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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[She actually thought they were civilians sheltering, so she's not surprised when it's confirmed.]

Any attempts to surrender?

[ she doesn't feel like looting corpses... again. ]

Call the quartermaster.

And what can you tell us about the manor. [ is it just an old manor, or is it some kind of fortified. ]

[ the soldier flags down another comrade—who looks, blessedly, somewhat less deathly—and murmurs to them that there's a need for two sets of armor before answering the questions. ]

No attempt to surrender—he seems to be trying to avoid it, despite the situation. Crow said something about him being clever enough to allow people to shelter there to use them as meat shields. It's got heavy doors, though—thick glass windows, where it has them.

[She turns to D.Va, now.]

This doesn't look like the kind of army that has snipers. Though they could probably starve them out, if they wanted to avoid a fight, I guess.

[. . .Then she looks back at the woman.]

What are you still doing here? You're dismissed, go do something useful.

I don't think so either. And if he keeps taking in people, then, yeah, I doubt it'd take long to starve them out. Well, the "meatshields" anyway. I'm sure he'll figure something out if he's so fucken clever. [ probably eat people or something... ]

Breaking in doesn't seem like it's going to be an option either... but we could go grab our gear from the quartermaster and then, maybe, talk to Crow?

[ the soldier you were speaking to nods crisply and heads off; not long after, another soldier comes by with two serviceable sets of mail armor you can put on. ]

[Does not accept the armour. It's not really her thing.]

Where to next?

[ accepts the armor. ]

[ it's totes her thing. ]

I guess we should head towards the town... check it out. [ maybe it won't be as on fire as the last town, though that's probably unlikely. ]

Uh, why? It's just going to be a bunch of villages in a building against that Crow person. It's obvious who's going to win.

Isn't Crow on our side? [ but she's just getting confused now. ] And we don't have to go near the manor. I'm sure there's plenty of other stuff to check out. Or we can just pass through. It can't stop there... [ or can it? ]

No one is on "our" side. They just think we're some commander, or something.

. . .You're not going to rush in if "Crow" moves in on the villagers, are you?

...true. [ this is all just some sort of strangeness. ] Do you know where we are? [ as in, who's heart. ]

[ she kind of huffs a laugh at that. ] I'll do my best to keep my heroic urges in check.

[She shrugs.]

I've never been here before.

[She gestures ahead, indicating that if D.Va wants to go to the town, then lead the way.]

Just wondering. [ she's never seen it either. ]

[ time to cross the field and head to the town. ]

[ You find your way into the large town/small city, and it's easily apparent where the manor is—it's pretty much the only two-story building, and by far the nicest of all the buildings. It has its doors barred.

When you cross into the main square, a man with sallow skin, black hair and bird-like features greets you, waving you over, and twirling a knife between the fingers of his other hand. ]

Eyyyyyyooooo, it's about time you showed up. They barred the doors; isn't that inconvenient? If you're strong, help me out.

Why.

[ stares at that knife. ]

[ she just hums along with him, nodding and looking to the manor. ] Sure is. [ it's a shame we don't have that sake and lantern now... but also! ]

How? I'm not going to be able to punch the door down.

['sup]

[Looks Crow over, then Kohime and D.Va]

...Everything okay here?

Everything's great, everything's great! It's a great day, isn't it?

I guess if none of you can open the doors I could just burn this house down since it'll get the job done, but that's less fun.

Idiot. Just wait. If those are civilians they'll come crawling out when they miss dinner, and then you can go deal with your 'Prefect'.

[ ...get out of her head, crow. but also she had been kidding. ] We heard that it's not the easiest building to get into. Suggestions? All I have is armor and a sword, and we heard this prick likes using civs for meatshields.

Smoking them out WOULD probably be effective...

[wait no]

...That how this offensive's been going so far? By any means necessary or whatever?

Well, he's super lazy! I told him this would happen and he's still thinking that help will come and that he'll still get promoted. But I guess we're pushing the advantage fast or something.

But I don't want to wait long. After all, what's a weapon when it's not being used? A knife or a sword should long to be used, right? And people who are weapons should long to do what they're meant for, right?

[Lashing her tail.]

Weapons strike when their master decides they should. So unless you can think of another, less stupid way to get this guy out that's not "light everything and everyone on fire", then your orders are to wait.

[ good luck, kohime. she gets the feeling he's not going to listen... especially since, like nem had said, it kinda seems like this is what they've been doing all along. not giving a fuck about the consequences and just going full speed ahead. ]

He considers himself the master... [ mumbled, ] and it kind of sounds like he thinks we're his swords.

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