idolpro | Shrike's Heart (#3)

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!heart games

Shrike's Heart (#3)

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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[ ...wtf. #jealous. ]

[ she's going to look at the ink drawings and then follow kohime in looking at the other shrines. is there other stuff we can... take... ]

[ also, is there some blank paper in here? ]

[ The first shrine is to a dark-haired man, looking unwell, dressed in simple clothes; his shrine has a child's doll (or a doll of a child), and lacks a name. This... actually looks like the man you found in the marsh.

The second is also nameless; this one seems to be of a soldier, in piecemeal armor. The only thing laid in front of it is a broken sword, tied together with white string.

The other two are more familiar. On one, the drawing is of avante en garde's Cardigan; laid out in front of it are a golden spear, a bottle of sake, and a bouquet of amaranth flowers. And the last has a drawing of BARiTONES's Alexander (you know, Emet-Selcchi), who has received a paper lantern that glows from being lit by a candle.

There is indeed a roll of paper and a brush pen with a well of ink; it's at least resisted the damp. ]

[. . .Taking some paper and the brush pen and she just starts doodling pictures of herself and papering them over the other shrines. :|a]

[ she is going to let kohime do whatever she pleases and she's going to write a quick note to her squad back home, though... it'll obviously never get there. ]

Having fun, Koko?

Uh, yeah? Now it's all mine.

[Going to rejoin D.Va.]

Find anything good?

[ D.Va: you write a note to your squad at home—what's it about? it seems like there's some twine, too, if you want to tie it in a little roll.

and also Kohime: you sure do draw some charming pictures of yourself, papering them over the shrines. oh, and that gold spear on top of cardigan's shrine looks like the one you got stabbed with multiple times. just so you know. ]

Heh. [ she gives kohime a smirk from over her shoulder. ] Now we just need to find a shrine to me. [ a halfhearted chuckle. ] Nothing but a paper and some ink though... so do what you will with the rest, ...

[ she shrugs, concentrating on the note at hand. she wishes her squad the best of luck, and tells them she'll be watching over them. she leaves out all of what she's been doing, since it's mostly... hng. she tells herself, in a whisper, that she hopes none of them make it to hell. she'll roll it up and tie it in twine. ]

[Blinks at her. . .]

[Then, she bundles the spear, the sake bottle, and the lantern under her arm and grabs D.Va's hand with the other.]

Come on, I've got an idea~

[ she goes along with her. ]

Does this idea involve setting some shit on fire? [ because sake and lantern... ]

[ she saw that live. she knows what kohime's capable of! ]

[She tosses the spear in one of the fires because fuck that spear.

Then looking for something a little separate from the worst of the wreckage –– a tree, a boulder or rock outcropping, even a stone or brick wall that's already burned out (and not likely to be further destroyed) would work.]

Wow, nothing like that.

[ you toss the spear in a fire, and eventually, the shaft sets alight; the rest of it might take longer to heat enough to melt, but you have successfully set it on the path to destruction.

away from the village, there's some trees of a reasonable thickness, though they don't look to be in good health; there's also a somewhat slapdash fence surrounding the farm fields that has gone untouched. there's no brick or stonework here—it's mostly wood, because that's what they could afford here. ]

[ she has no idea that kohime and that spear have a history. hm! something to ask about later... maybe. ]

...soooo, what then? I'm not a mind-reader. [ she is going to attempt to snatch the booze though. ] We could be drinking that you know...

[Hm. Not a lot of options, though eventually she settles on a tree -- even if it dies, the trunk should stay for a while. She gathers up some pieces of wood from the rubble (maybe a little scorched, oops) and then stacks them in front of a tree for a makeshift shrine. On it, she sets down the sake and lantern, then uses one of the knives she took to first cut off a strip of fabric from her own and D.Va's shirts, knotting them together and placing them next to the sake bottle. Finally, she carves "D.Va" into the tree -- and then, "Doritos" for good measure, and having likely dulled the knife doing this, adds it to the shrine as well.

Then she turns to D.Va, her tail waving lazily in the air.]

There. See? Way better than some dumb paper shrine that's just gonna burn up anyway.

[ she follows her over to the tree and tilts her head, tail snapping back and forth curiously. it takes her a little bit to figure out that kohime's making another shrine, a startled sound let out as she cuts part of her outfit, because hey!- oh. oh. he cheeks flush as kohime carves her name into the tree, doritos getting a bit of a laugh, but she's immediately reaching for her hand. guess who feels like a bit of a sap now. ]

[ she twines their tails. ] It's perfect. I'd gladly accept offerings of Doritos too~. [ a chuckle as she tugs kohime along. ]

Should we bother looking into any of the other houses?

It's probably just more dumb shrines.

[Or. You know. Corpses.]

. . .Wait, "Doritos" is a thing?

Doritos is one of the best snack foods ever.

OMG. Remind me to get you some sometime! [ HOW DID SHE NOT KNOW?! ]

[ there sure are a lot of corpses... ]

Ugh, let's just look for a way out.

and there it is.

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Shrike's Heart (#3)

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