username: lady of the willow tree | audio

[aprescoup]

( Did you miss this shrieking voice as much as it missed you? ) You took dead. Of course you took dead. Why are you so... do you not have friends? You want friends this badly? No one loves you? Mother does not love you? Father does not love you? You had to find dead who love you?

( She stops. Breathes. Reconsiders: ) There is no time to waste. There never was. In the city, they say none of Unhalad’s people returned. You are half safe. Unhalad won’t know of you, at least until, those things you brought back... become as he means them to be. Speak to them before that. Find out what turned them. ( Quieter: ) They were good men once. At least, less fools than you.

But Anurr knows of you. He must. After all, you — ...you never did ask, did you? Well, go around and ask! Why do the people run from your little farm in the frozen prairie? You think, they do not like big, sturdy land, with a house on it? I heard it was Haltham who put you up here, and now he hides from me. Ha! Good. Not every open house is for the taking. And maybe ask yourselves, why do you have a body in your water, eh? You think it’s good, to swim with the dead? That’s how they raise you, where you are from? Find out who it is, at least you know his name, before you get naked with him, no?

And ask your little forest friend, why are they back? They had good life in their woods. No one bothered them. Did I bother them? No. Did you? Well, you bother everyone. But not them particularly, no?

( Huffing, puffing, easing. ) Actually... some of you, maybe you are friends now. You drank the brew, ah? What they gave you, Anurr’s little sons? How smart and brave they are, now he is back. But before? Months ago, no one spoke of Anurr. No one spoke against Unhalad. Nooooooooo, they bowed our heads then, Yes, sir, no, sir, not my son, sir, do what you want, but spare my family.

If you drank that thing... do not do it again. He owned you for a few hours. But next time, he owns you for days. For weeks. For months. Until he doesn’t let go. But you’ve already done the foolishness, maybe those idiots trust you enough to say what Anurr wants. He can’t keep the citadel closed with the storms forever.

The rest of you, focus on better things. On coin. You need coin. You always need coin.

( ooc: check out the IC results of the latest vote here, along with quest sign-ups! Feel free to talk among each other/threadjack, though Karsa will only answer very sparingly at this time. )

Comments

[paperbutterflies]

Will that counsel be enough that people who have asked for none of this will not get hurt?

[aprescoup]

You seem to think, I send you to do things knowing what the result will be. I do not. I tell you, do this, do that, maybe it works out. Maybe not. What am I? A soothsayer? Yes. But you don't pay me, so not for you. And it's a lie, anyway.

[paperbutterflies]

Lady...

If I were to ask who does pay you, would you answer?

[aprescoup]

People. For things.

[paperbutterflies]

[ There might or might not have been a small giggle at that, but it was very, very muffled and you can't prove anything. ]

So people don't react well to you, so you become angrier, and then they react even worse, so you become angrier yet...

It isn't something I need to know, anyway, I merely got curious because you brought it up. Apologies for prying into what is not for me to know.

But... there will be things we need to know. We will try to ask those who were taken for answers, and we will try to ask people who might talk to us without being too suspicious, too. Even so, no matter how much we peer at the scraps of knowledge we have, we are still stumbling in the dark. We do not know how dark - but you have some idea.

For now, I thank you for your guidance.

[aprescoup]

Boy, who has denied you answers? If you have questions, if I know, I answer. Today, I do not know. I am not stupid, because I do not know. I simply do not know all. Or you would not trust me, if you heard me say it. You would think, "Of course Karsa says so."

Do I know why the farmhouse is how it is? Of course. Everyone knows. Only you do not know, because you do not ask. But I will not tell you, because you say, oh, Kaaaaaaaaaaarsa, she exaaaaaaaaaagerates. So go ask others.

[paperbutterflies]

When you were the one taken from all you know and taken to a different world, you would not know which questions to know, either. Now you are angry that we do not, but you have not stopped to think what fundamental knowledge we might still be lacking. Some might be beginning to see some of it, but as I said, we are stumbling in the dark.

In my world, if such a farm as this were abandoned, I would think that something bad happened to the previous owners, anything from a sickness to an attack from ghosts to a slaughter, so people would not want to be there so as to not draw the same fate to themselves.

But also in my world, I would be among the people that are called to resolve something like a haunting, so such an abandoned place would not raise particularly alarming questions for me.

We approach the situation with different knowledge fundamentally. So we would not know when things do not add up right as you would see them.

[aprescoup]

What... is the point of this? To convince me you are misunderstood? All right. You are misunderstood. Poor you. Baby you. I cry for you. Better?

[paperbutterflies]

Of course not. It is to explain why we are not asking questions that seem obvious to you, so you are a little less frustrated, perhaps.

[aprescoup]

Wonderful! Very wonderful. You explained. Congratulations.

Now, back to your work.