5.6 KiB
| title | created | updated | public | syndicated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00063 | Tue, 14 Feb 2023 07:01:53 -0700 | Tue, 14 Feb 2023 07:01:54 -0700 | yes | yes |
00063
"Greetings, Great One." Inky bows, back parallel to the ground while they stand on the branch, now a humanoid child in a black uniform and matching bookbag hanging under one arm. The banana boat is nowhere in sight. Fuko follows her errant charge and the cloaked figure from a nearby branch.
"This lowly one wonders if they may be permitted to seek the Great Spirit's insight, whose wisdom endures before and beyond." Inky begins, staring down the blurry reflection of silver boughs overhead on the polished toes of their black shoes. They notice idly they do not see themselves in the reflection.
Straightening from the bow, they look up at the figure and hold out a plate of taiyaki. After a moment, the child asks haltingly, "There may come a day when this one will be asked to choose between the chance to protect many and that which they desire to protect most. Should this one choose equally? Will the choice matter if both paths eventually lead to destruction? Could destruction and salvation be two sides of the same coin?"
You and the Dude are sitting in small upholstered chairs, across a small half table from each other. There is a large sticky bun on a white lacy doily on the table. Next to you is a small portal-sized window, and outside you can see green rolling hills and small copses of trees fly by. The other seats on the small train car are all empty. The two of you are alone.
"I cannot give you advice," the Dude says. "But I can offer you experience."
They raise a hand and hold a loosely closed fist out over the table. The walls of the train become fuzzy and blurry, then translucent, and finally transparent. They disappear and you have the sensation of rocketing through space at dizzying speeds.
The track splits ahead you. To one side, bound to one track is that which you desire to protect most. Bound to the other are the many.
"You can choose safely here. It's just a dream, after all." The Dude opens their fist. The Twenty-one Fiver coin rests in their palm. "Heads, you steer the train into the many, sparing that which you love most. Tails, the opposite. You spare the many, and sacrifice that which you hold dear." They hold the coin out to you.
The train barrels toward the fork. "But choose quickly, lest the choice be made for you."
Alex scrambles from the wreckage of his mech, or what remained from the gore portal he'd just experienced. The thought of what had occurred made him grimace, which was an unusual state of affairs for an octopus, that is until Alex realized he seemed to be back in his own body.
"Sunset, or perhaps rise? It's hard to tell. Pretty though.. could be prettier without the creepy knife dude." Alex mutters to himself while he rummages through the destroyed cockpit of the mech. He makes quick work, detaches a side panel, pulls a couple of wires, and a compartment in the back opens revealing the smooth dark blue metal and wood grain of an ak74u sub machine gun. Amused Alex pulls the weapon from the compartment and notices a distinct lack of additional magazines, just the one large drum attached to the weapon with large red letters emblazoned on it [INFINITE AMMO]. "Neat."
Alex pulls himself from the wreck, and jumps down behind one of the fallen tentacles taking a firing position behind cover, ak74u aimed down range at the faceless figure.
"I don't know who you are, but I don't trust anyone who approaches with a weapon. Let's both stand down and talk this through! I'm not supposed to be here, and I reckon you don't want me here either. I'd be happy to oblige and skidaddle if you'd be so kind as to point the way out!" Alex pauses waiting for a reply.
The tall figure halts a short distance away. It raises a hand and waves. In greeting? Surrender? In a fluid motion it continues to lift the same hand and grabs a hold of its trunk, a little less than a foot from the tip. It squeezes its fist tightly and the tip begins to swell. It raises its other hand, and the knife, and starts to saw into the flesh of the trunk behind its fist. The blade cuts cleanly as though through a loaf of bread. There is no blood or gore.
When the creature lowers its hand, you can see that the center of the trunk is a solid, bright pink fleshy material like a grapefruit, in the center of which are two pin-prick eyes and a wide thin gash of a mouth.
It still holds the tip of its severed trunk in its hand, a thin stalk and a bulging cap looking for all the world like a large white button mushroom. Peering up from the stem of the mushroom, an identical pink face regards you stoically.
Both faces speak at the exact same time, one high pitched and one a deep baritone. "Welcome, Dreamer, to Ousia, the Sea of Dreams. We are Kasutva."
Big Kasutva stoops down to set the small mushroom Kasutva down on the ground. If they're both Kasutva, that is. If that's the way their biology and sense of self actually works. Mushroom Kasutva wobbles side to side a little bit and waggles its stalk as it looks around. Big Kasutva places its knife back in its satchel and takes a few small steps closer to you.
"We did not mean to offend you," the two say, still perfectly in sync. "As for the way out, that depends only somewhat on your destination. Whatever the answer, we can assure you that it lies across the sea." Large Kasutva gestures broadly toward the expanse of ocean. Small Kasutva lacks any limbs and cannot gesture, but smiles softly at you.
"But tell us what it is you seek. Perhaps we can be of help."
WHAT DO YOU DO