A good way to celebrate my birthday is post about Gou-Sotsu, which I hate, I guess. I didn't actually notice that this prompt lined up with my birthday until the moment I started writing it during a teacher's strike in March. Man, talk about unobservant, am I right? Anyway, happy 23rd birthday to me and whatnot. By the time this is posted, I should be done with college!
June 19th, 2022
BE-OOP!
Keiichi Maebara stood on the sun-drenched road to Hinamizawa, his face tilted thoughtfully to the sky. Wind howled around him, ruffling his white school shirt and long black slacks. One hand was in his pocket, but the other…the other carried a metal baseball bat, dangling lightly in his grasp, the tip angled towards the dusty ground. Ominous stringed music drifted around him, tinting the air with an unsettling anticipation.
"Ack!" Keiichi's somber expression abruptly broke as his shirt got caught in the wind gusting up from the machine below him and flew up around his face, the brunet yelping and flailing as he dropped his bat and struggled to push the billowing white fabric back down. The melody continued to play on from a nearby speaker, unabated, as words joined the music for the first time.
"Shizuka ni furuwaseru kūki-"
"Cut!" the director yelled, and someone turned off the wind current and the music both as Keiichi finally managed to settle his top back down over his red undershirt. "Maebara-san, did you tuck that into your pants properly?"
"Of course I did!"
"Ugh. Can we get some pins from wardrobe, stat?"
"Try doing that Marylin Monroe thing next time!" Mion shouted from the sidelines behind the camera, grinning broadly as she mock-seductively pushed down the bottom of her own shirt in demonstration. Her other hand held a styrofoam coffee cup. "Work it!"
"Fuck you." Keiichi deadpanned as he adjusted his clothing, tucking his shirt back underneath his slacks and belting them even more firmly about his waist.
BE-OOP!
"Zutto kimi no yorokobi mo! Zutto kimi no namida sae mo! Dare yori mijikana kyori de kanjita kioku!"
Rika ran desperately up the slope, her slender arms flailing and her hair blowing behind her, her skirt swishing in the wind of her passage. Although she dashed through the trees, her way was clear as she ran up the grassy slope, eyes ahead, reaching desperately for something no one else could see.
"Tatta hitotsu sono-"
"Yeek!"
Although the grassy slope was free of trees, it did not seem to be free of rocks, roots, and other tripping hazards, as Rika's foot caught on one of these and she faceplanted in the grass. The camera that had been set up for her front views, which was pulled steadily backwards on a zipline, continued whisking away from her overhead, leaving only the side cameras to capture her limp form as the music from the speaker behind the director's chair continued.
-kotae! Sagashiteta tobira ga ima! Yukkuri to hirakareta sono saki ni wa-"
"Well, that's one way to do foreshadowing." Eua commented with a chuckle, still wearing the enveloping –but far more simplistic than her real costume– robe she had donned for her shadow-silhouette scenes.
"I know, right?" Rika asked, not lifting her face up from the grass as she settled lazily where she had tripped. "Can we just leave it here? Very symbolistic of my desire to get up and the endless maze I'm trapped in and stuff."
"Also symbolistic of your desire to end the scene." the director replied dryly. "Up you get! Take two, everyone, and Furude-san –watch your feet next time!"
BE-OOP!
The set that corresponded to the front living room of the Maebara household was a horrific scene of gore-streaked tragedy, red streaking and pooling on the tatami mats, two bodies lying on the ground, surrounded by cameras. Or at least, that was what it was meant to be: right now, the lighting was being adjusted, and so the two conspicuously-not-dead bodies were standing on the sidelines, waiting to take their positions again for their ceiling shot. Or at least, that was what they were meant to be doing.
Splish-splish-squish, splash-splish-splish…
"Seriously, Keiichi-kun, you should try this." Rena said, her expression perfectly serious as she rolled back and forth across the bloodied ground like a child playing in the snow.
"Ah, what the heck!" Keiichi smiled and sighed as he propped both paint-streaked hands on his hips. "This is way more blood than either of us can hold anyway. Might as well embrace it!"
He put his knee down onto the floor, then joined his co-star in rolling back and forth on the ground, covering their clothes and faces with more of the fake blood that they were already drenched in.
Splish-splish-squish, splash-splish-splish…
Splish-splish-squish, splash-splish-splish…
BE-OOP!
Shion trembled as she scuttled backwards, staring up at the oddly-implacable figure of her twin sister, standing above her in a white kimono.
"You dragged Kei-chan into this? And now he's being targeted by the curse?" Mion asked, her eyes shadowed by her bangs. "Kei-chan…kind, loving Kei-chan…is going to die because of you?"
Shion gasped and scuttled backwards, grabbing for her tazer, but Mion caught her by the ankle and dragged her down to the floor with a cry.
"I'm not done talking, Shion."
"You…" Shion gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw as she turned slightly, and then her legs bunched. She lunged forward, tackling Mion abruptly with her arms outstretched. "Try it, bitch!"
"Ack!" Mion's eyes widened as she snapped out of character, but it was too late: Shion had jabbed her fake tazer into her side as they both tumbled to the ground, making the lights at the tip flash with the simulated electricity effect, and then Shion cast the tazer aside and wrapped both arms around Mion's throat. "Hey! Shion!"
"You think you can get away with vanishing Satoshi-kun and then try to put the blame on me?" Shion hissed, her grip tightening slightly as her eyes flashed with a vicious fire.
"Cut!" the director cried as Shion's stranglehold continued to tighten on Mion's neck without effect.
"Wait wait wait wait!" Mion cried, smacking her hands against Shion's wrists repeatedly in the commonly-acknowledged move to tap out. "Cut, Shion, cut!"
"Oh?" Shion blinked, coming back to herself as she let go of Mion's neck. "Why, Onee, however did you get down there?"
"You know why, damnit!" Mion yelled at her, watching her sister grin. "I'm supposed to kill you in this scene!"
"Ah, yes, forgive me, forgive me." Shion drawled nonchalantly, sitting up on Mion's stomach as she scratched her cheek with faux innocence. "Its just, I got really in character, don't you know, and this silly little script runs completely counter to that."
"Not my fault." the director said glumly from his chair. "Just stick to the script, Sonozaki-san."
"Aw, jeez!" Mion cried, wiggling indignantly beneath her sister's weight as Shion folded her arms and laughed. "I'm the one who gets to shine as the murderer this series! Let me have my moment!"
"You can dream, Onee." Shion replied smugly. "Rena-chan and I will always outshine you."
BE-OOP!
"I digress. By your countenance, it seems you have an unrequited wish." Eua said as Satoko stared at her across the space of the cobblestones, glittering fragments drifting about them on pieces of near-invisible black string. "And your longing for said wish has whittled away at your well-being."
Satoko exhaled uncertainly, and Eua chuckled.
"I can hear your soul crying out in anguish." she laughed aloud, which made Satoko bristle.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" she snapped.
"You cannot fulfill your desires as a child of man, but you could, if only you were granted the power I possess." Eua answered.
"Eh?" Satoko asked, her eyes widening. Eua spread her arms proudly, indicating the black void filled with shining crystal shards around them.
"With this power, your wish becomes reality." she replied. "You will be able to travel to the idyllic world for which you so desire. Though only after a very long time, undoubtedly."
"There's no way that's possible!" Satoko shouted, taking a step forward as she clenched her fists. "And if it was, why the heck would you offer something like that for free?!"
Eua began to chuckle ominously, but then she paused, putting a hand to her lips. "Wait, that's…not the right line, is it?"
"Cut! Hojo-san!" the director yelled. "Stick to the script!"
"Well, its just so ridiculous!" Satoko scoffed, turning away from Eua and flinging out her hands. She jabbed a finger at the mystical set surrounding them. "Who wouldn't question all of this?! There's so obviously going to be a catch to whatever I'd wish for!"
"I don't exactly radiate "benevolent wish-granter," do I?" Eua agreed with a much-less-ominous chuckle, giving a winsome shrug of her own as she laid her staff across her shoulders.
BE-OOP!
"Rika can do this! I believe in her!" Hanyuu shouted defiantly, her chin held up despite the glowing arcs of light bound about her body to hold her onto the crosspiece. "We'll make a miracle!"
"In that case, I have but one question." Eua turned away, taking several steps as her skirt swished about her ankles. She then turned, her expression fierce, and swung her staff up and out with a jangle to level it at Hanyuu like the judgement of an angry god. "What pervert decided that my niece needed to be strapped to a BDSM crosspiece with her clothes torn for this scene?"
"Yes, thank you!" Hanyuu wailed, giving an indignant wiggle. "This is so unnecessary!"
"CUT!" the director roared. "I don't sign off on these decisions either, so at least save your complaints for when we aren't filming!"
BE-OOP!
Two purple-haired girls were sitting in actor chairs as the partially-dissembled pieces of the Sonozaki set were shown behind them.
"I'm Eua, and this is my daughter, Featherine, whom I shall turn into as my power drains." Eua gestured politely to the purple-haired girl who looked like a miniature copy of herself, though she was not yet in costume.
"Greetings, everyone!" Featherine chirped, giving a cheerful thumbs-up. "I hope you'll appreciate how hard mom and I are working on making this season!"
"Beware the power of the Furude women, for we are the backbone of Higurashi." Eua agreed with an ominous chuckle. "Hanyuu and Rika are working hard in their own way too, I suppose."
9.21 AM, USA Central Time
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