The story of Ash Dilishush

~dsilverz

Ash Dilishush (aš-dili šu, from Sumerian "𒀸𒋙"), as villagers called them, was born into the woods. Their situation was akin to "The boy raised by wolves", except that Ash had no wolves, either. Some say the mysterious muse Ninna Uzud (𒊩𒄷𒇧𒍚) raised them, but Ash's background is still unknown to this day.

Ash's Rumors

Of course, much is said about the little Ash. People around the village say "he" was an intelligent "boy", despite his wild origins. Yes, despite their androgynous nature, Ash was always deemed a "boy" by villagers: "why cast any doubt on it? He was a boy, of course, a smart and good boy. May God have him.", said the old artisan who often (ab)used of Ash's "help" at the workshop.

During their childhood and youth, Ash was surrounded by people, curious about their tons of abilities, from computer science to craftsmanship. Ash never refused to help: partly due to their shyness, partly due to their willingness to help. Some referred to Ash as a "friend": "Yeah, yeah, Ash was my friend, good friend... a... huh (clears throat)... big friend. Poor guy, I heard the stories about him, I was trying to reach him to work to... I mean... with me, you know", said one of the landlords from the village.

In reality, Ash never had friends. Sometimes, Ash was _referred to as_ friend, which is a very different thing than _having_ friends. Ash couldn't fit anywhere: the villagers never understood their traits, oversimplifying those as "intelligence".

"Sometimes little Ash came to my store and spent hour talking to me about topics I never got to understand. He was really a smart boy... I'm so sorry about the tragic loss, I guess we should've embraced him more", said one of the retired cashiers from the old village's market.

Ash's Childhood

After Ash first appeared in the village, still as a little child, Father Harold welcomed them and promptly gave them clothes... with one condition: Ash would be baptized and raised as a dedicated Christian.

Harold didn't really took care of Ash, partly because "dorms are full, son, sorry", partly because Ash always liked the woods, where Ash spent the majority of their days: "I hope God forgave him, I once saw him doing such a satanic act... He talked to the Devil! You know, you don't talk to the Devil, Devil is our enemy. That's why he had such a tragic end, he dealt with Satan, and Satan is a murderer! Our holy church must act, evil won't prevail in this city", said the Father Harold while buying a new cassock at the new Holy Lewis store inside Greedies Shopping Mall.

Ash's Youth

As soon as Ash grew up, Raymont, the former school director, enrolled Ash: "I enrolled him in our school because Ash needed to learn and adapt into living among our society, especially due to his unknown and crude origins. He was always a prodigious student, albeit quite agitated. Our school was the best thing that happened in his life when he was alive, I'm certain of it, he loved studying... have you seen the Advanced Math book he once borrowed from our library, the one about Riemann hypothesis? He needed to return it a long time ago. Didn't they find it with his corpse, somehow?".

While Ash loved to learn, they had to change classes several times: deemed too intelligent to a certain class, deemed too hyperactive to another. Raymont and other school staff always needed to protect Ash during lunchtime, because all classmates made fun of them and stole their lunch. Sometimes, during classes, Ash disappeared into the woods again, taking all the books and notebooks with them. When Ash came back, it seemed like they learnt the whole book at once, frustrating the imposed course of teacher's curriculum which was something to be blindly followed.

[...]

One day, during a Math class, Ash left the classroom, as usual. Rick, one of their bullies, followed them into the woods. The rest of the story is still unknown to this day: suddenly, Rick came back from the woods, extremely scared and beaten, both physically and emotionally. Questioned if he was beaten by Ash (which was physically impossible: Ash was such a slim, delicate teen), he replied, stuttering: "S-She... T-THE DEVIL!! (short and rapid breathing) H-he is s-son o-of t-the d-DEVIL!! W-we m-must l-let A-Ash a-ALONE". This was the beginning of the rumors involving Ash and muse Ninna Uzud, a long-forgotten local urban legend.

Of course, other bullies didn't take Rick too seriously... But the rumors rendered the bullies too coward to keep following Ash into the woods, so the tactics changed: they tried to catch Ash _before_ they entered the woods... Except for Rick: he never wanted seeing Ash again, even enrolling in another school and, later, moving to another village.

Some people who knew Rick said he developed PTSD and started needing black-label drugs, developing what villagers called "Uzud's Nightmare syndrome": "he became paranoid, now he's in a fricking hospice! He doesn't stop talking about this woman... The half-goat half-owl urban legend BS... I'm certain of it, it was the fricking urban legend! This city should've never brought up this story, it's imprudence towards the youth, it's such a bad influence, you know", said the Rick's uncle, who always encouraged Rick to be a bully and be "a tough manly guy" towards his colleagues.

In his defense, Raymont said he "always tried to punish the bullies", but they often acted outside the school so Raymont often shrugged it off: "there was nothing we could do, it was happening outside the school's authority, unfortunately we couldn't do anything to stop... but Ash should've learnt how to defend himself, you know... it's part of living among society... He was part of society so he should've learnt how to deal with his peers, for good or bad". Ash often attended the classes with broken eyeglasses, torn clothes and bruises throughout their body.

Ash's Adulthood

At their 18s, Ash went to a Compsci university. While they were always a prodigy, the campus didn't really like Ash: Ash often managed to find vulnerabilities across the university's systems, which led to constant and burdensome work from teachers and other staff.

Not even the H-Four-X-Zero-R Team, a workshop from a group of students focused on hacking, liked Ash, who was quickly able to find solutions and acting with camaraderie instead of competing: Ash always tried to help both the Red Glitch Flags and Purple Skull Flags (sub-teams formed during the competitions), something against the Team's rules. Ash was eventually banned from H-Four-X-Zero-R: they couldn't fit them.

Ash's Depression

A few years after Ash entered university, the forest became the private property of a wealthy landlord. The trees were cut down and the village finally became a city complete with a fancy shopping mall... Except for a few specific rooms/boxes that never found any stable tenants: as soon as some store moves in, they quickly move out, and the owner always seems scared. No one knows why, both because of the NDA paperwork, as well as litigious threats: the legion of lawyers, who serve the landlord, always threaten the store owners who even dare to tell about their hasty exits.

The day the forest was abruptly cut down in a mere hour, Ash developed severe depression, constantly crying in silence. Villagers shrugged it off: all of a sudden, who's Ash? "No, I never heard of anything named Ash, is this a new store from the Greedies Shopping Mall? I'd LOVE to see it!!".

Ash's remembrance

One night, Robert, a guard working for Greedies Shopping Mall, heard a strange noise coming from a remote part of the large, fancy parking lot. He promptly went to inspect it, finding a short open-air corridor, never seen before, leading to a part of the ancient forest which is still intact to this day (despite the many failed attempts to cut it down in order to extend the mall).

When he got close to the first tree, he saw a corpse hanging there, already in a state of decomposition: it was Ash's body. Robert went to get his walkie-talkie and report what he had seen, only to be suddenly pushed back towards the parking lot by an invisible, powerful force. Fallen on the ground, he stubbornly tried to reach his Yaesu again, only to hear an incoming transmission with a strange, otherworldly voice coming from it: "Leave... (crackling noises) Ash... ALONE". Then, the radio emitted a loud crackling noise before shutting down and starting to smoke, getting really hot before exploding in pinkish flames, which forced Robert to throw it away.

The story quickly reached the city after Robert needed to be hospitalized due to second-degree burning provoked by the explosion of the lithium battery inside his Yaesu. When we emailed them, the Greedies Shopping Mall argued in their own defense, while turning both Ash and Robert into small nuisances:

"We sincerely apologize to Robert's family and friends for what happened to our former employee. Greedies Shopping Center promptly made all necessary resources available for his successful recovery. In order to ensure our business and partnerships, while ensuring the well-being of our employees, we inform you that Robert has already received the settlement and has been correctly dismissed, as agreed in the contract. It is worth mentioning that we have already requested an internal audit in order to identify what happened to the radio equipment (Yaesu) provided by Greedies Shopping Center to Robert as part of his operational assets. If Robert's fault is proven, our terms, to which Robert agreed, already provide that Robert must recover the integral value of the equipment, added with interest and fines. The cadaver, identified as having belonged to Ash Dilishush, was taken to the morgue and received necropsy, which was extensively monitored by our body of lawyers, in order to guarantee the correct necropsy procedures while exempting the Greedies Shopping Center from any unfair accusation. Ash Dilishush was never a customer from any of our stories, therefore, Greedies Shopping Center have no liability over his death, which was registered by the morgue's technician as a self-inflicted death, thus proving our exemption from any liability. Greedies Shopping Center thanks you for contacting us, don't forget to visit our new stories: 60% off only this week!".

People forgot about Ash for a long time, until Ash became news again in the city, due to the citizens' fear and hypocritical moral facade. You know that situation where people start to remember or even sanctifying someone only after that person has died tragically? It's this exact situation.