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

[scentsibility]

This is messy?

[ looks around at the vast nothing?? ]

[myhungryass]

To be fair, it is a vast nothing untidily scattered with random objects, even if there is a lot of space between them. "Well, it's not organized."

[scentsibility]

Should I just start going through it? The last memory I saw was in a book.

[myhungryass]

She nods. "That would be a great help! There shouldn't be more than two untaken ones lying around... if you can find them and take them to Laios, it would really be a step to sorting things out around here. You can probably find him in the stomach."

[scentsibility]

... In the ...

[myhungryass]

"That would be my guess. If you find that too disturbing, you don't have to, though. Eventually you'll wake up, even if you just lie down right here and don't do a single thing."

[scentsibility]

Well ... he did say he was always hungry. Why does it feel like he'll be eating me, though ...

[ he's just gonna. start looking through the items now. ]

[myhungryass]

They're scattered pretty widely, but he can make his way over to any of them. There's the book, wok, sword, tombstone and plush, in addition to the cottages.

[scentsibility]

[ he heads for each item in that order, starting with the book since he had luck with the other book. ]

[myhungryass]

And he lucks out again! It’s just some shitty geometry textbook? When he picks it up, though, instead of a memory 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. He does get the sense that, as with his own memories, he could just give in to that mental pressure and let it in… but probably, he’d just see it himself, rather than returning it to Laios.

The wok is 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. (Notably for Al, he probably gets at least a vague sense that the definition of "human" here does not mean, exclusively, "tallman" but more like "sapient person" but this info dump isn't specifically about that.)

The sword rattles violently in its scabbard when he gets close. If he goes to pick it up, it suddenly skips across the ground away from him! Does he chase it...?

[scentsibility]

[ wow, right off the bat, his luck really is holding out right now. he tucks the book under his arm to keep it safe while he reaches for the other things, taking a moment to let that ecosystem consideration sink in, huh.

he nearly flinches when the sword first rattles, then takes his hand back entirely when it skips away. ]

What on earth?

[ he does follow after it though, approaching more cautiously now. ]

[myhungryass]

Every time he gets close it just YEETS itself further away, clearly fleeing. It's only about as fast as a grasshopper, though. If he pounced, he could definitely grab it.

[scentsibility]

[ what if Al just smacks it down in place with his tail? ]

[myhungryass]

Pinned!! A flood of information about monsters and how cool they are and how to prepare them for eating and musings about what certain ones might taste like and whether or not people and monsters could ever have a more harmonious relationship washes over him as soon as he touches it. There's no voice to go with it... it's more a series of images and concepts... but it's accompanied by a feeling of eager fascination, even obsession.

The sword gives one more violent rattle as he smacks it down, then goes still. It's a double-edged sword with an embellishment on the hilt that looks like wings.

[scentsibility]

Ah ... they're still wondering the same about demihumans.

[ he half-mumbles that to himself over the musings that wash over him, bending over to pick up the sword by the scabbard rather than by the hilt so he can look at the decoration of it. ]

Oh, is this what he uses in the dungeon? Can swords normally move on their own though ... ?

[ musing again as he walks with it, going for the next item (if nothing happens). ]

[myhungryass]

It remains totally inert as he heads over to the tombstone. When he touches it, a memory washes over him. He finds himself thinking about Falin. Is she okay? Did Laios ruin her life? Is he holding her back? Did they really eat her? Did it save her? They would have had to kill her first. Did he kill his sister? Did he kill his sister? Did he kill his sister??

[scentsibility]

[ he gasps at the memory, of the feeling of that ghost and the cold. but it's the thoughts that come after that cause Al to hold his breath, his hand rising to press itself to his face. the book he was holding falls to the ground with it. ]

F-Falin—

[myhungryass]

The thoughts are accompanied by a feeling of guilt and fear, mixed with fierce love and gratitude.

[scentsibility]

[ wow those are intense when they're not mine. he takes a moment to recover, taking a breath before he leans to pick the book back up. he looks at the tombstone after ... how is he going to carry that to Laios ... ]

[myhungryass]

Marcille and younger Laios did specify "memories he hasn't taken yet," and Al can tell the difference between the book (untaken) and the other things he's touched (either full memories that must already have been recovered, infodumps of things Laios is pondering, or a mix), so he can probably figure out that the tombstone needs to stay where it is...

...or he can try something wild? I'm just narrating here.

[scentsibility]

[ aahh~~ dungeon meshi~

but no, Al does realize the different then, glancing between the book and the tombstone. it feels almost shitty to leave it when it was that intense, but he does move on to the other objects since he said he's help Laios. ]

[myhungryass]

Then it's just the plush left! It's soft! It has little white wings embroidered on its back, and button eyes. The buttons only have two holes, so with the thread between them, it creates the look of a double or hour-glass pupil. When he picks it up, just like with the book, he feels that nudge in his mind of a potential memory... the way it feels when there's one waiting in his own bracelet.

He's already looked at Moon House, and probably noticed the forbidding feeling coming from Sun House means he wouldn't be able to get in. Will he investigate Hen House in case there are more items hidden in there? Marcille did say there probably weren't more than two, but it might be best to check? Or he can just fly on out of here.

[scentsibility]

[ huh, weird that Sun is closed to him. but yeah, he will check out Hen House quickly. ]

[myhungryass]

Just like Moon House, exterior looks a little bit… off? The roof is made of the wrong material… the door isn’t quite the right colour. 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.

He can't just walk straight into this one like Moon House, but the door swings open if he knocks. It feels homey, safe and inviting. He can smell fried rice cooking. As he walks in, he gets a sense of being nurtured. Some of the details inside are wrong, too—clearly Laios hasn’t paid too much attention to what the chairs look like.

The doors inside (to the bedrooms, bathroom and shrine room) are closed, but he can hear whispering within the bedroom shared by Laios, Louis and Laura. If he approachs, he realizes it’s Laios’s voice, talking to himself.

[scentsibility]

[ he snerks at the detailed chicken feet, eventually getting inside. he does wander towards the voices, recognizing Laios's voice as he gently knocks on the door. ]