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

[dragonindungeon]

[ Gently cups her hands for it to "land" on. ]

[myhungryass]

It's a pretty big one, but it extends a glob of water down to rest in her hand. As it touches her, she feels a sense of hope and connection.

It tugs gently gently at her. It would be an easy walk down the colonnade, but it seems to be leading her out towards the water...

[dragonindungeon]

[ Undine aren't dangerous the way Kelpie are, so this is fine? Probably. Falin will cast a quick water walking spell before following along. ]

[myhungryass]

Fish swim by under her feet, resembling the corrupted fish from Tributary. Once, a sea-serpent ripples by. None of the monsters seem aggressive, though. She still has that sense of hope and connection...

Far below her, she can see a kingdom spread out. It's blurred, but she can make out the tops of buildings, green fields, and people moving together alongside monsters of many shapes and sizes, working together in peaceful harmony. It's distant and indistinct, but looks beautiful.

The undine pauses, hovering over the water right where she has the best view of the kingdom. It seems like this is what it wanted her to see.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Leans in as much as she can without delving into the kingdom itself, gasping in wonder as she takes the whole of it in. ]

[myhungryass]

It's like looking through thick, greeny-blue glass, but the glimpses she can see are still... well, a dream. A fantasy of humans and monsters living side-by-side. It's not a utopia... she can still spot little instances of conflict... but it truly looks like a rich and vibrant community.

[dragonindungeon]

. . . maybe one day this will be possible, big brother.

[myhungryass]

The undine floats silently nearby. The kingdom below her wavers under the water. After a little while, there's a rush of water behind her as a huge sea serpent's head surfaces. It gives her a tiny, gentle nudge in the back with the tip of its enormous nose, like an affectionate dog.

[dragonindungeon]

[ !!! Will give it all the appropriate cuddles then, of course. ]

Hehehehe.

[myhungryass]

It seems to appreciate them!

[dragonindungeon]

[ She will give one last pet, then rise to go. Waving goodbye to the Undine and the sea serpent, and a lingering look to the water reflected. ]

[myhungryass]

She can either go back the way she came, follow the colonnade to its end, or cross the water.

[dragonindungeon]

[ She shall cross the water! The Undine led her all this way out here, it would be a shame not to. ]

[myhungryass]

The sea serpent swims alongside her as she walks across the surface. The sound of its passage through the water somehow brings rhythmically whispered words to her mind: What is a monster? What is a person? What is a monster? What is a person?

Across the water is an identical colonnade. If she follows it to its end, there are stairs leading up.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Good questions! What is a monster? What is a person? Tributary has blurred the lines even more... but she's here for a purpose, so those will have to be pondered later. Maybe even with Laios. Up the stairs she goes! ]

[myhungryass]

She climbs up. Up and up and up, far further than she went down. Eventually, she steps through an open archway onto what should be a balcony...

...and finds herself standing on the bony ridge of the bottom of the eagle head's eyesocket. At least it's broad enough to make a sturdy perch.

[dragonindungeon]

Ohh, the exit!

[ Nods to herself! And turns around. ]

[myhungryass]

If she stepped all the way through, when she turns around she'll see the black water below and the main bulk of the enormous four-headed monster spread out atop it. If she just poked her head out, she can pull back into the staircase, though!

[dragonindungeon]

[ She only peeked out, so back tracking it is. ]

[myhungryass]

Back down the stair case onto the colonnade... if she crosses the water again she can head down to the end of the first one, the only place in this area she hasn't checked out.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Which she does so! Thinking maybe it'll end in the other eye. ]

[myhungryass]

Rather than an exit, it ends in a sheltered room. At first, it seems like it's full of people all sitting around eating a stew.

Then the image fades, and she's left with an empty room... but a sense of renewed vigour. And, somehow... reconciliation?

[dragonindungeon]

How nice.

[ What a happy ending! Albeit unexpected. With no other course, she'll head back to the eye in that case. ]

[myhungryass]

When she steps out onto the lower ridge of the socket, it just seems like a blank black void where the eye should be.

[dragonindungeon]

Strange...

[ But she'll step out to peer over it? ]