[Intro music plays]

Neris: "Welcome back to 'Myths and Legends', where we discover what hidden truths may be lurking in our history~ I am, of course, your humble host Neris, here to lead you on your voyage through the past. And today, we have a very special episode for you. Because today, I have a guest here in the studio with me. And I'm sure most of you already know who she is~ One of my favorite people to have on this podcast... The brilliant Meda Kolchi! Or, I should say 'Doctor Kolchi' now, shouldn't I? I understand you've finally earned your PhD~" 

Meda: "J-Just Meda, p-please. O-Or Doctor M-Meda if you want. And y-yes! D-Doctorate in H-History, s-specializing-g in M-Mythology! A-And, s-sorry for the s-shuddering... V-Very cold in the s-studio..." 

[Neris laughs warmly]

Neris: "Yes, sadly our studio's heater broke just the other week. We have someone working on it, but unfortunately they weren't able to fix it before Doctor Meda arrived. [Whispers to crew member] There should be a heated blanket in Hectors' room, can you get it for our guest?" 

[Crew member shuffles away]

Meda: "T-Thanks... I-Is that why th-those men were w-working outside?" 

Neris: "Indeed. I should have warned you, I'm sorry. I should have advised you to dress warmly." 

Meda: “[Giggles] Y-Yeah, you l-look like you're d-dressed for a b-blizzard!" 

*[Sound of glove rubbing against nylon jacket]*

Neris: "Yeah, I wore this on a skiing vacation recently. A shame I have to be so bundled up for our first time meeting in person, Meda." 

Meda: "Y-Yeah... R-Really wanted to- O-Oh, thank you! [Loud rustle of fabric as Meda wraps herself in the blanket] Mmmmm... Warm..." 

Neris: “[Chuckles] There, you look much comfier now~ Now, why don't you tell the listeners why you're here today?" 

Meda: "Sure! I was actually in town to celebrate my PhD, but also I had some new interesting facts to discuss that I learned from some extra research I did! And I remembered that you said you film around here, so I reached out and asked if I could come in person!" 

Neris: "It took a bit of reorganizing, but we made room. Celebrating our new Doctor is certainly worth it~"

Meda: "O-Oh, thanks, yeah, it's... Thanks, nice of you to say! Anyway, I hoped my new research would make a good podcast episode! Research about.... Urgh… [Heavy notebook loudly placed on desk] Giants!"

Neris: "Oh, giants? That's indeed very interesting. From which mythology?"

Meda: "Well, a lot of them! Tons of different mythologies have various forms of massive humanoids! You have the Nephilim from Abrahamic lore, the Jotunn from Nordic mythologies, the Cyclopes from Greece, and the list goes on!"

Neris: "Cyclopes, hm? Have you heard that those myths may have originated from ancient peoples finding the skulls of elephants?"

Meda: "Oh yes, I have! It's more speculation than anything from what I've read, though. It's very difficult to pin down exactly where origins of myths like these originally came from. Perhaps it was from elephants, or perhaps from another misinterpreted natural phenomenon. It's also possible that some myths like these may have simply been inspired by regular humans with physical deformities or nasty attitudes! A recluse shunned for being born with only one eye, or even just a traveler's encounter with a particularly burly and angry man with a missing eye! Happened to me with one of the construction workers outside, haha!"

Neris: "...What do you mean?"

Neris: "Well, I accidentally bumped the toolbox one of the big men working outside was using, and he got pretty angry. Almost thought he was going to kill me for a second! And, well, he reminded me of a Cyclops because of his missing eye! Maybe a bit rude, but... It's what I thought of. Especially since... Now that I think about it, it was definitely more central than normal... I assumed he just lost it in an accident, but... Oh... Probably shouldn't have called him a Cyclops then..."

[Neris sighs in exasperation]

Neris: “...Cut the feed. [Clicks fingers]" 

—

Meda looked at Neris apologetically. "I'm so sorry, I didn't me to-" But Neris smiled kindly and shushed her. "Shhh, it's okay Meda. It wasn't your fault. Just Pluck Out Your Wax Earplugs for me~..." Meda's eyes widened in confusion for a split second, before glazing over. A small, dazed smile appeared on her face, and her body relaxed into the heated blanket wrapped around her. Her eyes fluttered, not quite closing but remaining half open. Neris gazed endearingly at her, before standing up to remove her coverings. 

She pulled off the tight gloves and puffy jacket, enjoying the feeling of letting her wings stretch out while she removed the rest. Her massive hiking boots were tossed off, revealing her perfectly manicured talons, and as she took off her floppy hat, letting her soft, feathery hair feel the cold air, she shivered. "Brr... Hectors?" A few heads popped in the door, "Can you fetch my space heater from my room? Our guest was right, it's freezing down here." They trundled up towards her room, and she sighed. "...Didn't even make it to the ad break this time... Not entirely her fault, though. Ugh, I hate working with Cyclopes. Keeping the veil of secrecy up in the times of computers and cameras is already hard enough without them completely refusing to understand the concept of subtlety. And you'd think that for how much they brag about being master smiths they would have fixed our heater by now... Oh, thanks Hectors." Her Hekatonkhieres assistant plugged in the space heater and gave her several dozen thumbs-ups before going to feed his many mouths in the kitchen. Wrapping her wings around herself, Neris looked over at Meda, all cozy and hypnotized, wrapped up in that nice heated blanket... At least the cold gave her a good excuse to disguise her inhuman body in person. Usually just a wig was enough for her Webcam view, which was one of the main reasons she never usually had live guests. Much harder to hide everything in person, even if her voice was so much more powerful up close. But, it was a special occasion... And a special guest. 

Meda was by far the most common guest, although part of that was due to her frequently needing to have her memory wiped when she found something troubling. But she just liked having Meda on, really. She'd been an avid listener even before she became a problem, so Neris barely even had to use her song to get her on the first time, and it was quite easy to implant all the necessary suggestions too. And she was just a wonderful guest, besides. Smart, Witty, Inquisitive, Kind, Funny, Cute... Neris often wished she could just... Let her continue knowing. Let her be a part of her world. But pure mortals were not allowed to know of their presence, on pain of death or worse. So Neris always wiped her memory, both for the good of Neris's world, and hers. And now here she was, memories in need of erasing, in a deep hypnotic trance, snuggled up in a blanket. She looked so comfortable... Neris wondered if she looked like that when she was all wrapped up in her wings. And then, a thought came to her...

—

Meda's head felt so floaty and fuzzy as she came to. And so did the rest of her... She was wrapped in a warm, cozy blanket. But not the heated blanket from earlier... This was even softer... Even warmer... As she slowly woke up, she dimly realized someone else was there. Neris was standing above her... No, sitting above her... No, wait... She was on Neris's lap...? "Whah...?" Neris giggled musically. "It's okay, Meda... It's okay... You're just dreaming~..." Meda blinked slowly. "...dreaming...?" Neris's soft voice floated all around her. "Yes... A wonderful, blissful dream~... Just let yourself experience it~..." Meda sleepily nodded. "A dream... bwait... why would a thing in my dream tell me I'm dreaming...?" Neris chuckled softly. "Minds work in mysterious ways, Meda~..." Meda's body was telling her to just let herself rest, to just enjoy this... But her mind couldn't let this go. "...I know that... but why would my dream be so intent on yawwnnnn proving that I'm dreaming...?" Neris paused for a while before sighing, an annoyed but amused smile on her face. "...Perhaps this isn't a dream then. But do you not wish to experience it all the same~?" Meda pondered it, then slowly nodded. "Yeah..." 

She sleepily looked at the blanket, noticing it looked rather like a wing... And it was massaging her so wonderfully... She glanced at Neris's chest... A very feathery chest. "Are you a siren...?" Neris chuckled musically. "Indeed~" Meda continued to snuggle, before realizing something, a bit embarrassed. "...Siren... Neris... How did I miss that...?" Neris laughed harder, a blissful sound that filled Meda with relaxing warmth as she was gently rocked by the motion. "Ahhh, don't worry, Meda~ You have realized that, many times before~ I just wiped it from your memory~" This would have scared or angered Meda normally, but she found it difficult to feel anything other than warm and cozy as Neris embraced her. "...Huh...? You erased my memory...?" Neris nodded stroking the back of Meda's neck. "Yes, many a time. You're just so observant and clever. That's why you're such a frequent guest. Instead of just rationalizing away the strange things you see like most mortals, you dig deeper. And through all your research, you've found inconsistencies even I hardly knew about.  But luckily, all it takes is a few soft words from me, and you forget all that dangerous information, never noticing it again~" 

Meda teared up. "...You... You only have me on here to erase my memories...? Y-You're making me forget what I worked so hard on...? What I earned my doctorate in...?" Neris shook her head and leaned down, brushing her soft, feathery hair over Meda's  forehead. "No, no, no... Not entirely, at least... At first, I suppose, but... I do like having you on. You're not just my most inquisitive guest, but the kindest... The sweetest... And... The cutest..." Meda blushed, and Neris sweetly giggled. "Aww, look at that rosy blush~ It's even more adorable in person~ And... As for making you forget things... It's not only to protect our world, but to keep you safe... I'm not the only one dedicated to keeping the veil intact, and most of the others are... Well, If they found out you knew some of this, then... You'd be lucky if all that happened was they made it look like an accident." Meda sniffled, still as worried as she could be under this blissful spell. "But... Wouldn't wiping my memory so much be bad for my mind...?" Neris gazed sympathetically at her. "...To tell you the truth, I was worried about that too... I was so worried that I was having to damage your wonderful, brilliant mind... So when I heard that you had completed your doctorate, I was... I was so very happy for you... Proud, even... You deserve it, and I was so worried I would have stopped you from getting it... But look at you now... Doctor Meda~" She smiled sweetly and gently kissed Meda's forehead, causing the rosy blush to grow deeper.

They snuggled mostly in silence for a while, the only sound being Neris's soft cooing that drove Meda deeper and deeper into trance. Eventually, Meda looked up with glazed, fluttering eyes, a dazed smile, and a warm, flushed face. "...what was I right about...?" Neris chuckled and shook her head. "I can't risk going into exact details, since while you aren't dreaming now, I have a feeling you'll be revisiting this quite a lot in your future dreams~ Suffice to say... I'm a siren, and I'm real~ That's all I can tell you~" Meda nodded sleepily. "...oh... But wouldn't me dreaming about you being a siren cause problems too...?" Neris leaned down, her voice growing even more hypnotic. "Oh, I don't think so~ My name is siren backwards, after all~ Your subconscious mind just sees me as a siren, with my name, and my sultry voice, and how much you love listening to whatever I say~ It's a metaphor from a sleeping mind, and minds do work in mysterious ways, don't they, Doctor~?" Meda's eyes were barely open. "...makes sense... just rationalizing it... good idea..." Neris cooed sweetly. "Awww, so sleepy~ I think it's time for you to take a nice, comfy nap~... Just listen closely, and-" Meda quietly interrupted. "Wait..." Neris cocked her head. "Hmm~?" Meda tried to collect her rapidly fading thoughts. "...can you... we... meet more often... in person...?" Neris pondered this, humming hypnotically as she did so. "...Perhaps I shall see if there's a way to do so that doesn't endanger the veil. Do you wish to snuggle like this more often, Doctor~?" Meda giggled sleepily. "...yeah... maybe go to eat sometime... be friends..." Neris nodded. "I would like that too. But for now... Listen to my song..." She began singing a soft, wordless melody, the most beautiful thing Meda had ever heard. It promised answers to all her questions, balm for all her pains, soothing for all her worries, sleep to cure her sleepless nights, and, above all else... The promise of getting to be with her lovely siren friend Neris... So she drifted off to sleep, floating on the hypnotic promises of the siren's song, cradled safely in the comforting wings of a friend...