Chapter 4: 04 → Unbelonging → Largely Incorrect

Josh Holliday... was in a girl’s bedroom. 

Okay, well... not quite a bedroom. It was actually more like a small motel room rather than a proper bedroom, given the other amenities in it, and how... surprisingly boring and simple the room was; almost spartan. But either way, it was a girl’s, and that was making him feel incredibly awkward and out of place. His eyes kept bouncing around between things, never sticking on anything too long in case it was against some kind of code for a... a boy like him to look at it. (Especially since he knew that in terms of boys, he wasn’t even very well-liked, considering how the girls had treated him so far.)

Ulisa, on the other hand, wasn’t really paying him any mind as she moved about her room... the dark tendrils behind her back pulling things like notebooks and folders and pens out of midair and placing them in various locations around her room such as a small filing cabinet and the desk.

At some point, her many eyes opened again, and a small stream of water poured into two glasses that she’d pulled out of a cupboard... one for her, which she set on her bedside table, and one for Josh, which she handed to him with one of her tentacles. Very hesitantly, he took it, momentarily surprised at the soft, plush-like texture as his hand brushed the near-black surface. He held the glass of water for a moment, just staring at it. It was water, right? Normal water? Not eldritch water, filled with superdimensional pathogens or whatever? Finally, he swallowed, and then took a slow, careful sip.

It was just water.

“Have a seat,” Ulisa said, gesturing down to a large, fuzzy, circular cushion. “I expect you still have a lot of questions, based on how many you asked on the way here. As much as I’d prefer ignoring them entirely, I don’t want Terisse to eviscerate, melt, vaporise, or otherwise erase you from existence before we’ve gotten extra credit, so… Here is your chance, extraplanar. Do your worst.”

Josh sat on the cushion, grimacing as he did — it was really lumpy and uncomfortable. “Uhhhhh,” he said, after a moment, filling the air as he tried to think of something. If there was anything Josh hated, it was the opportunity to ask questions coming only after he’d forgotten most of what he’d wanted to ask. But finally he shook his head and managed, “Wh-what are you?”

“Well... an ocuman, is I suppose the answer you’re seeking? Or █̴̛̼̳͙͂̈͌̏͋͑̓͑̀͘͠█̶̢̱̬̻̼̹͇͈̠̟̥̠̟̦͛̽͆̃̈́͑͆͒͋̏̓̾̕͘͝█̸̡̛̺̤̭̠͈̻̮̠͍̀͊̋̾͋̈̈͛̉͊͗̿͒█̴̨̟͈̹̼͔̫̘̣̀̉͊͂̿̀̊̄͛͌͠͠█̴̛͇͕̲̰̭͙̏͛̏̾̎͘͜͝͝█, as Ludi would probably say. But, honestly, that is a stupid question, because your mortal mind could never understand us solely by either name, especially after only some thousands of years,” she said, chuckling to herself as she lowered herself onto a very comfortable-looking bed (which made Josh feel very weird, being on this tiny little cushion.)

She was right, though. He had no idea what he was actually asking — he didn’t know enough about what he didn’t know to even know how to ask. Did he even know enough about what he didn’t know to ask her what he didn’t know? And if he didn’t even know that, was there anything he could ask in order to understand any of what he’d seen? Wait, now he’d lost his train of thought.

“Impressive... Even just the name of our species was enough to fry your brain, hmm?” she mused.

He frowned at her and she chuckled. But he shook his head finally, and asked a better question. “What... exactly... are you going to do with me? You know, to get your extra credit?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Ulisa bounced right back at him. “I’d hate to melt your brain. You seem to need all the help you can get as far as intelligence goes, after all.”

He stared at her for a moment, a little frustrated again. “Yes, I want to know.”

“Very well,” she said, ominously, dark tendrils snaking out and appearing behind her, hanging in mid-air for a moment before quickly shutting the curtains behind her. 

Everything went dark.

And... nothing. Nothing except for her third eye, the singular, bright point of light in the entire room.

“Uhhh...?” he said. “Why’d you...?”

“Give it a moment,” she grumbled, and then suddenly the room was bathed in a green glow from below, illuminating her features dramatically.

He swallowed.

“I will now explain...” Ulisa began, speaking slowly, carefully enunciating every syllable, “...our assignment.”

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“So your assignment... is literally just show and tell,” Josh said, a little unimpressed with everything she’d told him.

The curtains opened back up and the green light vanished, leaving Ulisa staring at him. “Explain, extraplanar. What is... ‘show and... tell?’” 

Josh shrugged. It was... what she’d described; he didn’t really know what else to say. “Well, I guess it’s something that... uhh, humans do, at school. When they’re really little.”

“Interesting,” Ulisa hummed. “Do these small humans get extra credit?”

He shook his head. “N-no, it’s not even graded, usually, unless it’s a participation grade.”

“Ah, that explains it. The distance between human and ocuman ability remains ever so vast, doesn’t it?” she chuckled her villainess chuckle once more — ohoho! “Small humans being incapable of ‘show and tell’ to the degree which ocumans are, and larger humans not being capable of it at all... It truly is unfortunate; a species only having an ability to function when small of size,” she shook her head sadly.

“...Right,” he said, not even bothering to correct her. To be fair, after all, it wasn’t rare for him to feel like he was too big, to the point of wondering if he actually would function better if he was smaller. But... Oh, why did his thoughts always go in the weirdest places? Shaking his head, he asked, “Anyway, uhh... are you going to send me home after you’ve gotten your extra credit?”

“Of course,” she scoffed, crossing her arms. “We have a fundamental responsibility, and an unwavering will to protect things of lesser intelligence and ability, after all,” she decreed.

Josh stared at her for a moment as she sat there all pompously. Then, drily, he asked, “That responsibility and will just doesn’t cover... Well, kidnapping, I guess?”

“E-extra credit is far more important than protecting things of lesser intelligence and ability!” she sputtered. “Hmmph! I wouldn’t expect you to understand... You do not seem to be a small human, after all.”

Josh opened his mouth, then closed it. He... didn’t know how to respond to that. Or how to feel about it, either. It wasn’t his fault he’d kept growing...

“Did you have other questions, extraplanar?” Ulisa asked. “Because if not...”

You are reading story Extra Credit for an Eldritch Horror at novel35.com

“Uh-umm...” Josh started, panicked, his mind suddenly spinning into gear and making him dizzy with questions. “This is a school, right? What are you learning? Why does everyone have different numbers of eyes? Why do all the buildings and people look so weird here? Why—” 

Ulisa’s many eyes lit up again, all glaring at him, and he shut his mouth. “S-sorry.”

“Yes. Oculum is indeed a school — a school of Odd Magicks. Many magicks are dependent on the quantity of eyes one possesses, so... ocumans such as I — who have spent hundreds of millions of years training, attaining additional eyes — are generally well-respected,” she said, her fingers over her lips as she laughed haughtily. “There is vanishingly little I cannot do.”

Josh Holliday, for his part, just stared at her, no more frightened of her than he already was.

“As for all the buildings, and people,” Ulisa began, “are you sure you’re not the one that looks weird?”

Yeah, alright. That was fair.

“Now, if you don’t mind...” she said, and in a singular blink of Josh’s eyes she’d already gone from wearing her fancy Victorian dress to comfy-looking fuzzy pyjamas covered in little pictures of eyeballs. “It is very late, and I believe it’s time for us to sleep.”

She really felt zero shame at him seeing her in those pyjamas, huh? And they were so cute and silly-looking, especially compared to the fancy Victorian clothes she’d been wearing before. She was right not to be ashamed, though... the only feeling Josh felt at seeing her in them was jealousy. Her confidence was off the charts, her ability to “own” cute clothes like that. And, honestly? He felt more jealous of that ability than her ability to use... uhh... “Odd Magicks” or whatever.

“O-okay,” he said, only just then realising that he didn’t have his own pyjamas, or a toothbrush, or... well, anything really. He just had this pillow which was way too small to sleep on. Was it worth complaining? ...Probably not. He’d fall asleep. Eventually. Maybe.

...

...Or not. Ulisa fell asleep soon after that, but Josh? He simply stared at the wall, unblinking, still feeling way too big and way too out of place. Funnily enough, though, he didn’t really have much interest in being back home, either. He didn’t belong here, or there. 

He didn’t belong anywhere.

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When Josh woke up he was very, very uncomfortable, and very, very confused. He didn’t understand the room he was in — his brain and eyes felt like they were playing tricks on him. Was he still dreaming? He definitely felt half asleep... For some reason it felt like he’d barely slept.

Oh. No, he wasn’t dreaming. He had barely slept. All night he’d been curled up on that tiny little cushion which barely fit him, feeling way too large and misshapen. At the very least he wished he had a blanket or pyjamas, but... he had neither. And anything would’ve been more comfortable overnight than the stupid getup he was stuck in... his regular clothes of baggy jeans and a hoodie. And for some reason the idea of “anything” being more comfortable kept making him think of pyjamas like Ulisa’s... Like... cute, g-girly pyjamas. And that kept making him blush and be way too distracted.

To be fair to his dumb brain, though — he mused — even clothes like that probably would’ve been better. But what situation here would get him in girl clothes? That didn’t make any sense. Or did it?

For a moment there he began to imagine if this world had somehow turned him into a girl — it wasn’t any weirder than anything else that had happened, was it? It could’ve been all sorts of things that caused it, too… the girls that kidnapped him, the creepy tentacle space tunnel, the strange clicking noise just near the four of them the night before… And then he’d have been a girl, and then he’d have had to go to sleep wearing girly pyjamas. 

That would’ve been fun. 

Errr. For a moment. Probably. (Why did he think that would be fun? Apparently this place was getting to him.)

Anyway, it didn’t matter. He didn’t want to get all caught up in thoughts like that again, not when this… plane(?) was so interesting. He had more important things to do! Like, you know… utterly fail to fall asleep at a reasonable time, or something. Like last night.

Ugh. It wasn’t even just the cushion and his brain against him, last night. The whole night he’d also had to listen to Ulisa snoring on the other side of the room. She moved around at night, like, a lot. Well, those weird tentacle tendril things did, anyway. That had also made it pretty hard to fall asleep. 

(To be honest, though, the terrible cushion and lack of cute— err, normal pyjamas were definitely what made it hardest.)

Where was that eldritch girl anyway?

“Boo,” someone said, directly behind Josh’s head. He shot out of his makeshift bed and scrambled away, falling backwards onto the floor in front of Ulisa’s now-empty bed.

“L-Ludi,” he breathed, trying desperately to calm his racing heart.

“Sup, extraplanar,” she said, grinning and revealing that mouthful of sharp teeth again as she brushed back her black and red hair. “We need you down at the class. As many thousands of years that you might need to sleep, extra credit comes first.”

“I didn’t sleep that long,” he frowned, and she rolled her eyes. “And the length of time I did sleep was because this bed was really uncomfortable. You all have weird furniture here, I swear. Back home they’d call a cushion like this a pet bed.”

Ludi glanced at the cushion, then back at him. Then back at the cushion, and back at him, giving him a long look. “We call those pet beds here, too.”

He opened his mouth. Then closed it. Then sighed.

“Yeah,” he said, finally. “Yeah. I should’ve figured that, huh?”

“Probably,” Ludi laughed, before spinning around and gesturing for him to follow. “Come on then, little pet,” she winked back at him, chortling once more.

Josh did as she asked, but grumbled all the way. Not about what she’d said, though... Instead, he was... confused. Why did it feel so different when Ulisa was the one being rude to him?