Laios's Heart Game

[myhungryass]

It's dark, and you are not quite conscious. You have the sense that you are climbing; that you have been climbing for a long time. You can feel the burn in your thighs, the ache in your calves. You're a little too hot, and what you're wearing is a little too heavy. You have the sense of taking a last weary, heaving step onto a plateau.



You find yourself in a dark, blank place, dominated by a huge, dead monster, building sized, as big as a tower. Each of its enormous heads that you can see laid out before you is easily the size of a ballroom. There is blood on its lips and nostrils, blood crusted around its empty eye-sockets, but there is a feeling of hollowness about it. On second thought, you're not quite sure if it's a corpse or a moult.

There is no sign of the stairs you vaguely remember climbing. You are standing on the surface of some opaque black liquid. It feels almost completely solid under your feet, springy, but your footsteps leave ripples spreading out in rings... all around you is a velvety, impenetrable darkness. The only thing you can see is the vast, lifeless beast in front of you, illuminated as if by spotlights, though no actual light-source can be found.

Its orifices are mostly clogged with blood, but somehow, as you stare at it, one vaulted nostril on the wolf's head begins to seem like an archway... the lolling tongue hanging out of the rhinoceros's head like an entry ramp... the exposed, hollow eye-socket on the eagle's head like a portal...

Of course, if you're not quite ready to step inside a monster, you could keep walking around its body and see what you find.

Comments

[adhorsive]

[jumps on one foot for a few seconds, and then begins cautiously circling this... giant... predator]

[myhungryass]

The air is heavy with the scent of blood and meat. It doesn't smell at all of decay, at least. (Yet...?)

Ripples spread from each step as you begin your walk around the corpse. Do you circle to the left, around the canine head, or to right, around the avian head?

[adhorsive]

[Ccccanine]

[myhungryass]

As he rounds the head, he'll find himself walking in the shadow of an enormous, pale brown and grey wing, its clumsily collapsed bulk half-pinned under the monster's body.

After walking the equivalent of at least a couple city blocks, he starts to skirt the hindquarters—on this side, it's a hoofed foot like a horse's.

Eventually, a final head will come into view—a serpent's head and neck, coming off the hindquarters like a tail. The eyes and mouth are tightly closed, the nostrils mere slits. However, there is a wound just behind its jaw that has something of a suggestion of a raggedy, collapsing doorway...

[adhorsive]

Mmmm no.

[goes back and climbs in the wolf eye] HATE this.

[myhungryass]

The wolf eye is too clogged with blood to climb into, but you can go in its nostril!

[adhorsive]

[gross! I'm doing that!]

[myhungryass]

As you step under the archway of the wolf’s nostril, the heavy scent of blood and meat is blown away by a warm, gentle breeze of fresh air. For a moment, your eyes are dazzled by light… when your vision clears, you realize you’re walking down a stone corridor. The ceiling, floor and walls are all made up of the same evenly-cut grey stone blocks. Torches in brackets line the walls at regular intervals. Nevertheless, the atmosphere feels inviting, the air clean and easy to breathe, not smoky at all.

[adhorsive]

Okay, okay. I'm in some kind of domain, I guess...

[watches his step as he's going, alert for danger, but just continuing along it]

[myhungryass]

As he walks, he can start to hear voices. They seem to be coming from up ahead, off a passage that turns to the right. It's quite a few voices, cheerfully upraised—the mild clamour of a not-too-busy market.

He can ignore them and keep going straight down the corridor, though.

[adhorsive]

[of COURSE I'll go to the market]

[myhungryass]

You round the corner into the market and a memory washes over you. You can feel Laios's excitement and fascination—and the fact that this is a brand new activity, a new try, a new skill being taught by Senshi... who at this point is a brand new acquaintance.

The memory takes place in the market... which takes place in some kind of underground graveyard, with tomb markers around, and arched vaulted shelving that might have originally meant to store remains. However, other than the memorial stones scattered around, it barely resembles a graveyard at all. It's a round space, organized around a central fountain with a pillar going through it. All around the edges are vendors and adventurers who have laid down there gear or wares on mats. The shelves behind them are also filled with goods and supplies. Several doors and archways, shadowy, seem to lead off into other spaces. Stairs leading upward can be seen through one.

Many of the faces browsing or heading to and fro seem familiar. Senshi, Chilchuck, Marcille... Falin in her human form. Jaraxle, Star himself, Louis, Kabru, Lark... but there are also less familiar ones, like a red-haired dwarf woman and a gaunt man with a black ponytail wearing lacquered armour.

[adhorsive]

[huh]

[goes up to his duplicate] Hey twinsie.

[myhungryass]

His twin spooks backwards and points at him. And then at himself. And then back to Star. Like... just checking??

[adhorsive]

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

[myhungryass]

"Ohhhh, you're the outside me."

[adhorsive]

Yeah, what's the inside me like? Catch me up, brother.

[myhungryass]

"Just like you, brother. Fast, sexy, kind, reliable, absolutely fascinating..."

[adhorsive]

Whoa! I'm thought so highly of. Now do my flaws.

[myhungryass]

"I don't think much of my own wants, and I can sometimes panic easily. I'm a horse, though, so that last part is probably expected."

[adhorsive]

Actually sounds like he's not that far off from me. How am I able to help in here, bro?

[myhungryass]

"Help...? I'm not sure, but Falin probably knows."

[adhorsive]

Sounds good, I'll go check in with her.

[blows twinsie a kiss and heads Falin-ward]

[myhungryass]

She gives him a friendly wave as he approaches.

[adhorsive]

Hi inside-Dragon! How's it going? Nice shopping?