The Pit
The entrance to this grotto is sealed tight by solid mental chains. You get the overwhelming sense that you shouldn't go down there if you should avoid it.
Push through the chains?
The shard doesn't cleave through the chains instantly, but with some effort, you snap each and every one apart. The way down lays open for passage, but you still feel some hesitance about going down.
The way down lays open for passage, but you still feel some hesitance about going down.
Descend?
Down and down
and down and down and
down and down and down
and down and down
until you reach the
bottom
of
the
abyss.
You are approached.
Three overwhelming gazes fix upon you. Three massive figures approach the darkness. Three forces of nature appraise you in their midst.
Well,
well,
well.
It takes a special sort of drive to force yourself down here.
Tell us, little one, is it desperation, competition, or just plain stupidity?
Desperation, ma'ams. There's an intruder in my mindscape, and a wily one at that. It is threatening certain destruction, and considering I couldn't get into its mind, I have no doubt it will follow through.
Complete honesty! A fine policy. It warms my molten heart that you know enough fear to know your place.
I-I don't want to make a habit of picking arguments with women, alright?! Especially not ones who could annihilate me if they wanted!
Kyahahah-!! Holy hell, dude, we're not going to bite your head off.
Yet.
If we decided to, we'd make it the last thing on your squishy little mind. But we digress.
The situation must be critical, if you'd break your guard to beg at our heels.
Absolutely - I tried to address it on my own, and was utterly shrugged off!
Tch. A single psychic intruder should be a trifling matter to best.
Evidently not for the average beast, or we'd be robbed of much entertainment.
And to lose entertainment of this caliber would be quite a shame...
The three each extend a single digit-point in your direction.
Three speckles of foam materialize, and you feel as if you're right outside the crush of the wave they split infinitely away from. They dapple your scales and send your fins churning to keep youself from being smashed back into the darkness.
Awwwww, widdle baby can barely swim?
Mercy, Vantage, se could be snapped up by a seagull at any time! Show some pity you monster LMAO
Never gets old to grace a creature and watch them writhe... Can you IMAGINE being that pathetic? Brings fits of giggles every time.
Anyhoo, any-you. If you analyze what's with you, you'll find you've been bestowed
a little augmentation in the form of a trio.
She isn't being misleading - you feel the specks clot and fashion themselves into a cluster of ultra-distilled capability.
You got: Animal Instincts!
Use it wisely. We don't give these out unless you absolutely need them.
Limited to near-death and situationally near-death experiences. Major death only - none of that "little death" horseshit either.
You think I'd venture down here just to beg for sexual betterment? I'm insulte- I-um-I-I would be insulted if any moment in your presences wasn't deeply humbling, ma'ams!
It's not you, it's us. You would be insulted at just how many beasts want to fuck like something greater than an animal.
Enough chat. Go, keep yourself from being a dead fish drifting.
For what purpose are you dawdling? You have your in
And you have no outs - a boon like this is granted only when matters are pressing.
You'll impress nobody by loitering. Go express some counteraction so you aren't culled by this protraction.
From tip to tip, the disconnect between body and disembodied is gone. It seems you've come into your own.
Commendable that you stayed committed to ignorance through self-reflection and reflection of the self alike, hmmhmmhmmmm...
Did you three know all along?
Of course we did. We're both a part of you and completely separate. In any beast, we're able to-kkrrgh-
(Thanatosis, take your claws off my snout before I remove them from you PERMANENTLY.)
Put the meathead's tactless lack of mystique out of your sweet little changed head, darling. How long have you known this truth and lied about it?
...
Locked into a mentality where metamorphosis stays within your own terms... Silly boy. That's never how it works. And you knew it the whole time.
Speak like the dead for a second, cur. Gareth, you do realize your life's still but a shriek away from its end, yes?
That's right. I descended again to ask if there was, perhaps, anything else the three of you could do...?
Well, if it was me, I'd have killed her.
And I'd have lost her.
And I'd have lulled her with a lie that she had killed me.
But if you're begging for more power, we've granted you all you need to save yourself.
You were never set in stone - you're set in flesh, and blood, and bone.
Re-acquaint yourself with your ever-throbbing will to live and see what that does for you.
You've wrenched out your heart? Normally, I'd be alarmed, but it may be the only thing that suits the situation.
There's power in spades within it. Enough to keep such a card around, evidently.
Surprisingly lucid, Carnage! I thought you'd suggest clubbing the issue with it until it stopped moving.
...Be careful.
I've already been informed that I haven't been careful enough.
Not about your deeds in the external world, Gareth. There are times in your life where one needs to displace their heart, but..
Keep touch with yourself, alright?
...I'll try.
It's all we can ask. Go knock 'em dead.
And by "'em" we mean "you".
And by "dead" we mean "alive and conscious".
Go somewhere with a less harrowing atmosphere?