Lyrics-inspired BR drabbles yay

[tallulahgs]

Four Five drabbles/ficlets I wrote earlier this year and never posted. You lot get them now. Because I'm awesome :p All originally written for drabble_habit lyric prompts, but never posted (except the first one).

All-purpose disclaimer: I don't own any of the lyrics used as prompts, and nor do I own Battle Royale, despite its strong presence in my LJ.

[Title] Happy Ending
[Rating] G
[Fandom] Battle Royale manga - set at the end of the last book
[Word Count] 218
[Lyrics] "You're gonna have to be your own Prince Charming/You're gonna have to ride your own stallion/You're gonna have to find your own castle/You're gonna have to raise your own sail/And there's gonna be a happy ending / But that's only the beginning/This ain't no fairy tale."
[Character(s) involved] Noriko Nakagawa



Shuuya is asleep now. Noriko sits, holding his hand.

She wishes Shogo was still here. Already it feels wrong, it being just her and Shuuya. Her and Shuuya are idealists, dreamers. They need someone like Shogo to keep their feet on the ground.

All around her is the clang of metal on metal and the sssh of the waves and the smell of salt and oil and - this is the beginning of something new, she tries to tell herself, not just an end. Life is like that, things change, and you just have to keep moving. Shogo would be able to spell it out, something like there're no happy endings. This ain't no fairy tale. Don't go looking for magic castles, Nori; be your own Prince Charming. Then he'd grin, half-awkward, half-scornful, and turn away.

Vanish back into the shadows -

Noriko presses her lips together, smooths the skin of Shuuya's hand with her thumb.

We'll fight our own battles now. The ship hums underneath her as it trudges through the black water; each buzz another step away from the Greater East Asian Republic and everything it's tried to do to them. We'll raise our own sail.


[Title] Inspiration
[Rating] G
[Fandom] Battle Royale novel, set during the game
[Word Count] 281
[Lyrics] "I once read a poem/Held my breath but that moment's gone/First time I felt life somewhat hurt/I need an option, a reason, and some hope."
[Character(s) involved] Noriko Nakagawa



"You may as well ditch as much as you can," Shogo says at last, jerking his head in the direction of their bags. "Don't need baggage slowing us down now."

Most of the things are easy to dump. Noriko is surprised at that, but then when she looks at the clothes she's packed - comfortable, pretty things, each one holding memories of shopping trips with the other girls or birthdays or days at the beach - crumpling them up and shoving them into the bushes makes her hurt less. Crumple up the memories. I won't be going back to that sort of life, whatever else happens - Once she's got rid of the clothes there's only stuff like her toothbrush and shampoo left. And her notebook where she's been scribbling down poems and songs and story ideas whenever no one else is watching.

She stares at the pale purple cover for a long time.

Once beautiful poems made her cry. Now she feels like she might never stop crying.

Even if we do survive this, what's going to be left of us? How will I be able to write songs about - about love and things like that after this?

"We're gonna make it. We're gonna make it and then I tell you what, I'll be really mad the government made me leave my best shirt on some island."

Shuuya looks over at her, grins. Noriko's pretty sure he didn't see the book in her lap, but she smiles gratefully at him anyway, and unzips her kitbag and puts the book inside. Everyone needs a little hope.


[Title] Insomnia
[Rating] G
[Fandom] Battle Royale manga, set post-game
[Word Count] 108
[Lyrics] "In front of the bed, a black hole/And every sheep falls inside/I'm already too old and yet still count them."
[Character(s) involved] Shuuya Nanahara



"Ms Ryoko, I can't sleep."
The flicker of a fan catching the light outside. Above him, a warm circle of light in the dark sky of the ceiling. A cool hand on his sweating forehead. "Try counting sheep, Shuuya."
And so he did, and for a long time it worked.
Noriko, I can't sleep.
The rush of a car down the street; the headlamps tear through the ceiling and pin him to the bed. Noriko murmurs next to him, turns over. Once more he begins counting, but now each sheep has a human face, and he can't get beyond forty-two.


[Title] Musical Appreciation
[Rating] G
[Fandom] Battle Royale manga
[Word Count] 396
[Lyrics] "A politician's daughter/Was accused of drinking water/And fined a great big fifty dollar bill/They've got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil."
[Character(s) involved] Shuuya Nanahara, Shinji Mimura, Yutaka Seto



They've only been on the road five minutes and Shuuya's bored of sitting still. Yoshi is still sulking, so Shuuya scrambles to his feet, wanders back up the coach to see what Yutaka and Mimura are doing. The former is looking out of the window at the Shiroiwa streets passing by; the latter has taken out his Discman and is listening to something that Shuuya can just hear scratching through the headphones.

"Whatcha listening to?" he says, leaning into Mimura's viewpoint.

"Frank Sinatra."

"Geez, Mim. For someone's who supposed to be too cool for the room, you have seriously lame taste in music."

"Hey, this stuff is just as relevant as that racket you call rock." Mimura pauses the CD; evidently defending swing tunes will never get old. "It's just more subtle. 'A politician's daughter/Was accused of drinking water' -"

"Give me Springsteen any day."

Mimura smirks. "You know... you can tell a lot about people by their taste in music."

"You can?" Yutaka looks round from the window. "What, so you're weird, and Shuuya's cool -"

Mimura shoves him. "Silence, midget. On the contrary. I appear to be light-hearted, perhaps even superficial -"

"Right," Shuuya says.

"But beneath this easy-to-listen-to exterior beats the heart of a powerful social satirist devoted to recognising pretension and lies wherever he sees it."

"Yeah, right."

Yutaka laughs. "What about Shuuya, then?"

"Sure. Our good friend Nanahara wears his heart on his sleeve. He is loud, obvious, and while he appears to be a true revolutionary, is actually more concerned with attracting groupies -"

"I am not!" Shuuya yells. "Your theory sucks. No, wait - your taste sucks. Which is what I was saying all along."

Mimura shakes his head pityingly. "Rock is passe. As an instrument of social change, jazz is where it's at."

"Is not."

"Is too -"

"Do someone else," Yutaka says.

"Okay." Mimura glances round, leans across the aisle. "Hey, Kawada - what music you into, my man?"

Kawada glances back at him.

"Nothing," he says, and goes back to staring out of the window.

The three boys stare at each other, Mimura raising an eyebrow.

"Some people just defy analysis," he says at last. "Okay, then... take Hiroki. Now, his penchant for weird Chinese stuff involving panpipes suggests..."

The coach keeps going as the sun sets.


[Title] Ready or Not
[Rating] G
[Fandom] Battle Royale manga
[Word Count] 115
[Lyrics] "Adults wrinkle their brows/With a laughing voice/And footsteps echoing/Drawing slowly nearer/These guys have a pistol."
[Character(s) involved] Megumi Eto



Hiding under a table, specks of sunlight covering the underside of the red tablecloth. And then the footsteps -

Megumi clutches her knees to her chest and tries not to breathe. Don't let them find me don't let them find me just don't -

"Where's Megumi?" she hears one of the other mothers say.

"Oh, we're just playing hide-and-seek."

Laughter. "Oh, that's nice!"

Now it's dark and the floor is cold and there's no tablecloth to hide her and she can hear the footsteps coming closer and closer. Just another game. Hide and seek. Bang, you're dead! And the grown-ups laughing.

Comments

[rushikayu13.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. 3 and 4 are my favourites (and damn, I think Shinji's trying to nick my soul too), although I do want to know what he'd say about Hirono's taste in music. :D

[tallulahgs]

:D Shinji's not picky about souls, we all know that.

Thank you for commenting! :D

Good question... what is Hirono's taste in music?

[rushikayu13.livejournal.com]

Hirono listens to some rock, some techno, some metal and a little dance. She's accepting in her music tastes. (Except Junya.)

[tallulahgs]

XD Shinji comments that that obviously demonstrates Hirono's, erm, freedom with her affections and casual attitude to life; clearly she'll do anything if it means she has fun on the way.