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]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the book is full of descriptions of monsters! Sea serpents, slimes, walking mushrooms... it seems to be a guidebook for cooking and eating them. There are many notes on the bookmarks and in the margins, making corrections and posing theories.

At the back is a loose page. The monster on it seems to have been drawn by a child, albeit one who's pretty good at drawing monsters. It has one head fewer than the huge monster Harriet recently walked inside, but... it does seem similar.

As she touches that page, a memory washes over her.

[lapinlazuli]

[This explains a lot, but also Oh No.]

...Jesus, Laios, what did you do?

[myhungryass]

"Huh? Nothing!" yelps a startled voice from the front of the wagon, on the other side of the flaps.

[lapinlazuli]

huh?

[She's poking her head out front.]

Laios?

[myhungryass]

The wagon is being drawn by two horses. The rest of the caravan stretches on ahead... another string of three laden horses, then a smaller covered wagon drawn by a single horse, then one more horse in the lead with a man riding it.

A very familiar-looking blond boy, maybe ten years old, is driving the wagon. Or, he should be. The reins are in his hands. At the moment, he's twisted around in his seat, staring at her, completely wide-eyed. "Y-yes??"

[lapinlazuli]

[The wide-eyed stare is mutual.]

...Oh. Uh. Hey, little guy.

[myhungryass]

His eyes start to sparkle. In a tone of hushed, awestruck joy, he half-whispers, "What are you??"

[lapinlazuli]

[Should've seen this one coming. She rolls her eyes.]

I'm a person. Look, can you tell me where you're going?

[myhungryass]

He kicks his legs. "Noooowhere, that's where! We're always in the middle of nowhere! It's so boring!"

[lapinlazuli]

Oh. Damn. That sucks.

Okay, uh... new question. If you could go anywhere, where would you go?

[myhungryass]

He immediately perks up again. "I want to go to the desert with Falin! There's supposed to be a land of talking dogs, there. And I want to see the ocean..."

[lapinlazuli]

Oh yeah? I could sh-

[she cuts herself off before finishing that sentence. No Harriet, do not become the weird stranger who shows up and abducts a child, even if this a dream and the child is your friend]

[myhungryass]

"Where do you come from? What's it like? Are there any unique monsters there?"

[lapinlazuli]

[AW SHIT NOW SHE'S IN IT.]

Well, I'm from Oregon originally but then I got summoned to a place called Calamity. It sucks. But there are monsters, they're called Bound, and, uh... they're real scary and mean. You wouldn't want to meet one.

[myhungryass]

"Scary monsters are cool. Are they strong? What do they look like?"

[lapinlazuli]

[immediately answers without thinking]

Well, I'm one-

[lapinlazuli]

[you FUCKING IDIOT WHY WOULD YOU SAY THATTTTTT]

[lapinlazuli]

I'm one, uh.... of the people who... knows a lot about them! Uh. They come in a lot of different shapes.

[myhungryass]

He suspects nothing. "Really?? Are you a monster researcher? That's an amazing job."

[lapinlazuli]

Hah, yeah, it's- it's pretty tough! But I'm not scared. I've got a big sword and I'm like, really strong, so I can deal with most monsters easily.

Looks like you like researching monsters too, based on that book you've got.

[myhungryass]

"Yeah! Someday I'm going to travel all around with Falin and see all the different kinds there are. She can make money as a travelling exorcist, and I'll—I'll make some kind of incredible discovery, probably, and we'll be set for life."

[lapinlazuli]

That's a pretty big dream. Think you can do it?

[myhungryass]

"Of course!" But it's obvious his confidence is false. He immediately looks troubled. "...some day..."

[lapinlazuli]

[She gently places a hand on his shoulder.]

...Listen, Laios. No matter what happens, you can't give up on your dream. Even if the worst, most awful thing you can think of winds up happening... you can't ever give up. Because if you give up, it'll never come true.

[myhungryass]

He looks up at her, wide-eyed, and slowly nods. "I won't give up..."