Post by Lady Munin on Oct 21, 2019 18:41:43 GMT -5
MUNIN 無人
[Japanese interpretation: unmanned, uninhabited, empty.]
Munin gazed at the writing on her locker with resigned dismay. She wasn’t surprised by the graffiti, but it still hurt to be faced with such disdain.
One small hand swept the bangs from her doll-like face with a disheartened sigh.
There was no sense in reacting, it would just encourage them, but she would have to clean it off before Hugin saw it though.
She was shoved against the locker before she even knew her attacker was behind her. Strong hands clenched painfully in her hair, grinding her face into the vandalized locker.
“Well, if it isn’t our little Taira Princess.”
His breath on her neck made her skin crawl, but whatever else her captor was about to say was interrupted by a snide feminine voice.
“Silly Jin, she isn’t a princess, she’s a Munin. Just because she carries the name doesn’t mean she’s a princess. No, she is nothing but a dirty little mutt.”
A peal of cruel laughter from behind made her pulse race.
How many of them are there, and how far will they take their hatred this time?
The hand in her hair started to caress against her scalp.
“She doesn’t look like a dirty mutt to me, more like a pretty little doll, an empty imitation of a princess. I think your parents named you well.”
His larger body shifted against her back.
“Munin, an empty little doll. You know, dolls are nothing until they have someone to play with them.”
Another male’s smug laughter was interrupted by a jealous scoff.
“A mutt is a mutt no matter how pretty. Your father should have drowned you in the river when you were born. Then again, he was just as much a disgrace as you are.”
The girl sucked air through her teeth in a disgusted tsk.
“He tarnished his family’s name by marrying some Gaijin. Then he allowed her to give his mutt daughter such an idiotic name. What was he thinking?”
Each venomous word sliced through her like a knife. Every instinct screamed at her to fight, but she was frozen. Her mind had become a prison that betrayed her when she needed it most.
“Don’t worry, little doll. No one else will want you after today, but you’ll be mine.”
A whimper clawed its way out of her throat only to cut off when Jin abruptly spun her around. Her body hit the locker hard enough to know the air from her lungs.
“None of that.”
Her breath hitched as his hand slid over her stomach.
“Disgusting, but I can’t complain. Your little perversion will get her out of my way.”
The nasty voice drew closer as if to ensure that she heard every word.
“When Hugin sees what a little slut you are, he’ll want nothing to do with you.”
Those final words echoed around in Munin’s head like a loudspeaker in an empty room.
She wants to take Hugin away.
With that thought, every repressed ounce of rage and pain unleashed in a sudden eruption of violence. Her internal prison didn’t just crumble; it shattered.
“No.”
Her knee jerked up, ruthlessly slamming into her attacker’s groin.
The sudden attack quickly followed by a vicious head-butt to his nose once he bent over in pain.
The blood that sprayed from his nose went unnoticed as she finished her attack with an elbow to his jaw.
She was a feral creature, mindless with rage. However, in this violence, she found peace. She had a purpose. She was going to tear apart anyone that tried to take Hugin away.
The room was shocked into silence when she struck again. Her small hands latched onto her tormenter’s long hair with a serene smile on her blood-spattered face.
“My name is Munin. M.U.N.I.N. You stupid cunt.”
She used the girl’s hair to reel her in for a brutally efficient beating. Even when the screams turned to whimpers, she didn’t stop. It wasn’t enough.
Somewhere in the corner of her mind, she knew her father wouldn’t approve. If he could see her now he would surely be disappointed.
Too bad daddy's dead.
“Munin...Munin...Munin.”
She heard the voice as if from a distance. Everything seemed distant though, everything but the feel of flesh yielding to her fists.
“MUNIN STOP!”
Large hands pulled her back against a warm chest.
“What is going on here!”
“Munin it’s ok I have you.”
Her struggles slowed as the familiar voice penetrated her haze.
“Hugin.”
The world snapped into focus like a camera lens on a blurry picture. All her rage suddenly poured out of her small body, leaving it to crumble limply into Hugin’s gentle embrace. Voices talked over each other and time seemed to blur. It was like those moments in a dream where you moved from point a to b without any true recollection of happened in-between.
“So, you want me to believe that Mister Yamanato attacked Miss Taira, despite her complete lack of injuries? Some witnesses paint a very different story, young man. One far more believable than yours, and you would do well to re-evaluate, before spouting any more nonsense. You are only allowed in this school because of your association with the Taria family.”
How could he not believe them? It was as if the principle was looking for any excuse to twist their words. Hugin was getting angrier by the second. If this kept up he was going to snap. Munin’s dark eyes caressed over the knuckles going white against the armrests. He didn’t believe them because it was easier not to. Nothing was going to change his mind, and arguing would only accomplish Hugin being expelled. They didn’t want to believe that she attacked anyone other than the girl Hugin pried her off of.
I should’ve hit the bitch harder.
“You’re right, Hugin is lying to cover for me. I lied and told him that Jin tried to molest me because he refused to go out with me. He wanted to go out with...”
She trailed off realizing that she still hadn’t learned the bitch’s name.
“Miss Makio.”
The principal offered tersely. Beneath the desk, his hand shook slightly. The girl was no more than a child, yet her dark eyes were completely emotionless. There were no tears or fear, absolutely no remorse, yet they tried to say that she was the victim? His mind flashed to the sight of the preteen being loaded into the ambulance.
“Yes, Miss Makito. I was angry that he would turn me down for someone so inferior to me so I attacked her. The other boy tried to break us apart. When Hugin came in I told him that they were attacking me, so he defended me. He was only doing what he is supposed to do. Serve me.”
Bile rose up in her throat with every lie she spewed, and the fact that the principal was nodding along with each word made her even sicker.
What did you do when everyone wanted a lie? You give them what they want.
They wouldn't separate her from Hugin, and he would believe her.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Hugin took her small bruised hand in his. Suddenly she knew no matter what came from this it would be ok.
She wouldn't be alone.
"Miss Taira while your family name does offer you a certain amount of leniency let me assure you that it is not infinite-"
The principal kept talking, but honestly, she stopped listening. Everything was just blending again. Time and place lost all meaning. Her family arrived and were more than happy to properly convey their displeasure.
She tried to tell them the truth on the way home, but it was pointless.
Her grandparents were more than willing to eat up the lies she fed the principle. They never questioned the story, and any attempt to tell them otherwise was immediately shut down. It hurt, but it wasn't really surprising.
The only bright side to this ordeal was that Hugin came out looking like gold. Any doubts her grandparents had about keeping him in their care were dismissed.
That was enough to make her smile, despite the grains of rice digging into her knees. Ok, the smile was more of a grimace.
Abstractly she knew that the events of the day would catch up with her. The sweet peace she found in the earlier violence wasn't a permanent fix, and sooner or later her walls would come tumbling down. For now, she was thankful for any reprieve she could get. If only life could continue in this twilight state of shock.
It was sooner rather than later. In the middle of the night when the house was quiet and still. Her small body started to shiver. Then the shivers turned into shakes and a keening sound began to bubble up from her throat.
"Munin. Shit Munin, come here."
Hugin held her patiently for what seemed like hours. He listened to everything until his own hands trembled with rage. Despite his own emotions he never interrupted her. Finally, the shivering stopped when she slipped into the blissful oblivion of sleep.
If only I could stay in this forever.
She thought while floating through the dark. Maybe she was being punished because she was supposed to be dead. Everyone else had died.
Were they floating in their own peaceful darkness too?
Thunder rolled through the darkness and with it came the horror. Pale dead hands slick with water pulling her down into the water. A seat belt strapping her to the seat of a car filling up with water and her only company the rotting water-swollen corpses that surrounded her.
"MUNIN! Fuck, Munin wake up! It's just a dream!"
Her eyes flew open expecting to see brown but were met with grey.
Krähe.
Of course, it was Krähe. She wasn't an eleven-year-old girl anymore and Hugin...
She had no idea where Hugin was.
Slowly the world came into focus. The interior of the car. The storm raging outside. Richard peeking over Krähe's shoulder with worry. Krähe's was hard with worry, only softening when he saw she was fully awake.
"There you are, that was some nightmare."
"Yeah...a nightmare"
If you dream about memory is it a nightmare...or just a memory? Either way, it was nothing that Zachariah needed to worry about.
"We'll go with that."
Some old habits die hard.
With a steady hand, Munin flipped on the music to indicate that she didn't want to talk about it.
"Oh, life could be a dream
If I could take you up in paradise up above
If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream, sweetheart"
Oh, the irony.
[For very obvious reasons...this was not on camera. Also for anyone wondering about the rice. Kneeling on rice is fairly traditional punishment, and a lot more painful than it sounds.]
[Japanese interpretation: unmanned, uninhabited, empty.]
Munin gazed at the writing on her locker with resigned dismay. She wasn’t surprised by the graffiti, but it still hurt to be faced with such disdain.
One small hand swept the bangs from her doll-like face with a disheartened sigh.
There was no sense in reacting, it would just encourage them, but she would have to clean it off before Hugin saw it though.
She was shoved against the locker before she even knew her attacker was behind her. Strong hands clenched painfully in her hair, grinding her face into the vandalized locker.
“Well, if it isn’t our little Taira Princess.”
His breath on her neck made her skin crawl, but whatever else her captor was about to say was interrupted by a snide feminine voice.
“Silly Jin, she isn’t a princess, she’s a Munin. Just because she carries the name doesn’t mean she’s a princess. No, she is nothing but a dirty little mutt.”
A peal of cruel laughter from behind made her pulse race.
How many of them are there, and how far will they take their hatred this time?
The hand in her hair started to caress against her scalp.
“She doesn’t look like a dirty mutt to me, more like a pretty little doll, an empty imitation of a princess. I think your parents named you well.”
His larger body shifted against her back.
“Munin, an empty little doll. You know, dolls are nothing until they have someone to play with them.”
Another male’s smug laughter was interrupted by a jealous scoff.
“A mutt is a mutt no matter how pretty. Your father should have drowned you in the river when you were born. Then again, he was just as much a disgrace as you are.”
The girl sucked air through her teeth in a disgusted tsk.
“He tarnished his family’s name by marrying some Gaijin. Then he allowed her to give his mutt daughter such an idiotic name. What was he thinking?”
Each venomous word sliced through her like a knife. Every instinct screamed at her to fight, but she was frozen. Her mind had become a prison that betrayed her when she needed it most.
“Don’t worry, little doll. No one else will want you after today, but you’ll be mine.”
A whimper clawed its way out of her throat only to cut off when Jin abruptly spun her around. Her body hit the locker hard enough to know the air from her lungs.
“None of that.”
Her breath hitched as his hand slid over her stomach.
“Disgusting, but I can’t complain. Your little perversion will get her out of my way.”
The nasty voice drew closer as if to ensure that she heard every word.
“When Hugin sees what a little slut you are, he’ll want nothing to do with you.”
Those final words echoed around in Munin’s head like a loudspeaker in an empty room.
She wants to take Hugin away.
With that thought, every repressed ounce of rage and pain unleashed in a sudden eruption of violence. Her internal prison didn’t just crumble; it shattered.
“No.”
Her knee jerked up, ruthlessly slamming into her attacker’s groin.
The sudden attack quickly followed by a vicious head-butt to his nose once he bent over in pain.
The blood that sprayed from his nose went unnoticed as she finished her attack with an elbow to his jaw.
She was a feral creature, mindless with rage. However, in this violence, she found peace. She had a purpose. She was going to tear apart anyone that tried to take Hugin away.
The room was shocked into silence when she struck again. Her small hands latched onto her tormenter’s long hair with a serene smile on her blood-spattered face.
“My name is Munin. M.U.N.I.N. You stupid cunt.”
She used the girl’s hair to reel her in for a brutally efficient beating. Even when the screams turned to whimpers, she didn’t stop. It wasn’t enough.
Somewhere in the corner of her mind, she knew her father wouldn’t approve. If he could see her now he would surely be disappointed.
Too bad daddy's dead.
“Munin...Munin...Munin.”
She heard the voice as if from a distance. Everything seemed distant though, everything but the feel of flesh yielding to her fists.
“MUNIN STOP!”
Large hands pulled her back against a warm chest.
“What is going on here!”
“Munin it’s ok I have you.”
Her struggles slowed as the familiar voice penetrated her haze.
“Hugin.”
The world snapped into focus like a camera lens on a blurry picture. All her rage suddenly poured out of her small body, leaving it to crumble limply into Hugin’s gentle embrace. Voices talked over each other and time seemed to blur. It was like those moments in a dream where you moved from point a to b without any true recollection of happened in-between.
“So, you want me to believe that Mister Yamanato attacked Miss Taira, despite her complete lack of injuries? Some witnesses paint a very different story, young man. One far more believable than yours, and you would do well to re-evaluate, before spouting any more nonsense. You are only allowed in this school because of your association with the Taria family.”
How could he not believe them? It was as if the principle was looking for any excuse to twist their words. Hugin was getting angrier by the second. If this kept up he was going to snap. Munin’s dark eyes caressed over the knuckles going white against the armrests. He didn’t believe them because it was easier not to. Nothing was going to change his mind, and arguing would only accomplish Hugin being expelled. They didn’t want to believe that she attacked anyone other than the girl Hugin pried her off of.
I should’ve hit the bitch harder.
“You’re right, Hugin is lying to cover for me. I lied and told him that Jin tried to molest me because he refused to go out with me. He wanted to go out with...”
She trailed off realizing that she still hadn’t learned the bitch’s name.
“Miss Makio.”
The principal offered tersely. Beneath the desk, his hand shook slightly. The girl was no more than a child, yet her dark eyes were completely emotionless. There were no tears or fear, absolutely no remorse, yet they tried to say that she was the victim? His mind flashed to the sight of the preteen being loaded into the ambulance.
“Yes, Miss Makito. I was angry that he would turn me down for someone so inferior to me so I attacked her. The other boy tried to break us apart. When Hugin came in I told him that they were attacking me, so he defended me. He was only doing what he is supposed to do. Serve me.”
Bile rose up in her throat with every lie she spewed, and the fact that the principal was nodding along with each word made her even sicker.
What did you do when everyone wanted a lie? You give them what they want.
They wouldn't separate her from Hugin, and he would believe her.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Hugin took her small bruised hand in his. Suddenly she knew no matter what came from this it would be ok.
She wouldn't be alone.
"Miss Taira while your family name does offer you a certain amount of leniency let me assure you that it is not infinite-"
The principal kept talking, but honestly, she stopped listening. Everything was just blending again. Time and place lost all meaning. Her family arrived and were more than happy to properly convey their displeasure.
She tried to tell them the truth on the way home, but it was pointless.
Her grandparents were more than willing to eat up the lies she fed the principle. They never questioned the story, and any attempt to tell them otherwise was immediately shut down. It hurt, but it wasn't really surprising.
The only bright side to this ordeal was that Hugin came out looking like gold. Any doubts her grandparents had about keeping him in their care were dismissed.
That was enough to make her smile, despite the grains of rice digging into her knees. Ok, the smile was more of a grimace.
Abstractly she knew that the events of the day would catch up with her. The sweet peace she found in the earlier violence wasn't a permanent fix, and sooner or later her walls would come tumbling down. For now, she was thankful for any reprieve she could get. If only life could continue in this twilight state of shock.
It was sooner rather than later. In the middle of the night when the house was quiet and still. Her small body started to shiver. Then the shivers turned into shakes and a keening sound began to bubble up from her throat.
"Munin. Shit Munin, come here."
Hugin held her patiently for what seemed like hours. He listened to everything until his own hands trembled with rage. Despite his own emotions he never interrupted her. Finally, the shivering stopped when she slipped into the blissful oblivion of sleep.
If only I could stay in this forever.
She thought while floating through the dark. Maybe she was being punished because she was supposed to be dead. Everyone else had died.
Were they floating in their own peaceful darkness too?
Thunder rolled through the darkness and with it came the horror. Pale dead hands slick with water pulling her down into the water. A seat belt strapping her to the seat of a car filling up with water and her only company the rotting water-swollen corpses that surrounded her.
"MUNIN! Fuck, Munin wake up! It's just a dream!"
Her eyes flew open expecting to see brown but were met with grey.
Krähe.
Of course, it was Krähe. She wasn't an eleven-year-old girl anymore and Hugin...
She had no idea where Hugin was.
Slowly the world came into focus. The interior of the car. The storm raging outside. Richard peeking over Krähe's shoulder with worry. Krähe's was hard with worry, only softening when he saw she was fully awake.
"There you are, that was some nightmare."
"Yeah...a nightmare"
If you dream about memory is it a nightmare...or just a memory? Either way, it was nothing that Zachariah needed to worry about.
"We'll go with that."
Some old habits die hard.
With a steady hand, Munin flipped on the music to indicate that she didn't want to talk about it.
"Oh, life could be a dream
If I could take you up in paradise up above
If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream, sweetheart"
Oh, the irony.
[For very obvious reasons...this was not on camera. Also for anyone wondering about the rice. Kneeling on rice is fairly traditional punishment, and a lot more painful than it sounds.]