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

[owlimony]

[blink. blink. blink blink blink.]

Oh my.

[wheezing slightly from the exertion of that climb. approaching the monster with . . . concern, but the sympathetic kind, putting a gentle hand on it]

Whatever happened here . . .?

[myhungryass]

There's no answer. The word seems to fall dead in the stifling air.

The tip of the rhino's nose feels almost silky and warm. Alive...? Not quite, but... somehow, there isn't the feel of death.

[owlimony]

[stroking it gently]

Poor thing.

[. . . moving his way over towards that unusual portal, curious]

[myhungryass]

The black, almost perfectly round hole of the empty avian eye-socket looms above him, but the feathers reaching down to the surface of the dark water seem to offer easy handholds. (Not that Stolas needs to climb.)

[owlimony]

[yeah, he's just going to zoop his way up there, if allowed]

[myhungryass]

He can zoop! The lower ridge of bony socket makes a sturdy perch, or he can just fly right on inside.

[owlimony]

[he perches first, calling out]

HellooOoooo~?

[myhungryass]

There's no response, but this time his words echo into what sounds like a vast, open space.

[owlimony]

[well! not much to do about it. steps carefully inside.]

[myhungryass]

An updraft catches him. He's suddenly soaring through a blank, white space... to Stolas, it immediately seems familiar. It resembles the white space he saw in Laios's memory of his dream. This place feels a little livelier, though—there's a refreshingly cold wind whipping by.

Far below him, Stolas can see items and even buildings scattered around... a sword, a wok, a book. A tombstone, a lion plushy. Hen House. Sun and Moon House.

At the very edge of his vision, in the far distance, where the curve of the horizon should be, stands a lone figure, blonde, in a blue outfit, holding a staff.

[owlimony]

Oh!

[draws in a breath, settling his feathers. lightly trying to move—can he go down closer to those things?]

[myhungryass]

He definitely can! They're spread out pretty widely... depending on which one he tries to approach, the wind seems to either speed him on his way, or try to buffet him back, but as long as he stays focused, he'll be able to navigate to any of them regardless.

[owlimony]

[this is actually a little fun! a slight owl laugh ::>]

[he heads down to Sun & Moon House]

[myhungryass]

As he gets closer, he can see that they're apparently full-sized replicas! The details are a little off, though. The rickety curve of Moon House is even droopier and more dramatic than in real life, the clang of wind-chimes patches in and out, Sun House looks stubbier, and the colours of its stained-glass front windows are somewhat jumbled.

[owlimony]

. . . peculiar . . .

[knocking lightly on the door to Sun House, then trying to peer inside?]

[myhungryass]

Go away unless you have hard evidence! You're wrong! You can't be trusted!

There's no voice to go with those words, but they echo through Stolas's head nonetheless, as soon as he knocks.

The door doesn't open. It's possible to peer through the windows... the library and kitchen look mostly right, if a bit hastily sketched.

[owlimony]

[hmmm!]

[checking out Moon House, then. he can walk into this one, maybe?]

[myhungryass]

He can walk in! Right at the doorway, a wave of information floods through him, about carnivorous plants and constellations and monsters and how to treat one's friends and owl demon sexual characteristics and myths...

It's not quite like remembering his conversations with Laios. The information is neatly organized, and there's a visual component to it, the vague impression of a flow-chart. But he certainly knows where most of it came from.

Inside, it looks like Moon House, complete with ball pit. Some details, again, are just a little off or not quite complete, but it feels familiar. Maybe Laios's memory isn't perfect.

[owlimony]

. . .

[smiles a little, lightly touching the doorframe]

. . . ohhh. Oh, I see.

[his demeanor has changed slightly. he turns back to examine the world around him again more thoughtfully, then launches up to go try to talk to Marcille]

[myhungryass]

Going up is easy, but flying towards Marcille is a struggle. The closer he gets, the trickier the winds seem to be, fickle, shifting, always trying to thwart him. Still, he can eventually land next to her. Her back is to him, and she doesn't turn to look. She seems to be gazing off at something beyond this blank space.

[owlimony]

Helllooooo?

[calling out]

Miss? I could—use some assistance, I think.

[myhungryass]

She looks back at him over her shoulder. She seems disapproving. "Assistance with what?"

[owlimony]

Are you a friend of Phoenix? Er, Laios?

[myhungryass]

She heaves a big sigh, somewhere between resigned and exasperated. "I am his friend, but..."

[owlimony]

But . . .?