Short stories about the world of Agartha in 21th Century, an aftermath after the disaster in 1945.
Related Roleplays:
Steampunk Big Ass Monsters [Agartha in 19th century]
Urban Creatures: Contracts [Agartha in 21th century]
More to come! :)
The Peculiar Dish
I was a pathologist, a defamed one. I have made some huge humiliating mistakes in my career that caused the false accusation of an innocent person and was fired from the organization. I went broke over alcohol and for some time I struggled to get money for meals. Then I met her. She lived in a very different society I was in. She was rich, happy, and came from a noble background. I never knew why she had set her eyes on a street rat like me. We hang out a bit; and then after sometime we got married.
By that time, I was still sad about my career as no one would hire me anymore due to my notorious fame. She would always try to cheer me up and made attempts to find me a job using her own social network. Though, it was futile. I felt so despair that I just wanted to disappear from this world. I started thinking about things I could do... dark things. Then, incidentally I heard about the No Name City. It was a city where there is no governing law and people care less about your background. It would be a perfect place to restart my life. I told her that we should go there together, a place where no one would knew my name so I could start over again. She didn't know about the nature of the city, and she loved me more than I do her; so she agreed.
We got a boat ticket from the source I heard the story from; and after she settled things with her family, we departed. It took us a plane trip to Portugal to the boat location, and met the boat owner. Then in a small motorboat we sailed for a week or so due west before we arrived at the location. We docked at night.
It was a city covered in mist and darkness. She suggested that we find an inn to stay over as we could explore the city more tomorrow when the mist cleared. So we found us an inn by the dock following the boat owner's direction.
The inn was cozy and lively; you could hear the chattering of people and smell the aroma of food in the dining area. We were greeted warmly by the inn keeper. She was an old lady with a gentle smile. I booked two small rooms and helped my wife settled our luggage while she ordered us food in the dining area. When I got back, she was having an argument with a man and it was causing a big commotion.
The argument stopped after the inn keeper insisted the man to leave us alone, while I calmed down my wife and told her we should keep ourselves a low profile. I don't remember what the argument was about, but the inn keeper told us that he was a drug dealer and he had caused quite a lot of trouble lately with the customers of the inn. We forgot about the incident as we immersed ourselves into the atmosphere of the busy inn.
After a while, the inn keeper came back to us with the food. I was shocked to see the dishes my wife had ordered; as it was something I've never seen or heard before in my entire life. The dish was called "Devil's Taste". It looked like a light pink sea cucumber covered with white sharp thorns; and the skin felt rough like tree barks. I questioned the inn keeper if it was some kind a joke, but she told me gently that it was a unique dish the city has. I tried to dig more information from the lady before I could even touch the thing.
Apparently, it was a kind of sea cucumber; and they appeared to only grew in the sea near No Names City. I cut the "meat" with a dining knife and put a piece of it into my mouth with the fork; then I almost vomited. It was the most disgusting thing I've even tasted. It felt like I just ate a corpse that had bloated for months floating in the sea. I immediately drank a mouthful of mead I and confronted the inn keeper about it. Then she told me about the story.
There seemed to be a folktale about the "Devil's Taste". A killer would always go to an inn to order it however bad it tasted like; as it had an ability of predicting their own deaths. It was rumored that if the sea cucumber tasted bad to you, it meant that you will live another day; and you should be happy about it. If it tasted sweet one day; it meant that you will die soon. I didn't believe about the bullshit the inn keeper gave me and decided to order us some normal food. Then, we headed back to our room.
...
...
...
My wife was killed.
She was found dead the next morning in her room. She was lying there on her bed with no signs of struggle. Simple autopsy of her revealed to me that she had rat poison in her bloodstream. I asked around and rumors spread across the inn in no time. People around the inn have different theories about her death. Some said that it was a suicide; and some said that she was poisoned by the angry drug dealer through syringe injection. However, no one could locate the drug dealer ever since. It was a big mysterious city after all.
There was something peculiar about my wife's body that I cannot explain at all. Random parts of her skin had turned purplish and... rough, like a tree bark. People said that it was the poison that made her so, but I knew otherwise. I got someone to cremate her body and put into a clean wine bottle the inn keeper so kindly gave me. I booked the fastest ticket back to my hometown along with the ashes. Then, I opened the bottle and poured the powder into the sea... along with the rat poison I brought with me. When I got back home, I inherited her fortune and changed my name.
Well, wouldn't want anyone to discover my murder after all. Odd enough, she told me that it was the best thing she had tasted in her entire life.
Signed,
Anonymous
Afterthoughts
How does the "Devil's Taste" actually work?
Is it true that it could predict someone's death?
Find out more by joining the role-play Urban Creatures: Contracts ;)
