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[tadanokusuriuri]

Date: July 28th
Posted by: Anonymous

The shortest nights have passed, but the heat of the summer draws near.

There are those who say that that the crossing to the Near Shore is narrow, on nights like these. When the mist and steam rise through the night, and campfires draw out the strange shadows of the forests, talk of ghosts and demons is never far...

Tell me.

What tales have you heard?

Comments

Anon text

[rev13_3]

I've heard that there is a demon here on the Far Shore. A dark and twisted creature, that relies on the souls of the dead for sustenance.

[tadanokusuriuri]

Oh? Here on the Far Shore?

[rev13_3]

Here be gods and souls twisted into weapons. Is it any wonder that there are demons here too?

[tadanokusuriuri]

I wonder, I wonder.

So, then... tell me of this demon.

[rev13_3]

I don't need to tell you of it. You've met it. It brought you here.

[tadanokusuriuri]

Oh?

I'm sorry to say that I don't recall much of my journey here.

[rev13_3]

But you still know it, don't you? We've all met it, time and again. Its daylight face isn't monstrous, but deep down, we can all feel what it truly is.

[tadanokusuriuri]

That may be. Nothing that exists has only one side to it.

However... even a demon has its reasons, however little one may understand them. Knowing that it exists without understanding why is... insufficient.

[rev13_3]

If a wasp lands on your arm, do you question its purpose or do you crush it?

[tadanokusuriuri]

A wasp has its reasons, too. It stings prey, and it stings threats.

I understand what makes it perceive a threat, and I wait.

[rev13_3]

Oh, you're one of those.

[tadanokusuriuri]

I beg your pardon.

"Those"?

[rev13_3]

A fool who thinks of himself as a gentle mystic.

[tadanokusuriuri]

Ah.

There, you're mistaken.

I am, after all, a weapon.

[rev13_3]

Yes, a shinki is a weapon, and what good is a weapon that sits idly by and lets a threat walk over it? If you were a real weapon, that wasp would have died the moment it touched you.

[tadanokusuriuri]

A weapon lacking control is as useless as a dull one.

Lashing out at perceived threats is nothing but letting instinct and fear rule you. It's far more dangerous than a little sting could ever be.

[rev13_3]

Look around. You have been killed, mind wiped, and turned into a weapon in the hands of those who will gladly make you a monster if you protest too loudly.

Is this a little sting?

[tadanokusuriuri]

A monster is simply that which exists where it shouldn't, like ayakashi who taste too much of the human world.

If my existence now is as a shinki, to cling to some idea of a lost past and take it back by force would, by necessity, mean making a monster of myself. The gods aren't to blame for that reality.

[dragonflood]

[Audio, because phones are hard.]

I have plenty of stories from home. Do you mean stories from here or there?

Audio, but still anon

[tadanokusuriuri]

I wonder... where is it that you call "home"?

[dragonflood]

Somewhere not here. [Because that's a helpful answer.] I thought that was common knowledge.

[tadanokusuriuri]

[He meant, perhaps, slightly more specifically, and thought that would be fairly self-evident. It's a little irritating to get a non-answer, but at least he's not really the sort to get too openly annoyed too easily.]

No doubt it is. Perhaps from the old capital, then, or from Osaka...?

[dragonflood]

Is the place important? [Her stories aren't bound to certain places (well, mostly), which is what threw her.]

That's pretty specific. What are you going to use them for?

[tadanokusuriuri]

Maybe, and maybe not. That would depend on the place... and on the story, of course.

Use them...?

For the usual purpose, of course. Why do you tell tales?

[dragonflood]

[Bluntly.] As warnings.

[...Yep.]

And not just in summer. There's always someone who wants to break the taboos.

[tadanokusuriuri]

[There's a brief silence, and then, almost too soft to hear, a laugh.]

That's it precisely.

In that case, I should like to hear... what it is that you might warn us of.

[dragonflood]

[She does notice the laugh, and, a bit confused by that, it takes her a second to get started.]

A girl who tried to destroy the world. She befriended a being that shouldn't exist in this world.

[......so she's not the greatest storyteller]

[tadanokusuriuri]

[He's more interested in the content of the stories, anyway. And something about that wording -- a being that shouldn't exist in this world -- feels right to him, the way it does when he becomes a weapon in his god's hands. (Familiar, he might think, if he were less in control of his thoughts.)]

And what manner of creature might that have been?

[dragonflood]

[That...is supposed to be a secret. She should have been more careful.]

A destructive one. [That was its most important characteristic to her, at least.]

What warning did you get out of it?

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[kokuyoyo]

So you want us to tell ghost stories.

[tadanokusuriuri]

Precisely.

[kokuyoyo]

And if they're not good stories?

[tadanokusuriuri]

I hadn't thought of such a thing. Let's see...

Some manner of punishment game, perhaps?

[kokuyoyo]

Did you have something specific in mind?

[tadanokusuriuri]

I'm sure I could come up with something suitably interesting, should the story fail to entertain.

[kokuyoyo]

And if it does entertain?

[tadanokusuriuri]

Then in fairness, I believe you'd have earned a reward.

What would you ask as one?

[kokuyoyo]

Food, most likely.

[He's a simple soul, so sue him.]