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

Re: > START

[calmthefoxdown]

[ Gold glances around as he gets up, and upon seeing no twin or tinies, he's definitely in a stiffer state than usual, especially after seeing the bodies around. ]

[ Pay proper respect to the dead. ]

[ ... He's hesitant, but objectives means things will progress faster. Cautiously, he approaches a discarded body, definitely nowhere near comfortable enough to close the eyes but he does say a quiet, if awkward, 'go in peace' by the body. ]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ You stand, and find your footing amongst the dead. Water might soak into your shoes, but it doesn't feel cold, here.

It doesn't feel like anything.

The corpses stretch for some distance—all real-seeming, distinct faces, still and ashen in complexion. Some seem like total strangers, or perhaps vaguely familiar at best.

Mixed in with all of them are the bodies of your fellow idols—you might see your own face mirrored there, though for whatever reason, it seems wholly unfamiliar, if unsettling.

But it does feel right to pay your respects, even if you can't bring yourself to touch the body in front of you. You gain +1 WILLPOWER.

The whispering just at the edge of your hearing grows a little more distinct. It's like they're coming from somewhere, a little ways away. It feels like you should follow, eventually, but it's not urgent. ]

Re: > START

[calmthefoxdown]

[ Cool seeing my brother and boyfriend and lord's dead bodies cool. He'll pause by them and offer his respects to them, with a gentle reminder to himself that this is just... trippy being-inside-someone-else things. ]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ Yeah cool it's fine it's definitely fine

You pause by them, and say your respects. Like the others, they stare blankly into the infinite dark. It's a little unsettling: like they might refocus at any moment and sit up, like you did.

You carry on, though. It sounds like there's water ahead, somewhere, and if you squint, you can make out the vague outline of something in the distance—like a cliff face, or a large building, or something like that. ]

Re: > START

[calmthefoxdown]

[ He'll move on then, cautious, but heading in the direction of the voices he heard before first. ]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ The voices grow louder as you attempt to follow them, 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.

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. Regardless of where you intended to go, you find yourself walking right up to the edge—allured, almost—frozen on the precipice, unable to advance or retreat. ]

Re: > START

[calmthefoxdown]

[ Holes are bad but the water is what's really freezing Gold up, the prospect of going into that hole and ending up submerged in water bites deep into his body and shakes him, trying to step away. ]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ The pressure of this place—the enormity of that vastness, the enormity of the darkness, fear, maybe—keeps you still, but at least steady, in no danger of falling. It feels like many vast, incomprehensible somethings are gazing from all around at you.

The voices fill your ears, and then there's just one, and a moment of silence around it—a boy's voice.

Give your name. ]

Re: > START

[calmthefoxdown]

[ He takes a breath, steadying himself in face of fears he thought he was safe from with Avante's powerset. But then games like this come along and ruin that for him, thanks games. ]

[ One more breath, then quietly. ]

Gold.

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ Your voice emerges, but the words are muffled, garbled, warped, and swallowed into the nothingness that surrounds you.

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

But then... ]