what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[eversomuchfun]

"The circle in the sky is the moon. What's the sinkhole?"

[inourhead]

"Where I'm from there isn't a 'planet', it's just flat, and in the middle of all the flat, a hole opened up to Hell and demons came out of it. Klaonso and other kinds."

[eversomuchfun]

"I see. That sounds oddly familiar," he says. "But in the local case, the hole to Hell spends most of its time closed and not emitting any demons. And there are a vast number of other sources of demons, none of which could accurately be described as a 'sinkhole' as far as I know."

[inourhead]

"Sometimes demons come up if there's a big earthquake, we heard... But the planet thing is definitely not how it is at home."

[eversomuchfun]

"Yes. There are some worlds that could be described as 'just flat', but this isn't one of them. I was right, you are interesting."

[inourhead]

"Do you know how I can get home? I don't even know if the demon got Lightning. That's our brother's cohabitor."

[eversomuchfun]

"I don't know how you can get home. But I'm reasonably certain there is a way, and the only tricky part will be finding it. And avoiding demons who might eat you in the meantime. There are rather a lot of them, especially around here, but at least the vast majority are straightforwardly corporeal."

[inourhead]

"Not all of them?"

[eversomuchfun]

"I would hesitate to say anything at all for certain about the category of demons as a whole; there are too many kinds to keep track of. But all of the common kinds that eat people do it using fangs and so on, not sleep-based magic or anything similar."

[inourhead]

"Okay. I still wouldn't like to meet one, but." She shrugs.

[eversomuchfun]

He snorts.

[inourhead]

"What, do you have friendly demons here we should like to meet?"

[eversomuchfun]

"In a manner of speaking, yes. You remember I told you something unpleasant happened to my soul? I'm a vampire."

[inourhead]

She reads the footnote.

"Don't bite us," she advises. "I'm good at magic."

[eversomuchfun]

"I wasn't planning on it."

[inourhead]

"Good."

[eversomuchfun]

"And what sort of magic are you good at?"

[inourhead]

"Besides demon stuff there's only the one kind where I'm from. Well, two if you count swaps and transfers as different but they aren't very. Um -" She turns up the hem of her jacket; there are a bunch of different-colored little squares of fabric sewn there. She pinches a blue one and her jacket and the swatch exchange colors. "That's a basic one, Crystal could have done that too."

[eversomuchfun]

"Magic here comes in countless varieties, and I don't think any of them is specifically that," he says. "Oh, my name's Sherlock, by the way."

[inourhead]

"Seyr-lahk," she approximates. "We should probably translate our names. I'm Holly and my sister-cohabitor is Crystal. Uh, how would you pronounce those?" she asks, peering at the translation.

[eversomuchfun]

"Holly; Crystal," he says, indicating each on the page. "Not that I have much trouble pronouncing Pyay or Sohng, but the book seems to translate them anyway."

[inourhead]

"In Kuigao everyone is named something that means something. Our brother is Book - he picked that himself - and his cohabitor is Lightning."

[eversomuchfun]

"Some people here are named something that means something, but most English-speakers aren't, myself included."

[inourhead]

Holly nods. "We know someone from a neighboring country who's just named Namree because her parents thought it sounded nice."

[eversomuchfun]

"It wouldn't be odd to encounter a 'Holly' or a 'Crystal' here, but 'Book' or 'Lightning' would be strange. Why did Book pick his own name?"