Voice; Go Back To Sleep... OTA

[ushahin]

[Ushahin, unlike his previous communications, sends this one out around nine o'clock, about the time he thinks the most people will be heading for bed. There's a rustling sound of pages as he picks up the book he received here.] Do you all like stories? I do. I have received a book from home. It contains many legends and tales from my home. Tonight, I shall tell you one that has great personal meaning to me. It is called The One Who Walks Between Dusk and Dawn.

[His soft voice is at the perfect tone and volume to lull someone to sleep. Though with how this tale veers more towards the Grimm Brothers than Disney, it might pay to stay awake and hear the ending.]

Once upon a time, in a land called Pelmar, there was a prince who lived in a shining, prosperous city. He had everything his heart could desire, including a beautiful wife and son. The only thing that troubled him was the monsters that lived beyond the walls in the dark forest. They were the Were, a curious mix of wolf and man, and they often attacked the people when they traveled the road outside. The prince would often lead a band of men to slay the Were, but they were cunning beasts, and evaded him like smoke slipping through bare hands.

One day, a woman disappeared from the city in the middle of the night. Though curious, not many thought anything of it until a man disappeared a few days later. Very shortly, people were disappearing from the city every night, never to be seen again. The prince was greatly troubled by this all and even his wisest men could give him no answers. He prayed to the gods for help. That night, a figure came into his dreams. In his crooked features and uneven eyes lay madness. "Who are you?" The prince asked.

The figure smiled. "I am the one who walks between dusk and dawn. You may call me Ushahin." (I suppose now you will all see why this is one of my favorite stories.)

"What do you want?" The prince asked.

"I want three things. If you do this for me, I will leave your people in peace. If not, I shall take someone every night until none remain. Do you agree to the bargain?"

What choice did the prince have? He agreed. "And what three things do you desire? I have all the riches of the city at my disposal."

Ushahin told him in plain terms. "What I desire is far greater than any riches. I want three impossible things. The dream of a newborn child, the last thought of a dying man, and a memory that you have forgotten. (What I asked for was far more humble, but that would not sound nearly as dramatic in a tale such as this.)

The prince's heart sank, but he had already given his word. Ushahin gave him a week to procure what he had asked for. When he awoke, he gathered his wise men once more. The first two items were gathered through tremendous effort... (Which I am skipping...) [The sound of several pages being turned is heard.] ...but as the seventh day approached, he had them. The last proved to be more difficult than he had imagined. What had Ushahin meant, 'a memory you have forgotten'?

Though he tried his hardest, the prince couldn't discover what Ushahin wanted from him. The seventh day came and went. When the prince fell asleep that night, Ushahin returned. He was angry. "You failed to deliver your part of the bargain, prince."

"Give me another chance," he begged, but the figure in his dreams remained unmoved. The prince offered his soul in exchange for the lives of his people. Ushahin laughed and sneered at him, telling him that if he wanted his soul, he would have already taken it. (As if I ever said anything half so clever as that.)

"The time for bargains is over," Ushahin said. "I shall take everything from you. I will spare no one in your city. Neither you, nor your wife, nor your son will be exempt." The prince awoke from the nightmare with a start. He ordered his guards to search the castle. Both his wife and son were gone, disappeared into the dark forest. The prince saddled his horse and took up his sword. He vowed to save his family or die trying. (Never make such a vow. It only ends one way.)

He went into the forest by himself, going through many tasks and trials to find where his family had been taken to. When his horse's strength failed, he continued on foot. Finally, he found himself in the deepest, darkest part of the forest at night, where the Were resided. He could feel their yellow-green eyes on him as he traveled forward, though they refrained from attacking him. There, in a clearing, was the leader of the Were, the Grey Dam. And standing beside her was the figure from his dreams: Ushahin.

"Where are my wife and child?" The prince demanded. Ushahin snapped his fingers and a pair of Were pushed them forward. Though disheveled and scared, they were unharmed. Much to the prince's surprise, he was told that they were free to go. The prince hugged his wife tight and told her how much he loved her. Then he made the two leave the clearing and head back towards the main road that would lead them to the city.

"I will kill you for this," the prince said, drawing his sword.

"You may try," Ushahin said, unaffected by the threat. He was unarmed as he stepped forward, away from the protective circle of the Were. "But before you die, I want you to know that it was always you that I wanted, right from the start. You have preyed on my people long enough." The prince looked around and realized that Ushahin meant the Were, the monsters who had killed his people for generations.

He grew angry. "You choose to side with these beasts? With these monsters?"

"Of course I do. They are like me, for I am the monster of your dreams." (Again, I wish I had been as eloquent as all that.) "Tear him apart," Ushahin ordered the Were. The prince knew that the fight was hopeless. He had time only for one final despairing scream before they sank their teeth into his flesh. The prince was never seen again, except in the bits and pieces retrieved later on. His son went on to become king and was a better ruler than his father had ever been, though he never spoke another word again. And Ushahin went on to become the servant of god Satoris, the Sunderer of the world. But that is a tale for another time.

[There's a thumping sound as he closes the book with a decisive air.]

Good story. It has a few discrepancies to the heart of the matter, but then, it wouldn't make as good a story if it told the truth. Sweet dreams, everyone.

Comments

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca appears onscreen; she is lounging on her couch in a pile of somnolent hyenas, contented as a cat on a hearth.]

And you have such a flair for telling them, dearheart. Shall you be telling us more?

Video

[ushahin]

[Ushahin switches to video, a faint smile on his face. As usual, he's lounging in his bathtub, a pillow behind his head.]

I could. There's a lack of books in this city, and thus, a lack of entertainment. This book is full of tales from back home. Terribly skewed, of course, like that one just was.

[But he is also terribly vain and does enjoy being part of the legends from Urulat.]

Video

[wormintheglass]

[She smirks a little at that, because Bianca is as vain as any wicked Queen herself, and can absolutely read between those lines.]

I'm told making our own entertainment is character-building.

[ushahin]

[This is why they get along. They understand each other.]

I shudder to think what sort of entertainment you could come up with.

[wormintheglass]

Who, me? I was always kind and loving. I soothe with songs. I make the weary forget their cares.

[And sometimes their names, and everyone they've ever loved. Shhh.]

[ushahin]

[No judgement here. He just told a tale about making people sleepwalk to their doom.]

Will you sing something? Please?

[He does so love music of any kind.]

text;

[verinumeri]

Fairy tales. I suppose you'd like us to wonder what you truly asked for, truly said, truly did.

Voice

[ushahin]

You can't say you aren't a little bit curious. Stories are always a matter of perspective. Much like history, it is written by the victors, and fails to take all the details into account.

voice.

[bekommen]

[Nick's working her usual shift at the bar, though it's slow enough she can spare the time to listen to the story. It's a perfect mix of beautiful and heartbreaking, just like everything Nick loves the most.]

Y'know ... if you ever get the chance, you should do books on tape.

Voice

[ushahin]

[Ushahin is relieved that they still have this easy way between them. He'd been worried that it had all been spoiled when he'd hurt her.]

Thank you, though I am not entirely sure what books on tape are.

Voice

[bekommen]

Cassette tapes. They're practically fossils, if you hear kids these days talk about 'em, I guess everyone's into fucking podcasts now or something.

[She doesn't know. The internet was not a place where she spent an excess of her free time, even before Hadriel.]

They're ... a way of making recordings so you can take 'em with you places. Like music. Sometimes people read books out loud on the recordings, and you can listen to 'em instead of reading 'em yourself. Anyway, you gotta have a good voice to read books for other people.

Re: Voice

[ushahin]

[He'd ask what a podcast was, but he's fascinated by this idea of being able to store books. He's come across the idea of music being able to be recorded here in Hadriel and found he loved it.]

Then I shall take it as a compliment. Telling stories is one of the few ways we had to pass the time in Urulat. When you're snowed in for the winter and have nothing else to do, it can get dreadfully dull.

[bekommen]

[Nick laughs.]

Y'ain't gotta tell me that - I lived in Chicago. Got snowed in pretty bad more than once. Happened here, too, come to think of it - that was right after I first showed up. Huge fuckin' snowstorm, the power went out - that creep Fear's doing, of course.

[She falls silent for a moment, remembering, thinking back on that event and everything that has transpired since. A little mental calculation, and she arrives at a conclusion that she elects to share.]

Shit, I guess that was almost a year ago.

[Which means she's been here almost a year. Which is a strange feeling to reconcile.]

[ushahin]

I despise the snow. It makes my bones ache.

[Which is possibly the first thing he's said that makes him sound more like a little old man instead of an immortal twentysomething year old. He understands precisely what she means when she reflects on her time here.]

Time goes by very slowly and very fast at the same time.

[A year ago, he'd been safe and happy in Darkhaven, with thoughts of a war they couldn't win on the horizon far away.]

voice.

[truthvalue]

That's a very sad story.

[Even sadder, given how Ushahin introduced it.]

You said it has personal meaning for you?

Voice

[ushahin]

I come from a sad world. There are no happy endings for either side.

[War was a two-edged sword and the one between the gods had cut both sides deeply.]

Aye, that it does. Distorted though they make it out to be, it is the story of how I took revenge on all those who has wronged my people.

Voice

[truthvalue]

I'm very sorry to hear that, sir.

[The story didn't sound distorted to him, but he wasn't there and doesn't know what actually happened.]

Was taking revenge on those people the best thing to do?

[There's no real judgment in his question - just genuine curiosity. He remembers, from his time spent as a demon, what it feels like to want revenge on every thing that drew breath, and he remembers too how empty he felt as a result.]

Re: Voice

[ushahin]

I thought it was at the time. With the advantage of hindsight, all I can say is that I was young and angry.

[Had he known where it was going to lead his people in the end, he might have chosen a different course. Then again, maybe not. Ushahin has never been one much for what-might-have-been.]

[truthvalue]

[Souji understands anger and revenge more than one might expect from someone like him - he's relatively soft-spoken, friendly, agreeable, polite, eager to please. But there is a darkness to him too, something that doesn't see the light of day often but something that is still undeniably there. He may have been able to justify to himself and his friends and even his uncle, in an oblique way, that killing Namatame was enacting justice, but deep in his heart, Souji knows it was also about anger, about vengeance. Because Namatame took Nanako from the world, and because it wasn't fair.]

I think ... I think most people can understand feeling that way.

text

[sciencelizard]

[She's... deliberately hiding her face, for the time being, so text it is.]

So you... sided with the monsters?
Against the humans who were killing them?

You believed the monsters deserved to live?

Voice

[ushahin]

They weren't monsters. They were just... different. But Men fear what is different from them and seek to destroy it.

[He sounds weary and sad as he says this. Ushahin has seen the pattern of mankind too many times.]

I believed they deserved to live without fear of being slaughtered. The Were took me in when Man and Ellyl both shunned me. They were my people and I would have killed every person in that city if I thought it would have saved them.

text

[sciencelizard]

no no I mean
I'm glad you did.
it's... nice
to know somebody stands up for the people being attacked
even if they look scary or
people wanna kill them and stuff

[ushahin]

I tried. I failed them all in the end, but I did try, and mayhaps I bought them enough years to make a difference. Only time will tell.

[It was one of the only things he would ever go back to Urulat for. Even though they had cast him out in the end, the Were were still his people.]

[sciencelizard]

I mean I think it still means something
that you did anything at all
there's not a lot of humans that will stand up for monsters
or at least that's how it is in my world haha

so y'know just
it's nice to hear
i'm sorry it turned out so badly tho :(

video

[skelebro]

[Sans tuned in to watch at first. Much as he and the guy might have their differences and disagreements, they usually have some pretty interesting conversations. And then story-time on top of it! Oh boy. And then Ushahin kept going...and going...and going...

And then, slowly, steadily, his sockets began to droop.

By the time the story's concluded, Sans is snoring quite loudly, completely and utterly out of it.

Yep. That's it. You're welcome, Ushahin.]