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 Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 9:29 am
"Come on, Len. What are you waiting for?"
Lennon Albert Carver XIV, the son of one of the great councilmen in the City and someone would shouldn't EVER be down in the lower districts, stood in the Greek District of Middling with three older children that were not his friends. Or, he thought, not yet.
"What's the matter?" the lone girl asked, arms crossed over her chest and chewing on a piece of gum. "You aren't scared, are you?"
Len gulped theatrically. Of course he was scared. This is the Flower Lady, the one that all the kids in his private school were talking about--a witch that made kids fight in a battle royale in the City. He could die! Or worse...
But of course he would never admit that. "N-n-no," he said quietly.
"You're lying!" one of the boys said, a huge one that ate too much.
"Yeah!" the last member, a very tall boy who was good with his fists. "Don't lie, Len. You're scared."
"No!" he said, desperate to make them believe him. "I'm not-"
"Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!" the three older children chanted and then burst out into laughter.
Len's eyes started to water. He felt a muscle in the top right corner of his mouth twitch--on its own. It was something unusual, but a talent that he had for as long as he could remember. Four small muscles, small and seemingly useless, right under his skin that didn't show at all. Sometimes, he could feel them if he pressed down hard enough.
The three older kids slowly stopped their laughter. "All right..." the girl said, also wiping tears from her eyes. "This is shop where we can play that game we've heard so much about. You need to get us in."
"Yeah!" the fat boy chimed in. "We would be the best at it. We need to play!"
"We would win it so fast..." the last boy agreed.
"All right," Len mumbled. He took a deep breath before making the first step across the street, the three older kids giggling behind him as he looked back to make sure it wasn't a trick, then opened the door to the flower shop and disapeared within.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:12 pm
Persy didn't like dealing with gods she hadn't met before. She didn't like meeting with gods period, but some of the other pantheons were infinitely more twisted than her own, and it sometimes drove her to the point where she almost missed her own dysfunctional family. Almost being the key word in that sentence.
But today...well, this encounter had been different. An evil god, no doubt, and despite his relative age to the others, powerful. He had a lot of belief to back him up, and sometimes not even time could overcome power among deities. The worst of it all was that he'd entered the Game, and already chosen his Godling. In fact, his Godling was being directed to the shop, or so she'd been told. This Godling had apparently encountered their god before, so it left Persy to explain everything to yet another kid.
It just wasn't her week, was it?
She'd expected the boy to come in, so naturally she'd been at the front counter, staring at the door. However, upon examining his appearance, her eyes widened: he looked so...normal. Why wasn't he green, or hairless, or sporting a pair of wings? She opened her mouth to speak, but shivers rushed down her spine as all the lights in the room snapped off. However, despite the fact that all of the doors and windows were wither covered or closed, the place still glowed an ethereal green: a pallid, sickly color unlike the healthy hue dominating the place only moments ago. It was then that Persy began to worry: none of this was her doing.
I gift you, young one, with dreams, a grated voice whispered directly into Len's mind, followed moments later by the phantom feeling of a taloned hand touching his shoulder. It is at that point when the changes begin, and when the lights return, banishing the horrid color, Persy found herself staring at the same boy, but with small greenish nubs accenting his face like a premature moustache. It appeared he'd been marked.
Still paralyzed by the fact that another god had dared act so openly in her domain, it was a moment before Persy was able to breathe again, and she put a hand to her chest to help calm her flighty nerves.
"W-welcome to the Game, Len...I suppose Cthulhu spoke with you?" She looked around quickly to make sure that he still wasn't there, then calmed slightly, sighing in relief. "Your friends outside are of no importance, but you...you've just been marked by a god."
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:25 pm
Len entered the shop, terrified as usual. It seemed like the flower shops he had seen in the movies, small and cozy and tropical, like it was in some of the other cities he had heard about. Flowers were everywhere, like the store itself was made of some sort of magical, lively earth. He had never seen that many plants in his life. It was...a little calming to him.
He followed the plants, his line of vision crossing the front counter and then meeting the horrfying site of what could only be the Flower Lady. He didn't even have the chance to scream, however, before the lights began to flicker and he felt the hot, steamy breath of SOMETHING behind him.
I gift you, young one, with dreams, a grated voice whispered directly into Len's mind, followed moments later by the phantom feeling of a taloned hand touching his shoulder. He felt himself slipping away from the flower shop, his deep blue eyes rolling lazily up in his sockets and he saw into the darkness, the total darkness where he could see unimaginable cities, vast and deep and ungeometric that had existed long before even the forerunners of these modern Cities had begun, where horrible inhuman creatures wandered and something terrible, something horrible was waiting, watching...dreaming. His eyes cringed shut.
I gift you...my dreams.
He felt himself slipping. Not just himself but his mind, reeling back in evolution, back to a time before he was aware and all he knew was black and the terrible loneliness and something was there dreaming and laughing.
I gift you power.
Len was screaming now, or he felt like he was. It was like he was in forever, an eternity of pain as he felt the four individual muscles on the side of his mouth twitch, writhe, grow and explode out, blood pouring down his open, shrieking mouth, writhing out on their own, exploring and probing with inhuman curiousity, something that was not part of him, no, something of this dreamer that had attached itself to his face.
He could feel the stranger's hot breath, this time right in his face and stinking of old rotting flesh and the sea, something touching his face and those growths around him, wiping off the blood and slurping...something.
Now, play well, little one. Win my honor.
Just as suddenly as it began, it all stopped.
Len opened his eyes. He was back in the shop...but with some new presence swimming around in his brain. It was whispering to him. Feeding him information.
He turned his eyes to the Flower Lady, who was staring there with a strange expression on her face. Now, she didn't seem nearly as scary.
Then again...that could be the constantly whispering voice in his brain. It was slowly fading now, he could feel himself returning...and becoming more nervous.
"Cthulhu?" he asked. "What? Was that that thing...?" Len started to retch. "Oh...oh my..."
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:09 pm
"Hey-hey-HEY! No puke on the floor! I just cleaned up!"
With a speed rivalling anyone who'd just been so thoroughly shaken, she was at his side, a bucket in her hands and her face still a mixture of surprise, worry, and agitation. She really didn't want to tell him about Cthulhu. She didn't want to relive it herself. But she knew it was her job, and as troubled as it made her, she knew that it had to be worse for him.
"That was your induction to the Game," Persy murmured in an almost sympathetic tone, looking down into his reflection at the bottom of the bucket. Had he noticed how he'd changed yet? Not likely, seeing as how he was still calm, but she wasn't about to be the one to point it out to him. "The thing you met is called Cthulhu. He's...your guardian, sort of. Because of him, you have the power to play the Game as his representative, and he is the one who will give you advice from here on out." At this point, Persy began to sincerely feel sorry for the kid: she only had to deal with the tentacle monster once in a blue moon: he had the freak in his head.
"How much do you know about the Game?" she finally asked, wanting to know how much she had to explain. She'd hoped to make this meeting brief, but because of the intrusion, she felt that somehow, it was going to end up far more complicated.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:07 pm
Len grabbed the bucket that the Flower Lady had placed before him and began to heave. He felt disgusting...dirty...sick...he needed to clean himself. Somehow.
He continued to heave, drool mixed with blood flowing from his open mouth, tears forming at his face. He could barely hear the Flower Lady's words over the sound of his own sobbing. The whispering voice was fading, but still talking, describing things in an language he didn't yet understand. Len was starting to come back...and he was yet to realize the changes that Cthulu had "gifted" upon him.
It must have been a nightmare, he deduced. Maybe one of those "attacks" that some of the kids in his school got when they got scared.
"Uh..." he said, wiping tears from his eyes and noticing a weird numbness in his mouth. "The Games? Is...is that that thing where you make us...fight each other...? I think my friends..wanted to play too..."
The full implications hadn't yet sunk in yet.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:02 am
"Your friends don't have the power to play. In fact, if they tried, they could get seriously hurt," Persy retorted, her expression turning to a frown. She couldn't stand it when others tried to get in the way of what she was supposed to keep organized. Dead kids meant more paperwork for her, and she had it hard enough as it was.
Leaving the bucket there in case the boy felt the need to purge more, she stood, getting a towel from the counter. "Only people like you have the ability to play, and win, the Game. The thing you just encountered, like I said before, was Cthulhu, and he has chosen you to be him emissary in the Game." Kneeling down again, she began to wipe the blood from his face, being careful not to touch the protrusions, which were probably still sore. "What that means is that you'll get powers and advice from him, and over time, you and he will become closer as you become more powerful.
"The point of the Game is to defeat all of the others like you, those who have one of the gods helping him or her. The prize for being the last one is your god's control of the Earth for a millenia, with yourself elevated to a prophet status." Done with cleaning his face, she placed the towel back on the counter to be cleaned later. "If you lose...well, then, you're at the mercy of whoever wins, which means you may be reduced to a powerless child, killed, or even worse, depending on the god." She nodded, then paused to give the boy time to let things sink in.
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:42 pm
"The power...to...play? What do you...?" Len rubbed the spit from his mouth and for the first time felt something strange, protruding, ALIEN around his mouth.
His hand froze.
Slowly, terrified, he rubbed his hand against the things. They were sore, dully painful to the touch like a bruise that was fading into the past. It felt...wrong. Terribly wrong.
For the second time that day, he felt like retching.
He grabbed the bucket again and starting heaving, this time with multicolored results splattering at the bottom. Once again, the tears started to roll down his face. Once again, Len could taste a putrid mixture of blood and vomit and drool in his mouth...as well as a distinct, seafood aftertaste.
After several minutes, he finished again and put the bucket on the floor. He stood still as Persey finished washing his face, making faces that
"You mean..." he said, once he had gotten a hold of him self again and his childhood wonder returned, "...I'm a player in the Game? I get powers and stuff?"
Len was excited. He was a little fond of comic books, and liked to read them in his free time (secretly, of course; neither his father or his mother approved of such frivilous nonsense). He'd be almost like a superhero!
But, of course, there's always a catch...
"Wait. K-k-killed?" Len gulped. There certainly was always a catch.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:39 pm
"You have 'powers and stuff'," Persy corrected, "And yes, if a particularily vindictive godling wins, then you could die. Which is why it's so important that you try to win." Nodding gravely, Persy suddenly stood, a chill running down her spine. There was one thing she'd forgotten, and in that moment Cthulhu gently chose to remind her.
"Your god will explain more about what you can and cannot do," Persy continued, fumbling through her apron pocket. "And this is something that will help you connect." Unfurling her closed hand, she revealed a gold coin, dulled from spending many years under the sea. Engraved into it's face was an octopus-looking creature, and a strange language decorated it's border.
"Don't lose this talismen: it could be dangerous in the wrong hands, and if nothing else, godlings can use it against you should they find it." Holding the coin with her fingers as if she wanted to be rid of it, she held it out for the boy to accept.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:57 pm
"Wow!" Len said. He had powers, no, SUPERpowers. He was a superhero! In a way, at least. He had no idea what his powers might even be, but maybe it would be something cool like flying or superstrength or teleportation or maybe even all of them, like Ultraman. The only downside was...
He heard a cold and alien chuckle in the corner of his mind.
Len shivered slightly, a deep freeze that struck his soul, before the warmth and life of the store returned. Hesitantly, he reached out and grabbed the coin and felt its worn surface.
"I just have one question..." he asked, playing around with the coin and feeling the inscriptions. "Do you have anyplace for me to stay? I can't go home with these..." He gestured towards the tentacles on his face. "My parents...don't like games."
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:14 pm
Persy hesitated before answering the boy. She wanted Cthulhu out of her shop, her domain, and she wanted him out now. But it wasn't the kid's fault that he got stuck with the tentacle thing: it's just how fate played out, and he was just a frightened kid. She understood the feeling, even if the memory was old and sensitive.
"You can stay here for the day and night, but you can't make it a habit. This is neutral territory, and if your god stays with you here for too long, he might start to impose." Already imposed, is what she meant to say, but once again, it wasn't the kid's fault, she wasn't going to take it out on him. "After that, you're on your own. There's not much else I can do."
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:41 pm
"Oh, thanks!" Len smiled, for the first time since he entered the shop. He could spend the night here, then phone his parents for some money for a hotel room. The game could only last a week or so, right? A week as a superhero would probably be the best week of his life.
He played around with the coin and studied it intently. He didn't know what it meant...but that tentacled face made him instinctivly reach for his own. Was this the face of his guardian? Len wanted to shiver; he felt his empty stomach begin to turn again.
He put the coin in his pocket. Out of sight, out of mind. Besides, he got to be a superhero, despite whatever horrible god he was stuck with. And he didn't have to look at it if he didn't want to. It was only for a week.
Right?
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