Shrike's Heart (#3)

[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

THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

Once, there was a maiden...
...falling forever in the water. She reached for purchase, but found nothing; her arms swung through the sea.
The water did not slow her, nor the chill,
but she could not breathe.
Each time she gasped and found no breath, a human child died; and thus, she lived.

[ As you go, the ground slowly grows marshier, softer, and smells creep in. They're ordinary earthen smells—peat and damp and marsh, but there's a hint of the metallic tang of blood, and the acrid note of smoke in the distance.

The clang of metal rings out to your ears as you emerge from a reed bed next to a small, algae-choked pond, but it's clear the bulk of the fighting has long been over, from the only intermittent cries and the way you can see thatched roofs smouldering.

Though, nearby, there's a rustle from the same reeds you came from—like you're not alone. ]

A PATH

[handpuppets]

[ "Survival is acceptance," a voice says.

And the same gold line unwinds from your feet, and into the fields beside the village, off into the distance. You don't have to follow it this very moment, but you can.

Proceed. ]

Re: A PATH

[irregular]

Jesus.

[K gets to his feet, the knife still in his hand.]

The fuck did I just do...?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

[ and because she's bristled af she's going to draw one of her swords and turn toward the rustling in the reeds. ]

Who goes there?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

[FLOOFS

/helpful]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

[ COME AT US, BRO. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ You foray into the reeds, sword at the ready, following the sounds of movement. Eventually, you spot the source: there's a man lying in the reeds, dark-haired.

No—a man and a boy, though it's hard to make out the features of the youth bundled up in his arms, since his hair is slicked to his forehead with blood. The boy doesn't move, though the man's chest still rises and falls, with a soft wheezing nose. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

Is there anyone here who isn't dead?!

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

I don't think this one is dead. [ she's half tempted to offer kohime a stick to poke him, but then, instead, she offers her a sword. ] Here. Watch my six.

[ she's going to approach her man and kneel down alongside him, setting a hand on his back to jostle him gently. ] Hello?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ He looks up at you, as you approach. Though his gaze is unfocused and bleary, there's a sharpness in his expression—a recoiling. ]

You—please, whoever you are, have mercy... my brother...

[ The whispers swirl around all of you, into your ears—they've quieted, since you found yourself here, but apparently they still talk occasionally. This time, it's just a gentle suggestion, though:

Give him the final mercy. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

––I said shut up, stop talking!

[Yelling at. Nothing. Because voices.]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[calmthefoxdown]

[ What... hap... ]

[ Surely nothing important. ]

[ Quickly moving away from the pond and reeds, but calling out... quietly. ]

Hello?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ some others are heading into the reeds, anyway. You call out, but there's no response that you can hear.

The smoke seems to be coming from the rooftops of a small town—maybe better called a village. It's clearly seen a bit of a hardscrabble existence. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[calmthefoxdown]

[ That's... a lot of people he is only mildly comfortable at most with, less so when armed, so what if the comfort of being completely alone in a strange place instead. ]

[ Going to leave all of those armed people to that and head for the small town, keeping low and cautious, bearing in mind all the training Cardigan's given him in the past on sneaking around. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ Approaching the town, the thatch roofs of most of the buildings are on fire, and a few civilian corpses lie in the main thoroughfare, disregarded.

There are a handful of buildings not on fire, but that's not likely to last forever. It seems to be more or less deserted, though. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[calmthefoxdown]

Ah...

[ > Pay respect to the dead. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ You gain +1 WILLPOWER.

It seems like they might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the path of some war; the farm fields look like it was getting toward the end of the growing season.

There's one house nearby that has its door slightly ajar, like someone left from it in a hurry. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[calmthefoxdown]

[ He glances around again, making sure there isn't anyone around, before heading into that house, slowly pushing open the door and keeping quiet as he looks inside. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ From the outside, it looked ordinary, but—there's something odd going on inside this house. There's a handful of ink drawings on paper set out standing up, each with a sort of... strange little shrine with its own offerings.

The rest of the room is filled with artifacts—lost dolls, dried flowers, notebooks, keepsakes, roughly sorted into piles. Pinned to some of them are notes that seem like names, though most of them bear question marks. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[irregular]

[Well, this is a bunch of bullshit K's getting very tired of already.

[All right, bring it the fuck on, it's reeds, how hard can it be and he's already feeling Extremely Unamused by basically everything. Going to check it out with his new knife friend.]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ some others have headed into the reeds, as well; you with your knife, that girl with her sword. Eventually, you spot the source: there's a man lying in the reeds, dark-haired.

No—a man and a boy, though it's hard to make out the features of the youth bundled up in his arms, since his hair is slicked to his forehead with blood. The boy doesn't move, though the man's chest still rises and falls, with a soft wheezing nose. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[unbr8kable]

[Lame! Honestly, rookie mistake! Just--ugh, whatever.

Xia(?) splashes through the marsh, getting fairly far before actually noticing anything like a rustle, but-- What the hell, let's do this]

You coming out?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ There's no response, though after a moment there's some more rustling, somewhere in there, and the sound of familiar voices—one alarmed, one more subdued. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[unbr8kable]

[Hesitates, then goes after the rustling--that seems like the bigger threat]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ You pick your way through the reeds, and eventually come upon this scene. ]