“i don’t think i’m all that great at telling stories.”[break][break]

she did not kneel, or bow – not even half-way. she instead stood at attention, staring at the hare king’s gigantic head, unsure why exactly declan walsh had tasked her with something so bizarre. though she was indeed galarian, she had not been a part of the dream.[break][break]

nonetheless, on a mission to regain her boss’s favor and funding, she went without question, prepared to regale rocket’s strange new friend to the best of her ability.[break][break]

”i’m a scientist, so… i have some ideas about what might be happening, and i just sort of built off some notes.”[break][break]

staring a moment longer, she then unfolded the scribbled paper in her hand and cleared her throat.[break][break]

“once upon a time in the multiverse, there were two legendary dragons – one that stood for truth, and the other for ideals. they warred against each other, one always emerging victorious, while the defeated would go to rest. both would have their share of success, but in all the war’s iterations, this was the outcome, and perhaps it played some part in infinite cosmic balance.[break][break]

“until something happened, in one universe, that caused the imagination to bleed into the waking world. as truth became indistinguishable from ideals, the two dragons found they had nothing left to fight for. the concepts that made them what they were ceased to exist, rendering them paradoxical, and transforming them into unrecognizable monstrosities.”[break][break]

“no longer interested in attacking one another, the dragons instead went to attack the world – but they would ultimately find it unnecessary, as it was already fading into chaos all on its own.”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]@calyrex [break]

(TW: Psychological Horror & Allusions to Domestic Abuse.)

---

SPOILER: Click to show

Once upon a time, there was a maiden whose heart was untouched by cruelty. Her family bade her marry, as all families in this land bid their children do, for bloodline and inheritance meant everything in their world. When her parents died, the monster she'd wed was all who was left to protect her.[break][break]

She thought him only a man, at first, but the truest monsters are all born men.[break][break]

Her husband was wealthy, though that was not what drew her to him. He was handsome and clever, but so were many suitable men she could have chosen. It was his loneliness that stirred her heart to pity, for she was lonely too. She did not understand why others scorned him so, for she did not see the monster that they declared him to be.[break][break]

He was a cunning creature, for he knew that beastly part of him would frighten her away from his arms, back to the gardens of her childhood. To him, she was a light that had descended to a dark and forgotten place. The thought of her ever escaping back to the heaven she'd once known terrified him.[break][break]

So in his terror of abandonment, he punished her for shining so brightly. He isolated her, he mocked her, and he reduced her to nothing more than a shell of the woman she once was. He made her believe she was unlovable to any being, save for him. The more she tried to win his love anew, the more he hated her for her beggary, and withheld it from her.[break][break]

She was forbidden to leave the manor that was their home, but a prison of the mind is far more powerful than that of the body.[break][break]

The gardens of his manor were the only place she could call her own, and she wept here in her solitude, until a peculiar flower bloomed in answer to her tears. As its petals unfurled, a small snail-like creature with ochre eyes peered up at her, wondering.[break][break]

"Lovely maiden, why do you weep?" the small creature asked her, slithering closer to where she knelt upon the ground. She had yet to realize that misery does not summon angels, but demons. "What causes you such sorrow?"[break][break]

"The man I love has no use for me," she replied, lost to shock and self-pity. "He scorns my love, and I know not what to do to sway his heart. I have begged, I have pleaded, I have showered him in every affection I know, and it is not enough. He hates me, and would rather me be dead than by his side."[break][break]

"We cannot change his heart," the sly creature replied, "but we can heal the wounds that vex your own. Fair maiden, give us your heart, and you will no longer know such pain and sorrow."[break][break]

"I cannot do such a thing," she protested, alarmed and frightened at the unthinkable price this creature asked of her. "If I give you my heart, what will happen to me? Will I ever be able to love again?"[break][break]

"What use has love ever been to us?" the creature sighed, as if it was no great loss. "Your heart gives you pain. We offer you a solution. Give your bleeding heart to us, and the pain will vanish."[break][break]

She debated for many unhappy days and nights, this devil's dilemma weighing on her with such heaviness she could barely eat or sleep. At last, with a face made bloody and raw from the violence of her husband's scorn towards her, she slunk back to the garden and knelt before the ochre-eyed creature in defeat.[break][break]

"Take my heart," she whispered, tears glistening down her cheeks, "for it has only ever caused me pain. Take it from me, and perhaps all this heartache will cease haunting me."[break][break]

So the maiden cut out her still-beating heart and handed it to the small creature, who devoured it greedily and grew in size until it was now half as tall as she.[break][break]

"I feel empty," she whispered, regret stinging her drying eyes for but a moment until the numbness of this exchange soothed her. "I feel empty, but I do not feel pain. Thank you for this kindness, stranger, for I do not think I could have kept living with a heart that bled so heavily."[break][break]

So she returned to her husband and her life in the manor, thinking this hollow shell of a body would protect her.[break][break]

The man she'd married found this sudden change in his bride perplexing. His kindnesses no longer inspired the despairing hope in her they once did; his cruel words no longer found purchase on an easily-wounded heart, now only serving as glancing blows against a stony exterior.[break][break]

If he could not use her heart against her, the man reasoned, he would turn to eroding her mind instead. Correctly, he presumed if she no longer loved him, she would have no reason to stay loyal by his side. Unshackled as she was now by the chains of her devotion, she'd indeed already begun making preparations to escape his grasp.[break][break]

Ah, but her husband was a twisted and powerful man, and he had far more resources than she. He bound ropes of gold around her, making it impossible for her to imagine a life without his wealth to protect her. He dressed their life in such trappings of luxury that all who witnessed it believed her to be spoiled beyond all imagining, ungrateful for all she'd been given. He told all who knew them of her fragile psyche, letting the tales of her tearful unhappiness convince all that she was a childish and hysterical creature.[break][break]

It did not matter what she did, or what she said, or to whom. No one believed her. No one enabled her escape. All steps forward resulted in an agonizing stumble backwards.[break][break]

When she returned to her gardens, she did not weep, for she no longer had a heart capable of feeling such sorrow. She stared blankly at the flowers around her, attempting to reason a way out of her plight, struggling and failing to find an answer that would save her.[break][break]

"Sweet maiden," the creature whispered again, and this time it startled her for the largeness of its hulking shadow. "What leaves you so lost?"[break][break]

"I have thought long and hard, but I can find no way to escape my husband's grasp," she replied in a voice so calm it unsettled her. "He predicts all that I do. He undoes every step of progress I manage. He has convinced all of the region that I am a woman who lacks a sound mind, and no one will help me. I fear if I do not think of an answer soon, he will do something that cannot be undone."[break][break]

He might kill her, she knew. He had that look in his eyes, like the butcher come to cut down the pigs. She could not determine when and how she'd face her own slaughtering.[break][break]

"Perhaps yours is a plight that cannot be solved through reason," the creature suggested, a keen light in its ochre eyes. "Why wait for him to act in such a manner? Why not act first yourself?"[break][break]

"I could not rationalize it," she said, shaking her head. "For I know that to kill is a sin against creation, and I cannot act against my own knowledge. I have tried, but I still cannot commit this act that cannot be undone."[break][break]

"He has already convinced all the world of your insanity," the creature coaxed lowly, drawing nearer. Saliva had begun to drip from its mouth, slobbering with gluttonous wanting. "What use is that clever mind of yours, when it cannot think its way out, and can only prevent you from doing what must be done? Give us your conscience, give us your inhibitions of the mind, and we will give you the agency to free yourself as you wish -- free of the chains of morality that bind you."[break][break]

A hopelessness had already begun to settle within her as the creature spoke, and without her heart to fret over such things, she acquiesced to its demands quicker this time.[break][break]

"Take what you must, then," she murmured as she drew the knife upon her brow, "so that I may be able to act without guilt and remorse."[break][break]

The creature gladly did so, slaking its thirst eagerly. When it had its fill of her shame, the being was now a hideous thing as large as she was, with eyes that each shone as large as the palm of her hand.[break][break]

"The flower you grew so long ago to free us is poisonous," it promised her, grinning with bloodied teeth. "Crush its petals and you may use it to end that man's existence, and taste the freedom you so crave."[break][break]

Numb of affection and now unhindered by her own morality, she found it startlingly easy to do as the creature bade her. She plucked the flower from the soil and did as instructed, brewing a fatal concoction to feed to the beastly man who had caused her so much suffering and grief.[break][break]

When he died at her hands, the doors to her life finally all reopened. All his wealth became her own. All those who had scorned her now sought to enter into her favor with silver-tongued flattery.[break][break]

She waited for the relief to fill her, as she'd always imagined it would. She waited for the escape to mean something, but all of her had become so hollow, only a dull frustration managed to spark within her instead.[break][break]

"You lied to me," she confronted the greedy creature, furious and indignant at the deception. This time, it was large as a mountain, grinning down at her with a gleeful malice that awakened a long-dormant fear inside of her. "You said you would free me."[break][break]

"We never lied," the demon laughed, "for we gave you what you wanted. You, foolish girl, simply never asked yourself if the cost of your freedom was too high."[break][break]

"How have you grown?" she demanded, shrinking back. "I fed you my heart and my conscience, but nothing more. How have you become so powerful, when I have nothing left to give you?"[break][break]

"Vengeance, little one, has a cost all its own." A chuckling sound like the buzzing of locusts swarmed around them both, incessant and cruel. "Those who kill must kill part of their soul with them. But you would know this, wouldn't you, if you had not bargained away all your humanity before now?"[break][break]

"I wish you had killed me," she whispered, and she could not even feel remorse, left in this broken and unfinished state of being. "All I can feel now is anger. All I can do now is inflict pain. Make it stop, please, I beg of you! I cannot stand what I've become. I fear what destruction I might yet do."[break][break]

But the demon only laughed again, mocking her.[break][break]

"You chose your own existence," it reminded her, and slithered off into the darkness. All that was left in its wake was the rot of ruinous decay. "You are like us, now -- beings that destroy all we touch. Accept your fate, for you will now ruin others, as we have ruined you."

[break]

I leave you with this wisdom: in our desperation to escape our own fate, we deceive ourselves most of all.

[attr="class","ooc"]

A TALE OF DECEPTION AND VENGEANCE

[attr="class","pkmn"]

she’d found it difficult to come up with a first story. this time, she’d struggled to narrow it down to just one – but her choice ultimately stood out among the rest as useful for the occasion.[break][break]

with a bag over her shoulder, she approached the same as before. her face was solemn.[break][break]

“i will tell you a story of deception, that i have told no one else in its entirety. it is for you only.” she glanced at calyrex’s ears. “i suspect you will still hear me if i whisper.”[break][break]

after a moment, then, she began as quietly as the breeze.[break][break]

“other worlds are easily reached these days, but there was a time not so long ago when they were not, and i wondered about them very much. i was intrigued by a manmade pokemon called porygon-z, who was intended to travel to other such places. however, its creators failed, and abandoned its project.[break][break]

“i made it my mission to finish where they’d left off – but i knew little about the pokemon’s development. so, when i found myself one day having a drink next to the man in charge of its creators, it felt like fate. i kept going back, to have more drinks with him; to try and get answers.[break][break]

“though there are many who’d say otherwise by just looking at his face, FERNANDO SILPH ’s not so bad, once you talk to him a little – and that’s the dangerous part.[break][break]

“as a rocket, i couldn’t tell him who i really was. we were in hiding then, but he investigated me after seeing some of my work and found out that i likely did not work alone like i’d told him. he let me know that he knew – to blackmail me, i assumed. exhausted of threats from others already, i confronted him, and we battled.[break][break]

“at that time, i was not a strong trainer. i was overpowered by the tapu fini in his possession, with the z-move shattered psyche. i was then kidnapped, taken to one of his dwellings, and interrogated by him alone. to protect my family i told him nothing, as he tortured me.”[break][break]

she recalled a sick feeling in her belly, and the rich taste of the food that evening.[break][break]

“when his foot was on my head, drowning me in my own vomit, and i still would not talk, he called upon tapu fini a second time. she summoned the ghosts of my past, and he promised them that if they could break me, their souls would be set free – and when they ultimately failed, i was hit with a second shattered psyche.[break][break]

“my memory was wiped of all his vigilantism, and not long after, we were having drinks again, as though nothing had happened. we were friends; we shared nights together. he wanted me to love him, and i think at one point, i started to…”[break][break]

her eyes fell to the ground a moment, a small pinch in her brow.[break][break]

“but what he did not know, was that shortly after his torture, i was chosen by darkrai, and those memories began to return.”[break][break]

she wondered if it had been for the stark loyalty she’d proven behind closed doors, or because her old knight of shadows could see at that time that she’d needed it.[break][break]

“now,” she whispered, ”it becomes a story of vengeance.”[break][break]

her amber eyes rose to meet the king’s again. despite their brightness, there was a weariness there too. she had fallen, but could recall feeling such strength that had followed.[break][break]

“i was powerful. while silph slept, i consumed his dreams. i called fears from the dark corners of his mind, and witnessed how i could destroy him in the worst way.[break][break]

“but there was more that had changed about me, after all the psychic damage he’d inflicted. i became aggressive; angrier, in general, and as i remembered more and more of what he’d done, i decided on radical new goals: to destroy the world, and with it, the society he feared he would fail despite his greatest efforts. a valid fear, i would say, as he ill-fit for his position.”[break][break]

just look, as their world had begun to crumble around them since, even without her help.[break][break]

“one day, our beasts defeated tapu fini, and brought its chosen to me. my brother wanted to kill him – but i told him no, because i knew that death would have been too sweet for such a miserable man. [break][break]

“instead, i carved out his eye. i told him i wanted him to live half-blind as i did – feeling as though there were always threats looming that i couldn’t see, never able to trust, or feel secure… [break][break]

“i only took the one, because at that time, i also wanted him to watch as his world fell apart by my doing. to see the fire and the rubble that he might die in – but i regret that now. i should’ve taken both, at least.”[break][break]

she should have killed him, but she saved those words.[break][break]

“i did take something else, however. i pressed the button that removed the powers of his dead patron, returning him to utter normality, and i still feel good about that.”[break][break]

carefully, she slid the bag off her shoulder, and from it pulled a jar. holding it up, she presented to the king the sad, dead gaze that floated inside it.[break][break]

“this is no longer the eye of FERNANDO SILPH , the league’s senior councilman. this is justice – but it is only a sliver.”[break][break]

the jar was lowered some, so as not to stare for too long.[break][break]

“my mind has since returned to me. i no longer have the terrible thoughts he recklessly afflicted me with. now, my hope is that this world continues to live on, long after i, myself, have left it.[break][break]

“but the league is still full of such quiet poison and corruption – and they are poor diplomats on top of that, causing wars with other worlds; planning genocide to escape the consequences of their missteps…”[break][break]

she gave a pause, and her chin raised a touch.[break][break]

“ally with us, king calyrex. condemn the league for their cruelty and deception, and help us take this place so that we may show its people a better era of righteousness.”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]@calyrex [break]