Rhubarb 16, Peanut Butter 3, Cantaloupe 18
Title: Skins and Names
Story Continuity: The Lethean Glamour
Flavors: Rhubarb 16: I think I feel a song coming on, Peanut Butter 3: wind/air, Cantaloupe 18: a better mousetrap
Topping: Butterscotch (takes place when Yuriya is 40, or rather when she appears 14 by human reckoning)
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 94 + 97 + 100 + 100 + 95 + 100 + 99 (pocky chain)
Summary: Yuriya may prefer a human shape, but that does not in any way make her a human girl. You should probably keep that in mind, Likely.
Thomas Likely had not seen anything like her, even before his ship was dashed upon the reef.
She was tiny, with the face of an angel and blonde hair that flowed as gently as the calmest waters. She sat on a shelf well into the ocean. The sky bled night behind her, and she oversaw it with a grandly casual splendor that made the sky seem a pale replacement.
"Hello, there!" Thomas said. "I'm Thomas Likely!"
She looked at him with large, pretty eyes, and for the second time that week, Thomas was sunk.
* * *
"So, what's your name, miss?"
"You can call me Yuriya Sakuragi," Yuriya said, "Or whatever other name you like."
Thomas frowned. "Don't you like it? I think it's quite pretty."
"A dear girl in East Volacoeur gave it to me," Yuriya said, and after a fashion, it was true. Just as true, in fact, if she instead asked to be called Mizu Onna or Mary Fell or the Bride of Ibis.
They had a lot of names for her in Volacoeur, after all; none of them were true, but not one of them could be called false.
* * *
Yuriya's oddest quirk was her great love for the feeling of wind and gravity. Sometimes, she would go topside and dance to the soft hum of the ocean, singing along quietly, moving and moving until she was dizzy with joy and keenly felt the world spinning on its axis, and her with it.
But at the end of the day, when darkness swallowed the sun and the waves were dark and glorious, she would zip her skin back up around her and return to where her heart was.
Despite what many said, she was at her core a typical girl.
* * *
When Thomas's science tutor told him as a boy about an experiment concerning mazes, rats, and cheese, Thomas realized that there were others like him, trapped in a tiny, unkind world, being manipulated by much bigger, much stronger creatures; years later, he realized the world was brimming with rats, and that perhaps there wasn't a true man to be found.
Now, thinking of Yuriya, Thomas was unsure which he was, mouse or man. She had him completely, yet he never felt as much a man as he did around her. Privately, Thomas considered Yuriya the finest mousetrap in existence.
* * *
"There's selkies about," Ackmir said one day with a wink. "Find her skin, and she'll do anything you say."
"The fae are too wild for obedience, even if the gods demanded it," Thomas argued.
"It's a sort of magic. Without their skins, they're harmless. Just like real girls, right?"
When Thomas told Yuriya, she smiled. "Steal a selkie's skin? I'd like to see it. Selkies are carefuller now, and much better at unknitting the fabric of men. Selkies are patient and resilent; men's bodies are not."
Too bound in her springs, Thomas sensed nothing amiss.
* * *
Ackmir was found first, disfigured and skinned, almost fish-like in death.
Then Hackert was taken, and from there Sardu, Liu, and Halitan. The days became quiet, and carried the feeling of twilight even at dawn and midday. Thomas found himself more drawn to Yuriya the more Ackmir's memory faded.
"We're the only two left on this island, you know. We may die soon," Thomas said.
"There's no reason to worry," Yuriya said, because nothing was on the island she didn't want there, and it was too late for Thomas, who was skinned nearly the moment he spoke to her.
* * *
Names shouldn't be taken lightly. You may not like Dana from HR, but you know where to find her. It comes with her name.
Less well known is the fact you can make her suffer with her name. Warts, illness, death. All because one day, she said, "My name's Dana Weir, don't fucking bother to tell me yours."
Maybe now she wishes you had.
Yuriya slew and tenderized Thomas Likely with his name and a curse; he died with the name of a ghost in his heart.
Yuriya Sakuragi knew the worth of a name. Tonight, it was dinner.
Story Continuity: The Lethean Glamour
Flavors: Rhubarb 16: I think I feel a song coming on, Peanut Butter 3: wind/air, Cantaloupe 18: a better mousetrap
Topping: Butterscotch (takes place when Yuriya is 40, or rather when she appears 14 by human reckoning)
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 94 + 97 + 100 + 100 + 95 + 100 + 99 (pocky chain)
Summary: Yuriya may prefer a human shape, but that does not in any way make her a human girl. You should probably keep that in mind, Likely.
Thomas Likely had not seen anything like her, even before his ship was dashed upon the reef.
She was tiny, with the face of an angel and blonde hair that flowed as gently as the calmest waters. She sat on a shelf well into the ocean. The sky bled night behind her, and she oversaw it with a grandly casual splendor that made the sky seem a pale replacement.
"Hello, there!" Thomas said. "I'm Thomas Likely!"
She looked at him with large, pretty eyes, and for the second time that week, Thomas was sunk.
* * *
"So, what's your name, miss?"
"You can call me Yuriya Sakuragi," Yuriya said, "Or whatever other name you like."
Thomas frowned. "Don't you like it? I think it's quite pretty."
"A dear girl in East Volacoeur gave it to me," Yuriya said, and after a fashion, it was true. Just as true, in fact, if she instead asked to be called Mizu Onna or Mary Fell or the Bride of Ibis.
They had a lot of names for her in Volacoeur, after all; none of them were true, but not one of them could be called false.
* * *
Yuriya's oddest quirk was her great love for the feeling of wind and gravity. Sometimes, she would go topside and dance to the soft hum of the ocean, singing along quietly, moving and moving until she was dizzy with joy and keenly felt the world spinning on its axis, and her with it.
But at the end of the day, when darkness swallowed the sun and the waves were dark and glorious, she would zip her skin back up around her and return to where her heart was.
Despite what many said, she was at her core a typical girl.
* * *
When Thomas's science tutor told him as a boy about an experiment concerning mazes, rats, and cheese, Thomas realized that there were others like him, trapped in a tiny, unkind world, being manipulated by much bigger, much stronger creatures; years later, he realized the world was brimming with rats, and that perhaps there wasn't a true man to be found.
Now, thinking of Yuriya, Thomas was unsure which he was, mouse or man. She had him completely, yet he never felt as much a man as he did around her. Privately, Thomas considered Yuriya the finest mousetrap in existence.
* * *
"There's selkies about," Ackmir said one day with a wink. "Find her skin, and she'll do anything you say."
"The fae are too wild for obedience, even if the gods demanded it," Thomas argued.
"It's a sort of magic. Without their skins, they're harmless. Just like real girls, right?"
When Thomas told Yuriya, she smiled. "Steal a selkie's skin? I'd like to see it. Selkies are carefuller now, and much better at unknitting the fabric of men. Selkies are patient and resilent; men's bodies are not."
Too bound in her springs, Thomas sensed nothing amiss.
* * *
Ackmir was found first, disfigured and skinned, almost fish-like in death.
Then Hackert was taken, and from there Sardu, Liu, and Halitan. The days became quiet, and carried the feeling of twilight even at dawn and midday. Thomas found himself more drawn to Yuriya the more Ackmir's memory faded.
"We're the only two left on this island, you know. We may die soon," Thomas said.
"There's no reason to worry," Yuriya said, because nothing was on the island she didn't want there, and it was too late for Thomas, who was skinned nearly the moment he spoke to her.
* * *
Names shouldn't be taken lightly. You may not like Dana from HR, but you know where to find her. It comes with her name.
Less well known is the fact you can make her suffer with her name. Warts, illness, death. All because one day, she said, "My name's Dana Weir, don't fucking bother to tell me yours."
Maybe now she wishes you had.
Yuriya slew and tenderized Thomas Likely with his name and a curse; he died with the name of a ghost in his heart.
Yuriya Sakuragi knew the worth of a name. Tonight, it was dinner.