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: 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

[420blazeit]

[ she is having a hard time figuring all of this out... between the dude, kohime, and the voices. this is a lot of shit going on at the same time. ]

Mercy...

Ah, what about your brother, ..? Is he around here. Do you want me to bring you to him?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ he shakes his head, just a tiny bit, looking confused. ]

You're not... you're not with—

...no, my brother—here.

[ he vaguely indicates the boy clutched in his arms. the boy's chest doesn't rise and fall. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[irregular]

[Well--

[--you brought an assassin, didn't you?

[On the other hand, K is nothing if not stubborn as fuck and not about to do what a bunch of weird whisper voices told him to just because they said it.

[He kneels. Cuts a strip off the end of his cloak with the knife.]

Where are you hurt?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[unbr8kable]

[Is also here, since apparently everybody's here now]

Looks kinda late for that. He ain't breathing...

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ The man shakes his head, just a tiny bit, looking confused. ]

You're not—I don't... know you. Where did you all come from...

But, my brother. He needs it more—

[ he cuts off, wheezing; his brother doesn't move, and his chest doesn't rise and fall. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[irregular]

I--

[K stops. Sighs.

[Man, this sucks.]

I - dunno if there's anything I can do for him. He...

[He shakes his head.]

I think he's gone. But - he would want you to live, too. Lemme help you.

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[unbr8kable]

[Looks to K, and to the others back buttoning away from this encounter, and back to the man and the boy, and--ah. To the man:]

...You been run through yourself, right? What's your name?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ he... looks momentarily stunned. ]

No, he—he—he can't be—

[ he breaks off into another coughing fit; blood spatters from the corner of his mouth. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[irregular]

Hey. Hey.

[He rests a hand on the man's shoulder. It won't surprise K if this doesn't calm him, but he's got to at least try.]

You gotta look after yourself, too. You got any family? A home?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[unbr8kable]

[Looks at K again and says nothing, instead looking to see if there's any sort of blade around. No point in drawing this out]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[irregular]

[ARE WE REALLY TAKING LIFE ADVICE FROM DISEMBODIED VOICES NOW]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

[While K is tending to the man, Kohime slides up next to D.Va and tugs her arm.]

Let's go.

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

[ it looks like his brother's dead. oof. she frowns, feeling awful... especially since, oops, she misunderstood what he'd said at first. blinks, when more people arrive, looking to kohime. ]

ah, Sure. Let's... go. It looks like K and Nem have this.

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

What about the town?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

Alright. [ going to get the hell out of this gross marsh and head in that direction. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ The smoke turns out 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, which has just now more or less come to an end. 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. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

[UNFAZED because let's be real, she's been the one to do this to towns.]

Maybe we should check out some of the ones that are still standing –– might be something worth taking inside. . .

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

I agree. We might be able to find some stuff that might help, but I doubt we'll have much time, since [ shits on fire, yo. ] ... [ just makes a vague motion. ]

[ she's going to run to the nearest house that ISN'T on fire. let's see what's behind door#1. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ The door is slightly ajar to the nearest, house, and you pop inside, and—

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.

Also, one of the shrines is, apparently, for Kohime. It seems to have received an offering that's just a stack of knives. ]