Imeeji Idol Productions ([personal profile] idolpro) wrote2020-02-17 09:33 am
Entry tags:

Shrike's Heart (#1)

The woman before you is beautiful—fair of features, with lovely golden skin and luxurious long black hair, petite. You have the immediate and distinct impression that she's just let go of your hand, and she steps back, and smiles.

It's not quite a happy smile.

"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."

You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—

—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.

> Wake Up

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ There are the tools of war everywhere, here—knives and swords of every make and size, maces, shields, war fans, fist weapons. Pick a favorite; it's here somewhere. ]
mind_blown: (Some people still think that he's lying.)

Re: > START

[personal profile] mind_blown 2020-02-18 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
[gonna grab a knife.

and then definitely close some eyes.

hope death is more restful for you, buddies.]

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
[ you acquire +1 KNIFE and +1 WILLPOWER.

Nothing visible happens, but the chorus of voices around you might have... softened, a little. A few less restless ghosts. ]
mind_blown: (Things are looking up)

Re: > START

[personal profile] mind_blown 2020-02-18 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
[time... to start heading uphill.]

Well, that's nice.

A little less crazy in my head.

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
[ there's not really an actual uphill... but there is the sound of water moving, somewhere nearby. nearby-ish. it's a little unclear, in the echoing dark. ]
mind_blown: (The price of your greed)

Re: > START

[personal profile] mind_blown 2020-02-18 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
[then I guess he's gonna head... that way.]

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ You follow the sound of water. It definitely gets louder, the rushing sound, as you feel your way through the sepulchral dark, so you're probably going the right way.

The voices get louder too, though, as you walk, occasionally parsable as distinct words in a wide array of uncanny voices—the odd thing is, they feel different and memorable, but trying to describe what sets each one apart feels impossible. ]

Isn't it easier? Not to feel

[ —and then the comprehensible bit is lost to cacophony. ]
mind_blown: (It takes all my strength to face you)

Re: > START

[personal profile] mind_blown 2020-02-18 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
[yes.

the answer is yes.

but he's going to keep going.]

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ he's going to keep going.

The voices rise in an overwhelming crescendo, but the louder they get the more impossible it seems to turn from your path. And then you see the hole.

It's only the rush of water that gives it away, in the darkness—a wide, circular hole in the ground ahead, the dark water falling down the edges in sheets, the roar blending with the voices until it's overwhelming. You can't turn away from it.

It's... nothing. The end of the world, maybe. ]
mind_blown: (Don't know who I am dancing with.)

Re: > START

[personal profile] mind_blown 2020-02-18 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
[as he gets closer to it, besides feeling pulled in, does he see anything else?

can he look around the hole, or is this it?]

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
[ around the hole are—

edifices, jutting out of the darkness. or, you think, anyway. It looks like architecture, kind of, except that it's larger than any man-made structure you've ever seen, and it... feels uncomfortable to look at. It doesn't make sense, and looking at it too long brings with it a sense of doom and despair.

also, there's some people collecting near the edge with you. ]
mind_blown: (Things are looking up)

Re: > START

[personal profile] mind_blown 2020-02-18 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
Hm.

Golly gee.

Guess this is the place to be.

[he huffs a halfway annoyed laugh.]

Is this why the one thing I heard was "it's easier to not feel?" Obviously, yes.

[this is mostly to himself.]

But it's impossible not to. So, figure it out.

[time to glance around. as much as he can?]

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
[ there is a huge, terrible pressure, the longer you stand there, like something immense and beyond comprehension is looking down at you. or, maybe more than one.

as you stand there, fixed in place, the voices demand your name. it's not a request. ]
mind_blown: (Feels so good to be confident.)

Re: > START

[personal profile] mind_blown 2020-02-18 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
That's complicated.

But for you, you can just stick to Jason.

Re: > START

[personal profile] handpuppets 2020-02-18 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ Your voice emerges, but the words are muffled, garbled, warped, and swallowed into the nothingness that surrounds you.

What was your name? You can't remember, anymore.

But then, at least, you see something. ]