verse three is audio -> video

[allsongs]

[it's a minute or so of a melody hummed, something thoughtful, simple. it persists even when she finds what she wants – that there video function, the telltale thing she knows for sure is her window to everyone else floating around with these things.

far too quiet for her, and quiet only a moment longer before she speaks up:]

I want to understand what it is your name means. Tell me?

Comments

[allsongs]

[Simmaeri watches with a milder expression than before, taking stock of voice, owner, and all the demeanor wrapped within. the flash of anger dictates well to tread with care, learning this new name and its meaning.]

I do not know the word monsters. Will you tell me? Please.

[demonbloodblade]

[The desire for information - to know - helps Meliantha fight down that moment of anger.]

Creatures outside nature, usually evil or destructive by nature. Sometimes also applied to animals who are maddened by disease or hunger to attack things they would not normally try to kill.

[allsongs]

[she considers this in a length of silence, looking back at the screen at last:]

I do not understand this name of you.

[demonbloodblade]

My father was a monster. He fooled my mother, lied to her, and then left once she had given in to him. His blood was of the blood of demons - creatures from outside the world, who want to destroy, corrupt and consume the world - and he gave into those desires gladly.

He was a monster - he took pleasure in corrupting women, or if they would not give in to his advances, he would kill them. And I am his child.

I fight to not be a monster, despite what is in my blood.

[allsongs]

[her brow knits faintly as she listens, trying to follow along, silent for a length thereafter.]

This father is...[a word, not English. evil, she says.] Not good. As you say...

[demonbloodblade]

Yes. Not good. What he could not ruin, he broke.

[allsongs]

Meliantha. [testing it, matching its original cadence.

she smiles, empathetic.] It is good to choose not this father's way.

[demonbloodblade]

No. I chose the way of the father who took me in when my mother died. Protector, not spoiler.

[allsongs]

[a good thing to hear, but...] Why do you keep the name of monsters?

[demonbloodblade]

By the time I understood what it meant, it was... too hard for me to change, inside my head. I could change it, perhaps, but...

It also reminds me of what I am, and what I am trying not to be.

[allsongs]

[hmm...]

To remember.

[demonbloodblade]

Sometimes, when I feel the worst, the darkest, the most beaten by those who judge me by my face before even considering my actions... I need to remember that I am not what they call me.

I am not a monster.

[allsongs]

No. You are not.