Psylark

"They can't read your mind, Alvin."
"Yes they can!"
"No, no they can't."
"We can."
"WHO THE SHIT WAS THAT?!"
— Alvin and his now rather scared friend
 

Are you there, friend?

  Resembling irisdescent owls, psylarks are a mysterious creature. Their feathers glow seemingly in response to the glow of their own kind, staying relatively muted with the occasional pulse of colour when away from their kin. Glowing yellow eyes pierce your own, staring deep into your soul, until you hear the soft words from within your own mind.   For a moment you believe yourself to be going insane, prescribing words to the stare of a bird. Then they begin to speak in ways that you would not expect. Providing answers to the questions you have in your head and asking questions of their own. Then more voices begin to join the first as more and more psylarks make themselves known to you. Each one varied like a persons but with a distinct echo of similarity between them.  

Don't abandon us

  Some who hear their voices never stop hearing them, even after throwing themselves underwater or hiding themselves in the deepest room of a dungeon, while others find themselves with no memory of several weeks going by, with those close to them wondering what had been happening with them over that span of time.   Those who can keep their voice separated from the gentle intruders are the ones that find themselves being aided by psylarks. While some might hope that they can solve the mysteries of the world for them, the aid of the psylark takes a much less grand approach. They provide peace of mind, sifting through the worst troubles of the visited and providing them with the answers they seek on them.   This aid is a simple one, but one no less important than properly bandaging a wound. There are many steps left in the recovery of a person, whether that be physically or emotionally, and while they are willing to help, they cannot be the ones to do it instead of the visited. No one quite knows where they find their answers, and some believe that their answers are simply what the person needs to hear, but it matters not, as the person who needs it the most won't choose to question it.

Comments

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Aug 2, 2023 05:32 by Brian

First off loved the beginning conversation. I quite literally laughed out loud. Nice work there. The Psylark really intrigues me. Reminds me of the idea of a Strix and really like them. It is really interesting that sometimes after an encounter people don't stop hearing them and have some trouble. It gives a really cool background information to someone and a neat concept for why they don't remember parts of their history. I think besides the beginning my other favorite part of your article is at the end about the Psylark helping and mending. They don't help in a grand way answering unsolvable equations or universal questions. Instead they aid in the littler things and maybe simply tell someone what they need to hear. Well done.

Amateur Writer Professional (Lifelong) DM Your Averge Guy "If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that." Stephen King
Aug 2, 2023 14:49 by Andrew

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! I wasn't quite sure how they'd end up while I was writing them, but I'm happy with how they turned out. Definitely a bit of an enigma!

Aug 3, 2023 23:01 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

I'm kind of terrified of the psylarks, especially the idea of diving into deep water or underground and still not being able to escape them.   Hopefully I'd be one of those people who got aid instead.   Great concept! :)

Aug 4, 2023 01:53 by Andrew

I'm absolutely terrified of them as well, 100% would go crazy

Aug 6, 2023 21:37 by Marjorie Ariel

I absolutely love the opening quote. And the idea of one psylark voice in your head growing to include more and more. I'm a little confused about the end section. The first paragraph implies people will literally try to drown out the voices by going underwater and cannot. I got the impression of someone so pained by the voices of the psylark that they lose their grip on reality. But the later paragraphs talk about the psylarks helping people in a therapeutic way. Is it that their voices are therapeutic to some and comforting to others? And if so, is there a pattern to who is hurt or helped by the voices? Do the psylarks intend to hurt the people they hurt? (I don't doubt, based on the article, that they do intend to help those they help.) I've kind of got a thing for owls, so I'm very interested to know more about these guys!

Aug 8, 2023 07:23 by Andrew

Good catch! They don't intend to hurt the people who go mad, but not everyone can handle the idea of their mind being intruded upon, even in a world where telepathy exists. Once that particular door is open, however, the psylarks back off, they don't speak to them again for fear of worsening the effects, but unfortunately they can't prevent the person from hearing echoes of them. Some of them believe that the people who can't handle hearing them are the ones who were never meant to hear them, others think that sometimes a persons reality is, in fact, that fragile, that they live solely on the belief of themselves in the moment.