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

[purrrnicious]

[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.

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

[ 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. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

[ 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...

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

[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.

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

[ 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?

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

It's probably just more dumb shrines.

[Or. You know. Corpses.]



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

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[420blazeit]

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... ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[purrrnicious]

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

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

and there it is.