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]

... 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?

[myhungryass]

He rubs the back of his neck a bit sheepishly. "...about how I got like this?"

[pocketlockpick]

Yeah.

Honestly, it seems more indecision than anything else.

[myhungryass]

"H-hey now. It has a lot of good features." He glances away, though. "It's not like I remember this actually happening, you know. It might just be... the way I would want to look, or something. ...I guess we might find out if I take those memories you brought? Thank you for doing that, by the way."

[pocketlockpick]

Yeah.

[offers the book and the plush, and then afterwards, checks for the shiny gem.]

I'm not saying it probably isn't useful, but minimalism over maximalism.

[myhungryass]

There's no shiny gem to be seen. Laios takes the items!

He laughs a bit awkwardly. "Maybe I did get carried away? It feels—right, though. I feel comfortable like this."

[pocketlockpick]

[he nods, and just sits across from Laios]

... I guess you've always been curious about monsters, this is just the next step.

But you know, you probably could stand to appreciate your actual tall-man form more. We don't get to choose how we look like, but... everyone makes the most of it, ya know?

[myhungryass]

"Heh..." He nods back. "You're a really practical guy, Chilchuck. I should take your advice."

If he's in a bit of a heavy mood, he shrugs it off. "So, how about it? Should we see what we can learn from these memories?"

[pocketlockpick]

Sure. Were you not taking them because you were busy, or you were avoiding something?

[myhungryass]

"Actually... I'm pretty anxious to remember more, but somehow I got distracted last night learning how to make tortellini, and I didn't have time to take them before bed. I guess I was worried about getting behind, so maybe that's why I dreamed about it..."

[pocketlockpick]

... tortellini?

[myhungryass]

"They're a stuffed noodle. Or a mini dumpling? But the book says they're pasta. They're pretty good! I'll bring some over to Gloom House tomorrow. Mithrun was interested in learning to make noodles, so..."

[pocketlockpick]

You're helping him with a hobby?

Anyway, sorry... we're getting side tracked here.

[myhungryass]

"Apparently he helped us eat Falin, so..."

He shakes his head.

"Right. One more..."

He picks up the plush lion a bit dubiously.

[pocketlockpick]

It sort of looks like your sword. Probably a good thing, right?

[myhungryass]

He looks a little surprised. "But... I think Kensuke has wings because of the Winged Lion."

Wait a second. "...that's the demon that powers the dungeon. It eats people's desires...?"

He's definitely sweating a little as he realizes maybe no one filled Chilchuck in on the plot yet.

[pocketlockpick]

[... no one filled Chilchuck in on the plot yet.]

What do you mean...?

[myhungryass]

Oh boy. He puts the plush down for the moment. "Well—" Where to even start? He wishes he could make Kabru do it.

"So, remember how dungeons are full of mana, and lots of magic works better inside them? And how people in the dungeon can really consistently be resurrected?"

[pocketlockpick]

...




... Laios, just take the memory for now, and if you need explaining, do so when we're both awake.