Project: Yandere in 100 words

So, on a whim, I started another yandere-related project. Well, it’s more yandere-related than the Yandere Squared comic is turning out to be.

The basic idea is simple. I’ll write stories that include some variety of yandere in exactly 100 words. The point of view, tense and structure are assigned by how well they work with the idea. It might be pure narration, dialogue, a one-sided speech, anything. The only rules are English grammar, the inclusion of yandere and the limit of 100 words.

Because I find it easy to work with, these will mostly be built around 1-3 key word prompts. The most prominent one will be used as the title.

Well, expect some fluctuation in quality. Some might be a little vague because I cut things down to meet the limit.

There will be an estimated 10-15 entries, maybe more.

Feel free to suggest prompts!

-Amy

Edit: Well, this project appears to have grown quite beyond the 10-15 entries I had originally anticipated - and it shows no sign of stopping. This is a pleasant turn of events.

Index

01 - Counting

(The idea that randomly appeared and started this project in the first place. Well, the structure was a given, but I fiddled around with the details a little too much. It’s not as if it makes that much of a difference, I suppose.)

02 - Dream

(Actually written before #01, I placed it second because the idea for #01 appeared first. I had to cut this one a bit; the narrator was going to be more confused, then everything becomes clear as the “answer” appears in her dream.)

03 - Voice

(Yes, the narrator is male. This one seems to create more visuals. This idea that there weren’t enough male or adult yandere characters randomly whacked me on the head, so I created one in response. It’s actually quite convenient, so there might be more from a similar narrator.)

04 - Diary

(Kat gave me a handful of disparate prompts for this one. Ah, seems like I cut a lot of things out to fit it in 100 words. For example, there could have been more detail on the contents of the diary. Actually, a lot of these seem more like summaries.)

05 - Cage

(Well, uh… I was listening to Bernkastel’s image song while writing this. At this point, I’m coming to the conclusion that the shorter the paragraphs are, the more popular the story is. Or maybe it’s the apparent length of the post i.e. the area of the dashboard it takes up. Or something.)

06 - Music box

(My personal favourite so far. The word limit seemed to work with this one. At the end, I really wished there was something like furigana in English so I could write “friend” with “music box” above it as furigana. Side-effect of too much Type-Moon, I guess.)

07 - Spell

(Ah, fussed over this one a lot to get all the points into 100 words. It worked, but as a result it’s somewhat cramped up. Well, it’s about how “magic” can plausibly function, if you think about it enough…)

08 - Tea party

(…It’s what it looks like. I pictured the characters as unmarried ladies who had started work not too long ago. There was going to be some mention of teacakes that the narrator made because the other lady likes them, but in the end it was left out. Also, how many boyfriends do you think she’s been through so far? The narrator surely must be getting quite impatient to drop her such a direct hint.)

09 - Bridge

(Had a chance to use a similar narrator to #3. The pacing isn’t what I would have liked, but it can’t be helped because of the word limit. Maybe, one of these days, I’ll expand on some of my favourites.)

10 - Chocolate

(My first contribution! Of course not as good as Amy’s haha. Somehow this yandere character makes me think of a pervert. Well then again male yanderes seem more perverted in a way… if it doesn’t involve too much blood… ok I’m going off topic.) -Kat

11 - Spinning (Amy)

(I cut this one down by a lot ._. but it seems to have survived. Eh, aside from that, I was somewhat uncertain about making this a sequel to something Kat wrote, just in case the image didn’t coincide with her intentions. It connected itself up in my head and turned into a sequel on its own, so I thought I’d give it a try.)

12 - Spinning (Kat)

(Actually I wanted to do a sequel as well to the first story I wrote but it ended up into something like this so I made it into a separate little story)

13 - Secret

(The concept behind this had been floating around for a while, but it took pretty long to convert it into a 100 word story. It appears to be a variety of yandere that I haven’t encountered yet. Wonder what everyone thinks.)

14 - Flower

(I was thinking about girls who were described like ‘flowers’ (often in manga/anime) so what if someone went yandere for a 'flower’?) - Kat

15 - Wilting

(Poor flower/girl. She got compressed like one of those dried flower bookmarks or something lol. Just another one of that gardener’s collection…) - Kat

16 - Obedient

(I thought of those poor childhood friends who often don’t end up with the protagonist so I wrote this.) - Kat

17 - Forgive

(Never tease your girlfriend, she could go yandere on you lol. Well I just decided to write something like this when I thought if a guy could possibly regret and forgive his girlfriend for murdering him because he knows that he’s wrong for cheating on her or something perhaps) - Kat

18 - Obsession

(The narrator here is using a definition of love as something selfless, therefore excluding your usual yandere possessiveness from being called “love”. Also, it’s an interesting concept, I suppose, to say that people are powerless before their own obsessions. It adds an odd new dimension to yandere.)

19 - Accident

(Wow, the number of stories is going far above our estimate. Anyway, tried something new with this one - the yandere is only there if you’re looking for it, otherwise there’s only a vague sense of “not quite right” floating around. Hmm, subtle yandere works, too.)

20 - Expressions

(This is arguably simple curiosity and a desire to further understand a loved one. Of course, it went a little out of hand. Once again, this had to be condensed into 100 words, so I apologise if it seems rushed or vague. Also, in my headcanon - or is it actual canon, since I wrote this? - the narrator is male.)

21 - Tainted

(By the same reasoning with which you cut out the rotten part of an apple to eat the rest of it, all you have to do with the rotten parts of a person is cut it off, right? Anyway, this is a fairly classic type of yandere, a break from the experimental ones before.)

22 - Pluck

(Just wanted to write something based around the idea of that simple game of plucking flower petals with a twist… sorry for not posted the next one for a long time!) - Kat

23 - Cut

(Just a look at how someone close to the protag would react if a cute new girl took his attention away from her) - Kat

24 - Mask

(It’s been a while! Playing on outer and inner appearances here) - Kat

25 - Crack

(Feelings being suppressed in a 'cage’ are always so symbolic) - Kat

26 - Diamond

(First appeared in Visual Novel Edition 1.0)

27 - Popular

(First appeared in Visual Novel Edition 1.0)

28 - Connect

(First appeared in Visual Novel Edition 1.0)

29 - Frieze

(Well, home is where the heart is. If you love someone, why not make them a part of your home? Just as you would brighten up your room with things you find beautiful…)

30 - Suicide

(An anon dropped by, asking what would happen if a yandere’s love interest died for reasons unrelated to the yandere. Well, this is one possible ending, isn’t it? I rather like the pacing of this one. It fits the word limit perfectly.)

31 - Pain

(Once again, the 100-word limit interferes with the structure I originally had in mind. As a result, it seems rushed, especially towards the end. Perhaps this one would be better served if I cut down the beginning and let the ending grow to the length it would naturally be? Hmm…)

32 - Body

(Well, our first supernatural yandere story. I used to read a lot of fantasy novels, so perhaps it would be a good idea to write some more of these. I rather like the list section in this one - it sounds gentle and thus conveys quite readily the narrator’s joy and appreciation of her new body. Ah, but it’s sad how important appearances are…)

33 - Sea

(An allusion to Annabel Lee, by Edgar Allan Poe. It takes a little more effort to see the yandere here, but if you know what you’re looking for, it’s implied quite clearly - I hope. Also, Poe wrote a lot of yandere fiction, so take a look if you’re interested.)

34 - Cold

(Someone gave me a rather confusing prompt for “toilet trouble”. Well, this story is set in a toilet. Hmm, are the narrator and love interest cohabiting? Are they flatmates? Well, each of these possibilities imply different things about the characters, so take your pick.)

35 - One

(Computers think in binary, don’t they? 0 and 1, on and off, two extremes. Perhaps extremeness would be natural to them. They remind me of Miki Sayaka now - she thinks in black and white, two extremes, just like this. It appears to be a recipe for disaster.)

36 - Smile

(This one rather stretches the definition of “yandere”. However, the sense of unworthiness the narrator has, somewhat ironically combined with a tendency to jump to conclusions and stick with them stubbornly, define many yandere characters - Keisuke, for example.)

37 - Warm

(Perhaps what I like most about this one is how the narrator periodically switches between an expressive, upbeat tone and an cold, slightly exasperated one, making it obvious that she’s just using the guise of a “clueless yandere” to provoke her rival. Of course, the final line really highlights her malice. I deliberately omitted the pronouns from this one, so if you prefer, you can imagine each character as any gender.)

38 - Tea

(Is it just me, or are the titles getting very short compared to the older ones? Anyway, this is easily the least serious yandere story on the list at the moment. Perhaps it’s a welcome break - pun unintended - from all that darkness. Or perhaps it’s not. That will be up to the reader.)

39 - Matchmaker

(This is the first time, in my memory, that I’ve used a deliberate pun in this series. Well, this pun just fit in naturally, so it should be fine - although perhaps some people will be confused while reading the last part.)

40 - Eulogy

(There would have been more build-up at the start of this one, but you know how it is with strict word limits. Aside from that, I rather like how the resentment shows through behind all the positive-sounding words. By this point in a funeral, I doubt anyone would be listening attentively enough to notice, though - to the benefit of our narrator.)

41 - Knowledge

(I really like the last line of this one. Someone requested black comedy a while ago; well, many of the things I write include it. I envisioned the narrator as an older male character this time. Anyway, this is the first story in which someone accidentally gets caught up in the yandere relationship, and it’s a fun situation to write.)

42 - Convergence

(Well, when I saw the prompt for this one, I wondered what could create a good progression from “convergence” to “unity” to “one”… And so, I opted for the choice that would lead to the most perfect one-ness. I think it’s the first of this kind of BAD END in this series.)

43 - Stockholm syndrome

(Through the eyes of the love interest… I don’t write this perspective very often, but it seemed like this prompt would be most effectively conveyed this way. I suppose that some abusive relationships perpetuate themselves precisely like this, like the human social instinct gone wrong…)

44 - Sick

(This is one of the stories that look different depending on whether you assume the speaker is yandere or normal. Anyway, this might be the first time I’ve used a prompt word so repeatedly and prominently. I thought it would be appropriate, given the etymology of the term “yandere”.)

45 - Eternity

(The inspiration for this randomly struck when I was idly thinking about creative metaphors while listening to my watch ticking. Before I knew what had happened, the first one-third of this poem had already been “written” and I was rushing over to my laptop to type it up. While I rather like the tone and imagery in this one, I can’t help but think that the phrasing and rhythm are a bit awkward. Ah, well. I’ll keep practicing.)

46 - Nitrogen

(…So, I was requested to write a story in which nobody is dead and there is a happy ending, and I write a story in which some yandere kills their lover and they are both cryonically suspended and then revived to fulfill their promise of eternal love - in a very clumsily executed way. Huh. That probably says a few things about me.)

47 - Flames

(I wanted to write a sonnet, so I did. Apparently, Shakespeare’s shortest sonnet has 105 words… Huh, no wonder this took me ages. The first version had about 120 words, and it was unsurprisingly difficult to cut the word count down while keeping the rhyme scheme and meter intact. Ah, now I want to try writing a haiku - well, 4 haikus and a couplet - sonnet…)

48 - Eyes

(For whatever reason, “look only at me” has become as standard for yandere as “i-it’s not like I did this for you or anything!” has for tsundere. While I hope that people won’t end up overusing this phrase, it’s probably inevitable. Ah, well.)

49 - Afraid

(Twisted yandere logic is quite fun to write. Perhaps it’s a fault in the human mind that things can sound reasonable to us when they aren’t - but it’s a fair source of entertainment, if we recognise what we’re doing and don’t get caught up in our own plausible lies. This narrator seems to have fooled herself by the sheer force of wishful thinking. Poor thing…)

50 - Lunatic

(Some people claim that Moon phases are linked to strange behaviour. It’s known as the “Lunar Effect” and Wikipedia says that it’s entirely untrue. Aside from that, it’s interesting how much we use brackets for. Don’t you think they all look like little eyeless smiles? We do use them in emoticons, after all.)

51 - Moon

(Sequel to Lunatic. A new moon, as long as it isn’t part of a total solar eclipse, always has a tiny remaining crescent. The problem is that it rises at sunrise and sets at sunset, and that little crescent is night-impossible to see in the daylight. Perhaps with a telescope, it’s possible - but it’ll be really close to the Sun the entire time, so it’s dangerous.)

52 - Anymore

(Another stream of consciousness. It seems exceptionally rare for yandere stories to involve someone seeking to revive a relationship that they themselves gave up. Perhaps the potential of regret as a component of yandere stories has been underestimated. Well, that’s one more area to explore…)

53 - Lightning

(Perhaps the most difficult request I’ve written so far - so of course, I decided to dress it up in as much metaphor as possible. But, well, at least I got to mention a Leyden jar in a yandere story. It was fun, tossing concepts together until they matched the events of the story.)

54 - Ferric

(Mmm, delicious motifs… This time, the central image is steel, and the way it can appear incorruptible until it begins to corrode. The “ferric” refers, of course, to the ions found in rust and in fresh blood.)

55 - Valentine’s Day

(As a change of pace, here’s a whimsical rhyme, given as a cheerful monologue.)