idolpro | Shrike's Heart (#2)

Entry tags:

!heart games

Shrike's Heart (#2)

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

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[Yeah, she saw this person in another memory. Not a fan.]

What will happen if they surrender?

Don't you listen to orders?

...well, I only sort of do, but I know what question you're asking! You seem like the type to want to bleed for others, don't you?

Obviously you do not.

I'm the type that despises inefficiency.

[ he stares at you for a second, and—

bursts out laughing. ]

Lies don't suit your pretty face, miss! You don't really seem like that type at all. I'm an instrument of death, not an idiot.

Flirting is inefficient!

Oh, that's not me flirting. You're cute but you're not my type. Probably! Unless you've got a lot more knives hidden somewhere.

But if we gotta talk about efficiency—which, does that seem like my kinda argument? Just saying!—what does it matter if someone dies here or in a year or when the whole world crumbles and falls into the abyss in the time soon to come?

Right?

[She suppresses a shudder. This all really is horrifying, and all the worse, there's something in it that resonates with her, that's seductive.]

You think that our lord will be happy to hear that we wasted tactical and strategic advantages, not to mention time on self-aggrandizing spectacle? We're fighting a war.

That's not for me to consider, Miss! Weapons are forged for only one purpose, after all. Even if the others don't know what I mean—you know, right? You understand.

Even if you're trying to play the reasonable one, well—you can't talk a sword out of being what it is, right?

But it must cut precisely. Elsewise the edge is dull.

[She has no idea what she's doing or saying.]

No, no, that's not how it works at all!

Whether it cuts straight to the heart, or in a thousand cuts, it doesn't matter, as long as the sword does what it's meant to do, which is kill.

[ he flicks his knife upwards, and then flicks it back over his shoulder in a startlingly strong arc up toward a building—there's a thump, and then a bow and arrows clatter to the ground, followed by the meaty thump of a body against stone.

precise. ]

[She hides the reaction to flinch. She just needs an opening. She just needs something.]

Hope that our lord sees it that way. I doubt that he is enthusiastic about those who take matters into their own hands.

Well, Miss—

Actually, can I call you Sekhmet?

You and I both know you're bluffing. Talk and talk and talk and talk and pretend to be this faithful servant of efficiency, saying all these things that add up to nothing because you're just trying to get through this.

Why don't you show me who you really are? I'd like that better.

[Well. This isn't ideal. She tries to hide the momentary flash of fear and surprise, but it doesn't entirely work.]

Too bad. I thought I was better at acting.

[ answering to the name hurts—for a moment, just a flash, the world hurts, your whole body an open wound, a window to the void—

staticky whispers, pressing down around your ears, a feeling of being dragged downwards

and then it's done. a warning. ]

You don't have anything to fear from me! We're on the same side, after all, aren't we?

[Well, that doesn't feel very good at all

and very familiar, in fact, but also extremely foreign

In any case she doesn't like it, and visibly winces in pain.

But if there's an opening this is the only one she's got. Still with her hand on her sword, she drops to her knees.]

[ he sighs, and shrugs, and somehow produces yet more knives, one for each hand, and takes a step back to look at her. ]

So are you finished, or what? You want to stop me, or save these people, or whatever—why do you care?

[Well, so much for that ploy. Time to act. She lunges, slashing at his legs.]

Because the act of living is rebellion and I choose to rebel!

[ he's fast—maybe preternaturally so—but it still manages to catch him by surprise, cutting a bloody slash through fabric to his right calf. ]

Ahaha, see, this is the face that I want to see! You're a lot more interesting now, Miss!

I really wasn't going to hurt you, you know, but if you wanna make things fun I won't argue!

[ and how the fuck does he have so many knives; he twirls one between his fingers, and it flies toward Sekhmet. roll 1d2 to dodge or spend willpower. ]

[Spending the willpower! why the fuck are you such an anime villain, I bet you lick those knives too, you seem like that type

She snarls, and leaps forward like a coiled spring, slashing.]

[ please, that's unsanitary when you can just rip the essence right out of people's bodies!

but he really is fast, especially in 1v1; he somersaults, springs over her head, and lands behind her, but not quite with enough steadiness to launch another attack just yet.

1d2 to do anything, with an auto-success if you spend willpower. what does she do? ]

[1. She will not spend willpower. She will try to turn around and launch an another attack.]

[ whoops sorry the pandemic happened and i ultradied

she turns around to try and steady herself and get in good position to defend, but isn't quite fast enough to block one of his throwing knives, which lodges itself in her off-hand shoulder.

1d2 to take an action, spend willpower for auto-success. you may also ask the Neverborn for help once per area. ]

[...hey spooky death gods what should I do]

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Shrike's Heart (#2)

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