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

[aluminumfoil]

[back!]

[myhungryass]

Kabru immediately comes face-to-face with Laios, but a much scruffier and slightly younger version than he's used to. He's leading three horses on a string. They're all laden with packs, and Laios himself is wearing a heavy pack, too.

Even though he must be younger, he looks older. He's worryingly gaunt, and shuffles along, seeming listless. Although there's surprise on his face when Kabru pops out, he barely seems interested. "Hey... what are you doing in there?"

[aluminumfoil]

[shock???]

... I don't know. Do you recognize me?

[myhungryass]

"Huh...? Should I...?" That doesn't seem like a no. It just seems like he's barely motivated to consider the answer.

[aluminumfoil]

... Yes. How old are you?

[myhungryass]

He just shrugs.

"You shouldn't be here. If the caravan master catches you in that wagon there'll be hell to pay."

[aluminumfoil]

I already talked to him, it's fine. How long have you been here?

[myhungryass]

"Since I ran away... I think. I dunno..." He trails off. It seems like he's having trouble focusing on Kabru's face.

Actually, Kabru's having trouble, too. A cold fog is rising around him, obscuring his vision. He can still see Laios, but he seems murky, distant, indistinct. Who is this guy, anyway? He's nobody important. He's probably more trouble than he's worth. He looks like bad news. He's clearly an anti-social weirdo. Do you really want to waste your time talking to him...?

[aluminumfoil]

[Huh?...

A cold chill rushes up his spine, for some reason.

He frowns, squinting... He sits back in the wagon. Shit. He looks out the front of the wagon instead.]

[myhungryass]

The wagon is being drawn by two horses. A blond kid, his back to Kabru, is driving them. The rest of the caravan stretches on ahead... another string of three laden horses, then a smaller covered wagon drawn by a single horse, then one more horse in the lead with a man riding it.

The blond kid hasn't noticed him yet, but even the back of his head seems awfully familiar.

[aluminumfoil]

Hey! Laios?

[Wait what the fuck?]

[myhungryass]

He jerks up, startled out of a daydream, and whips around to look at Kabru. "Yes sir??"

That definitely is Laios! He seems to be about the age that he was in the memory Kabru saw when he touched the drawing.

[aluminumfoil]

[look at him, he's such a cute kid...]

Do you know where we are?

[myhungryass]

He huffs, a little cranky. Not at Kabru so much as with the answer to his question. "In the middle of nowhere, as usual."

[aluminumfoil]

Why are you in the middle of nowhere? Where's your family?

[myhungryass]

He scowls. "Who cares! Back in their stupid boring village, probably. They were going to send Falin away, so I left first!"

[aluminumfoil]

[his eyebrows raise...]

What's the plan?

[myhungryass]

Defiantly: "I'm going to go to school and figure out a way to get rich so she and I can go live on our own together and nobody can bother us ever again."

[aluminumfoil]

[ohhh that does not go well does it...]

For Falin, huh? Why were they sending her away? Because of her magic?

[myhungryass]

"Yeah, because they're stupid. Magic is cool. She's going to become a great travelling exorcist, and we'll go all over the world together. And we'll never go back to the village again, and they'll all be sorry. I hope monsters eat them."

[aluminumfoil]

[lol. kids are brutal]

I know someone who lost her family because of stupid people being afraid of magic too. She got really strong.

[myhungryass]

"...really?"

He shuffles over on the seat to make room for Kabru next to him.

[aluminumfoil]

[he climbs out to sit next to him.]

Yeah. She's shy, but I bet she would be good friends with someone who gets that magic is cool.

[myhungryass]

Laios glances at him a bit warily. "I don't have any friends."

[aluminumfoil]

I didn't either, except for her. I guess she's like my sister.