Yotsuba!&...

[sunflowerfairy]

Characters: Yotsuba Koiwai and you!
Setting: The meadow, the mailroom, and most of anywhere else.
Format: I'm starting in prose, but I'll match you.
Summary: A catch-all post for the Individuation event.
Warnings: Other than a crying Yotsuba, I can't think of anything right now.

At first, the shadows following her had been a little scary, mostly because Yotsuba didn't know where they came from or why they were following her. But it was kind of fun to have them follow her around, like they were all playing one huge game of follow the leader! So, she didn't mind them following her into the mailroom and laughed a little as she looked inside her mailbox..and pulled out a photo of her Daddy hugging her, Jumbo next to them, and the family next door-Ena, Fuka, Asagi, and their Mommy-surrounding them in the background. Surprised and happy, Yotsuba's eyes shined as she looked at the photograph before showing it to the shadows.

"Look! They're all here! Daddy and Jumbo and Fuka and-"

"Those aren't them. That's a lie, Yotsuba." That voiced surprised her, not because it came from one of the shadows, but because it sounded like Jumbo! "It's not! And why do you sound like Jumbo?! It's a good photo-oh.." As she spoke, Yotsuba kept looking at the photograph, just to make sure that it wasn't a lie..but slowly, it changed so that it showed her in a dying wasteland with her family and friends dead all around her.

"No..everything's gonna be fixed..and I'm not alone.."

Here, Yotsuba could be found sitting here with her sketchbook, crayons and Little Yoba, trying to draw what she thought was going to be the actual future. However, she didn't look very happy, and while she did make an honest attempt at it, it was very hard to draw when the souls of the people you loved kept belittling you. Eventually, while they were still there, Yotsuba mostly just hugged Little Yoba and weakly spoke to Daddy and Jumbo, who kept telling her that they didn't love her, that if Daddy hadn't adopted her, he might have been saved, and that Enoch, Diarmuid, and everyone else was going to break their promise and leave her too, all alone in the horrible place she saw.

This..was way too much for her to handle. Eventually, despite a few optimistic comments to the shadows and asking them why they hated her now, Yotsuba just started crying on Little Yoba and talking to her dolly. "Yotsuba doesn't even know what adopted is..do you know, Little Yoba?"

Yotsuba had a tendency to run around and explore, and this wouldn't change that..but she would be looking for Enoch, answers..and silence. She's pretty much free to bump into your characters, even though she'll be more tired than usual, and even though her collar will slowly become lighter, though Yotsuba herself won't notice until someone else points it out.

Comments

[sunflowerfairy]

Thankfully, the story telling was proving a good distraction from the shadows for the moment.

"They told her about children and ships and how nice it looked on the land! So, when the littlest one grew up, she swam up the surface and saw a huuuge ship, and on that ships was a prince! The ship sank though, and the mermaid saved him by pulling him to shore!"

[myblueskies]

"The mermaid was a hero!" Romeo grinned and waited for Yotsuba to tell him what happened next.

[sunflowerfairy]

"She was!"

"Much more than you or this brat."

Yotsuba did her best to calm down before continuing on.

"But she hid herself behind a rock so that she wouldn't scare him when he woke up, and another girl with some villagers found him and help him when he woke up! But he didn't even look at the mermaid!

She loved the prince, so this hurt her a lot, and she didn't feel better when she got home! A few days later, she found out where the Prince lived, and watched him a lot..and then her Grandma told her about how she could get a soul!"

[myblueskies]

"That was mean of him!" Romeo said with a frown and continued to listen.

"Didn't she already have a soul?" He asked confused, he didn't want to ruin the story but he didn't understand how she couldn't have one.

[sunflowerfairy]

"It was..but it was hard for him to see her, with all the rocks! And mermaids don't have souls, but they live a reeally long time! For three hundred years!"

[myblueskies]

Romeo nodded, it sounded weird to him, mermaids not having souls, but then again he had never met a mermaid before.

"That's a really long time! So did she get a soul?"

[sunflowerfairy]

For Yotsuba, the concept didn't sound that bizarre, since she had never met a mermaid before and hadn't even known what souls were before coming to this place.

"It is! And she did! The only way she could get a soul was to be married to a human, so she went to the sea witch and traded her tongue for a pair of legs! They hurt a whoole lot, but they worked, and the Prince took her in!"

[myblueskies]

Romeo screwed up his face, he didn't like the sound of that sea witch! She sounded a lot like Ruana. "But if she had no tongue she wouldn't be able to talk to the prince right?"

[sunflowerfairy]

For better or worse, Yotusba hadn't drawn any comparisons to the sea witch and Ruana.

"Right! They rode horses together and danced a lot, even though it hurt her feet! The Prince liked her a lot..but he liked the girl who had found him on the sand even more, so he was gonna marry her on a boat and asked the mermaid to see it!"

[myblueskies]

Romeo looked sad, it was a sad story but he was still listening because he wanted to know what happened! "Did the mermaid girl go to the wedding?"

[sunflowerfairy]

It was a bit of a sad story. After all, Yotsuba had almost teared up at it, but the happy ending had cheered her up when she finally reached it.

"She did, and she would turn into sea foam in the morning! But her sisters visited her and gave her a knife that would let her turn back into a mermaid if she killed the Prince! But..she couldn't kill him, so she threw the knife into the sea and hopped after it!"

[myblueskies]

Romeo was glad the mermaid hadn't stabbed the prince, that would have made her a bad person!

"And then what happened?"

[sunflowerfairy]

It would have, and it would have made the mermaid even sadder!

"The Mermaid died..but she became a daughter of the air and could get a soul if she did good deeds for three hundred years! So she was good and helped people for all that time and got her soul!"

"It probably would have been better if she died though. That happy ending's rather foolish, even if it makes brats like you happy."

Yotsuba's face fell a little when Jumbo spoke, but she tried her best to smile again so that she would be brave. Even if she didn't feel like it.

[myblueskies]

Three hundred years? Just to earn a soul. Though Romeo didn't think it would be hard to do good things, even for three hundred years it seemed a little sad, but happy all at the same time.

He wanted Yotsuba to smile though so he grinned, "That was a great story! The mermaid must have been a really nice person to do good things for three hundred whole years!"

[sunflowerfairy]

It was a little sad, since she couldn't be with the Prince in the way she wanted, but she still had the chance of earning a soul.

Yotsuba smiled at the compliment and nodded as she spoke. "Yeah! She was suuper nice! And watching good kids shortened her time sometimes!"

"And watching bad children like you only added onto her time."

That wiped the smile right off Yotsuba's face.

[myblueskies]

"Well that's good!" He grinned, and noticed the smile fall from her face. "Hey don't be sad Yotsuba, it was a really good story."

[sunflowerfairy]

"Oh..it was! I just hope the other daughters are okay."

After all, didn't Lucifel say that bad children added onto their time?

[myblueskies]

"The other ones? Did they got to earn their souls as well?"

[sunflowerfairy]

"Yotsuba doesn't know! It wasn't mentioned in the story.."

"They probably didn't."

[myblueskies]

"I bet they did, and then they all lived together with souls and were really happy." He grinned, "We should make some puppets so you can tell the story with them!"

[sunflowerfairy]

"That's just what you two think. After all, you thought we would be fine until you saw us like this, right, Yotsuba? But you were wrong. You're probably wrong about those spirits too."

Yotsuba, looking pretty dejected, nodded as she spoke. "How do you make puppets?"

[myblueskies]

"I can show you, we gotta go to the workshop though!"

[sunflowerfairy]

"Okay. Let's go then!"

Once again, Yotsuba hopped up and collected her things. Thankfully, the shadows decided to remain quiet for the moment.

[myblueskies]

"Okay!" Romeo led her to the workshop and found a table to work at, gathering as much material as he could as well as a sewing kit and some scissors. "Okay so you got to make them so they can fit on your hand!"

[sunflowerfairy]

Yotsuba quickly followed him, her shadows trailing behind her as they ran. As Romeo gathered things for them to use, Yotsuba put down her things so that she could actually work with Romeo. Once she was done, she watched Romeo and nodded at his explanation.

"Okay! How so?"