castaside | [Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

You touch the bowl and spoon, and they seem barely held together. The bottom is rotted out of both of them, making them unfit for their purpose, but sharp enough to hurt someone in some parts.

You feel a sinking feeling of making an error. Getting something wrong. Miscalculating. The wind knocked out of you as you try to think past your whirling mind and recover from the blow. How could you not see this? You're supposed to be smart.

That is the problem being so smart and also having worked against an impossible problem for centuries upon centuries. Self doubt is just his bread and butter, beating himself up for failure, and then forcing himself to get up again.

There is a bit of a hiccup in the flying and the wind.

But ultimately, that feeling is just Tuesday for Red Son.

"Realization of making a mistake. Do you want me to get the next one? These may be hard for you," Red Son said. With the theme so far and all...

MK watched Red Son. He was so good at this. MK was a little in awe of it. He shook his head.

"I can get the next one. I...need to get better at this. Will you just...hold me? Through it? Maybe some of your awesomeness will rub off on me," MK said and moved them toward the face sculpture next.

When you fail at something for almost your entire life, you have to learn to get up after your mistakes or you're laying down in a sad pile for a very, very, very long time.

"I'm not sure I'd call it awesomeness at this stage, but yes, I can hold you," he said, his hold tightening on MK. Making sure he has a good hold on their flight.

The broken sculpture is of a face, a fairly generic one. Not a monkey face, it's a human face. You can't tell much, but it looks maybe sad, maybe thoughtful.

You are Macaque, and your face hurts. But your heart hurts more.

You're watching MK pound his way six feet into the ground inside a soundless barrier, and then you watch him fall in and sob from one of the shadows on the rim of the mini-crater. You can't feel anything toward MK, but you can feel things towards yourself, and all you feel is disgusted.

Look what you've done. All because you wanted things to be easier for you. Better for you.

It's fucking ghoulish behavior, and you deserve to feel this way. But MK doesn't. Even with your feelings all messed up, you know that. It's obvious. It's unquestionable.

You don't deserve him. Not in the slightest.

But you are determined to fix this anyway, as much as you can. You need to tell him as soon as possible. No more hiding.

MK remembered how he felt that day. When he slammed his fists into the ground until he couldn't keep it up. How he cried in the dirt. Macaque had left a shadow around to watch? He saw it. He hadn't meant for him to. Not after it all went so wrong. He shook as he pulled the face closer to him. He leaned into Red Son. This felt familiar to something they'd found earlier, right?

"...Before. We found something about...fix thing stuff. Even if it was like bad or hurt you. Didn't we? Something like that? Can these things...combine together? Do the games work like that?"

Red Son frowned as he listened. "You mean combine the memories together? I don't know. It didn't work up top. What are you wanting to do?" He asked.

"I'm not wanting to. I guess. I mean, would they be complete if they could combine? Like in a game? This plus that equals new thing? If not...I'm overthinking it. This room is all about not feeling worthy. Not being enough. Being trapped in it. So what do we put in the void?" MK asked. They needed to choose quickly. Just in case things got violent again.

Red Son looked around the room. Took a breath. Let it out.

Moved his hand to MK's head and brings him close to bring their foreheads together. "We're here to fix up the holes. Any actual problems with Macaque, we can help out there," he said. "We're not going to get rid of his feeling of....not being enough. Temper it, but we can't change is here. Remember. Its his darkness too."

"R-Right. Right..." MK nodded and took a deep breath. They needed to think of what to do in order to fill this void. To fit. Find the missing piece. Don't change him. MK didn't want Macaque to change. He just wanted him to be him again. All of him.

"Okay. Your...jar of fireflies? Would that...work?" He asked softly. It seemed to fit to MK.

Red Son considers. Taking the time to lightly stroke MK's hair. Hoping the gesture will help him wind down from the insecurity bomb in his head.

"It is very fitting for this room. And its....softer than the other ones," Red Son said.

"I guess it is...but I looked at the messages. No one has just...being worthless. Unless we put one of these we found in the void? Could we do that? Like the alarm clock? Or the other ones? It feels like it's missing something. Maybe...him pushing through even with how scary it is, would help. Or I could use the bow. It was about being scared of himself. His darkness. But that was different."

MK sighed and leaned into the touch. "Emotions are hard."

"It seems likely the emotions in the room would match the room itself, but some are a little shuffled around or could be used to take out some of the bite," he said. "It is different, being scared of one's own darkness and fear of failure or not being good enough. And it would be dangerous to link them together. He was afraid he couldn't do enough. Wanted to hesitate because of it, but it is the right feeling, with the firefly."

He squeezed MK. "Emotions are difficult, but I know this one well. I think the jar would work."

"Alright," MK nodded and swallowed. At least the jar would work. Slowly, MK moved the sand cloud of theirs over to the void.

"Then let's get this done and get out of here. Then...we go to whatever door the others didn't take? Unless they beat us to it."

Red Son nodded. "Yes," he said. "And if you need grounding, let me know. I'm still stable. We have time," he reminded him, before reaching into his bag to pull out the jar with the firefly.

Then tossing it into the void.

The jar and its inhabitant are tossed into the void, and it closes up. All that's left is to get out of here before the glass cage falls into the ocean.

Goodbye jar. MK took a deep breath and started to move them back toward the exit. Just nice and slow. MK was feeling the fatigue a little now. He just had to hold out a little longer.

"At least nothing like came out of the cage to attack us, right?"

"Right," Red Son said, helping to fly them back to the hall. "Want to try North now?"

Maybe get distance from it all.

"North works for me," MK said as the sand cloud finally touched on solid ground on the other side of the door. He let it all just disappear.

"I know this might be like way out there but do you think we'll see Santa? Probably not. Right?"

"Whose Santa?" Red Son asked.

Listen, he got Christmas was about GIVING GIFTS and that the red outfits were like some kind of tradition, but he just missed the whole thing about a man breaking into your house to give them.

[Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

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Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door

Re: Level S (sub 1) - South Door