002; and this dream is your story

[dreamvour]

Who: Baku & you
Broadcast: fleetwide
Action: Caprine if you're so incline
When: now (October 26)

[for the unaware - which is a lot of people - Baku has an office! And she's made it spooky for this particular broadcast; which is to say, she's turned off the lights and lit a few candles to fit the mood. You might even see some glowing eyes in the background every so often - but no worries, that's just her leopard prowling around.

But shhh, it's totally spooky, shut up]

Around this time of year all of the really scary stories start getting passed around at school, so I thought I'd keep up the tradition, even though I'm not there right now and it's a little early.

One of the more popular ones at my school is Aka Manto - the red cloak. He's a ghost that haunts the old bathroom on ground floor. It's said that if you end up using it late at night, that you shouldn't use the fourth stall, or else he'll come to you. And that he's so charming you won't be able to resist answering his question.

[she props her chin on her hands] So he'll come to you and he'll ask, "Do you prefer the red cloak or the blue cloak?" If you answer red, he'll make it so you have a "red cloak", by cutting you. If you answer "blue", he'll drain your blood. [a hum] There's a way out of it, of course, because there always has to be, so I wonder if anyone knows or can guess the answer.

So that's my question to everyone.

[a considering pause, and then:]

Or - ah, or even better, you could share your urban legends from your world, if you'd like. Those are always fun, and it is the season for it.

Comments

[Video]

[padadin]

Nice decorations, Baku. [Really spooky! Shiro smiles at the leopard adding that extra effect. Nice (unintentional?) touch.] I hadn't heard about Aka Manto in so long - you're making me feel nostalgic. I know the answer already, so I won't cheat.

I get the feeling you know most of the stories I have - Kuchisake-onna, Kunekune, Toire no Hanako-san... [Yeah, those are still around in the future.] Do urban legends of space stations count or that's too sci-fi for the holiday?

[Video]

[dreamvour]

Decorations? My office always looks like this. [she's lying. Mostly] I figure there'll be some people who know it already. It's a common story.

[she hums, amused] I know the stories I've heard, and I know the truth. That doesn't mean I know all the stories. [she tilts her head] It's an urban legend, right? It counts. Sci-fi can be scary.

[padadin]

Of course, my bad. [Oh Baku, you sweetie.] Space definitely can be scary. The most common stories you'll heard from astroexplorers are about hearing someone knocking from the outside of the ship, or strange sounds that machines can't make. But if you want a full story--

[He takes a moment to pick one and put it into words.]

The first ship sent to Saturn with a human crew never came back. It was a big loss for the Galaxy Garrison - those were three of our best men, who went there promising to be the first ones to "touch" one of rings. We've sent other ships since then, and that's how the "ring selfies" started. Those pictures have become a dare of sorts - the explorers swore that whenever they got near the rings, they would feel cramps in their hands. And the pictures would only be clear enough or happened at all if they weren't the main focus of it. They said your finger was only "allowed" to shot the photo if the person was against the edge of the frame, as if leaving room for the "real heroes" that claimed Saturn under their name.

[dreamvour]

Kind of like the ones about planes? We don't have any space-related ones yet, not really. It's a little disappointing.

[ohhhh, she listens eagerly, scooting closer to the screen. She even makes a surprised "heeeeeh" noise, drawn out like the Japanese schoolgirl she perfectly copies all the time] So the rings of Saturn are haunted by these heroes' spirits? They are malevolent are they? They just want what they feel is theirs?

[padadin]

Yes, similar to the planes. [He thinks about the space stories he knows and their origins.] Wasn't "the face on Mars" already talked about back then?

[Baku, you're being super cute about this. It gets Shiro all nostalgic. Bring a sailor uniform out and it'll be school all over again.]

That's correct - they want the recognition they flied and died for. I can't tell you exactly how malevolent they are. Most of the stories stick to the cramps or weird invisible barriers, but as you probably already know, those myths grow with time. Each person that tells the story adds details of their own. We had a horror movie about it, it wasn't kid friendly.

[dreamvour]

I believe so, yes. I remember learning about it in school a few times.

[she is NOT you shut up Shiro, gosh]

Do people believe they're that way? Or do they just believe them to be heroes? Because that's important to know. At least, it would be where I'm from.

[padadin]

[A pause, suddenly feeling worse than usual for them.]

They aren't well remembered outside the Garrison and history books, to be honest. People usually keep in mind the names of those who completed their missions. Even if they did, would their ghosts know all the way from Saturn?

[ video ]

[dothelokimotion]

This is frightening?

[ video ]

[dreamvour]

[her lips twitch]

It's a story that is probably more frightening when you remember it in the very scenario it's about, I think. Stuck in an old bathroom, late after school.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki has zero context for this. ]

. . . And?

[dreamvour]

[she can't help but grin]

Which I doubt you've ever had to do. Okay, let me explain it this way, then.

Aka Manto isn't just some bathroom spirit. He comes to you when you're alone, at your most helpless, in a place where no one really expects it. Aka Manto himself isn't what's frightening - it's when he comes to you and what he does that is.

[a shrug] Or so he tells me. But he likes to talk about himself a lot, so his explanation might be biased a little bit.

[dothelokimotion]

I suppose ghosts care little for hygiene.

[dreamvour]

Mmm, well. [a shrug] He isn't the only spirit who haunts bathrooms.

video;

[unbearablynaive]

I must say, that makes me rather glad I don't need to use a bathroom. but let's see, I believe I do have an urban legend to recount:

One year on Halloween, five guests at a fancy hotel boarded an elevator to reach the club on the top floor - a singer, an actress, a child star and her nanny, and the bellhop escorting them. However, just as the elevator was about to reach the fourteenth floor, lightning struck and the safety systems failed, causing all five to plummet to their deaths. The hotel was haunted by their ghosts for sixty years, causing everything from turning hot water icy cold and making wine glasses shatter to making strange noises in the elevator that would never go away, no matter how much preventative maintenance was performed. [Look, for some people that's the most frightening part of this story, okay?] Finally, an investigative journalist found that the child star's older sister, jealous of her fame, had cursed the elevator to drop. The ghost of the child tearfuly admitted they were on their way to a surprise party for the older sister when it happened, and they were finally reconciled. Lightning struck the building once again, and the older sister disappeared along with all five ghosts, never to be seen again.

[dreamvour]

I think that he may be exclusive to Japan. I haven't heard of him roaming outside of the country.

[ooh, a story! She listens eagerly, chin on her hands, nodding along. She hasn't heard this one but she's heard similar, and at the end she tilts her head, looking oddly pleased with the conclusion]

So they were able to help their spirits pass on? I like stories like those.

[unbearablynaive]

They do seem to be tied to their domains, for the most part.

[He nods.] Indeed. The nanny's name was cleared, as she had been accused of witchcraft, the actress and singer were finally able to be together, and the bellhop's grandson gained stewardship of the hotel upon clearing the haunting. They were all able to move on.

...Though they say the elevator is still prone to mysterious drops for those who may be in danger of losing their own path.

[dreamvour]

For the most part, mm.

[she tilts her head] So it was happy for everyone all around. That's good. You don't hear a lot of stories like that without someone having to sacrifice themselves first. It makes it bittersweet.

[a hum] So they left behind a curse? That's interesting.

[unbearablynaive]

[He nods.] Though the older sister did disappear with the ghosts at the end. One could argue she sacrificed herself.

Perhaps it's difficult to have that much energy in one place for so long without leaving a residue.

[dreamvour]

Ohh? Mm, that would count. There's a few stories in Japan like that, but it usually involves a mother, not a sister.

[she nods] Energy like that usually has to be removed. It doesn't just leave on its own. You need a priest or an exorcist depending on what kind of energy it is.

[video]

[ecclesiophobic]

[ Kurt almost doesn't answer this one, but he needs a distraction, and its been a while since he told anyone this story.

When the feed starts, its to a black screen and a masculine voice speaking, German accent coloring his words. ]

Many years ago was born a witch possessing a singular, great power: that to become a person's greatest desire. Save for this power she had nothing, and so she transformed herself into a beautiful woman and seduced a Baron, who was both without wife or child. He was utterly enchanted by her beauty and wit, and after marrying her proceeded to shower the witch with anything she desired. For a time they were happy, but the witch began to long for the one thing her husband could not provide her with--a child.

Soon the servants began to whisper about strange visitors to the castle while her husband was away. These visitors would come and leave in the darkest hours, always covering their faces. The maids who came the mornings after would complain of foul odors in the lady's bedchamber, but the witch seemed to notice them not. These whispers reached her husband around the same time that his beautiful bride announced she was pregnant. A great cloud fell over the Baron, for in his youth he had fallen ill with a fever, which the doctors had told him stole his ability to father a child.

He did not have long to brood upon this happening, for one day when he was out riding his faithful mare threw him from her back, trampling him until he was dead. The lady of the house, now heavily pregnant, shut herself up in the house, refusing even the attention of a midwife until she fell into labor. The birthing lasted throughout the night and into the morning, and with the first light of dawn was birthed a monstrous, ill-formed child. His eyes glowed like fire as soon as they opened, his mouth already full of sharp teeth, and from him sprouted a tail just as the devil's own.

On hearing the cries of her terrible infant, the witch sprung from her birthing bed and slew the doctor that had helped birth him. The servants helping tend to her ran screaming from the house, their hair stricken white by the horror they'd witnessed. One of them reached the nearby town, and managed to convince a group of men to return to the house with her. Once they arrived they found it empty, the good doctor's body cold on the lady's bedchamber, and all the servants dead or missing. Of the witch and her child they found only tracks leading to the nearby woods.

Re: [video]

[dreamvour]

[oohh, a European urban legend? She wasn't as familiar with those as she wanted to be, so Kurt had her full attention]

Heeeh . . . [she waits until he's done telling the story, leaning towards the screen] I've never heard this one before. What happened to the witch and her child?

Re: [video]

[ecclesiophobic]

[ From Kurt's end is the soft sound of shuffling, as though the story teller were moving around a room. When he continues, his voice sounds closer, but softer to accommodate for it. ]

They became legend for the town of Winzeldorf. Mothers would warn their children against playing in the forest, and any time someone did go missing the story of the witch Baroness and her demon son would make the rounds at a pub.

But as the skies darkened and the world outside their little town began to become alien, the stories began to see the light of day again. It was her fault, the war that was brewing, all the troubles they'd suffered; her and that damned child. When the war broke, so did their goodness. The able-bodied gathered their tools and weapons and went into the woods as one, intent on killing this demon that haunted their woods.

And poor fools, they found him. [ The moment the words are out of his mouth Kurt flips the switch, throwing light on his blue-furred face, the sharp teeth that he's grinning to bare, the dull red eyes (because without his contacts in they'd glow and give away the tale.) ]

[dreamvour]

[Kurt are you ready for the this reaction, because -

Look at the utter delight on her face, like this is the best turn of events this story could take. Were you trying to scare her cuz boy oh boy did you do exactly the opposite]

Ah! It's your story!

[ecclesiophobic]

[ He wasn't ready, but if the soft smile that replaces his rictus is anything to judge by, Kurt doesn't mind.

(She reminds him a little of Sascha, and the thought is still bittersweet, but--) ]

With a little creative license. [ He admits with a chuckle. ] My mother was no witch, and despite what she might say about her tastes in partners she made no pacts with the devil.

[dreamvour]

[she rarely ever genuinely smiles so congrats, you actually got one out of her]

It was a good story. [she tilts her head] I didn't think that part was true, about the devil. I wondered about your mother being a witch, but - what are you, then, if I may ask?