text; un: Merlin

[lludw]

[Since his arrival, whenever Lucius used the Omni he's kept the username of a randomly generated number. He prefers it - an identifier completely separated from identity. And that's the username he'll continue to use when he wants to be consistently recognizable or has to use voice or video. But to comment on something personally important, he believes it's better to adopt a new, unconnected name. It can be its own identity, living through text alone. And now that he knows how to do that, why not test it out with something that's been on his mind?]

There's been a lot of talk about stories lately. Stories about holidays, stories to soothe people, those sorts of things.

What use is a story when it's taken from its people? If it refers to rituals that aren't possible here, or lands we'll never return to, is it simply a way we hold ourselves back? If it's adopted by the very people it was meant to fight against, what are the original people left with?

Does a story remain a useful thing?

Comments

text | un: goodfellowe

[wolfhunted]

[Robyn likes stories, so this gets her attention.]

i don't know about stories being "taken", but i think they're supposed to help people remember things. even if they're things like dragons or giants.

[Which are things she's fond of hearing about, even if people dismiss them as nonsense.]

and if someone knows a story and can tell it to other people, isn't that what's important?

[lludw]

[He's doubtful that dragons or giants currently exist in the world he came from, but he wouldn't dismiss the idea entirely out of hand. And they could have existed before. In Trench, of course, they certainly exist in some form or another.]

But what if what they remember is wrong?

[Isn't that important too?]

[wolfhunted]

there could still be something true about it, even if it's mostly wrong.

[After all, back home people tended to think the Wolfwalkers were just a pagan story, and Robyn didn't even know they were real herself until she became one of them.]

[lludw]

Is that enough, when most of it is wrong? It might get a few details right, but miss the point.

[wolfhunted]

then maybe there's someone out there who still might know more? you never know.

[Yeah, Robyn can't really think of anything to refute that. The complete disappearance of a story is something she's never really dealt with or considered before.]