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

[myhungryass]

He shrugs, apparently uncaring. "Just don't let the caravan master see you."

He looks away.

[girlsniktdoor]

Phoenix...are you doing okay? You look like you have not eaten recently.

[myhungryass]

He blinks a little at the name, but just shrugs again. "They feed us okay."

As Laios glances away again, a cold fog begins to rise, obscuring Laura's vision. She 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...?

The thoughts that creep through her mind and the rising sense of disinterest aren't impossible to fight off—they don't erase her own feelings. But it would be so easy to simply not bother.

[girlsniktdoor]

[Laura frowns. Feeling some sense of psychic interference a deep embedded urge in her mind compels her to RESIST. This is Phoenix. Her friend and roommate.]

Hey. Is this your book?

[myhungryass]

That gets his head to jerk up a little in interest. The fog clears slightly. He pats himself down. "I dropped it?"

[girlsniktdoor]

Here.

[She hands it to him.]

Interesting stuff in there. Does that three headed monster actually exist?

[myhungryass]

"Thanks." He takes it and tucks it down the front of his shirt. "It's more like a thought experiment."

[girlsniktdoor]

What is the least amount of traits you would have to give to a human for them to be a monster, do you think?

[myhungryass]

He perks up a lot. The fog fades... "That's an interesting question! A lot of scholars debate where the line is betwee so-called demihumans and other monsters."

[girlsniktdoor]

[Speaking in a hushed tone]

If I show you something can you tell me if you think I am demihuman?

[myhungryass]

He seems more focused. He lowers his voice, too. "Do you mean your claws? It's Donna, right...?"

[girlsniktdoor]

[Smiling brightly.]

Yes. Exactly. You do remember me.

[myhungryass]

"I... I do remember you." He seems confused, but like he's actually thinking about it.

"This... was a long time ago."

[girlsniktdoor]

Before you met your friends. Where is Falin at this time?

[myhungryass]

"She's still at school."

[girlsniktdoor]

Where are you headed as part of the caravan?

[She's getting out now to walk beside him. It seems rude to be sitting while he walks.]

[myhungryass]

"I wasn't paying much attention to the route, but I guess... we'd be heading by Falin's school soon. I don't remember going to see her, but I know I did, and she ended up coming with me."

[girlsniktdoor]

How sweet. She must have missed you a lot. I hope we arrive soon. I would love to see what she was like younger.

[myhungryass]

He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. Dust and dander actually make a cloud around him. She might see a flea jump. "Ah... we won't arrive. This place... this part of me—it's about going nowhere."

[girlsniktdoor]

[She absolutely does see that, but will not be mentioning it.]

So you are saying we are trapped? I will find a way out. Follow me.

[She's going to try to follow her nose looking for fresh air.]

[myhungryass]

"Oh, no, you're not trapped! You can leave anytime. Just go back into the wagon with your eyes tightly closed."

They are out in the fresh air, and, in fact, the weather has cleared up significantly. It's a nice sunny day and the caravan is travelling down a tree-lined dirt road.

[girlsniktdoor]

Okay.

[She does as he asks.]

Just...even if you did not feel like you were going anywhere at this time...you got somewhere all the same.

[myhungryass]

"I remember that now." He smiles at her. "Thanks, Donna. For reminding me."

Once she steps into the wagon with her eyes closed, she'll find herself back outside the snake's neck, on the dark water.

[girlsniktdoor]

[She will circle around and enter the wolf's head first over here.]

[myhungryass]

As she steps 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, her eyes are dazzled by light… when her vision clears, she realizes she's 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.