Some oneshots by me, Brick

[Bricktycoon]

This is the first of hopefully many oners I'll be posting here. This was just a short contest entry for a Katawa Shoujo Discord server, in which we were tasked with taking two random characters and putting them in one random situation. It's just so random. And quirky. Hooray.

Also, it's really short. Like just barely over a thousand words. Just thought I'd prepare ya.

Pair: Misha and Suzu
Location: Dorm Kitchen

Suzu Suzuki had been minding her own business, and things had been going wonderfully as a result. Miki had simply asked her to microwave some popcorn in the downstairs kitchen of the dorm, so they could have a movie night. And sure, Suzu would probably end up falling asleep during the movie anyway, but that was alright. Miki was just glad for the company. It was proof to the blue-haired girl that their friendship was at that point. She could go to sleep next to Miki, maybe fall against her, use her as a pillow, and Miki would sit there, continuing to watch the movie, a satisfied smile on her face…

These pleasant thoughts swam through her head lethargically as she watched the brown paper bag spin under the yellow light, separated from her by the translucent microwave window. The machine hummed its warm hum, and Suzu blinked her eyes, very slowly.

Then, she heard it. Behind her, a reasonable distance away, but not distant enough to allow time to escape. The dreaded sound. The siren of fear. An alert for all personnel to clear the premises. Flee, dammit, flee for your lives before it’s too late!

“Wahahahahaha~” It sounded off again.

Suzu’s green pupils shrank in anxiety and discomfort, and she slowly turned around, grimacing. Behind her was one of the Student Council members, and the resident clown of 3-3. Mikado.

Misha bid goodbye to the other girl she had been talking with in the adjacent common room, a girl Suzu didn’t recognize, and then made her way into the kitchen, whistling. When she spotted Suzu, the girl stopped short, her bubbly pink curls bouncing from the force of the halt.

Misha’s massive hazel eyes darted between Suzu and the microwave, and then she closed them and grinned. “Succhan!” she declared, and Suzu cringed at the sound of her high voice. “Making popcorn? You never struck me as the type, haha~”

Suzu’s eye twitched. “Everyone eats popcorn.” Especially you, honey, she thought to herself, eyeing Misha’s slightly-chubby form.

“No, I mean…” Misha stepped up to the counter that wrapped around three of the kitchen’s walls, and grabbed some sugar packets out of a glass bowl. “You don’t seem like the type to make it yourself. Everyone likes you so much that someone else would be willing to do it for you!”

I can see why you’d think that. Making popcorn involves standing up for a few minutes and watching something spin in a circle, so obviously it’s just a recipe for me to collapse and bust my head wide open. Out loud, Suzu said, “Miki makes me run errands like this all the time. You just haven’t noticed.” She was trying to be just abrasive enough to make Misha go away but not so much as to hurt her feelings.

The microwave beeped. “Your snack is done!” Misha told her with a smile, as if Suzu was deaf, like her usual company. Suzu sighed wearily and opened the door, pulling the swollen bag out and pouring it into the nearby bowl she had pulled from the cabinet.

“Mind if I have a little?” Misha asked. “I’m really hungry, Suuucchan. You and Miura won’t be able to eat this much all by yourselves.”

“Who says we’ll be by ourselves?” Suzu challenged, but it was hollow, like most things she said. Yikes. Miki could have made that convincing if she was down here, but not me.

“Please….” Misha’s eyes shimmered, and she did her trademark pout.

“Yeah, whatever. I don’t much care. Grab a handful if that’s your fancy.”

Smiling again, Misha plunged her fist into the bowl and got a clump of popcorn. She put one in her mouth, as she pulled a coffee cup out of the cabinets with her other hand.

Suzu raised an eyebrow. She must get used to doing a lot of things with her hands at once, in that Student Council. “Who are you making coffee for?” she found herself asking. “I know you certainly don’t need it.”

Misha wahaha’d with popcorn still in her mouth. “It’s for Shicchan. She’s taken an interest in these kinda drinks recently. We’ve been workin’ around the clock.”

Working on what? Suzu almost asked, but then thought that there wasn’t anything she’d quite like to hear less than the bureaucratics of the Student Council.

Instead she said, “See? Miki sends me to make popcorn, Hakamichi sends you to make coffee. We’re both just errand girls.”

Misha swallowed her last kernel of popcorn and laughed again. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, Succhan? How much more fun stuff do you keep in that brain of yours but never say out loud?”

“Well, if I said all of them, they wouldn’t be special, now would they?” Or it’s because I’m stuck in a dream most of the time. A trio of images flashed through her brain, as punctual as ever. The rocky beach, the owl, the automaton. Constructs of the subconscious. Things a person like Mikado would find…unpleasant, if I discussed them.

“Still,” Misha was saying. “It would be great if you could talk to us more, because you’re really fun…” Her breath caught in her throat, as if she had surprised herself with something. “That is, when you’re awake, obviously.”

Suzu smiled wearily. “Yes, of course.”

The Student Council coffee was done. Misha took the cup gingerly in one hand and put a lid over it, turning back towards the common room. “Well, I’ll see you in class, Succhan. Enjoy your movie!”

“Thanks…” Suzu raised her hand as Misha left, as if to wave, but the girl was already gone.

She lowered her hand. Goodness, that girl doesn’t really make much time for anyone other than Hakamichi, huh? Also, I don’t believe I told her that we were watching a movie, but she figured it out. I guess she does possess basic visual deduction.

Sighing in good-natured exasperation, Suzu picked up the bowl of popcorn, now one Misha-sized handful short of being full, and went upstairs.

[Hanako Fancopter]

Good to see another writer posting up

I think it's appropriate for your first one to be short and sweet.... like just putting the tip in to tease us

[Scroff]

Intriguing... I'll be here when you've got more to tell us

[Mirage_GSM]

For a randomly requested story it is quite good. You got a pretty good grasp of the two characters, and you managed to give the story a little spin beyond the original request.
The only thing I don't understand is why watching things spin would make Suzu fall down - erratic movements might cause epilleptic seizures not narcolepsy, and I doubt a microwave would be enough for even that... But we can chalk that up to Misha making a dumb joke.

[Bricktycoon]

Here's another oner, this one a bit longer. It was an entry for an earlier contest that took place a few months ago. The only constraint was that it had to include Hisao and Rin.

Also, to preface, this one gets a bit trippy. There are references to events that don't exist, and vague descriptions of things that don't make any sense. These things were intentional.

It's perfectly fair if you think intentional under-description is lazy, but I personally like it when a writer lets me fill in some of the blanks with my own imagination. It just gives me more to think about.

Anyway, without further ado, here's...

“Scattered Color”

H I S A O

The second I woke up I knew something was wrong.

My alarm was silent. It had not been the thing to wake me.

Only moonlight refracted through the curtained window. It was still dark out.

And the whispers had started again.

For a few seconds, my brain protested, trying to come up with ways to excuse this as someone else’s problem, or that it would sort itself out, or that come ON Hisao just go back to sleep it will be fine in the morning.

But it wouldn’t be fine in the morning. I could only imagine how much hassle it would be later on if I were allow this to spread further before sunrise. Then we would all be in big trouble here at Yamaku Academy. Big, big trouble.

I swung my legs off the bed and pushed my feet into my shoes. Grabbed a jacket out of my closet and put it around my shoulders. It would be cold out, much colder than normal. If it was anything like last time.

I stepped out into the hallway, and immediately, the whispers intensified. They swelled and faded, getting closer to my ears and then swooping back away, invading my head, buzzing and murmuring harshly. The words had been in English last time, and I had been able to pick up a little thanks to Lilly’s tutoring. This time they were not. It didn’t sound like any language I’d ever heard.

The hallway had been draped in strange shadows last time, all dark. This time…the shadows were colorful.

Blood red, golden brown, a deep jade, a cold blue, a royal purple. The color seemed to seep from nowhere, and it hummed softly, like it was dormant but easily awoken. Yes, indeed, last time the shadows had exploded at one point. I wouldn’t let it get that far.

One thing came to my mind as I walked down that hallway to the stairs, my senses being overwhelmed. This is not Hanako. This is someone else. But who? Our school is for the disabled, and a lot of the kids here are really struggling through hard times. It makes sense that there would be someone else with a negative presence strong enough to lash out and attack.

The shadows were colorful. That was a clue. It almost felt…psychedelic.

In that moment, a very strong theory came to me, and I made for the main school building.

Getting down the stairs was a struggle. I leaned against one wall, both of my hands on the rail, pushing my feet down one by one. The colors bounced off the ceiling. The whispers and shadow-humming were growing more intense, and the very air seemed to vibrate around me, down to the molecular level.

I’d like to think of myself as a man of science, but these phenomena that had been popping up recently had me questioning everything. How could I fight against this alone? Wasn’t anyone else being woken up by this shit?

Outside, I had brief respite, and the whispers fell away behind me. I breathed in hard through my nostrils and mouth, tasting the fresh air and embracing the pleasant, subtle sounds of the night. Cicadas, buzzing of street lamps, rustling of trees in the breeze. The dorm had been infected for sure, but it was not the source of the infection. That would be in the main school building, which now loomed ahead of me like a final challenger.

I gasped.

Surrounding the building was a kind of barrier. The colors swirled and rose, circling each other like an ethereal gas. They wrapped wide around the entire structure, buzzing with discontent. It reminded me of that slight transparent rainbow-ish look that soapy bubbles can have.

I approached the barrier, and it seemed to breathe at me, sending my clothes astir and causing my hair to flap. I blinked hard, bracing myself for the worst, and stepped through.

Almost immediately, I was yawned at by the air. My ears were filled with tinny white noise. The colors rushed and rushed backwards across the hall like a reverse vacuum.

Each step I took was an effort, like walking on the bottom of a pool. My head swam. Every time a plume of color passed through me, I would catch a glimpse of a stray thought. They were all mostly abstract, but there were finer, sharper ones, too. The image of girls racing track. Fireworks going off outside a window at night. And, more disturbingly, the feeling of someone’s breath down your neck. A monster, something slimy and smelly and conniving.

The thickness of the air grew stronger as I got closer and closer to the art room. I’m honestly surprised she’s in here and not somewhere else. This almost feels a little too normal. Wouldn’t it make more sense for her to have hidden in a closet, or on the roof, or just anywhere more quirky than…the art room?

I kept my breathing steady. If my breath stayed steady, my heart might be more inclined to behave, too. Not really the most scientific of thinking, but this was no longer a time for science anyway.

I opened the door to the art room, taking one last deep breath, and there she was.

Rin sat on her knees, staring at the floor. Around her swirled a tornado of rainbow dust, flashing and echoing with bad sentiments and worries and the constant uncertainty of interacting with other people.

That was the helpful thing about these…what had the men in dark glasses and suits called it, last time? A depressive anomaly? Or, more colloquially, a demon. But anyway, the helpful thing about them was that they revealed their source in an instant. All you had to do was open your senses, and you received all the emotions of the person causing it.

So you could get right to the heart of their problem.

Hanako’s “demon” had been more careful, more insidious than this, remaining in hiding and poisoning the school for weeks. Rin’s was clearly the result of a buildup and a resulting explosion, and there was no time to hide. Everything was laid out bare.

The red-haired girl turned her head upon my entrance, her green eyes murky and lightless at first. I took another impossible step forward, gritting my teeth together, grunting with effort, holding my hand out to shield my face.

The wind mussed at me, trying to keep me away from the center of the room. My bangs lifted off my forehead. My clothes peeled back, flat against the front of my body. It felt like I was completely exposed to the monster of colors swirling in front of me, as well as the girl at its center.

Through my own squinted eyes, I watched Rin’s eyes widen and brighten, as if she recognized me. “Hisao?” she asked inquisitively, her normal speaking voice somehow audible over the high-pitched rage coursing through my ears. “Hisao Nakai?”

For a moment, the vortex slowed and stumbled in its spin, and I felt the struggle in the air lessen. The monster had faltered. “Yes!” I confirmed frantically. “Yes, Rin, it’s me!”

Rin’s eyes narrowed. “I never asked you to call me by my first name. I didn’t think we were that close.”

“Yes…well…ah!” I took another step, pushing forward with all my might. “You started with my first name, didn’t you? It’s only fair.”

She nodded. “That’s true enough.”

I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Here I was, fighting for my life to reach her, and all the while we’re having this inane conversation. I guess that’s Rin for you.

Rin’s eyebrow twitched, and the vortex briefly condensed between us, flashing angrily, forming two hollow eyes and a dark mouth with baring teeth. I shrank back in surprise, and the wind blew me into the wall.

“You had a thought just now,” she said. “I guess that’s Rin for you, is what you thought. What does that mean? What am I? Who is you? Who am I for?”

Crap, I thought, rubbing my forehead as I got back to my feet. I forgot that getting so close to this thing exposes some of your own mind, too. “It’s just an expression, Rin,” I called to her, starting my long, slow walk again, feeling blood trickle down my face from a wound in my head.

“Everyone always says that. I know that it’s an expression, you insect. But what does the expression mean?”

She called me an insect. That was firmly unlike her. Things were getting really bad. “I was just thinking how absurd it is that we can talk normally even with all this going on around us,” I called to her, trying to smile through the pain. Another step. Then another. “I was thinking how I could only get that from you.”

“Absurd?” The rainbow vortex condensed again and flashed at me. I lost some ground, feeling my feet slide backward, but I didn’t hit the wall. I had held a little bit better.

“Absurd isn’t a negative word, in that sense.”

“Why can some words be both negative and positive? Also, I don’t believe you. You’re just trying to make me feel better so I’ll stop.”

“I…I…” I froze in place, still fighting the wind, but not moving forward, either. What could she possibly want to hear in this situation? I see her problems laid before me. She is under extreme stress about something. She feels blocked by her own brain. She is anxious about interacting with others. And yet, I can’t figure out what angle to pursue. I can’t…

...and I shouldn’t?

“So what if I am?” I asked her, ignoring the colored smoke that flashed up between us. I could still see her flickering green eyes through that gloom. “Why shouldn’t I try and get you to stop? I have friends that live on this campus, friends who could get killed by this thing if it gets any stronger. I don’t know what you did, but no one else is waking up. I’m the only one that woke up, so it’s up to me!”

Rin’s eyes widened. “But isn’t that hard? You have a heart condition. Your body is weak. You must be struggling a lot right now. Wouldn’t it be best to leave it until the morning?”

I briefly checked on my heart. I’d forgotten about it in the last few moments.

It was fine. Nothing was wrong.

I shook my head at her. “It doesn’t matter. I saw what the last one of these did. It almost killed you, don’t you remember? It almost killed Emi, who I know is your friend, and who knows herself that she’s your friend, so don’t give me that ‘I don’t know if we’re really friends’ shtick.”

Rin had opened her mouth, but then she closed it. There was a long pause between us. I was nearly at the vortex, but we seemed to have reached an impasse.

“Your reasons are very brave, Hisao,” she finally said. “But that doesn’t mean you can help me stop.”

I swallowed, fighting back tears. No, no, no, this can’t be it. I need to figure something out, a plan, something. Why doesn’t she respond to cues like other people? I can’t prompt her to confront the problem. There’s just such a…such a disconnect between us.

The vortex reared up again, and I felt the wind prepping to blow me away again, this time powerful enough to probably blow me through the wall and out the other side. Christ, I might actually die. Well isn’t this fantastic. I had felt close to death before, when Hanako’s demon had jumpscared me in the final hour, prompting my heart to go nuts and knocking me out during the final confrontation. Was this another failure of an ending for me? I hadn’t really been the one to help Hanako, in the end. It hadn’t been me. And I was even less close with this girl than I was with the first.

Yes, giving up seemed like a good idea. Why didn’t I just let the chaos fall, let it all come crumbling down? Would they really hold me responsible in the end? I would probably be lost in the wreckage. At worst, they might have felt a little sorry for me. That was fine. I wouldn’t be around to suffer through it.

Suddenly, I blinked, and looked up at the flashing colors. Everything was sharper, in focus. Those weren’t my thoughts. Those are…Rin’s thoughts, being reflected at me. She has to face something very hard. And she wants to give up and let go.

I had everything backwards. It wasn’t Rin causing the disconnect between us. It was me.

“Hey, what’s the problem, anyway?” I asked her.

The rainbow demon, literally milliseconds away from fatally attacking me, suddenly shrank back in confusion, and Rin looked up at me again. “Huh?”

“What’s the problem? Like, what’s wrong with you? What’s the matter? What’s been bothering you?”

Rin’s mouth twitched. “I…”

“Just let it out. I’m here to listen.” I got down on my knees, mirroring her own position. The barrier of rainbow dust still divided us, but it was faded.

Rin took a deep breath.

“Well basically for an art project Nomiya wants me to do portraits of at least ten different people in the school and there’s all sorts of requirements about the diversity of subjects I have to choose but like what even is diversity anyway and why is it being defined through specific constraints and I would honestly feel a lot better talking to only a few specific types of people because some people are scary to ask about portraits and I don’t know what they’re going to say or what I’m going to say or how I’m even going to begin painting them because once again due to the diversity requirements there are some types of people on here that would just be IMPOSSIBLE to paint and Nomiya has all these time constraints and he keeps telling me tick-tock on the clock and I feel like this one is really important but I’m already failing at it and being unable to focus on it because all I can focus on is how important it is…”

I nodded as she ranted along, listening intently. I now understood that the catastrophe referred to in her thoughts that had been reflected at me was not the physical catastrophe that the demon would cause. It was the embarrassment of bombing an assignment, of receiving punishment, of getting kicked out of the club, or maybe even having parents called. Those things were the catastrophe. The fact that Rin got worried about them just like any other school-aged kid warmed my heart a little.

Rin stopped for a moment, her mouth still open. “...Why are you smiling?”

“Am I smiling?” I put my hand to my face. “I’m very sorry, Rin. I didn’t realize. So, you’re worried about having to get so many subjects to paint, do I have that right? Just nod or shake your head in response.”

Rin nodded. The barrier of color between us was barely visible now. The yawning in my ears had all but stopped.

“Well, if you’re worried about the consequences of not doing the assignment properly, I wouldn’t be. I think you’re the best painter in the whole school. Nomiya would be stupid to punish you or kick you out. I think you should just paint what you want to paint.”

“Paint what I…” Rin pursed her lips. “But what if I don’t know what that is? What if I don’t want to paint at all?”

“Do what you want to do, then. If that’s not painting, then it’s not painting. It’s just a club, in the end. It’s not class.”

“But what if I don’t know what I want to do, either?”

I sighed. “Turn off your brain, Rin. The things you want to do will come naturally, and you’ll end up doing them just because you’re bored. That’s how it works.”

Rin pouted, uncharacteristically. “For you, maybe.” It was kind of cute.

I shrugged. “At the very least, give it a try, and I think your stress will go down. Temporarily perhaps, but that’s better than nothing.” Then I stood up and brushed myself off. The demon was gone.

Rin followed my movements with her eyes, not getting up herself. “Where are you going?”

I yawned. “I need to find something to patch up this head wound with. Then I’ll go back to sleep. You should probably sleep too. Or don’t, if you don’t want to. Not up to me, after all.”

Rin looked off into the middle distance. “Well…I feel sleepy, so maybe I should.”

I grinned. “That’s right! Do things because of how you feel. Keep that up. Or, once again…don’t, if you don’t want to. I’m not an expert on the subject.”

Rin laid down on the floor, still keeping her eyes open. “I think you’re confusing me. Maybe you should stop talking now.”

“Right. Okay. Goodnight, Rin. I won’t tell anyone about this.”

“Me neither,” she mumbled in response, closing her eyes.

I walked out of the art room.

[Mirage_GSM]

Well... Under-description sure CAN be lazy in some circumstances, but this story turned out to be a coherent whole in the end - even if I didn' expect it to after the first few paragraphs