deepblackdreaming – Page 7 – The Shogun of Sorrow

deep-black-dreaming

“I don’t want anything from you, I’m here because you’re incredibly unique.” She settled a bit, looking over the tree’s trunk and up to his branches. “You’re here by yourself, the world around you is terribly desolate, it’s kind of lonely. Isn’t it?”

Casper reached into her bag, removing a sketch book and a box with a few pieces of charcoal.

“Why don’t I draw you? I’ll be quiet company.” she started in on the illustration, looking up only every so often to look at detail. She could here him clearly, it was almost terrifying, but Casper was curious to keep him talking if she was being honest.

Aku’s displeasure manifested itself in the form of incomprehensible growling and grumbling. A few of the tree’s branches creaked ominously with his mounting frustration. He was clearly not the sort to enjoy anyone’s company, even if it was quiet. Of course, he couldn’t stop her from staying to sketch the tree that imprisoned him.

Finally, the power of word formation returned to him and it wasn’t any more pleasant than the growling.

‘I do not desire company,’ he spat. ‘I desire FREEDOM!’ Somehow the raspy voice managed to sound otherworldly and like an angry old man both at once.

‘If you only knew to whom it is you speak, you would not be so bold and insolent. I am AKU! And when I escape from this wretched prison I shall once again be the Master of this world. When I am free, I shall see to it that ALL of humankind suffers for the sins and disrespect your kind has inflicted upon me!’

It wasn’t something they did, traveling wasn’t cheap, but Shane insisted he take her on a trip. Casper was once an aspiring archaeologist, however since her depression spiked she hadn’t expressed interest in anything that used to make her so happy.

Shane was trying to be a good friend by taking her out to historical sites and places that were generally outdoors. It was how Casper found that tree, massive and foreboding with no life around it. It had an aura about it that drew her closer still to the trunk until she was beneath it.

“It’s been here for six years, the locals say it harbors some kind of evil spirit. Not the most cheerful thing to take in.” Shane explained standing a few feet away behind her.

“I like it.” was all she said in response. But before she could touch it, she was tugged away and dragged off elsewhere.

“Let’s go enjoy something else.”

Casper followed but looked back as they left.

When she had some time to herself Casper returned to that tree, settling on the ground beside it she looked up to the very top of it’s branches. It almost looked like a devil’s pitchfork the way it stood straight and up so high.

It was terrifying, how it was so desolate all on it’s own, no life dared to approach it. But Casper more then dared, she sat beside it and carefully placed a hand to the rough bark of the pitch black tree. All at once her mind was flooded with images of chaos, burning, and screams.

Casper pulled away, startled, but didn’t leave. It really was something paranormal, and it was alive.

“Hello.” she spoke up. “Hope you don’t mind the company.”

Though he was sealed away from interacting with the world, Aku was painfully aware of everything around him, even the gaze of distant gawkers. But he had a way of shaping his formidable presence into the sense of a hard glare that never failed to drive unwanted visitors away. Until today.

Someone had returned and she dared to approach him, even dared to place a hand upon his prison. Underlying the vision of chaos and fire and screams, there came a sharp growl. Aku tried to will her away but she would not go. Instead she did something no one had ever done — she spoke directly to him.

His presence seemed to roil with rage and surprise and a deep sense of desperation. She could sense him. But could she hear him? Aku could not speak his words so he thought them at her as loudly as he could.

‘Foolish human. What do you want of me? I offer no fruit, no shade and no beauty. There is no reason for you to be here. Begone!’

@deep-black-dreaming

In the center of the sun baked landscape was a lone, dead tree. A gnarled mass of roots pierced the earth around it while leafless skeletal branches pierced the sky above like a cluster of pitchforks. Even beneath the bright sun it radiated an evil darkness that threatened all who saw it. No bird flew near and no living creature dared make it its home. Life seemed to stay far away.

It had been six years, six months and ten days since Aku had been imprisoned here. To be granted freedom and sentience for but only one day and then to be forced back into the dirt again was Hell. As a mindless being, decades could pass in hardly a blink, but for a being with thoughts and a mind, the hours crawled by maddeningly slow and there was no telling when it would ever end.

Aku was restless, angry. Ever since he’d been placed here, he wanted to thrash and scream and breathe fire into the sky. But he could do nothing and could make no sound. To feel so helpless, hopeless and forgotten was a punishment he could not endure, and yet he could do nothing but endure.

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“Malaise…so there’s a word for it. Good. I guess it only means I’m not the only one.” she curled her knees to her chest.

Well, at least his misery had company. Aku sank into his seat with a sigh and a soft rumble, then finished the rest of his tea.

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“No, maybe just too idle.” she answered honestly. “It’s a kind of a state of mind. I don’t dislike people, but I don’t really like to go out of my way to help too many either. I’m stuck in a loop of indifference with a clouded mind. Like being sleepy but living in that sleepiness on a constant basis.”

Aku let out a sigh. An expression came over his face that suggested he knew just what she meant.

“Ah, yes. Malaise… I am familiar.”

deep-black-dreaming:

unspeakablyevil:

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“It’s not quite like that, they just tend to reveal themselves to me alone. They don’t go invisible, they just hide. I think they want the people around me to believe I’m crazy. To isolate me. Only one of my friends has any belief and he’s not all there himself.” she explained. “It’s a harsh strategy, but it’s working.”

“Have you considered ridding yourself of these creatures? Your religious human mumbo-jumbo does not work against Aku but it may be effective against inferior entities.”

“I’m not…um, i’m not really all that religious. I have some temporary solutions though that are working for me. Besides, may be I deserve it?” she looked down at that, pondering for a minute.

“Deserve it?” Aku raised a fiery eyebrow. It was true that humans as a species deserved punishment for their initial lack of respect for Aku, but he did not expect any of them to feel the same. Especially ones that hailed from a different dimension altogether.

“For what reason do you deserve such punishment? Have you been wicked toward your own mortal kind?”

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“It’s not quite like that, they just tend to reveal themselves to me alone. They don’t go invisible, they just hide. I think they want the people around me to believe I’m crazy. To isolate me. Only one of my friends has any belief and he’s not all there himself.” she explained. “It’s a harsh strategy, but it’s working.”

“Have you considered ridding yourself of these creatures? Your religious human mumbo-jumbo does not work against Aku but it may be effective against inferior entities.”

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Casper couldn’t help her smile at that, oddly comforted by such threatening words. “I appreciate it, but I don’t want to drag him down. He has enough to worry about, thank you though, Master Aku.”

“Am I to assume only you are capable of seeing the monsters that lurk in your world or am I to assume they are simply making themselves invisible?” Aku couldn’t understand why such creatures wouldn’t want to be seen and feared by all.

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Casper tensed a bit at that question and looked down. “…Yeah.” she admitted. “It’s become the norm I guess. My fiancee thinks I should go to a hospital, he doesn’t believe I actually interact with or even see monsters.”

“Bring him to me,” Aku spoke in a dangerous tone over his tea. “I will make him do more than believe and I will show no mercy.”

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“Sorry, I haven’t, he came to my apartment after I found him as a puddle somewhere. Was kind of embarrassing, my place is a mess.” She muttered the last part mostly to herself.

Aku settled back into his seat with a low rumble. He would have to find the doctor’s laboratory himself.

“Do you regularly receive monstrous visitors?”