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]

[When he saw me before.................]

This is Laios. This is all about Laios. I have to get back there-- How about you talk to him for a while, okay Len?

[passes the mirror to little Laios and clasps his shoulder]

Laios, this is a present. (Never show it to anyone.) I promise we'll meet again.

[applecar]

It's all about Laios? Wait, why does he look like this? Kabru, pizza party?

[And then he just gets handed off to kid Laios.]

[myhungryass]

Kid Laios is holding the mirror in such a way that Leonard can see straight up his nostrils. "Why do I look like what?"

[aluminumfoil]

It's him as a kid! I'll be right there!

[he ruffles Laios' head, and then dives back into the cart. Stands there panicking for a second. Then grabs the book out of his shirt and opens the back of the wagon again.]

Hey!

[myhungryass]

The scruffy gaunt Laios looks at him incuriously, but... somehow with a bit more alertness than before, now that it's sunnier out.

"Hey...?"

[aluminumfoil]

[That was how he feels... he holds the book out.]

This is yours, right?

[myhungryass]

"Yeah! I must have dropped it." He takes it and tucks it down the front of his shirt. "Thanks, Kabru."

[aluminumfoil]

You know my name!

[myhungryass]

He rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed. An actual cloud of dust and dander puffs up. Kabru might see a flea hop off him. "Of course I do. Sorry, I guess I got lost in thought."

[aluminumfoil]

[He's not just a memory? he represents a part of him? He looks so rough especially directly after talking to smaller Laios. Staring at him, he climbs out of the wagon to go right for a hug.]

[myhungryass]

He stiffens and tries to pull back, flustered, but if Kabru hangs on for even a second, Laios quickly folds and hugs him back tightly. He's so skinny. Like, Mithrun skinny.

[aluminumfoil]

[He does hold tight even when he tries to pull away, a little too panicked by that reaction to just let go. He squeezes him tight. Actually, he picks him up.]

[myhungryass]

It's easy. Laios clings to him, suddenly trembling.

[aluminumfoil]

You'd better be okay! You're too light!! When did you last wash your hair?!

[myhungryass]

"I don't remember. It's fine, Falin will make me wash it... I'll be okay." He presses his face against Kabru's neck. He truly smells so bad. "You already know I'll be okay."

[aluminumfoil]

[he smells so bad. does not put him down. just walks along the caravan carrying him hefted tightly, like the worlds gangliest koala.]

... Alright...

What should I do?...

[myhungryass]

"You have to go find Leonard Miller, Caterpillar, right?"

[aluminumfoil]

[and he knows about that,]

You're my top priority. If this is about you, he's probably fine. He said he was at a big, tasty gem?

[myhungryass]

The conversation only happened on the other side of the wagon... it's not that big a wagon...

"A tasty gem...? I'd like to try that."

[aluminumfoil]

[IT FEELS... LIKE A PORTAL...]

Of course. ...Do you know how I get there?

[myhungryass]

"If you go back into the wagon with your eyes tightly closed, it'll take you back outside. Then you can follow his route."

[aluminumfoil]

Okay.

[He puts him down, but gathers both his hands and squeezes them tight.]

I'm gonna find you, and I'm gonna fall for you so hard I'll look like an idiot.

[myhungryass]

"No, you'll look beautiful and cool." He gives Kabru a grin. Even now, it looks a lot more tired than it did on the kid's face, or even the way it looks in Tributary... but he sounds so sincere.

[aluminumfoil]

[He'll just die on the spot. He knows he desperately needs to see more of this place, find out what he should do, and also probably find Leonard. But it's still hard to tear himself away from the Laios in front of him. He kisses him firmly right on his grimy mouth!]

[myhungryass]

He tastes so bad, but he kisses back with desperate longing, shivering against Kabru.