(no subject)

[idharlotry]

[ You wake up in an alleyway.

There's an ambient buzz in the background— noticeable after the quiet of Faukyo, where the only noise is what you and the other idols make. This place is populated. It sounds like voices, raised and laughing, like the clatter of coins and chips against counters, lever-pull machinery, and gunshots.

By the dim ambient glow of city lights, you can see you are not the only body in this alleyway; corpses litter the alleyway as if a mass murder had just occurred.

Well, maybe not "just"—the bodies are all in chalk outlines, where they lay still and injured in various ways, some with bullet wounds and some with lacerations and some with nothing, but strangely their chalk outlines circle vague shapes around their mouth. It's poison, maybe.

You're injured too! the line of seeping blood at your wrist is still unhealed. You also have a chalk outline, with your limbs out like your body is a ragdoll, or like you were in the middle of doing a really funny dance, maybe. It's definitely too uncomfortable to stay in the same position for much longer than that. . .

More than that, though—well, don't you have someone to look for? Do you really want to stay here for much longer? ]

Comments

[idharlotry]

[ When Haruto moves from his outline, one of the nearby bodies clicks their tongue - something like idiot! hisses out of their mouth, but it's hard to tell where that came from. That's a pretty telltale sign of fucking up, though.

Other telltale signs are these: an obnoxiously loud alarm bell sounds, the alleyway suddenly lit up in neon lights. Well, it certainly is a flashy show of a welcome, but maybe you don't want to be here for whoever's about to welcome you! ]

[ Your eye still hurts, but less so now - like the pain is going in reverse. ]

[zugzwange]

[ . . . you know what

time to get to his feet then. part of him is being like 'run run run run' but instead he just. is going to stand there, hand still over his eye, narrowing his other eye, taking a look around like. ]

. . . is this supposed to mean something. . .?

[idharlotry]

[ ~it's a metaphor~

The alarm continues to sound - the alleyway is lit up like a stage, completely open with nothing but the actors, and the flood lights zone in on Haruto specifically.

At his feet and all around, the "corpses" whisper to him the same as the wiser part of him does - run run run run! - he could run forward to a building lit up in gold, or backward to a more dimly lit plaza, but aside from that, it's just walls on either side of him. ]

[zugzwange]

[ he doesn't run, but he starts moving backwards, away from the brightly lit building, to the dimly lit plaza i guess ]

[idharlotry]

[ he gets about as far as the end of the alleyway before he bumps into something tall, soft - how does he feel about snakes, because it sounds very much like there's a large one right there? ]

[zugzwange]

If you're going to eat me, I wouldn't be mad.

[idharlotry]

[ there's a soft chuckle, a woman's voice pitched low ]

And you say you aren't a masochist.

[zugzwange]

[ well. ]

I'm not, but you have to admit, I thought I was going to die and yet here I am.

[idharlotry]

Well, now.

[ a delicate hand moves around him from behind to trace perfectly blue-scale manicured fingernails against his his chest, dragging fabric down. ]

Here you are, in Hell. Are you ready to dance with the devils, boy?

[zugzwange]

Hell? It's more comfortable than I expected and you should know that I don't dance. Can I interest you in a different kind of horizontal tango instead?

[idharlotry]

[ there's a laugh now - not of amusement, he didn't say anything funny, but it's smug, and her nails drag up now, closer to his throat. ]

Do you solicit every stranger, or is this a defense mechanism of yours?

[zugzwange]

Well, since I'm in Hell what else is there to do?

[ as if he just is pretending there isn't nails near his throat yeay hh ye ah yeah ]

1/3

[idharlotry]

How curious. It's only Hell to you when you're out of the cage?

[ her fingernails move up and up, and the feeling of something smooth and leathery wraps itself around his neck - there's the hiss, the sound of the snake -

and then, through haruto's other eye, he can see it. ]

[idharlotry]

[ You're on a table. Surgical, you're sure - the light above your head and the antiseptic smell all but say as much. You can hardly see much beyond your chest, laying as flat as you are - straps keep you down and braces on either side of your head to secure you tightly, prevent you from doing anything but stay perfectly, perfectly still. ]

[idharlotry]

[ and then the vision is gone, the snake wrapping tighter around haruto's neck

conversationally, the woman goes on, ]

Oh, but there's plenty to do, dear. How about a date, first?

[zugzwange]

[ his pulse jumped rather severely before huffing ]

I hope you have bars in hell.

[idharlotry]

We're all about indulgence, my dear.

[ the snake completely wraps itself around his neck. ]

[zugzwange]

While I enjoy certain activities, I will ask thy you at least offer me a drink first.

[ uncovers his eye and just

Offers her a hand?? ]

Or, as you said, a dance?

[idharlotry]

[ She's dressed in what seems to be a leather black dress with a flared skirt and high collar, only the high collar is made completely of bird feathers, bird skulls accenting her shoulders. With an amused look, she brings a perfectly manicured hand to wrap around Haruto's elbow, rather than take his hand. ]

That can be arranged - I know just the place.

[zugzwange]

Well then, lead on my fair lady.

[idharlotry]

[ she tugs him then, forward - past all the bodies, disregarding the neon lights and sirens blaring - to the building with lights. ]

[ The building's bright lights are, in a word, obnoxious. Lights scatter higher than the building in party-popping confetti shapes, lighting in a row as if animated and gold coin-shaped lights splashing down in much the same way, rivers of gold tapering down the sides of the casino to spread out into the streets. That's as much as you can make out, anyway - this seems to be the back of the casino, where most of the lighting isn't concentrated. Even the door you go through seems to be more plain and unassuming than the rest of the building is implied to be - and that's with the bright yellow lights imitating gold ravines running around it. There's something wrong with the whole setup, though - even with all the lights, the building isn't entirely too bright. Not because of the quality of light, but rather - when you look, tilt your head just a half degree too far, go cross-eyed, and keep your eyes closed for a little too long, the building seems to shift to a dimmer one, darker, completely undone with a hole caved in to the side and the lights broken with glass littered everywhere . . . no, even if you're looking at it straight on, even if you look properly, that seems to be the case, like a filter plastered over - like one of those holographic cards with double images, concentrate on one state of the building and it seems to look more like that, but as soon as your focus goes the building crosses back over to the other state, and then a mix between. Both destroyed and whole, leaving it difficult to tell which might be reality and which might not; the longer you concentrate, the more it seems like both might actually be the answer, here. ]

[zugzwange]

Have you had an electrician look at things here? Hell is awfully undermanned it seems.

[ this is going to give him a headache ]

[idharlotry]

You have to give him some credit, dear. This is just how things are.

[ There is a bouncer at the door - it seems this is used for customers, even if it's the back - but the woman waves her hand and the employee lets you on through. Concentrate on their form too long - tall, bulky, build like they would be good at sports - and the same phenomenon occurs, their white button up uniform drenched in blood and riddled with bullet holes, their face half caved in. Tilt your head just right, and the injuries disappear like a trick of the light - tilt your head just wrong, and both lay over each other like what is definitely sensory headache material; linger too long and you'll hear the sound of bullets freshly piercing flesh, the bouncer's body animated even when it's not - like you can see their death on repeat through that filter. ]

[zugzwange]

I only give credit where credit is earned, unfortunately.

[idharlotry]

Then you must have some wonderful words to say about your show.

[ Inside, the casino looks more like an experience than a cohesive interior; too much is happening on the gambling floor, tables full of Blackjack and Poker and Pai Gow and everything else, dealers at every table with their hands full of customers - sometimes literally. Bets here aren't just placed with money, and the stink of blood is much too present for anyone to trick themselves into thinking the price to pay isn't more macabre.

For no particular reason, it seems, there is a golden dragon that climbs in a spiral up to the ceiling; around it are the slot machines, and both gambling pits are a constant source of noise - coins and lever pulls and gears turning and people chatting, laughing, crying, cursing, betting, cheering, raising. It's more sensory overload to what's already there - some tables are completely beat up, broken and split in two; bullet holes in the walls and employees and customers shift on and off and on as well as off when you pass them by, and the world shifts like a bloody kaleidoscope, shifting with your movement like someone's pinched the space to create an event horizon here, right in your vision. ]