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]

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?

[myhungryass]

"Well, in that case, you should bring him the memories he hasn't taken yet. I think they're disturbing his dreams. They should actually all be around here, somewhere. I don't think they'd be anywhere else inside him." She waves her hand at the great white expanse. "I think there are only two."

[owlimony]

Oh! Oh, I see.

. . . yes, thank you. I will start with that, then. And when I find them, then . . .?

[myhungryass]

"Then you'll have to find him. I know he's not up here, at least."

[owlimony]

I shall, then. Good day to you, Miss.

[he's going to fly down to try to keep an eye out for ??? memories ??? those scattered items, probably]

[myhungryass]

They're still scattered across the white expanse: a sword, a wok, a book, a tombstone, a lion plushy, Hen House, Sun and Moon House.

[owlimony]

[hmmm. well, let's just go through them in order. sword, then.]

[myhungryass]

It's a double-edged sword with an embellisment on the hilt that looks like wings. As soon as Stolas approaches it, it rattles violently in its scabbard and skips across the ground away from him. Just yeets itself away!

[owlimony]

Oh!!

. . .

[he follows, curiously]

Hello?

[myhungryass]

There's no answer. It lies totally still until he starts to get close again... then the rattling begins. When he stoops down to pick it up—yeet!

It seems to be fleeing in terror.

[owlimony]

[gently]

I'm not going to hurt you . . .

[myhungryass]

Rattle rattle rattle YEET.

It either doesn't believe him or isn't smart enough to understand him.

[owlimony]

[fine. I bet the wok won't run from me.]

[myhungryass]

The wok does not, in fact, run from him.

It's well-tended and beautifully seasoned, shiny inside. When he picks it up, an image flashes through his mind, along with a deep sense of admiration—even idolization—and respect.

For a moment he finds himself thinking deeply about the human impact on ecosystems... how humans can't actually extricate themselves from being part of their ecosystem, and shouldn't, but how they are able to affect it in ways that other animals can't, and how that leaves a responsibility towards stewardship.

[owlimony]

[damn, I idolize and respect that, too oOvOo ♥]

[owlimony]

[okay but seriously. Stolas considers that thoughtfully, then proceeds onwards to the next item. that doesn't seem like something that would give Laios nightmares. it's a good thought, if a little heavy.]

[myhungryass]

When he picks up the book, instead of a memory or series of thoughts rushing over him, he feels that nudge in his mind of a potential memory... the way it feels when there's one waiting in his own bracelet.

[owlimony]

[aha! carrying that with him as he proceeds on]

[myhungryass]

Hen House is between him and the tombstone. The wind seems to push him gently towards it.

[owlimony]

[obligingly heads that way!]

[myhungryass]

This one is subtly inaccurate as well, just like Sun and Moon House. The swollen chicken feet that hold up the house are perfect down to the last detail, though. It comes complete with the enclosed mud yard and goat house out back, too. How does he approach...?

[owlimony]

[looks at the chicken feet just . . . soooo fondly]

[he goes up and knocks on the front door]

Laios? Are you home?

[myhungryass]

There's no answer, but the door swings open. It feels homey, safe and inviting. You can smell fried rice cooking. As you walk in, you get a sense of being nurtured. Some of the details inside are wrong, too—clearly Laios has not paid a lot of attention to exactly what the chairs look like—but it's still recognizably Hen House.

You can hear whispering coming from the bedroom Laios shares with Laura and Louis.