A/N: You thought it couldn't be done for Osaka, huh?
To Dana, who submitted an anon review: I'm glad you liked, but your E-mail got blanked out. I'd suggest you get an ID to leave signed reviews... authors tend to like those. ;;
To Q Illespont: Very good point about the Sakaki dichotomy. I was really trying to emphasize the aspect of black being a stand-out color in a society of white socks. Even so, there's the aspect of black darkness. I'll look into fine-tuning the whole shebang in the future. Thanks for pointing out the grammar error, too; I'm compiling all my errors in all my fics for one big-ass orgy of export/update/re-release in the future. It'd be great if ff dot net worked with real-time editing, wouldn't it? --
I tried hard to capture the dub voice of Osaka as a representation of the Kansai dialect. There's basically no real equivalency to Kansai in English, so just think the dub, people. It's as Osaka as it gets. Although I would have loved for her to have a Jersey accent... "Yo, Tomo, how you doin'!"
Enough babble. Sorry this release took so long, but Osaka is HARD to write for in this idiom. OO
On with the show!
3: Mismatched Socks
I'm usually a lot better in the mornings than this. I haven't woken up with the blanket at the food of my bed, wondering why I was so cold. My mom says that it's nothin' to worry about, that my body's controllin' what I do when I sleep, but that's pretty creepy. I mean, it's like sleepwalking... how do you know where to go? If it were up to my brain, I'd do somethin' useful if I sleepwalked... why not go to the store and get some more milk or edamame? We never have any edamame in the house anymore.
Yeah, I know that's outta nowhere. It's all right. Usually I don't sleepwalk to the convenience store anyway. I don't think I sleepwalk at all, unless you count takin' a long time to wake up. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much time I spend in the bath, just gettin' my body nice and comfy and ready for bed, when I go to sleep, I stay asleep for a good long time.
Still, every mornin' when I get up, I'm cold and I can never seem to get outta my pajamas. I just wanna stay in 'em all day; they're comfy and they've got Necoconeco prints on 'em. What's wrong with Necoconeco? I mean, even if it's just some little character icon aimed at Chiyo-chan, it's OK to like what you like I mean, I like my pajamas. We oughta be able to wear 'em. Every day, we gotta wear our school uniforms. That's no fun... I mean, they're nice, and it's not so bad. It just makes me feel like I'm some kinda amoeba in one of those... um...
Well, maybe not an amoeba...
Why are they red in the winter, anyway? I heard someplace once that you gotta wear red so that blood doesn't show. Maybe we're goin' to war against some evil capitalists, that's why we're wearin' red! Miss Yukari's gonna be our commissar, and we're gonna have to fight the Nazis...
Which reminds me... we don't have a rival or anything. It's kinda weird that our school just has its own little thing going on, no school cheers or anythin' like that. We were in town at the Yoshinoya Beef Bowl place and some other school's kids were talkin' "We're gonna beat Hokuei High in academics this year!" I don't even have someone to fight against like Kagura-chan does. I'm just goin' around wanting to be in my pajamas all day. Nice and comfy.
Is there somethin' wrong with that?
I wish there wasn't, 'cause I'd love to go to school in my PJs and blanket. I like bein' warm too much, even durin' the summer. I sweat a lot in my PJs and it just feels nice, like I'm sleepin' in the bath. That happened to me once and I got all red, really woozy, too. I guess I get pretty frail in the heat. I got plenty of hats and things for when summer really gets bad. I don't tan like Kagura-chan does; I just burn really easily. Yeah, when it gets hot, I get woozy and I peel too much, too. See, I'm too disoriented in the mornings because of all the cold. I kick off the covers in my sleep and I get all chilly. I wanna stay under my blanket, but my body thinks otherwise.
I don't care if my socks don't match up. I have my uniform and shoes hung up, so all I gotta do is put on my underwear, socks, and go. 'course, I never match the bra and panties. Nobody's gonna see those, though. But my socks are always mismatched, even though they're all white. One's a crew sock, the other's dressy. It's always like that in the morning. It's because I'm all cold and can't think right.
I figure if I at least get up and go, I'm doin' enough. I can worry about studyin' and bein' a good student when that all comes up.
I can't complain too much. I've got it better just by goin' to school. I don't mind much else in the world. I can worry about stayin' warm when I get home. Just so long as I can keep it up after I'm out in the world.