< Wife-Eating Statue! | Ex Pulp Preludes | Climbing Back Inside >
ST The tiny ivory statue that has just informed Myrrh it wishes to exchange itself for his wife peers up at him, smiling brightly and innocently. It waits for some kind of response from the confused Twilight.
Myrrh carefuly considers his options. Clearly the statue is rather unhinged...then again he doesn't really want to suffocate...and it's just a statue. Not like she can come to life and CHASE him...
Myrrh "Of..course. Now I am feeling a bit light headed from lack of air...could you possibly open the sphere please?" he asks earnestly, however if it's one thing he knows it's talking to women! Especialy women with...strange ideas.
ST The little ivory woman smiles up at Myrrh adoringly and the sphere that has entrapped him slowly starts to flatten back out into a solid floor instead of a death-inducing sphere without air. "You and I will be together for all time, my love."
Myrrh takes a deep breath, glad to have some airflow for a change. "Of course dear! Now let me put you someplace safe.." He puts her into his pack...this is going to take some doing...
ST The statue makes muffled noises of protest! But it doesn't seem to DO anything. And so Myrrh continues forward!
Myrrh heads through the now reopened sphere room, heading deeper into the tomb complex! "This might not be as easy as i thought."
ST Past the trapped ground Myrrh is facing the same two archways leading deeper into the Manse. The white stone is clean and dust free and gives no indication of where it might lead.
Myrrh glances down both hallways, wondering why the people of the first age didn't believe in directions.
ST There still doesn't seem to be anything indicating which one he should take. Just white stone hallways. They each curve away in opposite directions, hiding what lays at their end
Myrrh thinks for a moment and then goes down the left hallway.
ST Walking down the hallway becomes quite difficult as the hallway starts sloping downwards and curving to the left. There seems to be no end to the white halls, just more stone and space and light that has no source. On and on. Myrrh's sense of time starts becoming blurred as he walks, he has nothing to judge its passage by.
ST Eventually his legs start to ache and his breath comes heavy in his chest. There is still no end of the hallway in sight.
Myrrh tries to keep going, panting and continuing to trudge on. "This is almost as bad as the damn jungle!"
ST Struggling onward until the muscles in his legs feel are aflame with pain and his breath is tearing at his lungs, a stone having settled upon his breastbone, Myrrh is forced to halt his progress.
Myrrh sits down and rummages in his pack for a drink of water.
Myrrh "This is rediculous! It's also impossible!" He shouts it at the walls like a challenge.
ST His words echo back to him, mockingly.
Myrrh sighs and takes his pack off, leaning against the wall for a moment. "It's never like this in the stories. I'm supposed to be inplacatable and unstoppable and molesting Heptagram students! Instead i'm in a treadmill in a tomb. Damn immaculates!"
ST The walls, once again, give him no response. But the rest and water are starting to help him feel better. The ache is receding somewhat and he can breathe more easily.
Myrrh takes the break in the long death march to examine his surroundings a bit closer, he looks back behind him, has he made ANY progress at all?
ST the curvature and featureless nature of the corridor make it nearly impossible to judge, but Myrrh can't see the light of the archway when he looks back the way he came. That's something, he guesses.
Myrrh rests for a bit more and then tries another walk.
ST Once Myrrh moves past the area where he'd stopped to rest far enough that it is out of sight behind the curve of the tunnel he finds himself facing a white stone wall. The end of the hallway. Set into the wall there is a red ruby surrounded by gold metal scrollwork.
Myrrh examines the ruby and the scrollwork.
Ruby "You are weak. Your body fails when it should continue, your muscles are unable to carry you where you must go."
Myrrh "You know you're a negative. I will admit I'm not the most fit specemin but why is the corridor THIS long?"
Ruby "To protect what lays beyond."
Myrrh "Hey I made it this far!"
Ruby "You were forced to stop. Your body failed you when you needed it."
Myrrh "Well of course it failed! It just went on forever. It's not that big...well then what's on the OTHER corridor?"
Ruby "You shall never know. That way is closed to you."
Myrrh "What?! There's only TWO hallways." Peers at the Ruby...damn sadistic dragonblooded!
Ruby "Indeed. Your body has failed you. You are faced with a choice. You may attempt to pass through by the strength of your mind and heart, clothed in a flesh of another, or you may face the guardians as yourself."
Myrrh "Clothed in the flesh of another?"
Ruby "That is your choice?"
Myrrh "What does that mean?"
Ruby "You may face the guardians using another's body. There is a price to do so, however you will be more likely to survive."
Myrrh "...what price?"
Ruby "In trade for giving its body to you, the creature will demand payment in return. What payment and when it will come, that must be determined by the creature."
Myrrh "That is...bizzare."
Ruby "Will you face the next guardians in flesh already proven weak or in a flesh that may allow you to win?"
Myrrh "What ARE the guardians of this place?"
Ruby "You must face them to know that."
Myrrh sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. All he wants is some scrolls! "Fine let me...see the creatures I guess."
Ruby "You will face the guardians in another's flesh?"
Myrrh "Well I don't know, can't I...browse first?"
Ruby "No. You must accept the bargain or not."
Myrrh sighs for a moment and then takes a deep breath. "Alright, I will...face the guardians in another's flesh."
ST The ruby pulses, flashing with inner power. In a sudden flare of bloody red light the ruby disappears and for a moment Myrrh can see a passage beyond before...something...leaps toward him. As he opens his mouth in protest, the leap is complete. Myrrh feels a hideous feeling as he realizes his mouth is full of flexing, writhing muscle wrapped in oily fur.
ST Whatever is wrestling its way into his mouth starts to surge forward, diving down Myrrh's throat.
Myrrh gurgles and clutches his throat, god! what were the first age people THINKING?!
Myrrh flails wildly for a moment.
ST In a nauseating moment the furry creature, tasting horribly of sweat and grease, crawls down Myrrh's throat, surging deeper into his body. He can feel it moving down into him, expanding as it goes. Under his shirt, he can see his stomach flexing and writhing as the creature makes itself comfortable in his gut.
ST And then, very suddenly, Myrrh is *looking* at himself. Not the self he sees. Or anyone sees. Through the eyes he wears now, Myrrh can see the muscles of his belly flexing, he can hear the thundering of his heart and the roaring winds of his breathing.
Myrrh looks around, confused...this is the first time he's actualy been...looking outside himself as it were.
Myrrh tries...moving?
ST Myrrh flows through his own torso, eventually finding himself staring at the throbbing wad of muscle that drives his blood. Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump.
Myrrh tries speaking...what in the hell is going on? Is he the thing...can he move...himself?
ST Through eventual trial and error, Myrrh discovers that his new form is in fact not able to control his body from the inside. But he does discover a sleeping intellect within the creature that he now controls. From it he learns, in a vague way, that he must first exit his own body to gain the powers promised.
ST And the Nine Gates of Flesh are the only ways he can exit his body without first clawing or gnawing his way through layers of muscle and skin.
Myrrh decides to come out the way he came in, exiting through his own mouth...ugh. He's glad he can't taste THAT!
ST Myrrh is also rather glad that he can't feel his furry new body slithering, twisting and forcing its way back up through his throat and out his mouth. But eventually, with a great deal of work to avoid hurting himself, Myrrh falls to the white-stone floor, covered in saliva and bile. He looks down at himself and is somewhat confused.
ST Standing on two thick legs he now vaguely resembles a human, though his skin is covered in a thick, greasy pelt of black-brown fur. Knotted muscles ripple under the fur, attached to limbs a third again as long as those of a normal human. His torso is broad and heavily padded in layers of fat. Possibly if a gorilla were stretched on a rack...
Myrrh pats himself down...what the hell? He's a monkey?!
ST Not exactly a monkey. First of all, he doesn't think monkeys have four arms. And secondly, he doesn't think monkeys have heavy tails covered in barbs.
Myrrh is rather suprised he actualy has a tail...and has to wonder how he's going to handle having four arms..but decides that he might as well go forward now that he's commited, hoping nothing eats his entranced body he heads off into the unknown!
ST Where there once was a white stone wall set with a ruby, there is now an open cavern facing him. The only visible feature of the cavern, aside from the obligatory towering columns of stone, stalagtites and stalagmites is a vast chasm bridged only by a single thread of silk.
Myrrh stops at the edge of the chasm, studying the silk thread, scratching his head and wondering how the hell he's supposed to get across? Walk? Climb? or is it all a ruse?
Myrrh he touches the thread VERY GENTLY with his finger.
ST The chasm offers no clues. But the only possible way to cross it would be on the thread of silk. But of course, Myrrh isn't even sure he needs to cross it. To the touch the silk feels strong, but...there is only a single thread.
Myrrh tries to focus his essence, wondering if that's even possible transplanted into the body of a...monkey thing.
ST Apparently, it is not. Nothing responds at all to Myrrh's attempts to use his Essence. Well, nothing useful.
Myrrh "Hmph!" He looks around, trying to find a possible other way over the chasm.
ST As far as Myrrh's eyes can see, which is a considerable distance compared to his normal eyes, there is no end to the chasm and nothing else bridging it.
Myrrh thinks for a moment and, holding onto a stoney stalagmite, takes a tenative step onto the thread.
ST As he takes his first steps onto the silken thread, the thread vibrates violently, threatening to spill him into the black abyss at the bottom of the chasm. But with that first step his new eyes can see something across the chasm. A golden platform stands at the end of a far distant rise in the cavern's floor.
Myrrh peers at the platform...wondering what on earth that thing is going to do...
ST He can't see anything about the platform except from its gold material.
Myrrh thinks for a moment and tries to gentley tug at the string, the rest of the place doesn't follow the rules of physics...might as well see if he can close the chasm...
ST The attempt is, in fact, a failure.
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