Re: Innsmouth Horror (ic)
Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 9:55 am
Turn 9 Upkeep
Y'ha-nthlei
ooc: Silas passes his personal story, I Won't Give In!: "'I know now that there are things more terrible than death, and I refuse to let that siren's song claim me like it has so many of my family.' Seal one open gate of your choice. Silas is devoured." The gate chosen is Yuggoth at Marsh Refinery, the Dhole is returned to the cup. Due to the "Lurking Horror" ability of Mother Hydra a Vampire is placed in the Outskirts
"Father?"
"Yes, Silas. Do not be alarmed by my appearance. I judge that you have much to learn about your family heritage. Follow me, there is someone else I'd like you to meet."
"But-- Who?--
Henry Marsh--Silas' father--turns tail, literally, and swims like a crippled frog; he moves through the water, into the vast city of Y'ha-nthlei. Silas follows, loping along the seabed in his father's wake.
The dwelling is a rocky igloo, into which Henry Marsh glides with deceptive ease; deceptive, because Silas has to claw his way inside a claustrophobic tunnel, before scrabbling into the domed living space. Silas' father is waiting inside, and he immediately proffers a crystal decanter containing a ruby jelly.
"Silas, imbibe this nectar--a gift from Mother Hydra--to hasten your transition."
"Please, wait-- It is all too much-- You go too fast-- I don't understand what is happening."
"Look deep into my eyes, son; there you will find the answers...."
And Silas does. After many moments a resigned Silas lowers his gaze from his father's eyes.
"So, father, when I returned and found our house in Pitman Street deserted, you were not dead, as I thought?--and mother, too. Oh, I asked the neighbors what had happened to you both, of course I did, but no one knew; or at least, they pretended not to.
"I was young, in mind and spirit, in the spring of '21, and my ship had just returned from the South Seas...I think I am trying to say that I didn't care enough about you two to delve deeper into your apparent disappearance: my parents were gone, that was all."
Henry Marsh places a comforting hand upon his son's shoulder.
"Now, we are all together again."
"How can that be? We are different."
"We are the same. It seems you still do not fully understand. Silas...you have not eaten the ruby jelly."
Silas smiles--it is a wicked smile, born of hopelessness, but without fear.
"I'll never be like you."
"But, Silas, you already are."
A purple haze illuminates the rear of the igloo. A beautiful nymph slides towards Silas, her naked breasts shifting as if there is a swell in the water surrounding them; his eyes fall away from her navel to the fine, kelp-like hairy mound between the nymph's legs. The nymph speaks in a tone of infinite yearning.
"Silas. Silas. With magic you can be whoever you want: for all time. We-- You are immortal."
Silas snatches up the crystal decanter and cracks its neck upon the floor; he holds it out as if to toast his parents, the splintered glass is glittering crazily.
"Eternity: lusting after my mother! I don't think so."
"Stop! Please, Silas, please join us. There is nothing else, but oneness with Mother Hydra, and she is subject to the Lords of the Universe. There is no 'God,' no heaven or hell, all human religion is simply a superstition. We--the Deep Ones--are the chosen beings. We are reality."
"All of that sounds mighty fine, but I prefer to believe in nothing at all, especially not this new perversity. You, queen toad, and your ideas, are the nightmare of a drowning man."
"Silas, please--"
"Fuck you."
Silas sweeps the splintered glass across his throat, biting deeply into the flesh, severing arteries and veins in a frenzy of hatred and disgust; the water round Silas becomes a crimson cloud of blood.
And as Silas slips away, his brain starved of oxygenated blood, one final scene plays out in his mind.
Silas Marsh is surrounded by his Arkham life: Jimbo with his chalk, the blue-rinse slattern mouthing angry obscenities, the Zombie with only half of its head, a foul chimney, a crying child, his mother and father, a bloated worm, the adorable monkey.... They dance round him with staccato movements--stilted syncopation--slapping their knees and hooting aloud like Hiawatha. An ant with a bulbous, bandaged head, charges into the crowd of dancers and scatters them all as if they are ninepins and it is a boulder; the ant grows, and transforms into a towering, terrific lion.
The lion--Quachil Uttaus--positions itself above Silas who is stricken by fear; it unwraps a strip of cloth from round its head, dust showers upon Silas which chokes and blinds him; a vile mouth is revealed, with row upon row of tiny teeth. Quachil Uttaus squats beside the seaman and begins to nibble daintily at Silas' toes; the excruciating pain is like matchsticks hammered under his nails. Silas Marsh is devoured.