[video, before missions]

[ghost_bait]

[Miku keeps her eyes down. Behind her is her quarters, looking as inviting and comfortable (and ridiculously pink) as can be.] I wanted to ask a question. My older brother was a folklorist, and he used to tell me all sorts of old folktales while also writing about new, urban legends.

[She fiddles with the comb that keeps her bun in place.] A lot of the ones I know are... they're a bit messy. But, I thought there are so many other people here, I wouldn't mind hearing an urban legend or two from you? If you'd like to, of course.

I'll share mine, but... like I said a lot of them are, ah... a bit scary.


((TW For creepy things and stories that sometimes have gore and murder in them))

Comments

[thedreamisdead]

I'm not sure if this counts as an urban legend. People on the streets think it is. Some of us know better. Then again, it's best if people didn't really think that hard about the stuff they see in the Black Museum.

Satan is real. One day he came to Mega-City One, deciding to trick someone out of their soul or some such rubbish. He went after the purest he could find, Judge Dredd.

The venture ended poorly. The Prince of Lies was sent to the cubes for the crime of sin itself.

[And, if what she's heard is true, with more rhyme than was necessary.]

Enter Ernesto Morzel, the so-called god of gamblers. King of the underground gambling rings and master of every type of game you can imagine. Cut his teeth in Mega-City One, probably could have ruled Vegas if he'd bothered to go down there. He went from a broke child to the man who could afford to eat the last tiger prawn on the planet, just to prove he was that rich.

Problem was, creep got bored. Wanted one final game. That's when someone told him who we had locked up in Iso-Block 666.

So he broke in on the busiest night of the year, right after Nero Narcos' attempted war on the Judges had our forces spread in, killed the guards, walked into the deepest iso-cube in the place, and challenged old Scratch himself to a game of Sector Seven Slam. Poker variant. Played with multiple decks, ten cards to a hand, two to discard and eight to put in the hole. The Devil named the stakes. Their souls.

They didn't play for long. Even with our problems, we were in the Iso-Block within fifteen minutes. Found none of Mozel's men there. The cards on the table read a ten straight on Old Nick's side and eight-of-a-kind on Ernesto's. The God of Gamblers won. Too bad Lucifer didn't let him get away with his prize.

Can you imagine what happens to a normal man when a soul like that moves into his body?

[tw: body mutilation]

[ghost_bait]

[Miku's expression is guarded, but she nods.] I can, yes.

Where I'm from, there's a legend about a woman, but she's sometimes just a schoolgirl, who was pushed off the train platform by an impatient man, but sometimes he's a bully schoolmate, into the path of an oncoming train.

[She winces at the thought.] The girl's body was ripped into two halves, because she couldn't get off the tracks in time. So we have what we call a Teke Teke. It's the sound of her hands and arms as they drag her upper torso along. Tektektektek.

She haunts train stations, but there's one who is on the Meishin line, and her name is supposedly Reiko. She haunts the restrooms, but the only way to escape her is to answer her questions correctly. She wants her full name, where her legs are, and who told you what her name is. Sometimes, she asks a trick question. If you answer "Kashima" she will kill you. The only way to answer that is "Kamen Shijin Ma" or "Masked Death Demon". If you answer even one of the questions wrong, you suffer the same fate she did... your body is cut into, legs and torso.

[Miku makes a face.] Strangely, this legend is very popular with children.

[thedreamisdead]

Find me a juve that doesn't love a horror story. Especially if it might creep a girl out.

Where are her legs, out of curiosity?

[You never know when you'll wind up in a Hondo Cit public facility. Or maybe she's an immigrant.]

[gonebyebye]

...no offense, but as someone who's been to Hell and back and met Lucifer in the process? I don't think you had the real deal. It was most likely a minor demon who was pretending to be him for his own purposes.

[thedreamisdead]

From what I know, he's not the kind to accept substitutes. He did go rather traditional with Dredd, judging from the report. It's a little hard to ask him questions these days, though. Mozel doesn't stop screaming long enough for niceties like that.

Either way, even without the charge of sin, he's still in for attempted bribery of a Mega-City Judge, assault, attempted murder of a Mega-City Judge, attempted robbery, resisting arrest, demonic possession, attempted escape from an Iso-Cube, and gambling. If he's not Satan, we've got him for an extra twenty years for impersonating a known criminal with intent to commit a crime, identity theft, and attempting to defraud the Justice Department.

[superscholar]

I don't know if this counts, but...

Back home, there's this story about seven magic balls. They're scattered all across the planet, and if you can get them all together, you'll be able to summon the eternal dragon, and he'll grant you a single wish.

If I remember correctly, the balls were made thousands of years ago, and the first person to make a wish on them became a king. I don't know how accurate that part is, but I can at least tell you that the dragon balls are real, and that we've used them before.

[thedreamisdead]

What did you use them for?

[superscholar]

... Mostly bringing our friends back from the dead. Although there are stipulations to that.

[TW: Dead Moms]

[ghost_bait]

There's an especially sad story about a woman, a shopkeeper who lived on the edge of a village, and a newborn. Every evening, she would come with her child, and buy it a little amezuke, giving the shopkeeper one coin. She did it again, and again, never saying anything, just taking the cup and leaving.

On the sixth night, he pinned a little string to her kimono. She left and did not notice, trailing the string along behind her. After he'd closed the shop, he followed the string to the graveyard. There at a freshly dug grave, he heard the faint sound of a baby crying. Alarmed, the man ran to the family whose name was inscribed on the stone.

They unearthed the grave and opened it, and found that the woman, who had died before she could give birth, had birthed the infant, now weak and crying in the grave. And five of the six coins they buried with her for passage to the underworld were gone.

[superscholar]

That's...

[ Messed up, even for Gohan. Then again, he'd never really had to deal with things like that, and he sure wasn't prepared for it. ]

Sorry, that's a first for me. I'm not used to something that... [ What's a good word for this? ] ... grim.

Are those kinds of stories common where you're from?

[touchmydragon]

Older brothers can be quite the resource...

[Considering how much he relied on his older brother back in the day, he can certainly get behind that.]

Unfortunately, I only have stories from my youth, like inexpertly attempting to call on Kokkuri-san. Urban legends had lost most of their color in my era so I cannot say anything exciting ever happened. But all superstitions have a danger to them that should not be fooled with or treated lightly.

[ghost_bait]

He was, yes.

[Miku brightens up.]

Kokkuri-san? I was always too afraid I'd get spirited away playing that game.

[touchmydragon]

The thrill caused by the fear of having that happen was what drove me. Not exactly the best of motivations, I admit.

[bachido]

What sort of story is an urban legend?

[ghost_bait]

They grew up out of cities, as people began living closer and closer together. Scarier folktales, Kubo-kun.

[She pauses and looks down at her lap.]


Should I tell you one, I wonder?

[kingtyrantranger]

So, there's this guy and girl, right? And they're out parked in the woods, doing a little necking while the radio's playing a news report about an escaped lunatic from the local asylum. He's a serial murderer who always used the hook that he had instead of his hand.

They pretty much ignore it until the girl hears some scratching and scrabbling at the car and freaks. He says to chill, that it's just some trees, but she's had enough and wants to go home, so he pulls out and drives off. When he gets to her house, he gets out and goes to open her door for her, but hanging off of it is...

[He pauses, dramatically, as if this isn't the most predictable turn of events since the sun rising.]

A bloody hook.

[ghost_bait]

Ah! I don't think I'd like that...

[Miku taps her cheek in thought.]

Oh! I know...!


There was a young college girl who moved into an apartment in a certain town, because the rent was so cheap. She had decided that it wouldn't matter if there were some minor imperfections with the place, and chose to ignore them.

While she was unpacking, she noticed that one of the floorboards were a different color than the rest of the wood around it. Curious, she decided to investigate it. With a little bit of struggle, the board came up, revealing a small space beneath it. In the space, were a pair of old sewing shears, buried point down in the dirt and nearly to the hilt, pinning a piece of paper, and a lock of black, long hair to the ground.

"What's this trash?" she asked and pulled the scissors from the earth. The paper was old and stained black and red, but it just seemed unsanitary, so she chucked it into the trash bin and replaced the floorboard, going back to her unpacking.

That night, she was awoken by a strange noise, like a person gasping. [Miku makes a few wet, unnerving gasps] It sounded like it was coming from the floor, but that simply wasn't possible. Still, the gasping didn't stop. Slowly... slowly... she crept to the floorboard, and with shaking hands, pried it back up.


Staring up at her was half of a head, cut off at the place where one's lips might be. It made that strange noise again.


The girl slammed the board back down and ---

woke up.

She stared into the gloom of her room and suddenly, heard the phone ring. It startled her, and she laughed nervously, answering the phone, "Hello? Oh you scared me, I was just having the worst --"


You know, they still haven't found her body.

[isthisapidge]

Well...I kind of lived one, really. When my father and brother went missing, I started to scan space for any clues to where they were. And all I heard was strange sounds. After a while, they started to form into an alien language, but only one word was understandable.

"Voltron...Voltron..."

No one had any idea what it was, and if they did, they didn't know what it meant. Turns out that a giant Galra fleet was on it's way to claim the part of Voltron that had been hidden on earth. If we hadn't found it first, they would have wiped out the planet and no one would have known why.

...Too heavy?

[kingtyrantranger]

Run, before she replies.

[isthisapidge]

I think I can handle it, big guy.

[ghost_bait]

No, not too heavy... hmmm...

There was a story my brother told me once that there was a game called...


[Miku hesitates and shakes her head.] Maybe not that one.

Give me a few minutes, I'll bring you a good one!

[isthisapidge]

A game?

[No, sorry, Pidge is too interested in what she was going to say.]

[the_civilian]

Hmm...okay, I've got one:

There was this beautiful woman who always wore a black velvet ribbon around her neck. Every day, rain or shine, no matter where she was going or what she was doing that day, she was always wearing the black ribbon. People noticed and talked about it, but it wasn't anything that anyone had a burning need to sit her down and ask her about. Well, until a man fell in love with her. He was totally crazy about her, you know, there was nothing she could have said or done to make him love her any less, but he was a curious kind of guy. So one day, you know, he did sit her down and ask her, and all she said was "I'll tell you one day, when we're married. Until then, don't touch my ribbon."

Now, like I said, the guy was crazy about her, so they did get married, and she wore that black ribbon around her neck then too, white gown and all. And this guy, he'd been all excited to marry her for her, but he'd also been excited to find out about that ribbon. So while they were having their first dance, he asked her about it again, and she just said "I'll tell you later, don't touch my ribbon!"

Which pretty much just set the tone for the next week or so, while they were on their honeymoon. He kept asking and asking and she'd just smile and patiently put it off, and you'd think he'd take a hint, right? Seriously, just accept that she's going to tell you about her ribbon in her own time, guy, there's no need be a creepy weirdo about it.

Anyway, it's the last night of their honeymoon and she's asleep, and this guy is just crazy with curiosity. So he reaches out and unties the ribbon from around her neck. And just as he does it, her eyes snap open and she sits up in bed and screams "I told you not to touch my ribbon!"

And that's when her head fell off.

[video][CW: Blood.]

[ghost_bait]

I've heard that one! It's one of those American urban legends, isn't it? [Miku taps her choker] My brother told me about it once.

[She pauses.]

Um, my head is firmly attached.


Let's see here...

There is a story I think we may have imported, hmm

It goes something this:


In Tokyo, we have fleets and fleets of cab drivers, usually people who do this are late at night-types, because it's easier to get a cab home sometimes than to wait on a train if you've been caught out too late. Now, this cab driver is going down the road and had just picked up a fare, but he's speeding, and mumbling to himself and looking in the rearview mirror like he's expecting something to be following them.

When the passenger asks him if everything is alright, the man doesn't answer. Perturbed, the passenger sits in an uncomfortable semi-silence. He looks down at the floor and sees a red, high-heeled shoe. "Hey, Mr. Driver, there's a shoe back here, look. I think your last fare may have left it."

"Throw it out the window," the man mumbles. The passenger leans forward.

"I'm sorry, what?" The passenger was incredulous, and starting to get a little annoyed. "I'm telling you that someone lost this and--"

"I said, THROW IT OUT!" [That might be the loudest Miku has ever been in her life, and it's still not that loud.] The car filled with the sound of the driver's harsh, coarse breathing and his body trembled.

The passenger wasn't sure what to do, and leaned back. He heard a faint noise behind them, like the slap of something meaty on the road, followed by a click. Slap-click-slap-click, getting closer and closer. He looked out a window, and there beside the racing taxi, was a woman. She was lovely, but bloodied and injured, one part of her face crushed.

"Throw it out, throw it out," the driver muttered, huffing and speeding. All at once, the passenger came to his senses, and realized that the shoe in his hand was not red at all,but covered in bright red blood. Startled, he threw it out the window and the woman - if it was a woman at all - stopped chasing them. She grew smaller and smaller as the car sped away from them, shoe in one hand. Both the passenger and the drive breathed a sigh of relief.

At least until her body dropped out of the sky and landed on the car.

[video]

[the_civilian]

[ Tadashi chuckles. ]

Glad to hear it. I'm honestly not sure how good a choker would be at keeping a head attached to one's neck anyway, but it's probably magic.

[ His expression goes a little funny when she's telling the story, but he smiles over it. She has no way of knowing about his weird relationship with car-based ghost stories. ]

Yikes! I don't think I've heard that one before. I think most of the other ones I know are pretty common playground stuff -- you know, the ones kids tell kids no matter how much the teachers tell them not to.