spider stories

First, she starts with some context on what SHE is.  Her heritage goes all the way back to the birth of the Outer Gods, and her line's lineage from The Dirge.  While they were not deities themselves, the offspring of The Dirge had a collection of unique abilities - in the instance of the Galvantulas, there is a code woven into their silk that once deciphered, contains clairvoyant predictions and accounts from other lands (or in this case, even worlds.)  Granted, this only pertains to the larger ones like herself.  Almost like a spark, the next one is only born as the last one approaches death.  Their life span is several hundred years - in this case around 400.  The village was long abandoned by the time she was born, but due to the fact these spiders have been passsing down most the stories from the first days (Not like they've much better to do), she has a wealth of information and history to share.

Adding on to some of what you already have heard, long ago humans came to this area.  They had left from Mirage Isle mostly due to the fact they were a group who had grown slightly wary of supernatural humans.  Sure, they had shamans and rune masters amongst their own too, but they had very real concerns about how to approach combating the supernatural.  After all, humans aren't Pokemon, and their morals can be much more twisted than most Pokemon - after all, even an intelligent Pokemon is more or less bound to its natural instinct and ways, and those that are threatening would be without them as well due to being predators.  So they severed, and wandered, and eventually found this place and the Bug Pokemon that resided here.  They made their home, and in time came to realize the power that those from The Dirge's line had.  They were so overwhelmed and amazed with the gravity of it that they shaped their entire way of life around it.  Granted, the origins of the Venomtalon tribe isn't really what you were interested in, but how this relates to Husk.

Long ago there were three very important predictions that were made.  (Well, okay, there were plenty, but most of them have already passed by now.)  One was that one of the Joltiks of The Dirge's bloodline would eventually inherit the spark of the Outer Gods.  This wasn't entirely too surprising, but the second one was that one day a man named Husk would arrive.  This would mark that the time would be soon.  The Joltik that would leave with this man, would be the next Outer God - The Talespinner.  The third was more a series of them...the messages derived from the silks began to describe another world, Hyaedelyn.  The people of this village became obsessed with this other world, and began hunting for it in the silks to come.  They utilized the Unown amongst them to create a printing press, and began to create powerful grimoires (Something they learned of from these messages), and in time how to use the Unown to venture to this world.  When this happened...most used them and left, leaving behind a bunch of spiders, an abandoned village, and some more tomes of this book.  Those left behind began to roam - there wasn't really much of a village left any more, and living as a wandering tribe would be easier.  They took the spare books with them, and left. They eventually settled where Venomtalon is now, but what happened to the books along the way is anyone's guess.  One way or another they ended up scattered around the world.  Not the most dangerous artifacts, but certainly a powerful ones.

Eventually, Husk did end up in the ruins.  For many years she avoided meeting with the man - she had never met a human before, and was cautious if it was actually him or an imposter.  He spent enough time visiting, uncovering the lost ways of the Silencer, and talking up her brood that she eventually accepted him and spoke with him.  She taught him how to read her silks, and that he did.  In time, she also entrusted him with The Talespinner's egg, seeing no reason to go against the prophecies at this point.  Husk was a very curious and scholarly individual, and polite to a fault.  He was nothing but overly generous and grateful for being trusted for such a thing, and realized how much power this could give her daughter in time - being best friends with an Outer God from an early age?  That would have some very considerable weight behind it.

Things took a turn for the worse when, over time, her prophecies took a rather disturbing twist.  Husk read of an alien invasion incoming, one hosting a new Pokemon Type and an alien overlord God.  He learned more and more of this over time, learning The Banisher was the responsible force for The Outer Gods even existing on Earth, that he would likely require The Talespinner for his schemes, and even that one day, he would be assisting this monster.  The thought terrified him, so when he got a clue - that a man named Grant Null was currently in Sinnoh and was to be this God's greatest adversary, he set off.  He traveled Russia for a summer, learning what he could of this man, teaching a few he thought he could trust the art of the Silencer, and eventually met the man.  He found a destitute beggar and self proclaimed prophet of The Unown Hivemind.  With him, he had a gold gilded book, a magic tome he called a Gran Grimoire, he called it.  Husk took this encounter quite poorly, feeling he had set out to try to find an ally and that, somehow, the prophecy he fortold must have been incorrect.  So he returned, and after sharing his story with mama spider here, learned just what this book was and that this man, while tilted, held an artifact of untold power, and it was very likely the prophecy had been true.  He then began to read others, telling of The Sons of Grant, and that they too would be searching for The Talespinner's head.

This put Husk in a difficult spot.  His daughter, and The Talespinner, were going to be very likely targets of cults and assassins in due time, and he had to do everything he could to protect them.  He became stricter with her, ensuring her travel and activities were well supervised, and that she were schooled in self defence.  He couldn't let her do many of the things she wished to out of fear that it would expose her to those who would harm her.  He eventually found a way into The Keeper's Cult, and used this affiliation to increase his network of knowledge and intelligence throughout the region - if a supernatural threat were entering the Region, he would know of it.  In time, The Banisher did present himself before Husk, and he was ready.

Husk had planned from the start to pledge loyalty to The Banisher under the pretext to sabatoge the space goat's plans for Earth.  He personally suggested the other leautenents for this operation, a naive but genious girl that was the product of a twisted science experiment - she would be The Banisher's ideal holy mother.  Tragic figure, betrayed by humanity, and easily manipulated.  She would be capable of presenting The Banisher with a child that could serve as a scion for his powers, and an army of angels to protect her.  Grant knew her mental instability would make her easy to deal with in time, and Metwos were something he would be able to deal with given the Pokemon he'd raised for ages to combat pscionics.  He chose the tribal leader of The Staglords (They weren't called that then) and the half humans of Mirage Isle (He had learned of it from The Banisher) to be the vanguard of this plot, knowing they would easily be bested by Visiwa's national defenses.  He suggested The Banisher appeal to the Dittos to help his cause, knowing the Visiwans had been dealing with them for ages.  He also suggested trying to enslave a being known as Pandamonium - he knew OF it and that it had broke out via his family ties to the Fauxicores, and also that it was a naturally unstable enough entity to ever truely be controlled.  He also began to help Grant Null, meeting with the man on occassion and helping him get his cult going.  He began to arrange for some of the Mewtwo chambers that Jennifer would create to eventually end up in Grant's hands, and set the stage for a grand confrontation between these two forces.  He WAS concerned about Grant having too much of an upper hand, but figured by the time things were said and done...it wouldn't be that bad to just clean up the remainder of his forces either.

As time went on, the prophecies he read made him think things were working - they foothold Alice would be safe throughout a time of great strife.  As she and Shiva, The Talespinner grew, however...things became more dificult.  Perhaps it was due to Shiva's domains of Verve and Rebellion wearing off on Alice, or perhaps it was simply adolescence, but Alice was becoming extremely dificult to keep confined to Venomtalon.  And one day, she eventually did run away - all the way to Shiverwing.  It was then she was struck down by Dandyman, an entity Husk wasn't actually aware existed yet.  He didn't realize The Banisher had acted on his own, nor did he image the space goat would be clever enough to enslave Pandamonium in a mortal shell.  He had given some ordinary man the power to usurp the Gods, had been creating his own super weapon without Husk's know how.  The Cherubs and Wanga Dolls that followed soon after, he had no idea of from the things he'd had fortold.  Likewise, he was starting to become alarmed with how quickly Grant had come to power, and how easily he had brought together a much more competent leadership than The Banisher's.  And he had no idea what Grant was doing on Hyadelyn.

Husk fell hard emotionally after this.  The Banisher tried to trick him into thinking it had been Grant's doing that had gotten Alice in the condition she was in, and that if things went as planned, he could save her.  He pretended to go along with it, but his intentions had become more twisted - he no longer simply wanted to see this confrontation end with Alice unharmed, oh no, the gloves were off now.  He would get his vengence for what they had done to her.  The Banisher, Grant's Devourer, he would see it all crushed beneath his heels.  Not personally at least, oh no, but he could pull the right strings, make the right sacrifices, set up his dominoes for others to do what he could not blatantly do.  And in the mean time, he would begin a contingency plan - for the crime of harming his daughter, who he had tried so hard, for so many years to proctect and shelter, he would not only lay the plans of these vile and mad men low, but also find a way to harvest their power when it was said and done.  He would be the one to create a tomorrow that was safe for his beloved daughter - one where she would be able to reign supreme.  He would watch over her personally now, as a guardian angel himself.

The last time she saw Husk was about two months ago.  He came briefly to discuss how he saw his plans advancing on track, and got into a fight with mama spider.  She had known him for years, and could see how twisted he was becoming - how quickly he'd throw away human lives just to create a plausible scenario for his grand game of chess, and pleaded with him to stop.  She had another prophecy for him, one that said a group known as The Zodiac Braves would be the ones to herald the charge against these multigalactic threats - not him.

...He lost it when learning one of the members of the Braves included Saryx, the young man who had been present in getting his daughter into this in the first place.  He left in a rage, and she presumes he will never return.