--- "Steve T." <mixednutspress@earthlink.net> wrote:

I'll be bluntly honest. I have no idea where to go
with this. I like 
your ideas, but I honestly don't know if I should
even try. I was 
seriously thinking of making this idea up for grabs
and letting someone 
else give it a try.

---

You wish to see Skuld?  Now would not be a good time.
Why?  Well...I suppose it's time I told you, dear
Keiichi, about our imperfections.  Only Kami-sama is
Kami-sama.  Even us goddesses have dark sides, and I
don't mean the Doublet system.  Skuld's dark side is
the reason my other sister became an alcoholic.

If my words seem strong, dear Keiichi, it is because
this topic has given me nightmares.  I am glad to be
able to confide in you, and I hope that, should I ever
give in again, you will be able to bring me out.

I forget when we first discovered Skuld's behavior.
It was probably sometime during the Roman Empire...no,
wait.  I remember.  It was the day the Library of
Alexandria burned down.  So much potential for the
future, destroyed in one day.  Many of the inventions
and stories have been rediscovered in the eras since
then, but a few still remain unknown to humanity.

Now, you think you know Skuld.  So did we.  You'd
think she would be horrified or desparate at such a
tragedy.

She was down there, leading those who set the library
aflame, reveling in the destruction.  But far worse
than any human: only she could see the many threads
burning away, and it was their warmth that gladdened
her heart.

At first, we thought it was a demon.  Kami-sama
suggested - suggested, not ordered - that we stay
away.  We ignored His advice...and then we saw her.
We confronted her, but so deep in the thrall of
pleasure was she, she didn't even notice us when we
grabbed her and shoved our faces into hers.  I can
still remember her laugh.  We asked Kami-sama why.  He
said it was a lesson humanity needed to learn, about
putting your ideas into action instead of letting them
rot.  Ideas live in the heart first and foremost, but
without other form, all the ideas that had lived only
in the library were gone.  Only those that someone had
used, survived.

And those were the ones Skuld later claimed to have
saved.  That was her excuse for her presence.  But
having looked into her eyes amidst the flames, we knew
better.  She is a sadist at heart, a destroyer just as
much as the creator she lets other people see, and
taking pleasure from both sides.  If she were just the
creator, every inspiration, every good idea would be
followed up...but thanks to her, most good stories and
the most wonderful inventions stay in the heart, never
to see the light of day.

That night, Urd got drunk, trying to erase the picture
from her mind.  I joined her.  It worked, for a little
while.  When it returned, she repeated the cycle.  I
did not.

What I'm really scared about, dear Keiichi, is that
Skuld's been getting close to letting the destroyer
win, once and for all.  She's tried to commit suicide
before.  Your history teacher called it the Cold War,
and the Black Plague before that - and those are only
the ones he knows about.  I'm afraid she's not quite
over her most recent bout.

She's probably almost done with today's episode.  But
there will be another, soon.  And I don't know how
long Urd will put herself under this time.  I'm
scared, Keiichi.

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