Fox Spa

It was an ugly November. A mix of snow and ice covered the city early, and the cold never let up enough to melt the accumulated morass. The sidewalks froze overnight, the blanket of gray clouds suffocated noon time daylight, and the wind, oh Youko hate, hate, hated the bitter wind chill that followed her from home to work to home again. She stuffed her silver-orange furred ears under her Strokes hoodie as another gale haunted her commute to the small office four blocks from her apartment in the city’s downtown square. She hurried down her final stretch as the howling winds nipped at her high heeled shoes. 

She threw open the heavy door with a throaty heave then stood directly under the warmth of the tireless entrance vent. Youko worked the air into her hair and sharp, pointed fox ears first, down her back, then finally, her two tails and posterior. She sighed as the chills were chased from her and banished back to the blasted, frozen hell from which they blew. This ritual concluded as she slipped into the multi-office complex.

The daughter of South Korean immigrants and Mythfolk, she was an employee for a distant firm, and employed her skills as a comms major connecting businesses in need of specific skills or traits with employees who could provide those talents. Youko’s department was a specialized branch. She stepped in front of a door labelled Livelihood: the Unliving’s Number 1 Job Recruiting Agency in America. Livelihood was the only bit that looked business-like, the rest was nailed on and colored in lime-green marker by corporate after focus testing six months after the fact.

“Ugh, I can’t believe how cold it is!” Youko exclaimed as she shut the door behind her two tails. She was in charge of three others: Raza the Anubis, Lola the Bunyip, and Fraiser Holt, the new hire. Raza and Lola were already settled into their habitats. 

“You’ve said that all week,” Raza harrumphed. She was surrounded by space heaters, little pagan charms, and photos of her two kids and her husband. Raza was ten years Youko’s senior, but turned down the leadership position Youko now occupied. She was huddled under a heated blanket sorting emails. “New guy called out. Said he’s got car troubles.”

“Oh, is he okay?”

“He’s fine. A Yeti passed out on his hood or something like that.”

“That sucks, for us. Well, guess we’re gonna be busy.” Youko patted the Anubis on her immaculate polo. Youko wondered how the Anubis got the littlest wrinkles out of her work clothes. “Lola! Good morning.”

The Bunyip handled the weather much better than her coworkers. She was covered in thick black fur, even over her serpentine lower half, and bore a tasteful pink button up and navy blue blouse around her waist. She nodded to Youko before retreating back into her busywork.

“Were there any outstanding accounts?” Youko asked her web expert.

“No. Just Fraiser’s message,” she meekly replied. The Bunyip spoke just above a whisper on the job, if at all, and spent her day organizing the loads and loads of data they cycled through. Lola’s coiled lower body signalled her stress to Youko.

“We’ll have to make due today. I can take all my calls and stuff. Don’t worry about my crap.”

The Bunyip’s shoulders eased up. Having an employee 3 times the size of anyone else stressed and overworked was not ideal. Youko respected the introverted reptile’s space and moved to her desk. 

She fumbled with her password. “Oh crap, yeah, I changed it.” RUSSETP2018 succeeded where Fluffbornbritch!7 failed. Once logged in, she went to work, checking on outstanding accounts, messages from morgues about potential job seekers, and sorting through her junk e-mail. She had to make sure nothing slipped through her rather stringent junk mail filter.

Heya Niece Youko! Read a notable subject line. The email was recent. She must’ve missed it on her way out of work yesterday. Curious, she clicked it.

“Hi Niece, I hope this message finds you in good health and success. You may not remember me, but I am your mother’s sister, your Aunt Youko. It’s been a long time. I hope your job is going well.

Anyway, I want to cut right to business. I have opened a local spa for residents of the city to enjoy, however we aren’t getting much traffic. I was hoping you could help and not for free since I know you’re so busy. It is called Pamper Me.”

Youko leaned back with her arms stretched overhead as she yawned. She had a hard time believing that out of the blue, in the middle of this miserable month, she would receive free spa tickets from a mysterious and poorly spoken relative. She pushed the email aside and went to work. 

Today, she was screening client’s social media for anything… odd. Lola would forward a list of questionable content; risque hashtags, out of character screeds, or exploitation resulting from hacking. The latter was the most common. A forty year old zombie wouldn’t know a phishing scam from an honest offer, investigate, and then suddenly they start filling their e-space with health supplement garbage. Youko checked a box when she suspected foul play, then sent those to Raza for clean up. The desert hound efficiently reclaimed the lost account for the victim.

The day flew by. Raza handled most of the technical aspects of their job, and worked back detailed reports for client’s to be contacted by Youko. The fox woman pushed a button on her connected earbuds and connected to her first client, Prudence Jones. 

“Hello?” A dry voice whispered over a scratchy receiver.

“Hello, is Miss Jones available?”

“This is her speaking.”

“Ah, good afternoon Miss Jones. My name is Youko, and I represent Livelihood, the online employment agency. You have an account with us on our website. Is this correct?”

There was a dull groan as the undead tried to recall. Youko’s right ear twitched. The company had a gracious time-per-call as their targeted demographic necessitated, but Youko was impatient nonetheless. She smuggled a bite of lunch, a morsel of spicy fried tilapia, before Miss Jones recalled.

“Yes, I do remember now. The nice agent man showed me on the computer. I haven’t been able to use it though. It says my password’s been changed.”

“Ah, well did you try to use the ‘Forgot Password’ option-?”

“I didn’t forget it. It’s 1234ABCD.”

“Ma’am, you shouldn’t say that over the phone.” Youko brushed her hand along her face. Her coworkers were both failing to stifle their laughter. 

“Oh, but I didn’t.” The woman sounded like she was moving around. Other undead were groaning in the background. “Unless one of my roommates changed it.” There was a chorus of ‘no’s’ and denials in the background as Prudence interrogated each one. Youko maintained composure, checking Raza’s notes and adding her own comments. Has people skills, thorough personality. 

Youko eventually reined in the zombie woman and guided her through the spiel of resetting her password. “And that should be everything! I wish you the best of luck in your job hunting Prudence.”

“Oh thank you, Ms. Youko. You’re so sweet.”

She hit pause on her dialer. She needed a minute to vent. “Ugh, what a way to start calls,” she bemoaned. Lola looked up from her desk. There was a small smile still perched on her lips. 

“She seemed nice.”

“Way too nice! The undead are always so careless.” Youko rested her head in her palm and looked out the shuttered window. “I need a nice warm bath.” Her two tails wagged. She pictured herself in a steamy bath, bubbles foaming around her, and the delightful scented candles she kept for such occasions. Lavender was her favorite.

“I never have time for baths,” Raza sighed. “Kid’s been cooped up with the stomach bug going around. Mommy, Jordan threw up on the floor. Mommy, ‘Melia wont let me use the bathroom.” 

“Ew,” Lola said. Fresh out of college, Youko knew very little about the black-furred Bunyip occupying the back half of the office. “It sounds like you need to get out.”

“Really?” The Anubis barked. She flashed the Bunyip an incredulous glare from under her bangs, but her fanged smile sapped any menace she could have projected. “Now I sound like Youko!” The two of them chuckled. Lola’s creme colored face blushed. “I’m only kidding. I’m just glad it’s Friday. Stephen will be home and I finally get to sleep like a werecat.”

“I had plans,” Lola’s expression sank. “But my boyfriend and I broke up.”

Youko and Raza exchanged surprised glances. “Oh no, Lola darling! I’m so sorry to hear that,” Youko started, but her earpiece rang. An incoming call was about to come through. “We’ll talk after work, okay?” 

The women powered through the remainder of their day. The calls from concerned zombies and clueless wights were put to rest by Youko’s skillful handling. It was getting dark at 4pm when the office closed. Somehow, she could tell it was even colder outside. She unconsciously shivered down to the tips of her toes and tails as the three of them gathered their things from the closet.

“What happened?” Youko inquired. Lola was working a skullcap onto her head of flat, black hair and shied away from Youko. The Bunyip’s mood soured as the day went on. Youko imagined she dreaded discussing this very subject.

“It’s-” she started to hiss, “He said he had to go his own way. That I was clingy!” Lola thumped her tail off the ground. “He got mad when I said I would give him space and stormed off.”

“Did you notice, um, any changes in your relationship leading up to his blowup?” Youko had a bad feeling. Lola held her chin in her index finger and her thumb as she pondered.

“We’ve both been busy. He’s out of town a lot and I’ve been here or helping my dad.”

“Out of town… doing what?”

The clueless Bunyip continued. “Business stuff. He doesn’t like to talk about work when he’s home.”

“I hate to say this, but… I think your boyfriend was cheating on you.” Raza clicked her tongue off the back of her teeth. 

“Oh.” Lola froze as she pieced together the evidence. Youko wanted to give her a hug, but the snake half of her body was liable to up and kill her if Lola wasn’t careful. Rather she watched as it all clicked, and her tension disappeared entirely.

“Oh thank god!” She said as loud as Youko and Raza ever heard their coworker. “I am done with that mooching fucking asshole! Fuck him!  Fuck him in his ass!” Her eyes, a serpentine narrow, black iris devoid of other coloration, widened as Lola began to dance in place, her tail swaying, and her arms pumping in a dozen different directions. 

Youko and Raza were dumbstruck. Unable to speak, they wordlessly lead themselves outside. Once away from her precious heating vent, the cold wind wound itself around her ears and tails, eager to remind Youko she had a 4 block walk home with winter as her company.

“Oh, did you hear?” Raza asked from under her bundle of extra expansive, extra plush winter coat and earmuffs. “A Mythfolk family took over the Rosé spa. They open in a few weeks. What’s it called now-?”

“The Pamper Me?” Youko warily answered. Raza clapped her paws together.

“Yeah! That’s it. Oh I’d love to go, but I don’t have a free weekend again for like, a while. At least until after Stephen’s birthday in February.” Raza was at her red Civic ready to step in. Lola was still half celebrating as she glided into the driver’s side of her Toyota van.

“I think my Aunt’s family owns it. I got a weird email this morning, but uh, she wanted me to invite some friends to try it out early. If you, uh, want.”

Both of Youko’s coworkers ran back to her side in an instant.

“I have nothing but wonderful free time now,” Lola said.

“You really mean it? I’d love, love, love to!” Raza’s sleek tail was beating at a breakneck pace. She clasped her meaty paws around Youko’s more human hands. “What time?”

Youko grinned. “Sunday works for me. I’ll give ol’ auntie a heads up tonight.”

Lola picked up Youko Sunday, just before lunch. The Bunyip said it was the least she could do for the free ticket. The front seat of the silver van was immaculate. The back was crowded with the rest of the Mythfolk’s long lower body. They listened to a local radio station playing newer rock music. 

“How’s single life been treating you?”

“It’s been great Youko! I threw out all Dan’s shitty vegan food, his ungodly smelly socks he refused to clean, and all the other hippy garbage he liked to collect.” She flashed a fanged smile. “You were right, by the way. He’s seeing another girl in Hazleton. When I told her, she did not take it as well as me.” Lola’s menacing chuckle unnerved Youko.

Pamper Me was just outside of town, nestled between a gym and an old, shuttered Baptist Church. The last spa and salon that occupied  the property was shut down in a massive tax scandal. It was a big deal in town, with the owner and several people connected to it getting years for laundering money and tax evasion.

The building itself was unassuming. Her Aunt said she was waiting on a sign to be installed, but the majority of the work on the building and getting it up to code was done. The outside was a beige stone, with a singular arch at the door where Raza was waiting in her casual wear; a pair of denim jeans, black slippers, and a shirt that read Based Mommy in green glitter. Lola parked in the street and they joined their coworker at the entrance.

All three of them gasped as they entered through the opaque double doors. The lobby was gorgeous. The whole room was a velvet red, with cozy, sloping chairs for bipeds and beds with pillows for larger types of Mythfolk. On the wall opposite the entrance, in gold lettering, was a mural that had the space’s name on it. Best of all, for Youko at least, the lobby was heated.

“It’s amazing,” she mumbled as the trio looked around. “It’s totally different.”

“Thank you cousin,” an accented voice replied. “I’m glad you all could make it.” A fellow Kumiho Mythfolk greeted them with a small bow. She resembled Youko’s mother in stature: both were petite, and shared an acorn shaped head. Her mother and this younger looking woman also shared healthy outlooks; no dark rings around her eyes or sagging, tired ears. Youko resembled her father a little more. He was a tall, narrow man with sunken eyes and an allergy to the cold. Still, both her cousin and herself shared an autumnal orange fur shaded in faint silver at their ears.

“It’s a pleasure, uh, Ji-yoo.” 

The hostess laughed. She was in a navy blue blouse and blazer, black fishnets, and an in-fashion pink bow tied around a single tail.  “No, no. I am Seo-yeon,” she gives a small curtsey, “I am the younger sister.”

“I’m Raza Filler.”

“Um, I’m Lola.”

The younger fox gave each woman a clipboard with two pages attached. “As part of our service, Pamper Me plans to offer exclusive services for various species of Mythfolk. The first page is a list of important questions that we may provide an exquisite service.”

“And the second is a safety waiver?” Raza finished examining both documents in a blink of an eye. 

“Ah, well,” the Kumiho fiddled with her collar, “We are not exactly open yet. Everything is in place and awaiting inspection, but-“

“I understand. I just have one condition. I would like to know exactly what we are doing. before we do it, yeah?”

“No, of course! Nothing will happen without you knowing it first.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” the Anubis countered with a confident grin. Youko appreciated the older woman stepping in on her coworkers behalf, but she also remembered how quick Raza was to go from conversation to interrogation. The Anubis’s paws scratched a spell into the second page, an amendment binding the Kumiho to her word, before Raza scratched her own name.

The first page was filled with species specific questions that started broadly, and then got uncomfortable the further down Youko browsed. From the top, it asked about age, sex, weight, and more questions she would find on a physical. In the middle box it asked about her job, her daily routine, her beauty routine, how stressed she felt through the week, and how she rated her comfort level at the moment.

Raza was done in the blink of an eye, while Youko and Lola agonized with the last section. “Parts of my body I struggle with?”

“Eh heh. I put down my scales. It takes me an hour just to get close to clean. What did you put down for “Are you jealous of a friend’s beauty or body?”

“I really like Raza’s paws. I wish I could get my ear fur that glossy, and your skin is always so smooth Lola.”

“Really?” Raza saddled next to Youko, her bushy tail bumping up against her own. “I’m so jealous of your makeup. I don’t have the time, but if I did-” Raza bit her lower lip, “Oh! I’d love to take notes from you.”

Seo-yeon delivered the results to another, yet unseen room. Youko sunk into a corner chair and scrolled through her phone as they waited. There were a lot of posts about a water main blow up the town over. Seems a Wurm dug a tunnel right underneath a water line and wrecked the whole thing in the evening. The area froze overnight and compounded the problem. Youko liked a picture of a car caught in the spray. It reminded her of a white beetle hunched over in the snow.

“Niece!” An old 7 tailed fox woman said as she hobbled around the corner.  She wore a two part dress. The top part was a scarlet red with white dots on the edge of the fabric. The bottom, larger part was a navy blue like Seo-yeon’s. The fur on her ears was completely silver and flowed down her back in locks of shining health. “Ji-yoo, come on.”

The old woman pulled a halting, three tailed fox woman by her sleeve. She looked a little older than 30 year old Youko, wore a pair of reading glasses, and a dress shirt and pants. “H-hello Youko and, um, company.” She said something quick in Korean to her mother. The old woman laughed. Youko’s mother knew the language, but Youko only had a little comprehension. 

“Welcome to Pamper Me,” Auntie said with a bow. “It’s a pleasure, a true pleasure, to have such beautiful ladies be our first guests.” The old woman nudged her more mature looking daughter.

“Yep, a pleasure.”

“Thank you for having us Aunt Youko.” Her coworkers said their thanks as well. “We appreciate the invitation. What exactly do you have planned for us though?”

“Well, uh,” Ji-yoo revealed a tablet, “for starters we have a sauna prepared, then you each will take turns with our head masseuse. We are a bit short staffed at the moment, but we do plan to hire another two at some point.” Ji-yoo wrote down a note as she spoke. “As you alternate on the table the others will get to try our aromatherapy chamber. My mother has lunch prepared.”

“It’s chicken salad!” Auntie Youko proudly declared.

“Yes, and finally the creme de la creme, a specially prepared course inspired by the form you filled out.”

Youko saw Raza calculating the cost of such an endeavor. The Anubis was a terrible poker player. The math may as well have been written on her face. “My, that sounds like…a treat, but to do this all for free…”

“I- we only request that you give us honest feedback at each step of the process. Pamper Me opens in a month and we need to be sure it’s an excellent opening.”

The old woman laughed, her tails flailed about, just before jabbing Ji-yoo in her side with an elbow. “This one is worried too much. Relax,” her sharp toothy smile carried a sinister charisma, “ladies I will show you to the sauna.”

Through the lobby was an extensive bathing room, with marble floors and several empty baths built into the ground. Baths large and small were ready for Pamper Me’s grand opening. Ji-yoo and Aunt Youko lead them to a locker room to get changed then to a far bath able to accommodate the group comfortably. Lola got in first.

“It’s perfect,” she sighed as she coiled up. “I was worried it was going to be too hot.”

Youko tested her toes in the water. “Are you sure? It feels pretty warm to me.”

“That would be our tech’s work. She stepped out for a minute to refresh.”

The clang of a metal door drew everyone’s attention, but they were all transfixed by a nereid who waltzed through the bathing room stark naked. Powder blue from head to toe, with distinct metallic blue hair, dark blue nipples, and a tattoo on her right butt cheek that read Wet Bitch, the naked nereid waved before pointing an open palm at an empty pool and like a spigot, filled up her own bath with scalding hot, magic water. 

“That’s Pauline,” Ji-yoo said with exasperation. “Our technician.” Youko smelled a difficult work relationship. “She can change local water temperatures.”

Youko and Raza climbed down into the shallower end of the bath. Youko felt a sublime sensation, a delightful defeat of a little winter chill she carried, and sunk up to her neck in the water. Raza sat cross legged next to her, her canine feet and hands wiggling under the water as she adjusted to her own ideal water temperature. 

“Enjoy ladies. Relax,” Auntie Youko said. “If you need anything I’ll be right over here.” The elderly Kimiho gave two wagging thumbs up.

“And I’ll get you when your masseuse is ready.”

The trio relaxed in silence for quite a while. Youko talked for a job. She liked to talk, but she savored the momentary quiet a bit more. With her two tails resting at her side, she brought her arms around the lip of the bath, and let her thoughts wander off.

She was home again, in her Virginia home in the suburbs of Richmond, picturing her old room plastered with wall-to-wall posters of her favorite bands from the early 2000’s. The Killers, The Gorillaz, The Strokes. She remained a staunch supporter of the alternative rock genre. Her and her aquatic Mythfolk friends from high school even got tickets to the first shoreside show of Brandon Flowers when the Killers went on hiatus.

“I’m the man. Whose the man? Whose the man?” She mumbled along as she rested her eyes.

“Oh, I’ve heard that on the radio,” Lola quietly commented. The Bunyip was all smiles and sunshine in her bright yellow two piece that strained around her prodigious bust. She glided to Youko’s side. Her tail didn’t even have to move. She kept her black hair at her left side. “I feel like I never catch the whole thing.” She hummed along to the second verse. “Weird, right?”

“Totally.”

“My kids love it too,” Raza added. “They don’t know any words besides I’m the Man though.” She mulled over her own opinion. “I suppose I like it too.”

“How’s your DJ friend?” Youko asked.

“Hmm, she’s good. She sent me a mix. It’s good.”

Raza got hooked on electronic music in her college years, and doubly so when she got in touch with her old friend in Egypt. Raza says her small town put up a dance hall in 2000, and described it as “the best thing to happen to her middle of nowhere town, ever.” She stayed in touch with the scene there. Her friend, a pharaoh werecat, kept her, and by proxy Youko, up to date on the latest up and comers.

Ji-yoo approached during a break in the women’s conversation. “Tasha’s ready to receive her first guest. Who would like to go first?”

“I suppose I should,” Youko offered. Neither of her coworkers complained, so Youko hopped out and took a warm, white towel from her cousin. “Lead the way.”

“The aromatic chamber is right over there,” Ji-yoo pointed to a glass door near the entrance. “If either of you would like to give it a try, we’ve prepared several courses that may be to your liking.” 

Youko wasn’t exactly surprised to see a Jinko maeusse. The feline Mythfolk fell somewhere in between Raza and Youko with her non-human traits. Two half saucer cat ears sat on her scalp with the left one being slightly clipped at the top, with a sleek mane of earthy yellow hair with black streaks like arrowheads and a chiselled physique reminiscent of a wrestler. What surprised Youko was Tasha’s absolutely dominating height. She stood head and tails above the rather average 5’8″ Kumiho at over 7′ feet.

“Hello,” Youko demurred. 

The cat raised her furred hand, a hand the size of a shovel head, with pointed nails and rippling muscle from her fingers down her striped fur sleeves, to the human skin near her shoulders, Tasha greeted her guest with a wave and a charming smile. She carried a professional’s airs. “Ah, the long-awaited relative.” She spoke with a local accent. She deemphasized the strong t sounds while leaning hard in her ah and uh’s. Tasha gestured to the table behind her. “Let us get started then.”

Youko laid face down on the table with her arms above her head snuggly settled into a gap for her to rest. She adjusted briefly. Her bust didn’t quite sit right on the first try, but she shifted around and got comfortable with a bit of a shake. Despite toweling off, she still felt a little damp as well.

“My oh my, you have a lovely shade of orange fur,” Tasha complimented as dexterous fingers ran through her loose hair. Youko blushed. She offered a weak reply. “No, no, don’t be shy. Your back muscles are very tense. You must spend your day sitting, yeah?”

“Uh huh.” The warm hand of the Jinko brushed down her shoulder to her lower back. The Jinko tested her fingers in Youko’s muscles as she moved from spot to spot. For some reason she felt more self conscious than she expected with a one piece swimsuit with an open back. 

“You have excellent posture,” Tasha pressed down on a bundle of tough muscles just above her waist, “were you a dancer or a gymnast when you were younger?”

“No. I played in a band for a little while. I -ah!” The Jinko found a weak spot, her delicate shoulders. She wasn’t able to speak properly as Tasha applied any pressure to her sensitive neck region.

“I found what I was looking for. A sturdy lady like yourself puts a lot of stress on her shoulders. Let me try…”

The Jinko used her leverage to pull back on the end of Youko’s shoulders. She felt two distinct cracks in her middle back as her shoulder blades moved towards each other. Before she could speak, Tasha then pushed the ends of her shoulders down and around, soliciting another gallery of relieved sighs and moans. Her neck was next. The Jinko rubbed it down only for a second before cracking that too. An ecstatic jolt traveled to the base of her tail. Furry palms danced on her upper back as she eased Youko from stretch, to crack, and back down again at an easy going pace.

The massage continued as Tasha’s expertise guided her up to Youko’s tired arms. “Those are quite the bassist callouses,” she teased. “Do you still play?”

“Only for myself. My band is on a break. Which is a nice way of saying we’re retired.”

“That’s too bad.” 

Tasha lavished attention on the Kumiho’s hands next. Years of typing and pressing down meaty bass chords left her vulnerable and as Tasha worked, Youko struggled to keep from mewling like a kit. Finger to knuckle, again and again, Tasha worked out the overly tense muscle with precision. 

“Do you have carpal tunnel?” She asked.

“A little. It’s not -ah!” The slightly painful burning in her right hand exploded. Tasha’s prodding aggravated a potent reaction.

“A little? Nah. You should see a physician about this soon. It’ll get worse, no doubt about it, but for now let us try something new.” Tasha squirted an alcoholic smelling concoction into her palms and worked it for a second. She applied the stuff to Youko. A soothing cold eased the worst of the pain. “How’s that?”

“Much better.” She mewled a little as Tasha worked out the ache in both her hands. Aggravated nerves on the bottom of her forearm cooled off as well. Her strength left her.

“Alright, let me finish up with your legs and you can get some rest.”

“Uh huh.”

Tasha was a lot gentler with her thighs and legs. She started at her buttocks, kneading muscle into mush, easing down to her thighs, and lastly, she attacked all the way down. She alternates between using her knuckles to break up tension and her fingers to soothe over any aches. The bristling of fur against her exposed skin and the ever so light grazing of Tasha’s claws added to her tactile enjoyment. She mentally lamented the end of her session.

“It’s lunch time!” Tasha gleamed. She offered her hand to Youko. “The old lady’s food is the best.” Uneasy, she took Tasha’s hand and lowered herself from the tall table onto the warm floor. 

“Thanks.”

Tasha lead Youko to the employee’s lounge. It was the lone, opaque door with a cursive No Entry hand scribed in bright red. Youko pictured a plastic, white top portable table and metal folding chairs for bipeds. A room in staid white, a waiting room to sit in like every prior job experience informed Youko’s preconceived notion.

There was a coffee bar, a full sized fridge with a built in ice maker, a variety of seating for all types of Mythfolk and a middle school gymnasium’s worth of floor space. Lola and Raza were already eating. The nereid was in a towel and refreshing on coffee and creamer. Her cousins and aunt were enjoying their chicken salad sandwiches. Youko smelled a hint of liver wafting in the circulating air. 

She and Tasha grabbed little bagged sandwiches at the cafe counter and tiny cans of coke. She failed to stifle a smirk as the massive Jinko opened her tiny can. She was about to join her coworkers when her aunt beckoned her.

“I prepared a special thing for you niece.” 

She produced a blue soft lunch box. Youko was overwhelmed by the smell of liver. She felt a tiny bit of saliva pooling at the corners of her mouth. Much like the tricksters of legend, Kumiho Mythfolk possessed a craving for liver. Youko’s immediate family indulged on holidays, her brother and mother both being ravenous for liver in all forms, while she was picky and preferring her liver just a bit more cooked than rare.

Yet, 8 weeks out from her mother’s birthday and a month more until Christmas dinner, Youko took her aunt’s aluminum wrapped with a quick thanks. She saw the three of them were almost done with their sandwiches and had blood pooling on and through their paper plates. She doubled back to Lola and Raza, gave a courtesy greeting, then copied her family. Liver on chicken salad, sure, why not? She thought as the dry chibata started to go from a grain yellow to a dark red. 

She took a big bite. Her fangs pierced down. The intoxicating smell of iron rich blood met her tongue. She audibly whimpered as she bit through. A craving whetted, Youko savored a second, third, fourth, and every bite after that. The chicken salad was seasoned with pepper, for sure, but she was surprised when pops of sweet and tart apple mixed with the aroma of nutrient dense liver and thrilled her senses.

“Ah!” She cupped her face. “It’s so refreshing. Gah!”

“Wow, such a glowing review,” Raza chided. “I’ll have to remember liver is your fetish.”

“It is.” Youko took a drink. “There’s just something, um, primal, ya know.”

“I find talking to new people hard. I just want to curl up in the sun,” Lola added. She was done with her lunch. She was downright glowing with joy. “But you guys are good.”

The three coworkers enjoyed each other’s company. Youko told them about the massage and how great her lower back and wrists felt afterward. Raza wanted to go next. “I want her to break me over her knee.” She feigned a dreamy sigh and waved to the Jinko. 

Youko and Lola adjourned from the breakroom at Ji-yoo’s direction. The aromatherapist opted to take lunch later and was excited to receive her first customers. The chamber’s entrance was located down from the baths and towards the entrance. Youko knocked on the glass door.

“Come in!” A muffled voice responded.

Youko was overwhelmed. Cinnamon stuck out first, heady, sharp, and cloying, but there was an underlying vanilla scent, subdued, but warm, and the layers mixed and soothed and blanketed her in a homey comfort. She inhaled and pictured an early morning with her father towering over her. They shared breakfast, toast with butter spread and cinnamon sugar, her with a glass of 2% milk, and her father with coffee, and laughing at his stories about his young love life. 

“Do you like it? The smell?” 

An alraune ushered a stunned Youko in by her hand. Lola obediently followed. She sat her guests on cushioned floor mats like a kindergarten teacher guiding her class. Lola’s lower half coiled under her while her slacked expression betrayed the plant Mythfolk’s influence.

“It’s… nice,” Youko managed. “And you are?” Intoxicated, she took another deep breath before repositioning and settling down on her side. Youko wished she had a pillow.

“Tully Wiśniewski,” she replied. She offered a tendril to Youko. “Youko, and Lola, if I recall.” Youko nodded blankly and took the squishy plant matter in hand. The alraune was centered in the room, her body grown from a violet petaled flower, and her legs rooted therein. “I love your fur. It’s so soft.” The green tendril lightly tussled her head and ears. 

“I synthesized today’s regimen myself, ya know. A clove of cinnamon for breakfast and mixing the right amount of vanilla and fertilizer into my feet, blech. I can’t wrap my head around how fleshies put up with it. Eating, right?” Tully created a throne of purple petals and thick, green stalks and lounged as she spoke. “Anyway, I really wanted to wow ya. So I got thinking “Tully, girl, you know exactly will really grow? Splice in a little of your own pheromones, get the girls nice and calm!” You’re feeling it now, ya? I can tell. You both look just like my husband…”

Youko was floating, her eyes unfocused and her thoughts blurry. The awful, wonderful hypnosis of the alraune’s pheromones suffocated her reasoning mind. She was more than a captive audience for the banal braggadocio. She loathed to move. She was getting cozy. She ran a pointed nail softly on her exposed skin and revelled in the goosebumps that followed.

Youko nodded when she thought it was appropriate. Tully’s body language reminded her of a stuttering printer mid-jam. Tully’s hands jerked forward when she rambled, then scrambled backwards when the plant woman threatened to fall from her perch. Youko did not know any plant Mythfolk personally, but she remembered the potted sapling her high school treasurer, a dryad, lugged around. Did Tully do the same? No, she had no legs, she couldn’t do that. Youko tried picturing how Tully arrived in the aromatherapy chamber.

This puzzling question eluded her for a time until a blast of warm, faintly stingy air preceded Raza, fresh from her massage, and Ji-yoo. Youko and Lola were lead out of the chamber and tossed into the bath to free them of Tully’s influence. 

Lola surfaced first, but Youko was close behind. Raza was in managerial mode.

“Unbelievable! Locking anybody in with an alraune, then dosing them with pheromones? My friends were clearly out of their minds!”

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. I should have tried to chamber myself. Tully-“

“I’m okay,” Lola piped in. “It’s fine.”

Raza glared down at the mostly submerged Bunyip. Lola shrunk away and floated back. 

“Hey!” Youko snapped back. A splash of water sent the Anubis reeling. “Nobody was hurt, and it’s not like we were stuck.”

“You were high as a kite Youko. I’ve never seen you more baked, ever! If no one came along-“

“If no one came along? Raza, there’s like, 8 people here, not to mention you were bound to show up eventually. Tully meant well. Ji-yoo had no idea. No one is hurt. Take a breather.”

An appeal to reason whittled down whatever motherly anger the Anubis bore. Before Amelia and Jordan, she was resistant to change, but having kids only wound her up. Her perspective narrowed to a focus, and she became blind to anything else. Youko learned to widen Raza’s view if her stubbornness overtook her. 

“I really do want to apologize. I’ll talk to Tully about using um, naturally occurring relaxants. We should move on to the specialist treatment, if you’re um, still-“

Youko was out of the pool before her cousin finished. She took her by the hands and smiled. “I’m dying to know.”

“I, um, sure. Uh,” she grabbed her phone and hopped back. “For Youko, a deep hair and tail treatment. Seo-yeon is our beautician.”

“Thank you.”

“For Raza, uh, a mani-pedi with Louise. Lola, when you’re done, I’ll take you to see Tasha for your massage and scale sanding, rounding, and vitamin treatment.”

Ji-yoo gave directions to the salon and the massage parlor. Youko and Raza split up at the doors to the different stylists. Youko recognized the Cursed Sword Mythfolk that greeted Raza. 

“Louise Gibs?” Youko asked, slightly shocked.

“Yes? You are the owner’s niece, Youko.” Her voice was unerringly flat. 

Louise was a human girl Youko went to high school with. They ate lunch together and shared a few classes. They lost touch after Youko went to college. Last she remembered, Louise worked at a department store. She looked very different from only a few years ago. Her once bold, blond tresses were now shiny, straight and black with streaks of drab green falling from the right side of her head. She wore a rusty orange apron with Pamper Me over a black t-shirt and a battered pair of jeans. 

It was the blade in her right hand, fused to her right hand and advancing up her arm like a blight, that unsettled her. It was hard to look away from the wires and filaments snaking through her skin. Somewhere in that metal shell was her sleeping friend, and the thing she was talking to wearing her skin like a suit was a parasite.

“I’m surprised to see you, that’s all.”

Louise crooked her head like an inquisitive animal. A subtle, predatory smile crossed her glossy lips first.  “Ah, this one remembers you fondly.” She gave a curt bow. “This one would like to catch up after work. If you please Mrs. Filler,” she gestured with her parasitic blade to an elevated chair. “Enjoy your time, Youko.”

Without a moment to spare, her younger cousin appeared over her shoulder hefting a plastic tote full of unlabeled shampoos and conditioners. Seo-yeon snagged the top strap of Youko’s swimsuit and pulled her along into the beautician’s studio. Youko’s thoughts were still on her high school friend. What happened, she wondered, that Louise would become possessed by a Cursed Blade? Her cousin sat her in a luxurious barber’s chair with a hole for her tails. 

She came to once her cousin started to pump up the chair. Youko turned to speak to Seo-yuon only to be grazed by the unfolded cape.

“Oops,” Seo-yeon apologized, “sorry, sorry.” Youko was spun to face a mirror. Between the baths and the time in the aromatherapy chamber, the normally warm, orange locks were soaked through, dulling their normal luster enough that her silver poked through around her scalp and at the tips. Seo-yeon deftly and delicately spread her wet hair and got to work combing and wrangling.

“You have nice hair cousin,” she said. “You must take good care of it.”

“Haha, yeah… I try to rinse and wash every day, but sometimes I can’t be bothered in the morning. Especially if it is cold.”

“My mother hates the cold too.” Seo-yeon was only a chest above Youko, but they shared the ginormous mirror that ran the length of the beautician’s parlor. Youko felt her cousin probing her dour face and managed a disarming smile.

“She does? Why move here then? Florida might be a better place to run a spa-“

The chair spun again. “Hold on one second. I want to work your tails.” Youko watched through the mirror as Seo-yeon combed through her first tail. “Mom said she wanted an eight tail. She had this feeling.” Seo-yeon chuckled. The feeling of the brush in Seo-yeon’s practiced hands sent electric pleasure up her spine. Exhausted, elastic muscles and the little fogginess she carried disappeared. She gave an unexpected squeak as the warm comb neared the base of her tails.

“My mom has 8 tails. She only recently got the 8th.”

“That’s probably it then. Mom must’ve heard her older sister popped out another tail.”

“Popped? Ugh, I remember my second. Thing decided the night before prom to grow out.”

“It hurt?” Seo-yeon asked as she started combing the self-same tail. 

“Quite a bit. It feels like a baby fang being pulled, except in your butt.” Youko genuinely laughed at the memory. “Once it’s out, huge relief.”

“I’m just a little jealous. My younger sister is so mature. Three tails at 24? Unbelievable.”

“It doesn’t sound like it bothers you.”

“No, well, I mean it used to, but I made my peace with it. Magic is handy and all, but I make up for it in talent and style. Speaking of which, I have the perfect wash for you.” Youko couldn’t see Seo-yeon rooting through her plastic tote, however, her cousin handed her a plastic bottle with black sludge oozing inside. It was weighty, and it smelled like ash.

“Fiest, let’s really scrub your hair. Mom used a piece of charcoal and water to clean our fur and hair when me and Ji-yoo were younger, but I find the liquid stuff to be a little less… oldschool.”

Seo-yeon took back the bottle and squirted it into her palms. As she lathered up, the smell of charcoal took over everything else. “I’ve never heard of using charcoal before.”

“You shouldn’t do it often, maybe once I  a couple months, but it scrapes off all the itty bitty bits of debris you’ll pick up.” The charcoal shampoo was spine tingling cold, but it was balanced out with Seo-yeon’s warm hands rubbing and working the shampoo. Youko gave a small growl as the goop touched her tail tips. “Sorry, I can’t say I’m much of a fan for how it feels either.”

After thoroughly working it in both her tails and hair, Seo-yeon blasted hot water and eased her discomfort. She used the comb again, first through the scalp, then down. When Youko asked to have her back sprayed as well, the beautician agreed. “This is heaven,” she offered as the last of the charcoal was removed and joined an assortment of loose fur and hair accumulating in the floor drain.

With a cautious flick, she willed her tails to snap back. “Wow, they do feel a lot lighter.”

“Good. That’s a literal weight off your back then. Next, let’s talk ears.” Her cousin took the tip of her left her and gave it a up close and personal look. She probed a lobe with an easy touch, and Youko involuntarily perked up. Her ears were her most sensitive spot, but she didn’t want to say so. Rather, Seo-yeon massaged here and there, along the inside ridges of cartilage and the furred outer parts, solely focused on the task and not the minute squirming of her victim.

She stopped abruptly. “I’m jealous. You have such soft fur.”

“I do?” Youko considered the bit of fur she had compared to her coworkers of inferior softness. She always considered it more like brush bristles than a blanket.

Aghast, Seo-yeon held a small brush to her forehead. She seemed actually concerned. “Please don’t tell me you use a human hairbrush.” Youko did not respond. The answer was written plain across her face. “Vulpine fur is a thousand times more sensitive than a human’s hair! This brush,” she held the brush in front of Youko as she pointed to the sharp, knife like bristles first, “is completely grounded. No conductivity whatsoever. The bristles are fine too. It keeps the fur nice and soft all through the day.”

“That sounds like a hell of a brush.” Seo-yeon solemnly nodded, the morose gloom giving way to excitement. Youko got an earful as she explained the science, or at least, what Seo-yeon considered science, in great detail as the so-called special brush did its thing. Youko wasn’t keen on the feeling of the pointed bristles occasionally prodding her sensitive ears,  but Seo-yeon worked quickly and the worst was over before Youko had time to blink. In fact, her cousin grabbed a free hand and had Youko touch the newly refreshed fluff herself. 

“Wow, that’s… lovely.”

Seo-yeon’s smugness only matched her genuine enthusiasm for her craft. She went into further detail on how Youko could maintain her fluffiness without spending 600 dollars on a brush.

“Was there anything else you wanted me to do cousin?”

“I feel absolutely marvelous,” Youko responded as she slunk into her seat. “Mind if I dry off?”

“No, go right ahead. I’ll step out for a minute and see how the others are doing. We should be getting close to the end.”

Youko was surprised at how good she felt. It was like a hundred pound weight was taken off her shoulders. She wondered if this was normal. Did she work too hard, she pondered as she unpocketed her phone. She took time off here or there, visited her folks’ apartment nearby, traveled a little, but she failed to come up with a string of time off longer than a 3 day weekend. How long was it since she had really spent any money on herself?

She thumbed to her contacts. She put the phone to her newly fluffed ears, and briefly caressed them as the dialer rang.

“Hello? Youko?”

“Hey mom, how’s your weekend been?”

“Good, good,” her mother punctuated her statement with a wistful sigh. “Dad’s alright too. He went for coffee with the guys.”

“Want to grab dinner tonight? I can pick something up.”

“Sure, that sounds nice. You’re not working?”

“No, no, I got tomorrow off too. I want tell you about my day. You wouldn’t believe what happened.”

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