White and Red

Dreamprism

Summary:

Sean is ready to go outside, but Daniel is self-conscious about his shirt choice.

This is a fic making fun of a longstanding "bug" in Episode 2 in which Daniel will have his red shirt on under his jacket as soon as you go outside even though he had his white shirt on earlier. It also makes fun of a few other things.

Notes:

For several weeks, I've been planning to write a series of very niche-interest fanfics making fun of various bugs in the game (many of which were never patched). This is my first entry in that series - although I'm considering ordering the series by chronology in the game, so this might not end up being the actual "first part" of the series. Please don't take any of these too seriously - they are just light-hearted humor.

Whether or not this one qualifies as a "bug" is up for debate, but I do find it pretty weird, so I think it was an oversight or maybe the developer just not caring enough to make a whole new model for the white shirt under the jacket. You can also see this happen with the raccoon hoodie on the bus in episode 1; it will show his red shirt under the hoodie even if he put on the white shirt after his bath in the motel. But this is more excusable since there are at least a few hours between the motelnado scene and the bus scene.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

It's Saturday at the Reynolds house.

Claire has left home, Stephen is busy in his workshop, and Sean is putting clothes into the washing machine.

Then the phone rings. Daniel rushes over and picks it up with his telekinetic power. Unbeknownst to him, it is the neighbor boy on the other end. Daniel pretends to be Darth Vader as he makes exaggerated breathing noises and then hangs up.

(S) "What the hell are you doing?"

Sean is looking very judgmental, having caught Daniel red-handed doing something he shouldn't be doing. Daniel replies sheepishly...

(D) "What? I just picked up the phone!"

(S) "You know what, dude? We are not supposed to be here. Who was it?"

(D) "I don't know! Some kid! It was just a prank, Sean…"

As Daniel looks at Sean, he notices Sean has become lost in thought as he often does. Whatever Sean is thinking, it is interrupting any chance Sean has of comprehending Daniel's reply. If subtitles existed in the real world, it would be Sean's thoughts that are subtitled rather than what Daniel is saying to him.

No matter. Sean is headed for the back door already anyway.

(S) "Daniel, you ready? We can go out now!"

(D) "Yes!"

Daniel joins Sean by the door and begins to put on his boots.

(D) "Hey, Sean? Did you notice this shirt looks all weird?"

Sean looks over at Daniel's shirt - it's the white one he bought from that racist at the gas station. "Mt. Rainier National Park." But the shirt has all these weird grey blobs on it now.

(S) "You're right. That is pretty weird. Didn't we wash it already when we got here?"

(D) "Yeah. But it got like this after. Or at least… It was fine in the motel on Halloween."

(S) "Did you do some kind of science experiment on it in the cabin?"

Sean breaks out into laughter, and Daniel is sullen.

(D) "I don't want to wear this anymore."

(S) "What? I thought you loved that shirt."

(D) "Well, I DID. Until you're laughing at it now. Maybe I should just wear my red shirt instead."

(S) "The Space Mission shirt? You're always wearing that, dude; it's cool to see you in something else once in a while. Besides, you've got to put on your jacket before we go outside anyway, so no one's even going to see the weird cloudy splotches."

(D) "What if they've got like… X-ray vision?"

Sean rolls his eyes.

(S) "Then they'll see through the shirt too."

(D) "But… what if it's X-ray vision that only sees through jackets?"

(S) "That's not a thing, Daniel. Come on. Just put on your coat and we can go check out the shed. It's not like anyone will see us in the backyard anyway. And if they do… well, just act like we don't see them."

Daniel ponders for a moment while Sean leans against the door frame impatiently.

(D) "Nope! I can't do it. I'm switching shirts and never wearing this one again! It's final!"

With that, Daniel runs upstairs - still wearing his boots - and finds his favorite red shirt in the wardrobe among the brothers' clean clothes.

He pulls off the white shirt and replaces it with the red. And on the way down the steps, he grabs the red-and-teal jacket with his power and pulls that onto himself.

(S) "You could be a real runway artist with that power."

(D) "What? Who would use their superpower for modeling?"

Daniel dons his gloves telekinetically as well - black with three colored stripes on them.

(S) "I'm just joking, Daniel. Now, can we finally go outside?"

Sean looks at Daniel. With his jacket zipped up, you can barely even see the red shirt underneath. Why would it even matter to Daniel that he change out of the white one? And does this mean that after spending $11.50 on that shirt that his brother will never wear it again? He can't possibly wear the red shirt every day on their way to Mexico, can he? The boy needs other shirts…

Daniel has run off to the kitchen to raid it for a chocolate bar. Sean sighs and just opens the door.

(D) "Wait for me!"

And the two brothers walk outside.

Notes:

I didn't want to spoil them before the fic, but the other "bug" references in this one were...

(1) Sean's random internal monologue often interrupts his talk with Daniel about picking up the whole. This must be especially awful for players who aren't fluent in English and must rely on subtitles to understand a conversation.

(2) The white T-Shirt really does look weird in this episode. If you can actually explain to me why it looks so splotchy, PLEASE do so in the comments.

Finally, yes, there was an allusion to CalebCity's "Super Human Interview 2" video near the end of this (look them both up on YouTube if you haven't seen it before - they're very funny). I would've had Sean cite the video specifically, but it wasn't released by the time this scene takes place. I actually had a really trash idea to write a fic where Max, Daniel, and Alex meet some of the "cast" of CalebCity's Super Human Interviews, but I'm pretty sure that's just one of those awful ideas I'm never going to do... unless someone really encourages me.

In terms of the "LiS2 Bugs" series, I have tons of additional ideas in the pipeline. Do we all remember Invisible Chris? That's going to be one. And what about the walkie-talkie stuck in Sean's hand? Yep, that's on the list too. The $30 beaver the game doesn't let you buy? You betcha!

Tangential to the "bugs" concept, I also have some funny fic ideas where I just assume something in the game happened differently - like something totally absurd. Remember the flashback at the start of Episode 4? Well, I have a fic idea for "What if it turns out Daniel really did fall from the cliff and went splat?" Okay, that's awful... but... very tempting to write. I don't know if these would be their own series, if I'd merge them in with the Bugs series (maybe giving the whole thing a more appropriate title), or if I wouldn't put them in a series.

Now that I've rambled on in the notes for maybe as long as my entire fic... I hope you enjoyed reading, and I look forward to your comments. :)

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