Yoshiro finds her asleep at a table, a half-empty cup of tea in front of her. He smiles and quietly sits down in the chair across from her. She doesn’t stir.
“Out like a light, huh, Queen Hime?” he asks, grinning lazily. “It’s okay, I don’t judge. I’ve also fallen asleep in some pretty weird situations, to be fair. Like this one time while waiting in line for a pop idol meet-and-greet, I passed out from exhaustion about five people before it was my turn. Heh, don’t worry, you’re prettier than those girls are any day.”
He doesn’t seem upset that the only response he gets from her is a soft exhale. Instead, he continues talking.
“So what kind of tea were you drinking? Bet it was something that calms you down. You’re always so anxious, Queen Hime. I’m not an expert on how stress affects you, but it could be why you’re so short and mean,” he says, though his laugh turns into a sigh.
“Sometimes I worry about you,” he says, before he falls silent. For the rest of her nap, he sits there, doing exactly that -- worrying about her... and the rest of them, for that matter.
☼ wELL YOU MADE ME THINK OF IT SO Hibiki and Chinatsu
How long have we been here? Chinatsu wonders as she stares at Hibiki and nibbles on her burnt toast. They’re in the prison cafeteria, the only ones around. He seems to have tired out after doing too much earlier.
“Okamura-kun, am I a bad friend?” she mumbles. “I-I don't think anybody likes me! You seem to have a lot of friends here... how do you do it?”
She sighs, takes a sip of watery tea. He’s really out of it, is he?
“I think you’d tell me I should be happier. Aaaahhh, how do I do that, though?! What if being happy upsets somebody? I mean, I don’t want to upset anybody and make them angry! I’ll feel too guilty to get out of bed for a week!”
Hibiki says nothing in response to this. He’s still fast asleep.
“Then again, you seem okay upsetting people by being happy. N-not that that’s a bad thing! It’s very admirable. I want to be like you someday, Okamura-kun. I want to be able to be as blissful as you.”
A young Min Meng pauses at the top of the stairs, listening as her parents talk in low voices to the eighth nanny. Though she can’t make out exact words, it doesn’t take long for her to realize they’re begging the eighth nanny -- a new one whose actual name she never bothered to learn -- to stay.
The girl frowns as she watches this exchange. In the end, the eighth nanny bows deeply and turns down her parents. A few moments pass and she’s out the door.
As Min watches the door close, she thinks, that's been the eighth woman out of eight nannies who’s quit. And she wonders why they always do so.
This is nighttime, the time of truth, and in the morning her parents will lie. They will say they had to fire the new nanny the night prior because she hadn’t been cleaning the house properly and had been a poor influence on Min.
And in the morning, Min will agree and ask for someone new and better. She knows how those mornings after the nannies are ‘fired’ play out -- she’s gone through them several times. Every time, though, it never ends the way she wants it to -- it never ends with her parents declaring they’ll stay home with her instead of hiring a stranger.
So in neither defeat nor triumph, Min turns around and retreats to her room. It would be the last time she’d sleep on her bed for several years. Because unlike the previous seven mornings, this approaching one will have a different outcome from the others.
Though for now she is ignorant, and thus she sleeps.
Don’t chase the rabbit for a slightly younger model of Pudding lAUGHS
Outside the sun has set and the world is dark, but the interior of the gymnasium is still brightly lit. A group of young gymnasts -- none older than 12, for sure -- are sprawled across the floor mats. Sleeping bags are laid out haphazardly, abandoned despite it being close to midnight. Instead, everybody’s talking and eating trail mix.
One of the gymnasts sits up, looks over at one of the smaller kids there.
“Hey, senpai,” she says, “thanks for getting us snacks! They’re really good.”
The ‘senpai’ in question, a blonde wearing pink pj's, waves their hand back and forth. “No problem!” they say. “Mayumi-sensei told me I should bring some just in case people got hungry during the lock-in. And I guess she was right, kyahahaha!” They grin.
In response, somebody giggles, then another person, then several other people.
“Um, Purin-senpai,” a boy pipes up, sounding hesitant, “we’ve been wondering... what’s wrong with your mouth? Did they build you wrong?”
The blonde’s smile disappears, replaced with a clumsy frown. It’s equally unappealing and one of the oldest gymnasts in the group points this out.
“Yeah, seriously, you look so ridiculous all the time! That can’t possibly be on purpose, right?”
“W-what do you--” Purin begins, though by this point has been drowned out by laughter and chatter. The topic soon changes, but Purin’s mind never leaves that conversation.
Mayumi-sensei later says the other children didn’t mean it maliciously and they apologize to them to prove this. Regardless, Purin drops by a convenience store the following day, asking the cashier where they can find the flu masks because they’ve come down with a cough.
Night has fallen and Umiko is asleep on a chair somewhere in the depths of the studio.
Haruka, none the wiser of what the future holds, approaches the sleeping girl.
“Umiko-chan, are you asleep?” Haruka asks after a moment of studying her. When she gets no response, she nods to herself.
She continues, “I’m gonna save us all, so don’t worry about anything. But until I do, make sure you stay safe, okay? Though I guess you’re pretty safe with all those charms as it is, kyaha.”
She looks away and adds something else, mostly for her own sake.
To be honest, I really like Pudding Pop and I think their personality is one of my favorites to RP out in-depth because of how many layers there are to them (puddings have layers). I also like the way they’re developing (here’s hoping CC returns!), because Purin was one of my first DR OCs whose character development/regression in the despair universe I actually thought about prior to throwing them into a mutual killing situation. Because of this, I really enjoy having more control, but at the same time seeing where they take me. They’re just as ridiculous as I wanted them to be, but they have a certain something to them that I wasn’t expecting. I definitely miss RPing them.
The only thing I feel self-conscious about is that Purin’s name is actually just Purin. Like, they don’t have a last name. They’re an android whose whole gimmick was to attract attention, which was why they were named after a food and never given a last name. While this affected them IC, OOC it affected me because I felt like people might not think I put enough effort into them. But I assure you, I did!
Omg... I'm on mobile (it Lilly) but if you want to poke around my blog there's a ref of YoYoshi (under /yoshiro) so that'd be so rad if you could sprite him pllease aaah ?? If not that's chill because I don't have a sprite on hand plus yeah buT yeah good luck!!! Your art is adorable c:
[This made me realize this blog is basically just Prim and me now. But hey, I love our ships, so I’m not complaining. P.S. Sorry if my portrayal of Nagisa isn’t that great]
How Alarming!
"Yamamami-kun!" a girl yells, pounding frantically on the door. The lights around her are dimmed and the dorm hallway is silent -- or was, until Minako burst out of her room. Now she’s standing in front of a door marked Nagisa Yamanami.
She stops knocking after thirty seconds. In place of this she puts her ear up against the door and listens.
Nothing.
“Yamanami-kun?” she calls, quieter this time. It’s this that causes the door to open. She stumbles forward into his room. Nagisa is there, wearing a bathrobe over his pajamas. His hair is even messier than usual.
“Midori-chin? What are you doing up at this time?” he says, rubbing his eyes. He keeps the door propped open with his foot as he studies her. “Is something wrong? I’m flattered you called on me, but it’s four in the--”
She shakes her head, waving her hands back and forth to accentuate this. “No, no, don’t worry!” she says. “Sorry to wake you, though. I didn’t think you were asleep, aheh… But look at this!”
The girl digs through her cardigan pocket, sticking her tongue out from the effort. Eventually she pulls out a small spiral notebook. She flips it open, shoves it into Nagisa’s hands.
He raises his eyebrows and studies the opened page. There were scribbled marks he assumed were Minako’s writing, along with incredibly detailed drawings of some kind of alarm clock.
“Is this a design of yours?” he asks, at the same time Minako says, “It’s a design of mine!”
He smiles as she laughs.
“Do you like it?” she prompts, darting to his side to look at the page with him. “It’s a puzzle alarm clock. You need to solve the sliding box puzzle in order to turn off the alarm in the morning. And it’s really cool because you can set the puzzle the night before, so you control how hard it is! That way everybody will be able to use it. I’m already getting the engineering students to design a basic alarm clock, but you’re the first person I’ve shown the twist to! Do you like it? I was thinking it was going to be too complicated, but I’ve decided there’ll be an off switch just in case it gets too hard. But yeah, ehahahah! I hope you think it’s cool!”
Nagisa’s smile remains as he hands the notebook back to her.
“I think trying to make the passing of time more enjoyable is always a good endeavor,” he says. “I’m happy to be the test subject, too. I always enjoy your puzzles and your adventures!”
“Really?” she says, her eyes widening. “Thanks, Yamanami-kun!” And before anything else can happen, she engulfs him in a hug.
“Ah, Midori-chin?” he asks.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t intend to rush this, but when are you going to let go?”
Being betrayed hadn’t exactly been an easy concept to deal with. Sure, Yoshiro knew he was hated, but was it really necessary to leave him for dead? It was like a stab to the chest -- and when they did just that, he realized the pain of being abandoned was much worse than any physical wound.
He dwelled on this as he hobbled away with none other than Himemiya Otome (and here he thought she hated him!). In the distance, a construction drill pounded away, distracting the zombies. Other than that, everything was silent. In fact, Yoshiro must’ve been particularly quiet, because Himemiya spoke up.
“My my, someone’s not feeling very talkative today, are they? What a nice change,” she said. Her voice sounded strained, and he guessed it was from her having to bear his weight for so long. It must’ve been especially hard then, since they were heading uphill.
He chuckled, shook his head. “Just thinking about how much you must enjoy my presence, since you rescued me and all.”
She scoffed at his response. “Ugh. Honestly, Yoshida-san, you’re making me regret this more and more.”
Ouch. That stung, but he wasn’t about to let on. If he showed any weakness, he’d probably be left behind again. Instead, he continued grinning.
His smile faltered, though, when he tripped on a rock and fell out of Himemiya’s grasp, falling onto his hands and knees.
He coughed, a bit of blood coming out. At this, he winced. That much blood wasn’t a good sign, was it?
“Yoshida-san, get up, please. We need to hurry,” Himemiya chided. Her voice sounded distant.
“As you wish, Queen Hime,” he said. He attempted to get up, only to topple over again. His whole body was shaking and he was starting to feel very, very cold. Yet he didn’t want to be a burden -- he couldn’t be. He tried to stand once more, then collapsed.
“Yoshida-san?” she asked.
He looked up at her, the glaring sun making her look far away. Or was that just his eyes, which were making everything appear blurry?
“Hey, Queen Hime,” he began, breathing heavily. “Let’s have a heart-to-heart real quick. Why did you rescue me?”
She shook her head. “Really? Now is not the time! They’re coming.”
“It’s just one question,” he said. “Think of this as my dying request.”
At his words, she glanced away. “I simply didn’t want to watch you die. It would have been disgusting, seeing you getting killed like that,” she said.
Yoshiro stopped smiling.
“Is that the real reason, Himemiya?” he asked, his voice quiet.
“Yes? What did you expect? A love confession? Ugh, as if!” she said. She crossed her arms, though returned her attention to him. “Now can we go?”
“Well, you can,” he said, hauling himself to his feet. He stumbled away from Himemiya when she moved to help him. “I think I’ll have a heart-to-heart with the zombies now, if you know what I mean.” As he spoke, he lifted up a piece of plywood and leaned against it, as if it were a crutch. He looked downhill, only to see that Himemiya was right; zombies were approaching.
“You can’t possibly think that you can play the part of the hero, can you?” she asked incredulously, her voice shrill. “It’d be impossible, especially given the state you’re in!”
He waved her words away with a hand. “Heh. You underestimate me, Queen Hime. I’ll miss you, you know. You were always too good to me,” he said. “And too good for me, at that.”
“Don’t speak as if you’re going to sacrifice yourself!” she said. She tugged on his arm, and in response he shook her off. “If we go now, we can still get away in time.”
“No, I’d slow you down and then we’d both end up dead,” he said. He still wasn’t smiling. “Besides, I’m already injured. I’ll bleed out before I get bitten. And hey, everybody wants to die a heroic death in these situations, right? At least you provided me that by rescuing me.”
“Yoshida-san--” she began, though stopped when he turned to her and pulled her close.
“See you later, Queen Hime,” he whispered into her ear. Then he leaned back and kissed her softly on the lips.
Smack!
“Yoshida-san, now isn’t the time!” Himemiya yelled, her hand still raised.
“Whoops,” was his response. Yoshiro clutched his stinging cheek, having backed away from her after she slapped him.
“You’re truly disgusting, I hope you know that,” she said. “And even more so if you try to sacrifice yourself. I’ll never forgive you if you do that.”
And his smile returned. He slowly turned to face the approaching horde, and then chuckled.
“Get ready to hold a grudge then,” he said. “So long, Queen Hime. Do your best not to get on everybody’s nerves, alright? They might tie you up and leave you for dead, and I won’t be there to save you. I’ll see you on the other side. And try to remember me, okay? Someone has to.”
He waved for good measure, and never looked back as he headed downhill.
Danger was always on Purin’s mind, but up until the outbreak it had all been simulated. There were always nets to land on if they fell and medics to bandage them up if they got hurt during fight scenes. Unfortunately, danger in its truest form wasn’t nearly as forgiving.
“Sunao-chan!” they said, their voice muffled by the mask they refused to take off. They prodded him forward. “Jump!”
Screams and sirens echoed in the distance. The two of them were a couple stories up in a seaside apartment building, trapped on the balcony of a flat perched over the water. Zombies clawed at door, threatening entry.
“Ah... I don’t think... that’s the best idea,” was the therapist’s reply. After all, the ocean was a long way down, with strong currents and sharp rocks making survival particularly unlikely.
They glanced over their shoulder before shoving him towards the edge.
“Just do it, Sunao-chan!” they insisted. “They’re gonna get in--”
As if on cue, the door broke down. Zombies rushed towards the glass door dividing the interior from the balcony. And for once Purin felt fear entangle their heart and lungs, making it hard to breathe.
Nanase stared as well, looking rather shaken. Seeing the normally calm boy terrified spurred Purin into action.
They grabbed for Nanase’s hand just as Nanase grabbed for their’s.
The glass door shattered just as the two jumped off the balcony. The android hugged Nanase tight, knowing very well they could probably survive the impact better than he could.
An eternity seemed to passed before water rushed up to greet them, engulfing them. The two shot straight down, ears popping. And when the blonde realized they had made it, they grabbed Nanase and started swimming in what they hoped was an upwards direction.
They surfaced, spluttering. They tore off their mask and inhaled, looking over at Nanase. His glasses had fallen off, but he was smiling as he tried to stay afloat.
“Purin-san... thank you...” he said. “That was an... intelligent decision.”
They couldn’t help it; they grinned. So relieved to be alive, they didn’t even care that Nanase could see their ugly smile.
“Let’s go!” they said cheerily. “We have a day to save, you know!”
