I started writing this immediately after OP posted, but I accidentally lost it when I was almost completed. I had to rewrite it entirely....I think it's actually better in some places, but I'm still very :/ about losing the original draft.
Anyways, this prompt was too good to pass up so yes, 1800+ words rewritten all at once so I wouldn't lose the details. AFTER THIS, I'M GOING OUT TO SNUGGLE KITTIES AND HAVE ICE CREAM, OR SOMETHING.
The title is from what the yuki-onna was named in the tale. --
Everything surrounding him is white, save for the pale blue strip of sky. He is snow-blinded, rime gathers in his brows and frost in his lashes. His leg is twisted beneath him, useless. It's too painful to drag himself down, or even move.
The sun turns everything brilliant until there is just a white haze beyond.
Not by fire, but by ice, he thinks. He tries to think of the rest of the poem, but his mind is too hazy
( ... )
Years pass. Herakles returns home, of course. He always walks with a limp, but that doesn't affect him much, except when the weather turns cold and he feels like all the heat has been sucked out of his body again.
He keeps his word to the specter. Even if it is only a dream.
He sees the specter in passing, between chronicles and myths turned to metal car skeletons, cities to gossamer plains. Always only in his dreaming state, at his most lucid. Lovers come and lovers pass. He doesn't keep them for long. They come together in the dark and he thinks of cold fingers, cold lips and pale skin.
They ask what happened to your neck?He answers only that he had an accident while traveling, the same reason he limps
( ... )
It takes three days, three hot, tension drenched days before the first kiss. It's against ancient pillars that have seen the fall and rise of civilizations. Kiku's skin is cool to the touch, and he can't stop touching him. It's like an addict, a disease as they come together, bones grinding desperate. At night they sleep entwined together, and Kiku's skin is as cold as marble. In the night his breath makes no white gasps; it isn't warm enough
( ... )
They're two nobodies traveling across Greece, and the countries beyond. Kiku is fascinated by the buildings, he takes endless pictures, much to Herakles amusement
( ... )
He travels the world. He seeks out every cold place, every dark cave and cold mountain where frost and snow. He sleeps with other people who he barely remembers the names of because he is human with human needs and human fallacies. Their touches in the dark are too hot, he feels sweaty and barely sated at the end
( ... )
Re: oyuki 5
anonymous
August 22 2010, 16:38:17 UTC
brb sort of sobbing.
I love the synthesis of Japanese and Greek folktales, and you definitely have the sort of soft style necessary to write convincing Giripan. I'm rather upset, of course, but this is wonderful.
Author!anon, this was gorgeous. I was actually kind of hoping that this would be filled with Greece/Japan, and I love the way you added your own twists to the tale to make it more fitting to their characters. I also like how you opted to make the ending ambigiuous/bittersweet - it's not unequivocally happy (which, now that I think of it, wouldn't really fit the tone of a tale like this), but it still has a note of hope to it (or at least I think there's some hope there) that kept me from feeling like my heart was ripped out.
Lovely, lovely fill. Thank you so much for filling my prompt so quickly, and with such a beautiful fic too!
You really should deanon your fills on the Hetalia/Giripan LJ comms, you know. I've been lurking and reading all your fics on your LJ, and they're too good to not be posted where more people can discover them!
Hurrah! I'm glad you like and such. And really, it'd have been there earlier if I hadn't have had to completely rewrite the damn thing. /grumblegrumble.
Most all of the 'supernatural wife' tales end tragically. However, Herakles, having a background in myths, seems genere savvy and determined to find Kiku, so there's hope. I think he definitely finds Kiku eventually, and almost wrote a scene in where he did, but I thought this was a better ending, and I'd already written a 'supernatural wife' type in another fandom and I didn't want to follow the same forumla.
w-well if you really want me to...I generally deanon on ff.net, but I can be persuaded to deanon on communities sometimes. I've deanoned a little on mapleandroses
Herakles definitely came across as Genre Savvy, especially when he stopped short of breaking his promise to Kiku. I agree with you that leaving the ending at that point makes it better and fits the spirit/tone of the story more; nonetheless, getting confirmation that they do have a happy ending of sorts makes the shipper in me do a dance of joy.
Do eeeet. 8D There is not enough Giripan in the world and I'm sure that the folks over at giripan will be delighted to have a whole bunch of fanfics to read through! Besides, I seriously doubt you'll have to worry about a lot of readers not finding them good enough or anything like that.
Re: oyuki 5
anonymous
August 23 2010, 03:03:03 UTC
Please tell me that Kiku did not melt into nothingness but will reform in winter and Heracles is simply waiting for him to do so, and that they'll be able to see each other at least half of the year a la Hades and Persephone. Otherwise I'll have to join you in on the cuddling of kittens and eating of ice cream. ;_;
Either way, this was a hauntingly beautiful piece. Your imagery is wonderful, and I could understand why Heracles would become so fixated on Kiku all too well.
I think he'll find Kiku eventually and be able to be with him some of the time. I almost wrote in that scene, but I felt it kept the poignancy better if the meeting was imagined.
Herakles is a clever guy and he already knows not to look back when winning his love from death. So yeah. :)
Anyways, this prompt was too good to pass up so yes, 1800+ words rewritten all at once so I wouldn't lose the details. AFTER THIS, I'M GOING OUT TO SNUGGLE KITTIES AND HAVE ICE CREAM, OR SOMETHING.
The title is from what the yuki-onna was named in the tale.
--
Everything surrounding him is white, save for the pale blue strip of sky. He is snow-blinded, rime gathers in his brows and frost in his lashes. His leg is twisted beneath him, useless. It's too painful to drag himself down, or even move.
The sun turns everything brilliant until there is just a white haze beyond.
Not by fire, but by ice, he thinks. He tries to think of the rest of the poem, but his mind is too hazy ( ... )
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He keeps his word to the specter. Even if it is only a dream.
He sees the specter in passing, between chronicles and myths turned to metal car skeletons, cities to gossamer plains. Always only in his dreaming state, at his most lucid. Lovers come and lovers pass. He doesn't keep them for long. They come together in the dark and he thinks of cold fingers, cold lips and pale skin.
They ask what happened to your neck?He answers only that he had an accident while traveling, the same reason he limps ( ... )
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I love the synthesis of Japanese and Greek folktales, and you definitely have the sort of soft style necessary to write convincing Giripan. I'm rather upset, of course, but this is wonderful.
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Lovely, lovely fill. Thank you so much for filling my prompt so quickly, and with such a beautiful fic too!
You really should deanon your fills on the Hetalia/Giripan LJ comms, you know. I've been lurking and reading all your fics on your LJ, and they're too good to not be posted where more people can discover them!
Reply
Most all of the 'supernatural wife' tales end tragically. However, Herakles, having a background in myths, seems genere savvy and determined to find Kiku, so there's hope. I think he definitely finds Kiku eventually, and almost wrote a scene in where he did, but I thought this was a better ending, and I'd already written a 'supernatural wife' type in another fandom and I didn't want to follow the same forumla.
w-well if you really want me to...I generally deanon on ff.net, but I can be persuaded to deanon on communities sometimes. I've deanoned a little on mapleandroses
Reply
Do eeeet. 8D There is not enough Giripan in the world and I'm sure that the folks over at giripan will be delighted to have a whole bunch of fanfics to read through! Besides, I seriously doubt you'll have to worry about a lot of readers not finding them good enough or anything like that.
Reply
Either way, this was a hauntingly beautiful piece. Your imagery is wonderful, and I could understand why Heracles would become so fixated on Kiku all too well.
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Herakles is a clever guy and he already knows not to look back when winning his love from death. So yeah. :)
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