Seven santa_olivia cookies
I wrote LOTS at writing_game! :-D
Will post everything sorted into appropriate plotbunnies.
Below are for my original fic universe, Santa Olivia. Please give it a try even though it's not fanfic ^^;; And comments = much <3
Will compile all the cultural explanations when I'm feeling less lazy.
santa_olivia 200-word cookies, in chronological order. Please read the summary and cast of characters for context :-)
Action: Cursing here.
11 y.o. Seiichi just learned from his parents that they are moving back to Japan.
"I'm not going to Japan. You can't make me."
Shigeru, showing every year of his age for once, looked at his son tiredly.
"Seiichi, your grandmother is very sick. She’d like to see you."
"I don't believe you." Seiichi clutched his Spiderman bed cover. "She never even visited us. She wants to see Mom. Mom can go back by herself."
Sighing, Shigeru ran his hands across untidy hair. "You know she hasn't been well for years. Your grandfather's afraid the trip would be too much."
Seiichi scrunched up his face. "They both can move over here then. Won't Grandma be happier spending the rest of her days in her birth country?"
"Japan is now her home, you know that." Shigeru said, a bit exasperated.
"Well this is my home now! I've never even been to Japan!"
Seiichi felt his vision go blurry.
"All this time, you and Mom have been waiting for an excuse to go back, don't you? That's why you made me go to Japanese school every Saturday. That's why you gave me a stupid Japanese name."
"Seiichi, that's not--" The boy rubbed his eyes with his long sleeves.
"Well, fuck you! I'm staying, and that's final!"
Prompt: Exodus here.
Seiichi is 11 y.o. The Kobayashi family are packing for Japan.
"Mom, Dad! This is not the exodus for goodness' sake. Why do we have to bring so many things to Japan?"
Seiichi Kobayashi was pissed off. If his parents continued to dump stupid things like Costco vitamin bottles and cereal boxes in their suitcases, there won't be room for his extensive comic book collection.
"Seiichi, you don't understand. Vitamins cost at least ten times as expensive in Japan. There are no Coco Puffs in the grocery stores either."
He turned and faced his Dad. "I thought Grandfather is filthy rich. It's not like we'll be wanting for money."
"He may be rich, dear, but it's not our money," his mother said in a sensible tone of voice. "Also, I cannot live without my Twix bars."
Seiichi rolled his eyes. Sometimes his parents act more like a kid than he does.
"Oh God," Shigeru turned and faced his wife. "I just remembered that there are no root beers in Japan!"
Vivien fidgeted with her brown hair. "Do you think those gallon-sized plastic bottles will survive the trip? Or should we get boxes of cans?"
If those root beer leak over his Marvel comic books, there's going to be hell to pay.
Genre: Young Adult here.
Natsumi, Seiichi's first love.
Every boy and perverted male teacher in this school liked Mariko Kusanagi. But let it be known that Seiichi Kobayashi was not, and never would be, an everyman.
It was not the beautiful Mariko or the sweet-faced Sakura that captured his attention. No, he was irrevocably, helplessly besotted with Natsumi Ryuuzaki.
The first time he saw Natsumi was on his first day at St. Christopher junior high school. He was sorely disappointed at the sad lack of a sailor uniform when down the stairs came this girl with her skirt an inch too short, her sleeves rolled up, and her regulation tie missing.
Being a normal twelve-year-old boy, Seiichi immediately tried to look under her skirt. He caught a flash of neon purple bicycle shorts.
Right at that moment, he knew he was in love. He couldn't think of anything cuter and more contradictory than wearing bicycle shorts under a daringly short skirt.
"What are you doing gawking in the middle of the hallway?"
Oh that sweet voice. That scrunched up little nose.
"You're blocking my way." She had her fists on her hips.
Seiichi quickly moved to the side.
"Creep."
Yes, Seiichi Kobayashi was in love with Natsumi Ryuuzaki.
Prompt: Telemarketer here.
Rei has transferred into Seiichi's high school. They are 15 y.o.
One of the things Seiichi loved about Japan is the peaceful lack of telemarketers. The other thing that he loved is their cutting edge cell phone technology.
Unlike crappy outdated American phones, his phone can take high resolution pictures and short video clips. Then, with a click of a button he can upload them in a matter of seconds.
Just this morning he had taken pictures of Rei sleeping with his pajama top unbuttoned. He had only taken a dozen pictures when Rei woke up and wrestled his phone away. Rei thought he had deleted the pictures, but they were already in his Web server. Hehe.
Hmm, speaking of Rei...
Rei started in his seat as he felt a short vibration.
Hoshino-sensei is perving on Mariko again today. Sei ♥
I sit in front of you. Pass notes like normal people!
But this is more fuun~♥ \(^_^)/
You're worse than a girl. What's with the ♥?
It's to signify my love for you of course. Your older brother ♥
I'm not calling you Onii-chan, I already
"Akutagawa-san." The teacher sounded contemptuous. "Perhaps you should text your girlfriend during recess? Unless your love life is more important than the Meiji period."
Prompt: Rote here.
Rei is trying to study while Seiichi is being Seiichi.
Rei was trying to study for his test tomorrow. The key word here is “trying.” Seiichi was rolling around on his bed doing usual Seiichi things.
Sometimes he wondered why the Kobayashi gave him his own room. Seiichi hung out here so often they might as well be sharing one room.
This morning Seiichi had once again poked Rei awake before his alarm clock rang. He had heard that Natsumi was coming to school early to watch the soccer team practice. Sure enough, Natsumi was there with Mariko, and so was Mariko's boyfriend, the captain.
Mariko's jerk of a boyfriend had spotted them lurking at the sides, and promptly made disparaging comments about Seiichi. Rei wanted to stand up for Seiichi, preferably with a fist in the jerk's mouth, but Seiichi had dragged him away.
Then he had gotten into trouble, again, with that two-faced Hoshino-sensei for not paying attention in class. Who cares about what the emperor did a millennium ago? How do they know they're reading facts instead of propaganda?
His musing was interrupted by a sound of glee.
“Rei, I didn’t know you have a stuffed animal!” Seiichi grinned widely. “I should introduce him to Mr. Boo!”
*Extra: Oh good. For a second there I thought he had found my porn stash.
language, loss, like, love, lesson here.
Rei muses about Seiichi. They're 16+ y.o. (Rei has lived with the Kobayashi family for a year or so.)
Rei thinks that the disconnect Seiichi experiences has to do with language.
It’s not that Seiichi speaks in strange sentence constructions or an American accent. His marks for Japanese were not as high as his other subjects, but to all purposes, he was as fluent as a native speaker. In fact, he had lamented in several occasions that his English now had a slight Japanese accent.
No, what tripped Seiichi up is his insecurity that he is saying what he means to say. Rei had observed a look of loss on Seiichi’s face whenever he said “like” or “love.”
During one of their impromptu English lessons, Seiichi had explained that while the word “like” is so charged in Japanese, the word “love” is so fleeting in English.
Last Friday, Seiichi had forgotten himself and slipped into English as he told Rei, “I love you.”
And then he seemed to remember who he was talking to and reverted back to Japanese. “Love in the sense of deeply caring for another person. Not for comic books and chess, although I love those too.”
“I love you too.” Rei answered in halting English. “More than your parents, even though I also love them.”
Character: Journalist here.
Seiichi talks to Rei about college. They're 17 y.o. thereabout.
“With my command of two languages, journalism is the perfect field for me, don’t you think?”
“Hnn."
“So we’ll be going to California, because that’s where the entertainment hotspot is.” Seiichi's eyes shone with excitement. “You’ll go to a film school, and I’ll go to a journalism school nearby.”
“When we come back to Japan, we’ll start our spectacular careers in Tokyo.” By now Seiichi was gesticulating wildly. “I’ll be promoted in no time to International news, and you will revolutionize the Japanese movie industry!”
Rei gave Seiichi a look.
Letting out a deflated sigh, Seiichi said, “Just kidding. That would be fun, but in reality I'd be going to medical school, and you’d probably study something boring like international business law.”
Rei knew that Seiichi did want to be a doctor. What bothered him was the thought that he was following the steps that his grandfather laid out for him.
“It would still be fun.” Rei offered tentatively. “We’ll be living in our own apartment, and your parents are going to buy us a car. You can drive me to all those places you told me about.”
“Just the two of us.” Seiichi smiled. “Yeah that does sound fun.”
Will post everything sorted into appropriate plotbunnies.
Below are for my original fic universe, Santa Olivia. Please give it a try even though it's not fanfic ^^;; And comments = much <3
Will compile all the cultural explanations when I'm feeling less lazy.
santa_olivia 200-word cookies, in chronological order. Please read the summary and cast of characters for context :-)
Action: Cursing here.
11 y.o. Seiichi just learned from his parents that they are moving back to Japan.
"I'm not going to Japan. You can't make me."
Shigeru, showing every year of his age for once, looked at his son tiredly.
"Seiichi, your grandmother is very sick. She’d like to see you."
"I don't believe you." Seiichi clutched his Spiderman bed cover. "She never even visited us. She wants to see Mom. Mom can go back by herself."
Sighing, Shigeru ran his hands across untidy hair. "You know she hasn't been well for years. Your grandfather's afraid the trip would be too much."
Seiichi scrunched up his face. "They both can move over here then. Won't Grandma be happier spending the rest of her days in her birth country?"
"Japan is now her home, you know that." Shigeru said, a bit exasperated.
"Well this is my home now! I've never even been to Japan!"
Seiichi felt his vision go blurry.
"All this time, you and Mom have been waiting for an excuse to go back, don't you? That's why you made me go to Japanese school every Saturday. That's why you gave me a stupid Japanese name."
"Seiichi, that's not--" The boy rubbed his eyes with his long sleeves.
"Well, fuck you! I'm staying, and that's final!"
Prompt: Exodus here.
Seiichi is 11 y.o. The Kobayashi family are packing for Japan.
"Mom, Dad! This is not the exodus for goodness' sake. Why do we have to bring so many things to Japan?"
Seiichi Kobayashi was pissed off. If his parents continued to dump stupid things like Costco vitamin bottles and cereal boxes in their suitcases, there won't be room for his extensive comic book collection.
"Seiichi, you don't understand. Vitamins cost at least ten times as expensive in Japan. There are no Coco Puffs in the grocery stores either."
He turned and faced his Dad. "I thought Grandfather is filthy rich. It's not like we'll be wanting for money."
"He may be rich, dear, but it's not our money," his mother said in a sensible tone of voice. "Also, I cannot live without my Twix bars."
Seiichi rolled his eyes. Sometimes his parents act more like a kid than he does.
"Oh God," Shigeru turned and faced his wife. "I just remembered that there are no root beers in Japan!"
Vivien fidgeted with her brown hair. "Do you think those gallon-sized plastic bottles will survive the trip? Or should we get boxes of cans?"
If those root beer leak over his Marvel comic books, there's going to be hell to pay.
Genre: Young Adult here.
Natsumi, Seiichi's first love.
Every boy and perverted male teacher in this school liked Mariko Kusanagi. But let it be known that Seiichi Kobayashi was not, and never would be, an everyman.
It was not the beautiful Mariko or the sweet-faced Sakura that captured his attention. No, he was irrevocably, helplessly besotted with Natsumi Ryuuzaki.
The first time he saw Natsumi was on his first day at St. Christopher junior high school. He was sorely disappointed at the sad lack of a sailor uniform when down the stairs came this girl with her skirt an inch too short, her sleeves rolled up, and her regulation tie missing.
Being a normal twelve-year-old boy, Seiichi immediately tried to look under her skirt. He caught a flash of neon purple bicycle shorts.
Right at that moment, he knew he was in love. He couldn't think of anything cuter and more contradictory than wearing bicycle shorts under a daringly short skirt.
"What are you doing gawking in the middle of the hallway?"
Oh that sweet voice. That scrunched up little nose.
"You're blocking my way." She had her fists on her hips.
Seiichi quickly moved to the side.
"Creep."
Yes, Seiichi Kobayashi was in love with Natsumi Ryuuzaki.
Prompt: Telemarketer here.
Rei has transferred into Seiichi's high school. They are 15 y.o.
One of the things Seiichi loved about Japan is the peaceful lack of telemarketers. The other thing that he loved is their cutting edge cell phone technology.
Unlike crappy outdated American phones, his phone can take high resolution pictures and short video clips. Then, with a click of a button he can upload them in a matter of seconds.
Just this morning he had taken pictures of Rei sleeping with his pajama top unbuttoned. He had only taken a dozen pictures when Rei woke up and wrestled his phone away. Rei thought he had deleted the pictures, but they were already in his Web server. Hehe.
Hmm, speaking of Rei...
Rei started in his seat as he felt a short vibration.
Hoshino-sensei is perving on Mariko again today. Sei ♥
I sit in front of you. Pass notes like normal people!
But this is more fuun~♥ \(^_^)/
You're worse than a girl. What's with the ♥?
It's to signify my love for you of course. Your older brother ♥
I'm not calling you Onii-chan, I already
"Akutagawa-san." The teacher sounded contemptuous. "Perhaps you should text your girlfriend during recess? Unless your love life is more important than the Meiji period."
Prompt: Rote here.
Rei is trying to study while Seiichi is being Seiichi.
Rei was trying to study for his test tomorrow. The key word here is “trying.” Seiichi was rolling around on his bed doing usual Seiichi things.
Sometimes he wondered why the Kobayashi gave him his own room. Seiichi hung out here so often they might as well be sharing one room.
This morning Seiichi had once again poked Rei awake before his alarm clock rang. He had heard that Natsumi was coming to school early to watch the soccer team practice. Sure enough, Natsumi was there with Mariko, and so was Mariko's boyfriend, the captain.
Mariko's jerk of a boyfriend had spotted them lurking at the sides, and promptly made disparaging comments about Seiichi. Rei wanted to stand up for Seiichi, preferably with a fist in the jerk's mouth, but Seiichi had dragged him away.
Then he had gotten into trouble, again, with that two-faced Hoshino-sensei for not paying attention in class. Who cares about what the emperor did a millennium ago? How do they know they're reading facts instead of propaganda?
His musing was interrupted by a sound of glee.
“Rei, I didn’t know you have a stuffed animal!” Seiichi grinned widely. “I should introduce him to Mr. Boo!”
*Extra: Oh good. For a second there I thought he had found my porn stash.
language, loss, like, love, lesson here.
Rei muses about Seiichi. They're 16+ y.o. (Rei has lived with the Kobayashi family for a year or so.)
Rei thinks that the disconnect Seiichi experiences has to do with language.
It’s not that Seiichi speaks in strange sentence constructions or an American accent. His marks for Japanese were not as high as his other subjects, but to all purposes, he was as fluent as a native speaker. In fact, he had lamented in several occasions that his English now had a slight Japanese accent.
No, what tripped Seiichi up is his insecurity that he is saying what he means to say. Rei had observed a look of loss on Seiichi’s face whenever he said “like” or “love.”
During one of their impromptu English lessons, Seiichi had explained that while the word “like” is so charged in Japanese, the word “love” is so fleeting in English.
Last Friday, Seiichi had forgotten himself and slipped into English as he told Rei, “I love you.”
And then he seemed to remember who he was talking to and reverted back to Japanese. “Love in the sense of deeply caring for another person. Not for comic books and chess, although I love those too.”
“I love you too.” Rei answered in halting English. “More than your parents, even though I also love them.”
Character: Journalist here.
Seiichi talks to Rei about college. They're 17 y.o. thereabout.
“With my command of two languages, journalism is the perfect field for me, don’t you think?”
“Hnn."
“So we’ll be going to California, because that’s where the entertainment hotspot is.” Seiichi's eyes shone with excitement. “You’ll go to a film school, and I’ll go to a journalism school nearby.”
“When we come back to Japan, we’ll start our spectacular careers in Tokyo.” By now Seiichi was gesticulating wildly. “I’ll be promoted in no time to International news, and you will revolutionize the Japanese movie industry!”
Rei gave Seiichi a look.
Letting out a deflated sigh, Seiichi said, “Just kidding. That would be fun, but in reality I'd be going to medical school, and you’d probably study something boring like international business law.”
Rei knew that Seiichi did want to be a doctor. What bothered him was the thought that he was following the steps that his grandfather laid out for him.
“It would still be fun.” Rei offered tentatively. “We’ll be living in our own apartment, and your parents are going to buy us a car. You can drive me to all those places you told me about.”
“Just the two of us.” Seiichi smiled. “Yeah that does sound fun.”