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

[pocketlockpick]

Really? Thanks for the tip.

You're going to be alright up here?

[myhungryass]

"Mhm." She smiles at him. "It's not like I'm really Marcille. I'm just the part of Laios that thinks critically and can actually be self-aware. The part that worries, the part that stops to question if he's doing the right thing or not. So, this is where I belong."

[pocketlockpick]

Well, I think he needs to listen to you more, but Laios wouldn't be Laios if that were the case.

[myhungryass]

She huffs and crosses her arms in exasperated agreement. "He should definitely listen to me more! Thank you, Chilchuck!"

[pocketlockpick]

You're welcome.

Well... got to find him.

[And I guess he's going to attempt to glide into the rhino mouth. God, what a day]

[myhungryass]

"This way." She leads him back up to the white space outside of Moon House, and will help him strap the plush and book to himself. When he picks up his impromptu feather glider, a gust of friendly wind immediately lifts him up into the air, carrying him to the black circle high above, like a reverse full moon—the eagle's empty eye socket. The wind carries him up straight through and he flies into the air above the giant monster, getting a full view... the two different wings, the snake's head and plumed tail...

Out here, the wind dies to nothing in the heavy air. But he has enough altitude to cruise down easily wherever he wants. He can, in fact, let it carry him right through into the rhino's mouth to touch down at the back of the tongue.

[pocketlockpick]

[gross. But he appreciates the quick travel, and will carefully make his way past the tongue and down the throat. Is there a light?]

[myhungryass]

Strangely, it's better lit in here than it was outside. The walls of the mouth are vivid pink and red, the clear pathway down the esophagus easy to see. The smell of blood gets heavier and stronger... but also more appetizing.

His stomach growls. His mouth floods with saliva. It smells good in here. As he walks further in, she'll only grow hungrier.

As soon as he moves into the throat, there's an enormous gulp, all around him, and he's swallowed. There's nothing he can do. One moment he's pushing carefully forward, and the next he's sliding helplessly, rushing along, squeezed down by that powerful contraction of muscle, slick fluid making it impossible to find purchase.

As he's dragged along, a memory washes over him.

He lands with a thump in a dark, cavernous space, on a flagstone floor. Before him are three large archways. Between him and the archways sits a familiar figure.

It's Kabru...? He is almost cross-legged, one knee up with the foot planted on the floor. There's a slightly dangerous light in his blue eyes. Also, there's a big ol' hickey on his neck and he is not wearing a shirt.

[pocketlockpick]

[there's a very long moment where Chilchuck just gawks at
Kabru, his mind still trying to catch up to what just happened.

Finally...]

Are you his sex life...

[myhungryass]

He laughs, startled. "Way to pigeon-hole a guy?!" But then he leans in, leering for effect. "I'm not just his sex life."

Clearly this was just to be a brat, though. He sits back again, shaking his head. "I'm something he wants, that's true. But this place isn't only about desire. Desire and hunger, hunger and survival, survival and death... all of that is connected. I'm... a guide, and a guard."

Shrugs. "And a guy who got swallowed whole. I'm not not his sex life."

[pocketlockpick]

What exactly are you guarding?

[myhungryass]

The false Kabru tilts his head towards the door on his right (Chilchuck's left). "Something he's learning to want."

He tips his head straight back behind him. "And the thing he wants the most. Anyone's welcome to go through door number three, though."

He gives Chilchuck a serious look. "I won't try to stop you, though. I doubt you want to be here, and you've probably seen some things he'd try to hide from you so you won't yell at him. Still, you have a right to know."

[pocketlockpick]

I mean, I think I yell at him regardless, but... He's still a friend.

Can I check out the middle door then?

[myhungryass]

He smiles a little at that, and nods. "Go ahead."

[pocketlockpick]

... Do you really have to be shirtless?

[He quickly says that before heading inside the door]

[myhungryass]

"I can put on a shirt if you want me to," is the answer that he may not hear, because...

He steps through and feels a jolt, like missing a step on the stairs. He finds himself in a dark pit, an archway of light far away up above. His appetite is overwhelmingly strong in here. It's not painful—he's not starving. But it's hard to think about anything else. It feels like he could never be satisfied.

Floating in the air, low enough that even a half-foot should be able to reach up and pluck it, in the center of the pit is a twenty-sided gem, bright and gleaming. It looks so tasty.

[pocketlockpick]

Is this a trap?

[Yes it looks absolutely delicious but also... Very suspicious.]

Laios?

[myhungryass]

There's no answer in words, but... somehow he knows he has Laios's attention. Like he just turned towards you and said, "It's fine, Chilchuck." Except without that actually happening.

Also, his trap detecting senses aren't detecting any traps.

[pocketlockpick]

... I'm not going to eat this unless you show up. That's weird.

Besides, things always taste better when shared.

[myhungryass]

He gets the sense that maybe he should try to bring it to Laios, then.

[pocketlockpick]

[is there another exit besides where he came from?]

[myhungryass]

Not a visible one, but... this is something like a dream, after all. Who knows what could happen?

[pocketlockpick]

[he is absolutely just going to stuff the gem under his shirt and attempt to smuggle it past Kabru back the original way.

To that left door then? ]

[myhungryass]

Absolutely not.

When he reaches for it, his hand glances off... nothing. A disconnect in the world, like what's beyond that point is totally separate and unreachable. He gets the sense that it's less a barrier and more that the gem is just... not quite in the same place as him.

However, reaching for it also transports him immediately elsewhere before he can contemplate that too deeply!

Chilchuck lands on a grassy underneath a tall tree. The sound of the sea can be heard lapping in the distance. Laios is lounging under the tree... but a different Laios than he's ever seen before, with hooves and a tail, feathers around his neck and shoulders, and strangely formed arms, one resembling a bird talon and the other a tiger's paw. He looks up, perks up, and waves.

[pocketlockpick]

[he raises an eyebrow at the whole... Look, but starts heading towards Laios]

Do I want to know?