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]

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 . . .?

[myhungryass]

"He could try being a little more reliable. This place is a mess. Not to mention his hobbies have held him back from making real friends his whole life... not to mention that his hobbies are less to blame than his terrible social skills..."

[owlimony]

[IMMEDIATE ANGRY OWL CHITTERING]

That doesn't sound like a thing a friend should say at all!! And—well, even if his hobbies haven't been understood well by others in the past, they are now. I like them very much! And his social skills are just fine. He is honest and endearing and straightforward and it would do others very well, I think, to have even the SLIGHTEST bit of the kindness and honesty that he does! You certainly could learn a thing or two from his example!

[myhungryass]

She looks surprised, non-plussed and then a little offended. "Hey, now! I never said he wasn't—any of those things! He's a little too honest and straightforward sometimes, though, if you ask me. And then other times he forgets to properly explain what he's thinking or speak up about important details at all..."

[owlimony]

[exasperated noise]

You're doing it again!

Young lady, if you aren't going to help me, I will simply go find Laios on my own.

[myhungryass]

She seems exasperated too, but although she crosses her arms, she does't snub him. "Oh, is that what you need help with? Finding him? You mean more than just being in here in the first place, I guess?"

[owlimony]

Well, I'm not talking to him.

. . .




Am I?

[myhungryass]

She waggles a hand. "Well, sort of. I'm part of him, after all."

[owlimony]

Ohh?

. . .

[he grimaces after a moment]

OH.

[myhungryass]

"But you're probably looking for his actual consciousness."

[owlimony]

If—I'd like that, I think.

Or—whatever else I need to do? To . . . help? Him?