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]

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?"

[inourhead]

"Until we explained our parents thought there was only one of us, like most people when they're born and haven't started cohabiting with anyone else yet. So they just called us all Holly. Book picked himself a name and I named Crystal. Book moved out a while ago. Found a boy he wanted to look like, that's Lightning, moved in with him."

[eversomuchfun]

"How does all this moving work? By magic, I suppose?"

[inourhead]

"Yeah. It's really advanced. I might do it for a job - if I get home, I mean, I guess there's not so much call for it if you don't have klaonso."

[eversomuchfun]

"Yes. Transferring people from one body to another is not something we do a lot of around here. Can't say that I've heard of another case, in fact, unless you count what happens to vampires."

[inourhead]

"Why, what happens to you?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Oh, we lose our souls. Replaced by some sort of demon spirit, is I think the going theory. We keep all the same memories, but our personalities change, usually not in nice ways."

[inourhead]

"Huh. Memories and souls are attached for us, we don't have Book's memories still now that his soul's in Lightning's body."

[eversomuchfun]

"It might be that the relevant thing in each case is a different thing, and they're only getting the same word because of limited vocabulary. Or perhaps your world has a different sort of soul. I wonder what would happen if your sort of person became a vampire?"

[inourhead]

"I don't know, but we don't want to try it. We have been eaten by demons enough. We wouldn't be a good test case anyway since we're unusual."

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock giggles. "I won't suggest that you experiment, then. Does the cage full of mice serve some sleep-related function?"