hungryphrog

There was once a land called Adia. When the kingdom of Adia was founded, a spell was casted.
The spell in question was that every time someone did something wrong, they would lose a piece of their soul. A minor wrongdoing, such as lying, would make one lose a tiny piece of their, while something really bad, such as a murder would make them lose a larger piece.
If one lost all pieces of their soul, they would become immortal and live eternally as insane, haunted by nightmares and hallucinations.
A little girl named Ria lived in Adia in a cottage with her mother.
One day she was arguing with her friend, and got mad enough to push her. Ria only realised what she had done when it was already too late. The friend ran home crying, and Ria could not think of anything else than the fact she just had lost a piece of her soul.
That night she had a horrible nightmare, and woke up panicked. She stayed awake for a few hours, waiting for sunrise. When morning finally came, Ria went to her friend’s house to apologise as quickly as she could.
Ria had a grandmother named Ida, who would visit their house very often. Ida even had her own room.
Ida sometimes woke up in the middle of the night, sweaty and screaming like a pig that was being slaughtered. She would occasionally point at random spots or ask: “did you hear that?”, even if nobody else saw or heard anything out of the ordinary. Whenever Ria asked her mother why grandma behaved like that, she would act awkward and tell her that it was due to old age.
One day Ria’s mother had gone to a nearby city and left Ida to babysit her.
It was getting late and Ria went to her grandmother's room to ask her to make some food. She rarely went to Ida’s room, as her grandmother didn’t like being disturbed. Ida was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at a wall and mumbling, as if she was having some sort of a conversation.
When Ria knocked on the doorframe to get Ida’s attention, she was startled like someone had just fired a gunshot.
Ria informed her that she was hungry, but before leaving, she noticed a framed photograph on the bedside table. The photo seemed somewhat old, and after looking at it for a while, she could recognise her young mother and grandmother. There was also some other child that Ria did not recognise at all.
“Who’s that?” Ria asked, pointing at the child.
“He was your mother's friend who lived near us. His family moved out of the village a couple years after this photo was taken. But let’s go downstairs and cook now!”
When they were descending the stairs, Ida tripped and fell. You’d expect that fall to be enough to kill an old person, but Ida was just fine.
A few months later, Ria’s mother had to go to a nearby city again for a few days, so she left Ria at her grandmother's house.
Ria noticed that one of the rooms had a door that was locked from the outside. When she asked Ida about the door, her answer was: “that's an old storage room and you're not allowed to go there.”
“But why?” Ria asked.
“It’s messy, you could step on a rusty nail or something worse!”
One night Ria woke up, feeling cold. She thought that maybe she could find a thicker blanket in the storage room, but she didn't want to wake up Ida, so she put on her shoes, thinking that those will protect her from any rusty nails lying around.
After several unsuccessful attempts, she managed to pick the lock on the storage room’s door, and opened it.
The room behind the door didn't look like a storage room at all. It had a small bed, a closet, and some toys on the floor. Everything was covered by a thick layer of dust, and there were no rusty nails anywhere. Ria noticed a blanket on the bed and took it. But there was something that caught her attention under the blanket.
It was a child's dress, which looked unnervingly similar to the dress the boy in the picture was wearing.
The next morning Ida noticed that the lock on the door was unlocked. She gave Ria the same lecture that everyone who grew up in Adia has received multiple times.
“Ria, you picked the lock open even though I clearly told you to not go there. You could have woken me up and asked me to get a blanket for you, but now you have lost a piece of your soul forever. This spell was casted in the very beginning of everything and has been maintained by our rulers, who have never lost a single piece of their soul, for the welfare of the people of Adia. All of this is for your own good.”
Funnily enough, after Ria picked the lock, she slept well without nightmares, and the day after that went well too.
A year later, Ria was in her home with her mother and grandmother, when someone knocked on the door loudly. Ria’s mother rushed to the door and Ria followed her.
Behind the door there were six armored Adian soldiers asking if they knew where Ida was. Ria’s mother gave a truthful answer, which happened to be in their kitchen.
The soldiers captured Ida and transported her to a nearby castle. After a while Ria discovered that her grandmother was accused of killing her son among a plenty of other horrible things.
The judge started to think that after doing so many horrible things, Ida would have lost her soul completely and would thus be immortal.
There was only one way to find out if she had lost her soul, and that was by trying to kill her. If she survived, she would have lost her soul and therefore she would be guilty. Even after half an hour underwater she was fine.
The people I heard this story from said that Ida is still held in that castle.

In Finnish we have "kissanristiäiset" (literally means a cat's christening), which means some trivial and meaningless celebration/event.

My pet peeve is the Finnish name "Yrjö". It comes from the Greek name "Geôrgios", which means farmer, but nowadays the word "yrjö" means vomit. 'Unique spellings' like some "Everleigh" also drive me crazy.

So, I was in some world where there were two areas: one for humans, and the other was populated by anthropomorphic animals.

Well, I had three friends. One of them was a big rabbit whose fur was somewhere between light brown and desert sand brown, but I don't remember the other two, although I think they were people. I'm not sure if I was a human myself, but I had a feeling that I lived in the animal area, but were a human who had managed to make friends with the animals.

I was in the human area with my friends and had to go help some widow or something. I explored the city with an electric scooter. Apparently electric scooters were really popular there, because almost everyone rode one, despite the fact it was in winter. I saw a lot of people wearing nothing but a towel, it apparently had something to do with some holiday.

Now begins the more grimm part.

At some point, I was held a prisoner with my friends in a detached house. The family lived upstairs while we were in the basement. We were laying in some dark cell with a dirt floor and a tiny window near the ceiling when we were invited to another room. I don't know where the rabbit dude was when this happened, but I think he got to stay in the cell.

Well, we followed them to the room. The room was dark and has a cold tile floor that was either made out of stone or ceramic. We stood there, with no idea what will happen next.

Then I hear a gunshot and the next thing I know is that I'm wiggling like a fish on dry land. I can hear my friends screaming and after three more gunshots it is quiet.

My two friends are dead. I am rolling in a puddle of dark red blood and then ask "am I really the only one who survived?" I hear the coldest yes I could ever imagine and slowly get up, with my heart still beating so, so fast. Then they proceed to drag away the corpses, or more like pieces of them, as if they were just any garbage in the floor. When I walk back to the cell, I am still shivering.

Now that I'm awake, this scene felt so, so real and vivid compared to other parts of this dream that I get a bit shocked whenever I think about it. The sound of my friends screaming like dying pigs, the way I wiggled on the floor helplessly, my heart beating so fast, and everything else was just so realistic.

Well, at some point, for some reason, I was with the rabbit on a trampoline in the house's yard. It was a sunny spring day. I could see the city the animals lived in and were thinking about escaping and going there. Then I looked at the fence right next to the trampoline and said to the rabbit: "we could go this way". I stayed there for a while, trying to decide if I should take the risk.

I then thought that they shot two of my friends, so they'll shoot us too. I jumped over the fence and told the rabbit to do the same. The rabbit looked at me, I think he was quite unsure. I then told him that I will be running away and he can either come with me or stay there and eventually get shot. He then jumped over the fence and we started running.

Soon, I looked behind and noticed that he was laying on the ground. He had gotten injured and somehow one of his paws was detached. I then drag his unconscious (but alive) body away from the house. For some reason, I decided to keep his paw, thinking that it can be reattached.

When I finally arrived to the city, I met some salesman who was a badger wearing a brown fedora and a trench coat. They sold me some fabric or plastic thing to wrap the rabbit's paw in. They didn't find the fact that I was in some small alley dragging an unconscious body and carrying his detached paw questionable at all. Then I went to a library and met an owl librarian there. I think I knew her and I probably were going to ask her for help, but this is when I woke up.

I hope this dream will continue tonight, I really want to see what happens next.

I'm tired and this is the only thing I could find on my phone.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/5152637

Source: Read KB Comics :: Frog | Tapas Comics

please ask your doctor if tiny frog is right for you

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I'm logged in, whenever I try to create a playlist it lets me type the name, then when I click "OK", the box just hoes away and nothing else happens.

I have been thinking about moving my writing projects somewhere else, but I don't know any decent alternatives that would let me format the text properly and such.