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yurishippingolympics
For this bonus round, we're looking for prompts inspired by plant/flower symbolism and the language(s) of flowers!
Here are some resources on flower meanings:
Script Florist
Farmer's Almanac
Wikipedia: Hanakotoba
Wikipedia: Plant Symbolism
This round will end on July 1st.
Fills can be in any format, and you can fill your teammates prompts, but you cannot fill your own prompt.
You can post as many fills and as many prompts as you want!
for your prompt post title, please use the following format:
PROMPT: TEAM [TEAM NAME]
for your fill post title, please use the following format:
FILL: TEAM [TEAM NAME]
POINTS - BONUS ROUNDS
For prompts: 10 points each (maximum of 150 prompt points per team per round)
For fills:
First 4 fills by any member of your team: 100 points each
Fills 5-10: 50 points each
Fills 11-20: 40 points each
Fills 21-50: 30 points each
Fills 51+: 25 points each
PROMPT: ADMIN EXAMPLE
Date: 2024-06-16 06:10 pm (UTC)FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-06-19 10:09 pm (UTC)i wasn't sure if different colors of camellias have different meanings and i kind of just went with the first picture i found in google so sorry if there are any inconsistencies!!
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“Please help me!” Kitty begs, hands clasped together. She knows what she must look like–dirt smudged on her robes and twigs tangled up in her hair. She’s a Category 5 on the hurricane scale but she’s desperate–beyond desperate. She passed desperation three hours ago when she transcended to a new level of being. “Professor Lee is going to fail me if I can’t find this stupid flower for this stupid spell and it’s due tomorrow and I’ve spent the whole afternoon searching the forest and I still can’t find it so will you please help me look?”
Yuri blinks at her, a spellbook propped open in her hands.
“Sorry, what?” she asks blankly. Kitty sucks in a breath and tries again. The little Alex on her shoulder reminds her that Not everyone’s on Kitty time. And that her assignment is still due in 8 hours. Great.
“I need to find a stupid flower to pass Professor Lee’s stupid assignment. Please help me.” She doesn’t get on her knees but it’s a close thing.
“Oh!” Yuri laughs, snapping the book shut. She hops off the desk and Kitty watches her cross the length of the room. “Right–the assignment for Magical History. First of all, it’s not a stupid flower. It’s the school’s emblem and no wonder you’re having trouble finding one–the whole forest’s probably been picked clean at this point.”
Kitty groans and slumps against the wall. Yuri and her are friends–are they friends? Yuri keeps dragging her on these outings when she’s bored, despite having a friend group larger than Kitty’s student debt but she’s never said no to one of Kitty’s favors and she’s saved her ass more than twice. Regardless, Yuri and her are… mutual acquaintances at the least but sometimes Kitty forgets her tendency to be unmercifully blunt. She’s speared through the heart by Yuri’s honesty.
“But you’re in luck! I happen to know a secret spot where a couple grow.”
Yuri takes a step into the sunlight and Kitty lingers in the doorway, uncertain if she’s meant to follow.
“Does this mean that you’ll help me?” she asks, squinting. The outline of her frame is glowing and Kitty can’t tell if it’s a trick of the light or a spell. The spell of love, the unhelpful Minho on her shoulder pipes up and she mentally flicks him to the ground.
She’s not in love with the prettiest girl in school. Actually, scratch that–who isn’t? Everyone’s a little bit in love with the prettiest girl in school–it’s only natural. Everyone thinks Yuri’s beautiful and Kitty’s no exception. Yeah, she’s fine. Everything is fine.
“Of course, silly!” Yuri laughs. She grabs Kitty’s wrist when she’s not satisfied with the pace and Kitty almost trips over her own two feet. “We’re friends after all!”
Ah. So Yuri does consider them friends.
“Yep, friends,” Kitty smiles, nodding, because don’t all friends daydream of kissing each other behind the school? It must be a natural reaction to the close proximity.
“Why’d you wait so long to start on Professor Lee’s assignment? They’re always absurdly difficult.”
“Ughhhhhh,” Kitty groans at the reminder, using her free hand to smother her face. “It wasn’t my choice! I’m so behind after transferring and I’ve been busy doing make-up exams and late assignments that this homework completely snuck up on me. Everything at KISS has been so… different compared to back home. You know, I used to be considered something of a genius in my town.”
“Were you now?”
“Hey, stop smiling! It’s true! You should ask my sisters when they come,” Kitty grumbles. She fights to keep the frown screwed onto her face but Yuri’s responding giggle may as well be a white flag. It’s a battle that she’s destined to always lose.
“Well, Kitty, I’d say you’re doing much better than when you first came. No desks have been blown up recently, no wands broken, no–”
“No! Don’t say it!”
“No frogs eaten either!” Yuri tacks on gleefully and Kitty feels her heart squeeze inside her chest. “I’d say you have a pretty good track record for the week.”
“Thanks, but it’s about to get spoiled unless I find this stupid–” Yuri raises one warning eyebrow. “Sorry, very-noble-and-cool-flower-that-represents-the-pride-and-future-of-KISS-Arcane-Academy. Better?”
“Much,” Yuri replies, tipping her head to smile. Kitty turns her face away, cheeks flushed.
“Where are you taking us, anyways?” she asks in a desperate attempt to change the subject before she combusts.
“My mother’s garden,” Yuri replies. She’s swinging their hands in time with their steps and Kitty finds it cute. Agh, no, she means logical!
“Wait. You want us to steal flowers from the principal’s garden?” Kitty’s heels dig into the dirt but Yuri yanks her forward.
“Oh come on, she has like a hundred! She won’t miss one and besides–it’s to help her student learn. She’d be all over that… probably slap it in a brochure too, actually.” Yuri tugs her another two steps forwards. “Besides, you don’t want to fail, right?”
Kitty works her lip between her teeth.
“You sure she won’t get mad?”
“Positive,” Yuri replies and Kitty’s heartbeat levels to something vaguely resembling normal. “As long as she doesn’t find out it was you.” Scratch that–she needs a healer on the scene, stat.
“I hope Principal Lim knows that I wouldn’t do this unless I didn’t have any other options,” Kitty mutters, swallowing past the lump in her throat. They’re crossing a stream now and Yuri wades into the water to hold her hand across the wooden plank.
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” Yuri replies with concerning ease. Kitty wonders how many other of Principal Lim’s belongings have gone mysteriously missing over the years. She swears (again) to never get on Yuri’s bad side.
“Okay, we’re here,” Yuri says, pulling at the latch of a wooden fence. It stands alone in the field, nothing but miles and miles of empty grass behind it.
“Are you sure–”
“Shh, I need to focus.” Yuri runs her thumb hard across the tip until it draws blood and the gate squeaks loudly before it swings open to reveal a garden behind it, like a little pocket dimension that they duck into. There’s a neatly trimmed rosebush tucked in the corner and an apple tree stretching up above the flowers. The leaves are laced with tiny lights.
“She must have been taking care of this place for a while,” Kitty says, bending down to inspect a row of tulips. They span all the colors of the rainbows–oranges ones for a telepathy spell, tall, yellow ones for the transformation spells, light purple ones for illusions.
“Must have,” Yuri replies and uproots a flower without a second thought. Kitty shrieks in sympathy.
“Here,” Yuri says, holding it out to her. Kitty reaches for it cautiously like the stem is on fire. She feels like Eve in the garden taking a forbidden fruit. “It’s for you.”
The pink flower Yuri hands her is beautiful. It has cascades of petals in endless rings around the center and it smells sweet when she lifts it up to her nose. However, what it is not is the purple weird shrub-looking thing that the school uses as its emblem.
“This isn’t the flower for my assignment,” Kitty says slowly. Yuri stares at her wordlessly before smiling.
“I know!” Kitty blinks.
“W-Well then, what is this?” Yuri’s turned around by this point but she pauses to toss a smile over her shoulder.
“You’re a genius–figure it out!”
FILL: TEAM FIRE EMBLEM
From:PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 06:54 pm (UTC)― Susan Polis Schutz
(in the hopes of avoiding every prompt being "flower - meaning" I'm gonna throw y'all some quotes about flowers and varying degrees of symbolism.)
FILL: Team Ace Attorney
Date: 2024-06-18 03:04 am (UTC)FILL: Team Kittyuri
From:FILL: Team Griddlehark
From:PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 06:55 pm (UTC)― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 06:57 pm (UTC)― Ella Wheeler Wilcox
FILL: Team Ace Attorney
Date: 2024-06-29 09:46 pm (UTC)Game: Ace Attorney Investigations
Re: FILL: Team Ace Attorney
From:PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:00 pm (UTC)Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine."
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:03 pm (UTC)and if the moon walks out, the sky will understand;
but now it hurts, to watch you leave so soon,
when I don't know, if you will ever come back."
― Sanober Khan
FILL: TEAM OC MOON
Date: 2024-06-23 07:05 am (UTC)Ship: Aylin/Isobel
Words: 706
Aylin was alone.
Her dearest Isobel had perished decades ago–she had no way of knowing how long now, no method of marking her mourning with every little anniversary, as though she would grieve less deeply on every other night without her. Even her mother, with all her power, could not reach her in this wretched place. No one but servants of villainy, cultists and that terrible necromancer, could reach her here. Not even Isobel’s father dared visit her after that first time, the coward.
And now, not even her own wings. Not content to harvest her very life, no, Balthazar had to take even that from her.
She roared and pulled at her chains, but try as she might, they held fast. Dark wizardry designed to snuff out her light. Blood trickled down her back from weeping wounds at every movement, the pain of it only fueling her rage.
Aylin would kill them. She would slaughter them all.
But when she finally sat down to rest, there were no feathers to wrap around herself as she wallowed, and she knew not whether hours or centuries awaited before she could fulfill her vow.
“Aylin?”
A gentle hand shook her shoulder, and Aylin’s eyes snapped open in a flash of silver.
“Aylin, it’s only me. You were crying while you slept.” Isobel’s voice, the one she’d yearned to hear for so long. Aylin tried to relax at its tone, but she found she could not.
“Damn it all.” Aylin sat upright. Her hands shook still. She had slain Ketheric Thorm; her hands should not be yet shaking. She should not weep beside her beloved.
Isobel rose as well. She huddled close, her hand going to Aylin’s back to stroke softly. “It’s alright, you know. It’s not a failing.”
“They do not deserve my tears.” The words came out angrier than she intended. She curled her hands to fists, but did nothing with them.
“There is a flower named after Selûne’s tears, you know,” Isobel went on. “Called just that, a beautiful midnight-blue blossom. If your mother could cry enough for a flower to be named after the event, you’re certainly allowed.”
Aylin hated it when Isobel had a point. Though at the same time, she could never hate anything about Isobel at all.
“I dreamed of your return to me so often that sometimes, I’m unsure which one is the dream and which is reality,” she admitted.
It felt as though she were admitting defeat, utterly infuriating. Balthazar was dead. Ketheric was dead. She alone had risen from Shadowfell, glowing and glorious.
How could it then feel like defeat?
She summoned her wings, flapped them once, then dismissed them just as fast, just to prove to herself that she could.
“This is real. I am real, and I am here,” Isobel assured her, as if it were perfectly natural to have to assure such a thing. She stole a quick kiss, an attempt to prove her point. “I am not going anywhere.”
Aylin knew that was not true. Isobel may have been revived, but she was still mortal. But she had long made her peace with that, so long as she was able to live out her days to their natural end this time.
“And I am ever grateful for it,” she said instead.
“Come, lay down. I know an enchantment good for fright.” Isobel patted the bed.
Aylin laid as directed. “Hah. I am not frightened.” Yet, she did not protest.
“Of course not, my darling. Te absolvo.”
With that, Isobel’s hands glowed sky-blue but for a moment, and Aylin felt as though her heart were wrapped in a warm embrace, the fear and unease and even rage driven straight out of it for the time being. It would not last, she knew, and she would not like it to–she was not one to run from her problems, even when said problems could not be cut down with a sword.
But she would not turn down a single night’s undisturbed rest, either.
“Better?” Isobel asked, wiping the tears from her cheeks now that they’d stopped, her fingers running painlessly along the scars traversing Aylin’s face.
One night of peace. She would face it tomorrow.
“Always.”
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:07 pm (UTC)― Tennessee Williams, Camino Real
(Yes, I'm linking the "violets are for lesbianism" post on a second prompt.)
FILL: Team Anime/Manga
Date: 2024-06-29 09:10 pm (UTC)word count: 543
pairing: winter schnee/cinder fall, passing mention of weiss schnee/ruby rose
fandom: RWBY
characters: weiss schnee, winter schnee, cinder fall, vaguely mentioned ruby rose + yang xiao long
//
Weiss is twenty the first time she sees her big sister smile at someone who isn’t her or Penny.
They’re sitting together on the grass, cross-legged, knees brushing together — it’s the closest they ever get to touching casually, and it’s something close to perfect — when Winter looks away from her to pull her phone out of her pocket, frowning a little.
“What’s up?” Weiss asks. As far as she knows, Winter has about six people’s contact information, so it must be significant.
Winter shrugs one shoulder. “My — friend, Cinder. She wants to know where I am.”
Weiss’s eyebrows shoot up. “You’re friends with Cinder?”
She ducks her head, and it looks like something close to a blush.
That’s — weird. Winter is barely friends with anybody, and she can’t imagine her odd, uptight sister getting along with Cinder Fall, of all people. Still, it’s nice to see her doing something that isn’t killing herself in the military or stalking about her apartment like a lost poltergeist. Weiss tilts her head up and offers her a smile. “I don’t mind if she wants to join us.”
Winter shrugs again, peering down at her phone in the harsh afternoon light. “I’ll let her know. She’s not exactly the most sociable person in the world.”
“I know,” Weiss says, thinking of the five or six times she’s almost died that Winter definitely cannot know about. “She’s been a terrible influence on Yang for as long as I remember.”
A corner of Winter’s mouth quirks up. “That sounds like her.”
Oh, that’s weird weird.
//
Cinder slouches up the hill they’re sitting on with her hands tucked into her pockets. “Bit idyllic, isn’t it?”
Weiss rolls her eyes. “This is the only good picnic spot in all of Atlas.”
She shrugs, shoulders shifting under layers of black fabric. It looks unbearably hot, given the weather. Weiss glances to the side and finds Winter staring at Cinder, transfixed.
So she’s on her own. Great.
Cinder drops down in the grass next to Winter, slipping an arm through hers without much preamble. “Hey, thanks for — you know. Not telling me to fuck off.” Her head comes down to rest on Winter’s shoulder, her thumb settles on her knee and begins circling gently. Weiss fixes her gaze on an interesting cloud instead of the two of them, twining into each other like dysfunctional sunflowers.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Winter says. Her voice sounds curiously strangled.
“Do you have to canoodle right next to me?”
“We are not even close to canoodling, thank you —”
“I’ll make it worse if you ask me nicely,” Cinder huffs.
Weiss turns back to scowl at the both of them — Winter for being so weird, and Cinder for dragging her down with her — and discovers Cinder’s hand on Winter’s waist, Winter’s fingers drumming against her shoulder. “Just friends?” she asks pointedly, and Cinder scowls.
“You’re one to talk,” she mutters. “Do you know how many times we’ve had to take my car because you and Ruby won’t stop making out on the —”
“Irrelevant,” Weiss says sharply, but she catches sight of Winter smiling at Cinder as she talks, soft and light and far too familiar, and lets it go. “Whatever. We’ve still got sandwiches if you want any.”
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:17 pm (UTC)― Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:18 pm (UTC)And canopied in darkness sweetly lay
Till they might open to adorn the day."
― William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece
FILL: TEAM TRANSFORMERS
Date: 2024-07-02 03:41 am (UTC)Words: 1,120
‘Till all are one.
Elena had repeated that simple phrase with the rest of the Maximals at the end of Optimus Primal’s eulogy to Airazor.
Two months had passed since she helped the Autobots, Maximals and Noah stop Scourge from summoning Unicron. For someone who had never been outside of Bronx, it was surprisingly easy for her to decide to stay in Peru. It was Optimus Primal’s suggestion, that she take credit for the archeological discovery of the temple beneath Cusco.
It also gave her the opportunity to be present for the design and creation of Airazor’s mausoleum. Unlike Bumblebee, the Maximals hadn’t immediately placed Airazor’s body on an altar of Energon rich rock. They all refused to think of the what ifs, and continued as Airazor would have wished, honor her memory and move forward together.
Today, that is what they did. Optimus Primal had held Airazor’s frame close to his chest as he carefully carried her up the mountain that caressed their valley, leading the Maximals, Elena and their small tribe of allies up to a secluded cliffside edge. The mausoleum they’d built was simple yet beautiful, made entirely of the rock veined with Energon, deeply engrained to the mountain with an unobstructed view of both the sky and the valley below.
Elena paused at the entrance to Airazor’s resting place and brushed her hand across the two ceramic seals, one resembling a falcon, the other the maximal symbol, and walked inside.
“Hey, Airazor.” Elena murmured as she laid her eyes on the maximal’s resting form on the altar. “It’s ah- it’s my turn to wish you well on your way to the AllSpark. The other Maximals told me to go first…I think they’re planning on a long vigil and an additional ritual. Some tradition from your home world? Eukaris?”
Elena stopped by Airazor’s side and slowly trailed her gaze along her large frame. They had meticulously cleaned her until not a single rusted speck of Unicron’s dark energy could be seen. Each feather and talon glinted dangerously in the golden hour light. Adornments framed the altar, traditional Andean offerings for Airazor to take into the afterlife.
“You would have loved the set up we’ve prepared for you.” Elena continued, her chest felt tight, “Optimus Primal had chosen each slab of rock by hand. He- he carved it right out of the side of the mountain and built this entire thing, with Cheetos and Rhinox’s help of course…oh! And Wheeljack’s,” she barked out a laugh, “You would have had a field day, seeing your friends having to beat back all of Wheeljack’s grand ideas for your…space.”
Elena lowered her head and fiddled with the edge of her shirt, silence stretching across the mausoleum before she found the words to speak again. “I helped too. I was the one who thought to give you a view of the sky.” She pointed up at the skylight on the ceiling, allowing in the natural light that held Elena and Airazor together in a single spotlight. “I couldn’t imagine you wanted to be encased in stone.”
“I also helped Amaru and his family gather all the flowers.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “Quantuta, the sacred flower of the Incas, hang across the walls outside. They say that if the you become thirsty on your way to the other world, you can drink from the flower’s nectar. A pretty thought…though I doubt that’s your cup of tea.”
Elena fell silent, raising her head to take in Airazor’s face. So elegant yet fierce. Marigold eyes that long since sheathed their light. She looked peaceful here, as if she’d one day wake up to see the resting place her friends had so lovingly crafted for her.
Elena’s voice cracked, “I also…” she took a deep breath, “I also picked a lot of alstroemerias. Did- did you know that there are so many different meanings to the Lily of the Incas? Traditionally, it’s a symbol of wealth and prosperity, but the individual colors of the alstroemeria have their own meanings as well.”
“We picked mostly yellow alstroemerias. They are associated with camaraderie and companionship. Fitting, right? You and the rest of the Maximals were like family to each other, no matter how long it’d been since you’d last seen one another. Amaru told me that by giving you these, we show our gratitude for all you’ve done for us and that you are a person within our inner circle of sacred trust.”
Elena’s eyes shifted back and forth, the world suddenly blurred as she struggled to find somewhere to look, “Um…white symbolizes purity and innocence. You and I both know you turned plenty of robot heads in your time.” She choked out a laugh, “but it also means new beginnings. Fitting, since both the Incas and the Maximals believe in the afterlife. Orange means strength, positivity, and warmth. Something you showed me in abundance in the time we spent together…”
It was such a short time too. Elena had barely known Airazor. Why did she feel this way? Everything happened so fast. Elena had been thrown into the adventure in the midst of a battle. All at once introduced to aliens, robots, war, and a giant planet god that wanted to destroy her world, without any prior warning. Yet in between the screaming for her life and hunting down portal keys, Elena had been drawn to Airazor. She had been drawn to the way she held herself. The way she preened when Elena teasingly praised her majestic visage. She had admired her wisdom, the way Airazor so effortless understood life and the importance of truly living. She’d been as vibrant as an orange alstroemeria.
“And. Um…um…” A tear streaked down Elena’s cheek. “We also picked pink flowers. They represent femininity. Another trait of yours…that feminine strength could have shook New York City down to her bones, you know. They also convey joy, affection, love…”
Oh.
Elena curled in on herself, head hung over Airazor’s still frame. Her chest constricted as a laughing sob wracked across her body. A little too late to realize she’d had a massive crush on Airazor. Had Airazor been human, would Elena had clocked her feelings immediately? Would she had thought to squeeze in just a couple more seconds with her before she’d lose her chance? If only they’d had more time.
In her short human lifespan, Elena never so desperately wished for time to spend on the one she’d lost before she knew what she had to lose.
“I- I…” Elena tried and failed to speak, tears streaming down her face. “Thank you. For what you freely gave to me and my world. Adiós, Airazor. Nos vemos…’till all are one.”
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:23 pm (UTC)Who will grieve the rest who fall?"
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars
FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-06-30 04:27 am (UTC)link to ao3 fic!
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:24 pm (UTC)― Heinrich Heine
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:35 pm (UTC)― Alexander Den Heijer
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:39 pm (UTC)more than daffodils
and cried more than June."
― Sanober Khan
(abbreviated meaning: rebirth and new beginnings)
FILL: Team Ace Attorney
Date: 2024-06-18 03:37 am (UTC)PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:39 pm (UTC)red camellia: in love, perishing with grace
PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:40 pm (UTC)kuroyuri (kamchatka fritillary): love, curse
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-06-16 07:41 pm (UTC)PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:42 pm (UTC)sayuri (orange lily): hatred, revenge
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-06-16 07:42 pm (UTC)Cherry blossom: kind, gentle, transience of life (hanakotoba) / "There are dead bodies buried under the cherry trees!"
(A very famous and very short story by Motojirō Kajii. Essentially a mental breakdown formatted in words; read with caution.)
FILL: Team Rosemary
Date: 2024-06-26 04:24 am (UTC)pairing: June<>Terezi
FILL: Team Touhou
From:PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:43 pm (UTC)but don't worry.
The dandelion has it."
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
(abbreviated meaning: lasting happiness, joy, wishes fulfilled)
FILL: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-19 01:27 am (UTC)PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:43 pm (UTC)alstroelmeria (lily of the incas): such strong connection that language is limited when trying to explain it
PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:55 pm (UTC)-"Under the Cherry Trees", Motojirō Kajii tr. David Boyd
FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-06-21 01:28 am (UTC)Word Count: 952
i've never actually read the story haha but it definitely sounds interesting and i hope i did the prompt justice!
-------------------------------------------------
An unfamiliar woman swings into her carriage on the eve of her wedding. Yuri stares blankly at her masked face.
“Hi,” the woman says, hiking up the cloth on her face. Her eyes are bright and her lips are small and cute. Yuri has never seen unpainted lips out in public before. She’s never seen ones so adorable either. “Wow, you’re even prettier than the rumors say! How many people did you kill?”
She elbows Yuri in the ribs but Yuri just blinks back in a daze.
“Sorry, what?”
The woman–girl? She can’t be any older than Yuri but Yuri doesn’t even know what to consider herself. Betrothed at 16 and married at 17, she wonders where on the spectrum that puts her. Regardless, the person in her carriage does some weird shaking motions with her hands and laughs.
“There are dead bodies buried under the cherry trees!” she recites, putting on airs. Yuri thinks it’s supposed to be some attempt at a Western accent but no recognition crosses her face.
Pity that her father always insisted on polishing her poise rather than her prose. It’s a testament to their family business that runs on reputation more than anything else. Her mother could run the company a thousand times better if only her father would let her step out from the kitchen.
The girl frowns at her confusion.
“Seriously? You don’t know that one?” she asks and Yuri shakes her head mutely. “It’s true, I swear. How else could they flower that beautifully?”
Ah. Yuri doesn’t need to know the story to understand the sentiment. She wonders how many lives her mother has ruined to grow her, how many peoples’ blood, sweat and tears she’s been watered with over the years.
Yuri laughs bitterly at the irony. She touches her clothes made of silk and the paint layered painstakingly onto her face. And for what? All that work and for what? For a pretty face in the window and a lifetime relegation to the kitchen–forever on display but never to be touched?
Flowers are so pretty yet so fragile in the wind.
“Well,” the girl interjects cautiously, like Yuri’s entire inner turmoil is written clearly in the lines of her face. Fuck–she’d been careless. She wipes the expression off her face like she’s polishing a silver plate. “I was just trying to say that you’re pretty. Way prettier than the rumors say and way too pretty to marry an old, fat man like–ah, sorry! That’s your husband, my bad! Just forget I said anything.”
The girl in her carriage is a wreck–nothing like the slow, old man her father had her betrothed to. He’d probably die of a heart attack if that many emotions crossed his face.
“Let me try this again,” the girl says, sucking in a breath. Her lips form the numbers as she counts to three. “Hi, my name is Kitty!” A pseudonym, clearly. Yuri takes the hand she extends out to her. “And I’ve come to kidnap you.”
What the fuck. The world grinds to a halt and it takes Yuri a few moments to realize that the standstill isn’t just in her mind. The carriage has stopped moving and Kitty takes a peek out the curtain. Whatever she sees brings a smile to her face. It’s a beautiful sight.
“And that’s my cue! Chop-chop, we’ve got places to be!” She pulls a blade out easily from her belt, as natural as if she’s breathing air, and presses the tip under Yuri’s chin. “I don’t have to tell you what happens if you don’t behave, right?”
Yuri feels her heart in her throat but nods regardless. Kitty grins and hops out of the carriage. There’s an array of scuff marks on the back of her boots.
“I knew there was a reason I liked you!”
Yuri reaches out for her hand but she’s a second too slow.
“Wait!” she yells. Kitty tosses a cautious smile over her shoulder.
“Wait, what?”
“I’ll double your payment if you take me with you,” she huffs and Kitty arches an eyebrow.
“That’s the plan–you know, the whole kidnapping thing?”
“No.” Yuri’s resolution is palpable, she can feel it in her throat when she swallows. “I want to join you. Take me with you. You said I’m too pretty to marry that fat old man after all, right?”
Kitty blinks at her. She leans against the carriage and presses the tip of the blade against her lip in contemplation.
“Wow, you’re more gutsy than I thought,” she says finally. It’s not a no and Yuri clings to the knowledge like it’s a lifeline.
“My hair pin is worth more than your weight in gold,” she says, untangling it from her hair. These curls took two days to shape and Yuri pulls them loose without a second thought. “And I know where my parents will send people first. I can help keep you out of sight.”
Kitty leans in close, hands pressed behind her back as she studies her.
“You can’t back out halfway,” she says. “If you’re in with us–you’re in all the way.” Yuri nods back. The adrenaline is making her heart throb violently against the cage of her chest.
“Then, welcome to the team, Yuri!” Kitty laughs, sticking her hand out. “We’re glad to have you–or at least I am! Minho’s probably gonna be a bitch about it but he’s always a bitch so just ignore him.”
Yuri grins. Kitty’s spiraling is already amusing and it’s only been ten minutes since they’ve known each other. She wonders what a lifetime would look like.
Yuri takes her open hand and steps out of the carriage. Outside, it’s the first day of spring.
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 07:58 pm (UTC)― Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
(amaryllis abbreviated meaning: pride, strength, determination, passion)
PROMPT: Team Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-06-16 08:03 pm (UTC)“They’re straight from the underworld, by the way. They are everlasting. They won’t die.”
― Jess C Scott, The Devilin Fey
(purple lily abbreviated meaning: royalty, elegance, spirituality)
FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-06-26 10:11 pm (UTC)Word Count: 937
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s the outfit that gets her first. A little dated, sure–Kitty’s not sure the last time she saw someone under twenty-five sporting pinstripes–but drop-dead gorgeous. Kitty scoops her jaw off the chipped pavement and tells her legs to keep moving. They respond like buggy code, her nerves acting like frayed wires as she trips over a stone and struggles to right herself.
It’s the flowers that catch her attention second. The petals are long and thin, a rich purple that bleeds into black at the center. Kitty doesn’t recall seeing anything like those on campus–not that she’s exactly sightseeing as she’s running between classes.
And it’s her voice that gets her third.
“Kitty, these are for you,” the woman? girl? says, offering the bouquet. She can’t be any older than a college student but she certainly doesn’t look the part. She’s got a leather purse with little skulls emblazoned onto the handles that looks like it costs five times Kitty’s running tuition bill.
Kitty’s jaw hits the floor for the second time in twenty seconds when she remembers that she never introduced herself.
“Me?” she squawks, glancing around at the empty parking lot. The girl nods and pushes the bouquet into her hand when she doesn’t reach out to accept.
The flowers are undeniably alive but they smell like death.
“They’re straight from the underworld, by the way. They are everlasting. They won’t die,” the girl tacks on casually, like she’s offering a two-for-one deal at the supermarket. Kitty pinches her own forearm at the surrealism but she doesn’t wake up.
Flowers from Hell and omniscient beings. There is something very wrong with this picture and she doesn’t even think it’s the girl’s abnormal beauty.
“Who are you?” Kitty chokes out when her throat comes unstuck. She’ll need a name for the contact in her phone, after all–or she can leave it at Pretty Flower Girl / Maybe Stalker?
“Yuri,” the girl replies, sticking one hand out. “The King of Hell.”
Kitty doesn’t know whether you’re supposed to shake or kiss the hands of royalty so she ends up gripping it in some sort of bear-claw hold instead. Lovely. She can probably look forward to a hundred years in purgatory for that one.
Yuri’s skin is cool to the touch but she laughs at Kitty’s pitiful attempt at courtesy.
“You don’t have to look so nervous,” she says as Kitty tries to discreetly cover up her heart with that stupid, useless literature textbook Professor Lee makes them lug to every class. She can’t remember if demons feasting on live hearts is something from mythology or a wayward Reddit post she landed on at 2AM. Probably both. “I’ve come here with a proposition.”
I can think of twenty ways to proposition you–
The Q on her shoulder tells her to shut up and focus if she wants to retain her claim to her soul. For once, she listens–which is funny, considering she never listens to the real one.
“A proposition?” she says, somehow making it to the end of the sentence without laughing. Someone needs to update the archives of Hell with a thesaurus and a ten-volume series on the evolving memespeak.
“Come home with me,” Yuri says and the flowers land in a bundled heap on the floor. Maybe the King of Hell does keep a copy of the Urban Dictionary.
“How much is rent there?” Kitty asks instead of something normal like excuse me and find someone else to match your crazy. But still–Seoul apartment prices can be a real killer.
“Rent?” Yuri laughs, puzzled. “There’s no rent at my place.”
Kitty’s sold. (And she swears it’s not just because a pretty girl is offering to take her home–shut up Q! It’s only… economical.)
“I’d like you to come work for me,” she says and Kitty’s mind stalls.
“Pardon?”
“I’ve seen your work,” Yuri continues like Kitty hadn’t spoken at all. “It’s wonderful–no one has quite the inspiration that you do.”
Inspiration? The last time Kitty heard that word was when she drew a crooked parrot for second-grade art class.
“Your… pranks?” Yuri elaborates, like she’s fishing for the right world. Kitty gawks.
“Are you talking about the slime I left in Minho’s locker?” Yuri nods.
“Among other things.”
“You’re offering me a job,” she says, her mind playing catch-up. A job? In this economy? And she didn’t even have to do a 50-question personality test for it. “What’s the hourly rate? 18? 20?”
Yuri blinks at her.
“I can give you a whole realm if you impress me,” she says and Kitty stares. She wants to ask Yuri to elaborate on what she means by impress–how, when, why–but her last remaining brain cell tells her it’s not the time or place.
“And you’ll be royalty,” Yuri says, tipping her head towards the discarded lilies. Blood warms Kitty’s cheeks, even as Yuri tells her that all of her close officials have honorary royalty status as advisors.
“So, the flowers were a bribe?” Kitty asks suddenly, staring at them. They still reek of mothballs and Kitty’s pretty sure there’s actual dark ooze coming out of the center.
Yuri laughs like she’s said the funniest thing in the world.
“Sure, we can call it that,” she says and her smile makes Kitty shiver.
“Kitty Song Covey, do we have a deal?” Yuri asks, studying her closely.
Free rent, no student debt at the end and she’s getting paid? Kitty’s never signed up for something faster in her life.
“Yes,” Kitty says, sticking her hand out to shake.
Yuri grins and seals the contract with a kiss to the back of her hand.
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-06-16 08:39 pm (UTC)菊花殘滿地傷 你的笑容已泛黃 花落人斷腸 我心事靜靜躺
(the chrysanthemums lay strewn on this wounded land / your smile already fading into sepia / the people rend their hearts as the flowers fall / as my worries are laid to rest)
— jay chou, chrysanthemum terrace (translation by me)
(in chinese flower language, chrysanthemums can symbolize long life, austerity, and solitude.)
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-06-16 09:01 pm (UTC)and you'd be left in the dust / unless i stuck by ya / you're a sunflower / i think your love would be too much
— post malone & swae lee, sunflower
(did you know that only young sunflowers turn to face the sun? when they reach full maturity, they stay fixed and only point east.)
FILL: Team Ace Attorney
Date: 2024-06-18 03:59 am (UTC)