SHOWMASTER HEART GAME (WEDS)

[showmaster]

A familiar voice can be heard above you, you're not sure if they're talking to you or not but it does feel like you're part of this conversation:

"What a Wonderful Story that you have. I've read it many times when I was feeling sad. You know, I wanted to keep it in my personal collection, but it doesn't seem that's going to be possible. To grant my wish, I'd have to sacrifice what it means to be a reader ... to become the story. That's The End that I'm looking for.

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Comments

[frontdesk]

[You can in fact sit amongst the snakes. Strangely enough, once you do, so does the little girl and you can almost feel a connection. The snakes slither around you but you feel a sense of her joy radiating off of her.]

Yes. Because it doesn't exist anywhere else. Or I guess, I don't exist anywhere else.

[liveslaughsloves]

[oh :x okay, he will settle down in this room full of snakes then]

Is this like…a metaphor for you growing up? Or did something else happen?

[frontdesk]

Kind of. It is a metaphor though.

[She held a snake and stared at him.]

Another elevator was made.

[liveslaughsloves]

Dearest, right? You became a Legend.

[frontdesk]

Uhhuh. So I’m stuck here. You can see my stuff but no one else can. Even if you talk about it, it won’t get me out of here. It’ll be someone else.

[liveslaughsloves]

I guess that kinda happens to us all.

But if you came out, even if you changed, would it be so bad? Seems to me you might be the best chance Dearest and the Ticketmaster’ve got of changing too.

[frontdesk]

I can’t come out. That’s the rules.

Because as long as DEAREST is DEAREST, I cannot come out.

Once you become a LEGEND, the human part disappears.

[liveslaughsloves]

Don’t the rules change at all, if the story burns?

[frontdesk]

I don’t know…

Maybe the rules will go away.

[She scoops some of the snakes so she can lay on the ground.]

But maybe so will these snakes.

[liveslaughsloves]

You wanna put some in my pockets? I bet I could find a nice place for them outside. Or…we could find somewhere for them to go here, maybe.

[waves a hand at the Estoria and Worlds buttons]

[ticketmaster]

[She looks up at him and fumbles around in the openings where the snakes came from and then holds up a basket.]

Here you go.

[liveslaughsloves]

[he takes it. is it full of snakes]

[ticketmaster]

[It is an empty basket.

She is fully expecting you to be a snake wrangler and choose the chosen snakes to take with you.

She is looking right at you.

She knows what she's doing.]

[liveslaughsloves]

[fine he starts putting snakes carefully in the basket. but also, while he’s doing that—]

Say, this is a dream, right? D’you think you could go into someone else’s, if they opened a door?

[ticketmaster]

Oh? It's kind of like a dream I guess. What do you mean...?

[liveslaughsloves]

I can…I dunno how to explain. I can show you.

[tucks the snakes he’s holding in the basket and holds out his flesh hand to her; a small dark vine wriggles out of his sleeve, and a purple flower blooms on it in her direction]

[frontdesk]

[:O!!!!]

Whoa… that’s a strange thing you can do!

[liveslaughsloves]

Yeah. If you touch it, I think I can open a door for you.

[frontdesk]

[She blinks but slowly, as if curious, she reaches out to touch it.]

[liveslaughsloves]

[there’s a little tingle of connection, and blue lines of light start to glow under Erik’s’ skin

she can feel a door into his head through the flowering vine. it’s cracked a little bit open to let her in, if she wants.]

[frontdesk]

[fortunately children are very nosy so she peeks in first to see what’s there]

[liveslaughsloves]

[it’s a field of red geraniums, nearly endless. a strange, shifting sky, sometimes starry, sometimes misty, sometimes streaked with bold colour. and a rickety building in the distance, breaking up the symmetry: a small church, maybe]

[ticketmaster]

[She looks mystified, but excited, eyes wide.]

Wow... I'm gonna tell everyone about this!

[liveslaughsloves]

If you wanna try and bring ‘em too, you can.

[ticketmaster]

Oh, I'm not sure if I can do that, but if I can try, I will. But I'm really good at talking about people's stories, I think! I've been to a lot of places! And I collect all of the books and bring them to this place!