idolpro | Shrike's Heart (#3)

Entry tags:

!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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[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.

Kohime's right, we're the ranking officers here.

If these reinforcements're coming, Crow, why don't you head 'em off at the pass? Should be easy enough for somebody like you to trash 'em, right? We'll get this prefect guy out.

[ he looks at D.Va— ]

Oh, no, no, you've got it all wrong! I'm no master, I don't like responsibility. But someone like me should do what I'm meant for, right? If you can kill, you should, right?

[ he shrugs at Nem, and then turns to Kohime. ]

I'm not a soldier, though! Like I said, I'm not into responsibility or discipline, and we've got the same boss~ And he made me like this.

[Rolls her eyes.]

Wow, you're annoying. And also, like, kind of boring.

If you don't want to keep some labourers around then go clean up that mess you made in the field yourself.

And who is our boss?

[Just watches, arms folded; keeping one eye on the mansion, in case there's a potential upper floor or basement entrance]

[ there's what looks like a root cellar entrance, but it's an old-style building—it's probably not connected to the rest of the house.

Crow, meanwhile, seems to be evaluating the situation; the numbers aren't in his favor. ]

Our boss? Like the Walker in Darkness would let you forget.

But fine, fine~ do it your way; I'm going to see if there's any more excitement to be had out there, and if this isn't done by morning—well, I'm not going to let it be said that I was the one who failed.

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