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.

[ 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.

[dothelokimotion]

Why.

[dreamvour]

[she hums thoughtfully, tapping her chin]

I don't think you want me to get into the very varied history of bathroom spirits and creatures. Some of them are really weird.

For the most part, though, spirits get bound to places when they die. If they spend too long in one place - [a gesture] That's how some spirits end up haunting entire houses, while others only haunt certain rooms. They end up bound to those places. Some of those places just happen to be bathrooms.

[dothelokimotion]

[ but . . . why . . . who dies in a bathroom?? ]

Schools and bathrooms. I take it then these are for teenagers?

[dreamvour]

Or children, mm. The stories themselves are usually passed along between teenagers, though. Children who look my age, mostly. [a shrug] Asgardians don't tell urban legends, I take it?

[dothelokimotion]

Not like these. And we are legends to many.

[ they had their own stories of course. but rarely about ghosts or spirits. ]

[dreamvour]

Hmmm. [she smiles again] Ahh, but you're not urban legends. Those are different and follow different rules than real legends.

[dothelokimotion]

I suppose. "Urban" is not suited for us Gods.

What rules are these anyway?

[dreamvour]

Not really, no. It would mess with your powers, too.

Rules in general, or the specific ones to urban legends?

[dothelokimotion]

The latter, of course. Why are there rules to begin with?

[dreamvour]

[she tilts her head]

Because the Gods deemed it so. [she says it like it should be obvious]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki blinks. ]

The Gods created rules for the unknown? Spirits and ghosts?

[dreamvour]

The Gods created rules for everything, even themselves. And then they made it so everyone had to follow them.

[dothelokimotion]

[ there's a frown. ]

That seems counterproductive.

[dreamvour]

[a snort]

It's a long, somewhat annoying story. One I doubt you would like very much.

[dothelokimotion]

I suppose I can ask later.

But I'd like to hear these rules all the same.

[dreamvour]

[she goes quiet as she thinks of a good way to explain it; she isn't used to explaining it to other beings who don't need the extra explanations that humans do]

The rules are - general and specific both. It depends on what you are.

But - mm, think of one your stories - your most popular one, that everyone knows. The one that explains who you are and what you do, what your powers are like - things like that.

[she gestures]

Those are your rules.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki hisses. ]

I'm not and have never been bound by rules. It contradicts everything that I am.