heart game - Kantera

[wroughtandtempered]

I’m sorry. I tried— I tried, but I can’t keep going—

I don’t think I can do this alone, so— Please. Please—

I need help.

Comments

RULES

[wroughtandtempered]

☽ Unless otherwise noted, all memories and emotions are vivid, but not to the point they can't be distinguished from the participants' own (though it may take a moment or two to fully shake off the experience depending on their previous experiences or self-knowledge). There is a buffer, and it feels deliberate.

☽ All items are missing except clothing.

☽ All participants start out in a beast form, with an assigned element. They are only able to use their new shape's abilities and their element's powers; however, they know instinctively what these are and how to use them. Specialized skills (martial arts, mundane athleticism, etc.) can be used if they have the required anatomy for it.

BEAST FORMS

[wroughtandtempered]

Kantera has become a lindwurm— a maned serpentine dragon with two forelimbs and no hind legs. His horns and wings remain the same. His element is nature, allowing him to heal injuries and influence the growth of plants around him.

OUTSIDE

[wroughtandtempered]

The first thing you notice is that the previous chill has only continued to build. You are bitterly, achingly cold.

The second is that your body isn’t the one you’re most familiar with. It feels natural, though; there’s no dysphoria or awkward adjustment. It’s still you, even though the shape is a little (or a lot) different. ...Under the light of the full moon overhead, though, you can feel impulses bubbling up. Some of these instincts might be familiar, things you’ve dealt with before; others might be new and foreign. All of them nag at you, however, impossible to set aside or fully ignore.

Snow drifts down in thick clumps, blanketing the ground around you. Between its reflective white and the moon’s bright light, it’s easy to make out your surroundings: a forest in the distance, and a small house a little ways ahead. Lights are visible through the windows, and it looks welcoming in a way the forest definitely does not.

Re: OUTSIDE

[happydreamed]

Eve-

[He thinks that was Eve's voice, and it catches his attention before his own body does.

This is new. He's never been this shape of dragon before, but it feels comfortable, easy. If this is part of the rules of the game, he will play without hesitation.

There are two obvious ways to proceed, and one looks far more promising than the other. Towards the house he goes.]

Re: OUTSIDE

[wroughtandtempered]

The house is in the western style, and hardly more than a cottage. You can just barely hear footsteps inside, and the sound of someone humming to themself.

Re: OUTSIDE

[happydreamed]

Well, the only thing to do in this situation is knock politely on the door, isn't it? So that's what he does.

THE WORKSHOP

[wroughtandtempered]

This room is a mostly-barren mess. Fire has ripped through it, leaving very little aside from the pervasive smell of smoke, blackened walls, and a badly charred desk against the opposite wall, under a window. There’s a blue broom and dustpan in one corner, but they’re only lightly used; most of the floor is still covered in burnt bits. In particular, a small collection of smoldering ashes sits near the desk.

On each wall is a painting: one of a house, one of three figures on a beach, one of the Clinic in Ellipsa, and one of a family— no, a collection of animals…?

Re: THE WORKSHOP

[happydreamed]

"Ah. Yes, I can see what she meant about things out of place being obvious."

Well, his first task is clear: take the broom and dustpan and sweep the floor clean.

Re: THE WORKSHOP

[wroughtandtempered]

As you touch the broom, spite and stubbornness fills you, and you hear an echo of a conversation between Eve and Korone:

“The idea of making long-term plans might seem kinda wild after everything— ... But, the future is there for you. You've got time to rest. Time to be. Time to think about what you wanna do, and how you might be able to do it...”

“...Thanks, babe. ... It is incredibly fucking wild, though. I'm trying to work on it? But I am so fucking out of practice at that and a bunch of other shit, it's almost funny.”

“Learning and relearning how to live is a whole thing. ... a lot of my decorating habit is driven by — mm, not really spite, but, "I'm here and this is mine. Fuck off."

“—oh. Shit? ... I didn't even think of— why the fuck didn't I think of that, Choco-chan—”

Most of the mess is easily swept up, but the smoldering pile of ashes doesn't seem to want to move.

Re: THE WORKSHOP

[happydreamed]

Good, learn how to live and plan for the future out of spite, Eve. He supports you.

"Stubborn..." But he doesn't think brute forcing it will work. He puts the rest of the mess in the nearest trash can and goes to take a closer look at the burnt desk.

THE KITCHEN

[scalepel]

The pervasive smell of smoke lightens enough that you can make out other scents— namely chocolate chip cookies and tea. The reason for that becomes apparent soon enough: yep, this sure is a kitchen!

Like the rest of the house, this room has been touched by fire— but in this case the damage is minimal, with only a few scorch marks on the walls. Despite that, the room is still largely empty, save for a kotatsu to dine at and a few half-opened moving boxes sitting on the counters. A few mugs of tea and a plate full of Eve’s chocolate-chip cookies sit on top of the oven, where the coals of a fire glow dimly inside.

The copper-colored snake from before sits with its head resting on the kotatsu, coils half out and half under the futon. It doesn’t blink or lift its head as they enter, but it does lazily flick out a forked, brown tongue.

"Hey."

Re: THE KITCHEN

[happydreamed]

Ahh, the comforting smell of tea.

"Hello. Thank you for your help earlier - you must be Eve's father?"

Re: THE KITCHEN

[scalepel]

"That's right. And not a problem— Eve probably would've been pretty ticked at both of us if she'd noticed, so I was just saving us both some trouble."

She sounds pretty fondly amused by the concept, so it... probably wouldn't have been too bad, right? ...Probably?

THE CLINIC

[wroughtandtempered]

It’s a clinic! Or… it was a clinic. The whole room reeks of smoke and burnt herbs, the walls are licked with sooty black marks, and what remains of the furniture in the room is blackened and charred.

...mostly. The apothecary’s cabinet against one wall has had the damaged drawers pulled out and arranged in a tidy pile; there’s tools for pulling them apart and sanding them laid out next to it. Some have even already been restored and replaced in the cabinet.

The charred bookcase against another wall looks like it should be falling apart, but it’s holding up well under the weight of a few new books on the shelves. There’s also a broom and dustpan tucked into one corner, clearly having been used to sweep most of the ash from out of the rest of the room.

In the middle of the room is a badly burnt examination table. Next to it is a steel table, assorted tools laid out in neat rows on it. A guttering but otherwise controlled fire burns on the cleared portion, with a pot of sluggishly simmering water sitting over it.

...You can feel eyes on you. Something is watching, though there doesn’t seem to be any threat to it... yet.

Re: THE CLINIC

[happydreamed]

...This just makes him sad to look at as a doctor. Even knowing it's not an actual clinic.

Well, first things first: the steel table. Are those tools what he'd expect for a clinic?

Re: THE CLINIC

[wroughtandtempered]

Most of the tools are in fact typical for a jack-of-all-trade’s doctor’s office: scalpels, forceps, tweezers, a stethoscope. However, there are also a few out of place items: a soft green scarf, a silver bracelet, a bandage with cartoon monkeys on it, and a small music box.

There are also bandages currently in the pot, though the water doesn’t seem hot enough to sterilize them.

Something glitters in the flames below the pot.

EVE'S ROOM

[wroughtandtempered]

You enter what appears to be a small bedroom. Moonlight shines down brightly through the window on the opposite wall; you can feel its pull on your instincts again, though it’s not quite as strong as it was outside.

In one corner is a large futon, covered by an absolutely absurd number of pillows. Neatly folded blankets in a variety of colors and materials sit on the “foot” of it, with a large wooden linens chest sitting nearby.

In the middle of the room taking up almost all the space is an enormous firepit. The edges have been carefully corralled so that the fire within doesn’t spread… or so it wouldn’t if there were a fire. Currently, there are only ashes. Still, it seems to have done its job; there’s no indication of fire damage anywhere else in this room.

There’s an empty desk against one wall. A bookshelf sits next to it, covered in an assortment of small trinkets— most of them covered in soot, making it difficult to make out what they are. A lacquered box sits alone on the bottom shelf.

...No matter what you do, you can’t seem to shake the feeling that you’re being watched. Closely.

Re: EVE'S ROOM

[happydreamed]

"Let's see... If I were a mirror shard, would I be in... a box again?"

Time to check out that box on the bottom shelf.

Re: EVE'S ROOM

[wroughtandtempered]

It's covered in twisting, unsettling patterns, but is pristine compared to the soot-covered objects on the other shelves.

Opening it reveals that it's lined in red silk, which cushions a number of small trinkets. There’s a coin; a large diamond; a shard of something glittering but covered with dried blood (an icicle?); a lump of metal, shot through with some sort of impurity; and a clump of burrs. ...And sure enough, underneath some of the other items is a shard of mirror, gleaming brightly in the light.

the basement.

[wroughtandtempered]

You descend into the dark. Thick smoke immediately fills your nose and lungs, though at least it doesn’t carry with it the irritation real smoke would; it just makes it hard to see, so watch your step. As you go, the temperature drops; by the time you reach the bottom of the stairs it has to be at least freezing.

More than that— the further you go, the more unsettled you feel. There’s a twisted sense of presence here, making your strengthened instincts all but scream about the horrors you can feel lurking ahead. The smoke is still too thick to see through, but that doesn’t mean anything other than whatever it is has cover.

But—

As the steps come to an end, leaving you on stone floor, nothing happens.

Re: the basement.

[happydreamed]

Something is here. He knows it, he feels it in his bones, that something is here that he will not like. His instincts scream to turn back, but this is the place he has to be to help Eve.

"...Hello?"

Re: the basement.

[wroughtandtempered]

There’s a long scraping noise from just a little ways ahead in response— and then a voice, guarded and suspicious.

“Come to laugh at me? Fuck you.”



…it’s unmistakably Eve.

THE TRUE HEART

[wroughtandtempered]

Nysteri is gone— but there’s a fresh batch of cookies cooling on a rack, smelling of chocolate and only a little bit of smoke. A bowl full of assorted fruits (mostly oranges, but there are persimmons, plums and a little punnet of strawberries as well) sits on the kotatsu—

—the futon of which shifts a bit. There’s a few shifting, scuffling sounds, and then out pops…

Eve?

…well, sort of. It’s definitely Eve, but she’s a fat little sausage of a thing— only a few feet long, more leg than body (and almost more paw than leg). She bears no scars, and none of the festering wounds that the Eve in the basement had, either— this is Eve as she was in her youth. Your instincts still react at the sight of her; but the sense of her presence is lighter, and easier to ignore.

Upon sighting you, she makes a whistly, squeaky exclamation of excitement and wiggle-waddles her way over, all but tripping over own legs in the process. Her stubby tail is going a mile a minute.

“—You made it!”

Re: THE TRUE HEART

[happydreamed]

Oh my god that's the cutest thing he's ever seen.

"Eve! 'Tis so good to see you."

Re: THE TRUE HEART

[wroughtandtempered]

She PROMPTLY tries to jump up against his legs, stepping all over his feet in the process.

"Yeah, I'm back! ...I'm home?

...Does it count if I didn't leave all the way..."