[Event Followup] Let Me Wrap My Teeth Around the World

[daemoniumexmachina]

 

 

 

 

It's quiet for a long time after Eligos's death. Longer than anyone might expect. Almost two months. It feels like a held breath--- everyone knows that Aster is far too proud of his achievement to just accept his victory gracefully.

Finally, the day comes.

Not everyone need come. It's primarily those who Aster feels are important enough to bother pissing off, and perhaps a handful chosen at arbitrary random. When it happens, there is a sound. Like snapped fingers--- and judging by the way that Aster is holding his gloved hand, that is precisely what occurred.

You are seated. You cannot rise. All you can move is your head and neck, just enough to exchange glances with those beside you.

Aster stands before a throne, on a raised podium, in a room set for a dinner. All the chairs are positioned to face said throne. Behind the throne, there is an absolutely massive, pallid woman who looks utterly emaciated, ribs visible through thin skin, with a deer skull for a head bearing jagged, splintered antlers soaked in blood. Black ichor runs down from her empty eye sockets and she sports six spindly arms. She is so enormous that she is seated on the floor and her antlers still scrape the ceiling, and in one pair of hands she holds a black and gold crown.

"In the absence of the Late King Eligos, previous King of Hell, Lord of Treason, the duty to crown the king falls instead to bearer of the successor," she says, in a voice so dry and hoarse it'd be easy to believe she hadn't drank water in a year. (The bearer, she says. Aster's mother?) "In the tradition of the Unbroken Line of Kings, there are no vows to make, no fealty to swear. The Soul Infernal holds no loyalty nor love, and breaks every promise. With this crown, you, Aster of the Dark Feast, embody the Evil Incarnate, and elevate your court. Ages turn. Tradition continues. The cycle remains unbroken."

She reaches over the throne and places the crown upon Aster's head. He does not have to kneel or even bow his head to accept it. There is something deeply symbolic and utterly unsettling about this. When the crown touches his head, Aster lifts his cane, and slams it to the marble floor. Then again, and again, in rhythm. And as he does, the demons around him begin to chant in time. "DE! VO! RA! MUS! DE! VO! RA! MUS!" An ugly sound, increasing in speed until they are all shouting incoherently. The demoness behind the throne tosses her bony head and roars, spitting black ichor that drips from her jaws, and each of her six hands pound their palms on the ground. She springs into action, lunging at the crowd mouth-first, feasting on a swathe of demons in the front. They scream as she tosses them upward before snapping them out of mid-air, her jagged teeth crunching on their bodies, but the others do not stop cheering. Blood is spilled. The ritual is complete.

Aster raises his arms. "In the name of your King, I command you to feast."

And you do. You do not even see what is on your plate. You do not taste what is in your glass. You shovel them down until your glass is empty and your plate clean, and realize you do not know what you ate. Only then are you free to rise from your seat. There is a clearly marked exit if you wish to skip the reception, or you can stay. But it will not be pretty.