Shrike's Heart (#2)

[idolpro]

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

Comments

[romanticlove]

Oh! I'm so glad.

[Well, not glad, but it's a familiar face so she can't complain.]

Any ideas where we are?

[nihilmancy]

...This is like a dream that Shrike had once. I was in that dream.

[romanticlove]

Oh. So if we do what she might do in the dream, we'll be okay?

[That makes sense? Sort of?]

[nihilmancy]

I think, rather, what she would wish us to do.

[romanticlove]

She's a good person.... so that shouldn't be hard.

[She might be thinking about this too simply, though.]

Is this the same dream she had before when you were in it?

[nihilmancy]

She is... a person that did some terrible things, but moves forward to repent. She is a person of enormous compassion, that hates to see suffering.

No, not quite. It is simply similar.

[romanticlove]

Everyone has things in their past that they regret. I'm not completely unfamiliar with that, though I don't know that I've done anything terrible yet.

[Giving in and biting her sister was pretty high on the list, though it was small compared to some other things others might have done here.]

What should our goal be? To make it through the game.

[nihilmancy]

...Don't give in to the voices, but do not anger them overmuch. They have much power. Show compassion, cherish life.

[romanticlove]

Compassion - I can do that. What if the voices help us navigate, though?

[Or something. A situation like this had to have a catch like that.]

[nihilmancy]

They... do not have anybody's good interests at heart. They want death.

[romanticlove]

Of course.

[Sigh. This is going to be hard to figure out.]

We'll just have to avoid hurting anyone and figure a way out!

[Yes, because it's totally that simple.]

[nihilmancy]

Keep the objectives in mind. But don't spread yourself too thin, ah... it seems that there is a price for defiance.