[open] 006: The Human Zoo

[thebeastwithout]

WHO: Beast Boy and You
WHERE: Dreamdive
WHEN: August 20th
WHAT: You know what
WARNINGS: Some mild body horror, violence, can definitely opt out of anything that you'd rather not see.

[He hasn't wanted to make a fuss over it. The timer on his hand... The timer that everyone else had... Of course it didn't feel quite right. It would probably end with the detonation of a bomb that leveled Recolle or something horrible like that. So he ignores the pulsating feeling... ignores the increasing tension and pressure...

Until it is too much to bear.

He collapses in the middle of a street and the world around him vanishes.]

[I: Admission]
[You are in a zoo.

A dark, dilapidated place, falling to pieces. The sky above you is blanketed with billowing, purplish-black clouds. The cages are rusting and all of the animals inside are restless, uneasy. There is not enough space to maintain these exhibits. There is no bedding, no food, no habitat. Just... an empty steel cage.

The animals are commonplace, at first. Raccoons and squirrels and chipmunks and finches. One animal to a cage, every one of them staring out warily at those who pass by. But as you progress, the animals become... more exotic. Cassowaries. Leopards. Caimans. And then... and then you turn a corner and you are face to face with a Tyrannosaurus Rex, barely constrained within a cage in which it can barely move, its razor sharp teeth mere inches from your own.

But it does not attack. It simply glowers... And you are free to move on. ...There is much to see here, if you care to linger. Every animal you could possibly imagine. Maybe some you can't.

...Is that a unicorn?]

[II: Feeding Time]
[The path through the zoo is circular. A wide subtle loop, so that it might not be obvious that you are going around in circles. But as you clear the outermost loop and you progress further into the heart of the zoo, the exhibits change.

Monkeys become apes. Apes become unidentifiable simians. And then...

Humans. Humans in masks. Masks and costumes, each of them standing stock still as if they are made out of wax. There is a boy in a domino mask wearing red and green with a cape billowing out behind him. A tall man, perhaps still a teenager, half his body made of mechanical parts. There are more like this, people who look... exactly like one would imagine superheroes to look. Superheroes... and supervillains. You can take a closer look if you'd like.

At the end of this path, one of the exhibits glances up as you approach. And without any provocation whatsoever...

The figure draws two swords, casually slices through the bars of his cage like butter, and begins to walk straight towards you.]

[III: Special Exhibit]
[You've escaped Slade. Or perhaps you managed to miss his exhibit altogether. You're through the second loop and you're closer to the heart.

And now, the cages become few and far between, but as you approach the first one, you can see that trapped inside... is Gar.]

H... Hello?

Hey... Who is that?

[But if you begin to speak with him, you might find that it's not quite the same Gar you know. For each person who comes by, they'll find someone a little different in each cage...]

[IV: The End]
[You've satisfied the various manifestations of Gar's anxieties and hidden desires and needs and longings. Perhaps they were a little too needy, but... they've let you on towards the end. And it really is the end, at last.

At the very center of the zoo, sitting cross-legged on the ground, Gar is contemplating a thick, tangled knot.]

...Hey, dude.

It's me.

Like... really me. [...] You can tell 'cause I said 'dude'.

Comments

[frostythehitman]

[ Once the unicorn stops trotting so much, James tries to haul himself up onto the hydra's unicorn's back. It is extremely inelegant. He doesn't exactly have a lot of experience or knowledge about riding horses, after all.

He struggles to get enough purchase on the unicorn to pull himself up and swing a leg over. Please oh please let the unicorn stay still long enough for him to manage this. ]

[thebeastwithout]

[It is a good unicorn and stays quite still as James attempts to mount it.]

.........

[The instant James is on top of it, though, it takes off through the hole in the cage like a shot.]

[frostythehitman]

Whoa!

[ James nearly falls right off once the unicorn darts forward, but throws himself onto the animal's neck and wraps his arms around it to stay on. He tries to look up and open his eyes, but the rainbow mane makes it impossible to see anything. ]

Where's it going!?

[thebeastwithout]

Gaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh --

[Whoops!

And as James erupts out of the cage atop the unicorn, he will see that... every other animal in this part of the zoo is squirming out of its cage as well. T. Rex included. Mammoth included. Peacock, snow leopard, wild boar, everything.

It's pandemonium.

But the unicorn takes the lead and rushes down the path, with the stampede of animals beginning to follow... Gar or whatever part of Gar was present here seems to have been pretty seriously damaged, so helpful advice is unlikely to be forthcoming.

It's probably his own fault, though.]

[frostythehitman]

What are you screaming about?! You asked for this!

[ It's all James can do to cling to the unicorn and scream at Gar's disembodied voice. And look at all the other animals coming out of their cages and they've been doing just fine. James doesn't even want to know how the T Rex is managing that.

He does try to look up though and at least see where the unicorn is leading this stampede. ]

[thebeastwithout]

[It's off to the magical land of Narnia!

...Well, maybe not, but the zoo does seem to be giving way to some more appealing territory. Off in the distance, it looks like... gently rolling hills. The exact kind of place you'd probably want to see a unicorn.

They're almost there -- another few minutes of galloping -- this is probably the right thing to do in this dream scenario, maybe, who kno --

In front of them, an enormous, thousand-foot tall barbed-wire fence suddenly falls from the sky.]

You can't!

[frostythehitman]

What do you mean, we can't? Just let the T Rex take the charge!

[ He doesn't know how to command the T Rex, but James hopes it can hear him and...understand English? So that it'll hopefully get the hint and rush forward. If anything can break through the fence, it would be the giant dinosaur. ]

[thebeastwithout]

No.

[James clearly is not understanding. ...And the next time Gar's voice speaks... it's not disembodied anymore.]

I'm not letting you.

[From behind him, something pounces at him.]

these keywords are accidentally very relevant

[frostythehitman]

[ James is so used to the voice echoing like it's everywhere and nowhere that this time, it takes him a few moments to realize that it's actually coming from a physical location. And by the time he figures it out, he doesn't have the time to look back and dodge. The pounce is successful, knocking him right off the unicorn and sending him crashing to the ground, rolling like a human tumbleweed. It's a rough landing that leaves him scratched and feeling bruised, but at the very least he was knocked away from the stampede.

He struggles to his feet, fists ready for a fight, and looks for a green animal that might attack him. ]

What gives? I thought you said you wanted this!

animals should live free and happy

[thebeastwithout]

[Surprise: every animal is now green.
More of a surprise: there is one thing that is green that is not like any animal that James has ever seen and it is advancing on him now.

It is... some kind of awful chimeric creature. Head of a lion, body of a bear, hindquarters of a horse, head of a hyena - wait we already covered the head. ...But everything keeps... shifting, constantly.]

That wasn't me.

[Somehow, it can still talk.]

You let them loose, man.

You can't do that.

They need to be under control.

[frostythehitman]

[ Okay well, by this point, James has seen enough weird shit that the chimera doesn't startle him much. But he doesn't like to look at it while it's shifting. It's uncomfortable, to see it morphing like that. ]

What do you mean, it wasn't you? It was your voice telling me to ride the unicorn. It's--

[ whatever. This argument isn't productive. God. ]

So what do you want to do, then?

[thebeastwithout]

I don't want anything!

I never wanted any of this... at all.

[It gestures at its... highly disturbing metamorphic self.]

But I got it. So now... Now I got to keep it from becoming a disaster.

[frostythehitman]

[ He raises an eyebrow at Gar. ]

And how's that working out for you?

[thebeastwithout]

You're the one who let them go!

[It roars and lunges forward with a swipe of some kind of claw, its voice becoming increasingly incoherent between growls as it tries to grab at James.]

[frostythehitman]

Whoa!

[ He ducks, just barely missing the claws. ]

Hey, you were encouraging it! Right up until the moment you put up that fence!

[ James jumps forward and tries to punch Gar in the jaw. Or...whatever is most closely approximating a jaw for him right now, it's hard to aim when it keeps shifting like this. ]

[thebeastwithout]

[He manages to land a nice fist in... a bullfrog's throat sack, which is like, probably good enough. The chimeric creature staggers away before snapping alligator jaws at James's remaining good arm. Its mouth being occupied, it might be a bit surprising when Gar speaks again.]

Uh... Yoooooooooo.

So I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that you're not really fighting your fav superhero in the world 'cause that's like, only sorta kinda me? ...but he said that already. The bad news is that I really need you to beat him up, 'cause he's kinda lost it.

[frostythehitman]

[ James whips his head around looking for the source of the voice again. ]

What? That was you just three seconds ago!

[ He sighs impatiently. Whatever. He's not gonna try puzzling out the logic of this, it doesn't matter. He immediately whips out one of his pistols, because of course he was carrying one on him this whole time. And he asks what's really the only important question here: ]

Is murder on the table?

[ He takes aim, lining up a lethal shot. ]

[thebeastwithout]

When you let everything loose, you kinda... let that guy loose, too.

[The disembodied voice sounds faintly embarrassed. The chimera's voice sounds faintly infuriated as it continues to scream at James.]

Murder is totes on the table 'cause this is some kinda horrible nightmare, probably, but maybe don't say it out loud?

[This is probably because the chimeric thing has now turned into a swarm of bees.]

[frostythehitman]

[ god damn it, this is what he gets for being polite and courteous for once in his life. See if he ever asks to check if murder is okay again!! He should've just gone straight to shooting it with no warning.

At any rate, it's not like he has a choice now. It's pretty hard to fight a swarm of bees, he's not really armed to fight something like that. So he just...does what he can. And shoots at the bees. Surely some of them will be killed this way. ]

[thebeastwithout]

[The bullets pierce through the air like... bullets, with deadly force that no animal can possibly withstand!!!! James's heroic efforts are not unrewarded, for when the dust has cleared, his marksmanship techniques have successfully led to the demise of...]

...Are you shooting the bees?

[One (1) bee has been obliterated into red paste.]

...God, we're gonna both die in here.

[Gar needs better friends. Friends that don't shoot bees and let dinosaurs eat their arms.]

[frostythehitman]

[ Yeah okay fuck this. James holsters the gun and tries to figure out what to do next. He's at wit's end when he finally realizes that, oh yeah, he's got grenades.

So he grabs one of those, pulls out the pin, and drops it right in the middle of the swarm of bees while he darts away from it as fast as he can.

He just hopes the bees don't follow him and stay near the grenade. ]

[thebeastwithout]

Wait --

[Well, something's definitely going to die. Gar barely has time to utter half a protest as he realize what James is doing before the grenade explodes with a concussive blast. Hopefully James clears it in time, but who knows how much experience he actually has with setting these off.

The more important question...

The swarm of bees did attempt to follow, but it looks like a good half were caught in the blast and disintegrated. The rest of the swarm twitches and vibrates spasmodically, jerking and twitching as a whole before they slowly come back together.... coalescing back into one...]

Oh my god.

[They coalesce back into the form of a boy with his right arm and leg blown off.]

[frostythehitman]

[ "oh my god" is right. James didn't expect the bees to turn back into something whole, much less a person with half his limbs blown off.

But he's not about to get distracted by it either--or at least, not any longer than he already has. If he's gonna shoot to kill, now is his best chance. He whips out the pistol again and quickly shoots twice, aimed right for the boy's chest. ]

[thebeastwithout]

[The Gar on the ground screams, but it sounds like his lungs have been pierced and it quickly turns into a choked, wet rasp.

The Gar in James's mind falls silent.

The form of the... person... thing... whatever on the ground is slowly disintegrating.
Around them, the released animals, who had up to now been rampaging around at random, banging against the fence, fall silent.]

.........Fuck.

You're really going to........ just let them loose...............?

[frostythehitman]

[ He looks around at the animals. The fact that they've all gone still has him wondering if maybe he did the wrong thing here.

He looks back at the boy and shrugs, almost helplessly. ]

I guess so. What else would I do?