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]

"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?"

[myblueskies]

"So you got to draw a sort of circle round your hand first." He demonstrated, putting his hand on the material and drawing an arc shape half an inch off his hand.

[sunflowerfairy]

At the demonstration, Yotsuba nodded her head, watching what Romeo was doing. Her shadows, in the meantime, decided to stay quiet.

"Okay..then what?"

[myblueskies]

"Then you got to to draw the shape of a person." He pushed some material and pens over to Yostuba so she could start.

[sunflowerfairy]

Yotsuba, of course, copied Romeo's actions when he pushed the material over to her and nodded, smiling at the next part of the instructions.

"Okay! I'm a good drawer, so I can do that!"

However, before she could start, Shadow Daddy spoke up again.

"No you're not, Yotsuba. You're actually pretty horrible at drawing."

Yotsuba bit her lip to keep herself from crying and did her best to draw Daddy. Even if it was very sloppy-like she had drawn it with her left hand instead of her right.

[myblueskies]

"You are a good drawer." He grinned as she drew on the fabric. "Next we got to cut them out, are you okay with using scissors?"

[sunflowerfairy]

While Romeo's compliment helped her a little bit, it was nothing like hearing your beloved Daddy criticize you.

"Yotsuba is! I can use scissors!"

[myblueskies]

"Good! Then you got to cut it out really carefully!" He grinned at her again, and began cutting out his own person.

[sunflowerfairy]

"Roger!" At that, Yotsuba saluted Romeo with her free hand before reaching for a pair of scissors and cutting out her puppet of Daddy. Once she was finished, she would hold it up for him.

"This is Daddy!"

[myblueskies]

"That's really good!" He grinned, "Now you see how you got two pieces? You got to sew them together."

[sunflowerfairy]

"How? Yotsuba's never sowed anything before!"

Sure, she knew it involved a needle and some thread, but beyond that, she had no idea.

[myblueskies]

"I'll show you then!" Romeo went round to her side and grabbed the sewing kit. "First off you got to thread the needle." He did it with difficulty, concentrating hard, though he would do Yotsuba's for her as well if she couldn't manage.

[sunflowerfairy]

Yotsuba grabbed a needle and some thread, and, after several tries she managed to thread the needle. However, she was pretty frustrated by all the failed attempts, but she tried to stay calm.

"I did it! What's next?!"

[myblueskies]

"Okay well you got to put a knot in the bottom and then go like this." He demonstrated, his stitches were wide and messy.

[sunflowerfairy]

Putting a knot in the bottom was even more difficult, but she managed it before trying to stitch the two pieces together. Since she was copying Romeo, her stitches came out rather wide too, even if they might have been a little less messy. And, since she was focusing on Romeo so much, her thumb got in the way, and she pricked herself.

"Ow!!"

[myblueskies]

"Oh noe did Yostuba get hurt?" Romeo was at her side in a moment, inspecting her thumb to make sure it wasn't bleeding.

[sunflowerfairy]

Yotsuba thought she felt blood, and, sure enough, when she pulled her left hand out from the material, her thumb was bleeding a little.

"Oh..do we have any band-aids?"

[myblueskies]

Romeo blinked at her as he found some clean spare cloth to bandage her thumb with. "What's a band-aid?"

[sunflowerfairy]

Yotsuba, meanwhile, fought the urge to wipe the blood off on her pants as she thought about the answer to that question.

"It's something about thiis big-" she started, tracing out the size of the average band-aid. "-and it sticks to your skin and soaks up the blood!"