu."

A nubby tentacle sweeps the arena, knocking me down onto the ground. My character cries out with a "Hhuaaaghh!" and in my critical state, the hit is fatal.

"Damnit."

"You done?" Miki asks.

"Nope," I say.

Starting again, I spend a minute gathering my inventory again for another attempt.

"Just checking, but is this game two-player?" Miki asks.

"No," I respond.

"So if I push some buttons, nothing'll happen?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Don't bother trying."

"Okay, okay. I didn't want to play, anyway. Looks like I'd be no good at it. I'd probably mess it all up."

I give my new inventory of supplies one more look over and decide it's a good loadout.

"Have I seen this one before?" Miki asks.

"Maybe. I've played it before, but not like this," I say.

"Why play the same one over and over again?"

"I'm trying something different this time."

To demonstrate, I ready my weapon, a small handgun, and fire a few shots into a sturdy wooden box, then reload.

"What's so special about that one?" she asks.

"I usually use this one..."

I switch to my trusty backup weapon (I like to keep it handy) and fire it, shattering the wooden box with a hail of pellets. It makes a badass shick-chick sound as I eject the spent cartridge and reload.

"Oooh. If you've got that, then why use that other dinky little thing?"

I switch back and ready the handgun again, moving it around as if inspecting it from different angles.

"It's a new challenge. It's more difficult this way, but it's kind of fun so far," I say. "You have to try and understand the game a little better to advance without making it unwinnable."

It's actually really hard, but it's satisfying to make it a little farther each time if I manage not to fuck it all up.

"No kidding?" Miki squawks, "You play these things to have fun? Had me fooled."

"Yeah, screw you, too," I say.

"I heard these things make you violent," she says.

"That's bullshit."

"I believe it."

I swear Miki's going to give me hypertension, on top of all the other things I have to deal with.

I'm just about to give this thing one more try when Ikuno starts giggling beside me.

"Heh, heheheh~"

"What's wrong with you?" I ask.

"Hmhmhm~ heheheh..."

"Suzu, what's she doing?" Miki asks.

"Hell if I know!"

"Love attack~!" Ikuno yells.

"No!"

Ikuno's soft mass overcomes me and I'm forced to fall onto the bed. I can't manage to pause the game before control is wrestled from me, leaving me defenseless. I think I'm safe where I am.

"Dogpile!"

"NO!"

Miki's tendrils wrap us closer together as Ikuno giggles like a child. When she reaches all the way around, Ikuno and I are constricted without mercy.

"Mik-hhuuaaghh!" is all I can manage as my breath is squeezed from my body. My skeletal structure is spared thanks to the softness of Ikuno's cushions. I'm going to be hugged to death.

"Everyone just take a deep breath and relax," Miki says as she releases us.

"And watch your gosh-darned mouth!" Ikuno yells between giggles.

Today is going to be a long, trying day.

[Alpacalypse]

You have to try and understand the game a little better to advance without making it unwinnable.

As somebody who's been playing too much Dark Souls recently, I can totally appreciate this

That was a nice little scene. The chemistry going on there was nice, and I like that Ikuno's been getting some love recently.
Good work!

[swampie2]

Nice chapter!

I'm loving the Miki!Suzu!Ikuno group right now.

[Blank Mage]

RE3: Nemesis, huh? I know that game a little too well.