Shrike's Heart (#4)

[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

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[wonderlandgirl]

[W̢̤̲̪͗ͣě̖̞̙̽̊̍͡d̠̗̙̰̬̥̈́̑nͣ͗̆e̻̬͇ͤ͆͗̀s̤̗ͦ͢d͈̺̖̦͋̌̚a̳͓͚͓̱͚͊ͯ̃͒͊ẏ͕͚̺̦ͭ͆̌͑ͩ glances quickly around herself - is thgere anything at all they can do? She can only see bodies, and burning houses, and... what? At least some of the buildings don't look like they're on fire.

[Maybe she should go and take a look inside one?]

[handpuppets]

[ 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.

The rest of the room is filled with artifacts—lost dolls, dried flowers, notebooks, keepsakes, roughly sorted into piles. Pinned to some of them are notes that seem like names, though most of them bear question marks. ]

[we_meet_again]

[following Wednesday inside, looking around]

...What's going on in here?

[He's going to be nosy and read some of the notes. Whose names are these? What's this notebook? etc]

[handpuppets]

[ the notebooks vary in type—one seems to be a farming long, another seems to be a diary of someone's Imeeji Idol Productions sparkling idol life. The names are unclear. A pile of army decorations is marked with the same series of six blanks, like the collector was trying to fill in the name but couldn't remember it. ]

[we_meet_again]

...Hm.

[Checking out the shrines now]

[handpuppets]

[ One drawing is of avante en garde's Cardigan; laid out in front of it are a golden spear and a bouquet of amaranth flowers.

Another is of Kohime from BARiTONES, which seems to have received an offering that's just a stack of knives.

A third is of BARiTONES's Alexander, who has received a paper lantern that glows from being lit by a candle.

There are two more of unfamiliar people; one, a soldier in piecemeal armor who has received an offering of a broken sword tied together with white string, and another, a dark-haired man, looking unwell, dressed in simple clothes; his shrine has a child's doll (or a doll of a child). ]

[we_meet_again]

[Oh, huh. He recognizes that spear from the house. He doesn't know the name of the flowers, though. Did Shrike kill Cardigan? He doesn't know. Kinda implies that, though.

Kohime and Alexander, too, huh? Hmm.

Is there any incense he could light, or something else he could use to make an offering?]

[handpuppets]

[ as it turns out, yes; there's some laid to the side as if someone meant to make an offering later, and flint and steel. ]

[we_meet_again]

[He puts incense at each shrine, lights them, and puts his hands together, as if saying a prayer.]

Shrike, if you can hear me...


...This place is hard, isn't it. Even when we've finally escaped our personal wars and nightmares, we find ourselves in this place that gives us people to care about, just so we can be forced to hurt them later. It's hard, and that pain is real, and your grief is understandable.

I hope, with time, your burden eases. I hope the people you grieve for have forgiven you, and even more than that, I hope you're able to forgive yourself.

May you all find peace.

[handpuppets]

[ It's a kind prayer... and, really, a good one. Maybe, in the end, it'll mean something. ]

[we_meet_again]

[beaming some good vibes @ shrike

With that, he's about ready to move on. Clearly this house is important, so if there's anything he can tidy up while Wednesday's sewing the doll, he'll do that.

Once she's ready, they'll head out into the field together.]

[wonderlandgirl]

[And here she is, joining him at the door.]

[we_meet_again]

[to the battlefield!]

[wonderlandgirl]

[W̙͎͕̟͎̚̕è̱̞̣d͙͔̘͎̠̤̝n̟ͣ͒͆̇͞ḛ̝ș̬ͤͯ́d̨̯̼̺͍̮ą̪͓̖͚̎͊͛ŷ̼̔͊ is going to investigate the dolls, picking one of them up and taking a closer look.

[What do they look like?]

[softlyfalling]

[ It's a ragdoll, clearly handmade and not with any kind of machine sewing; the materials are rough. It has black hair, and black eyes, and some of the stuffing is coming out from a tear in its neck. ]

[wonderlandgirl]

[She's going to try and gently push as much of the stuffing back in as she can without damaging it. Are there any scraps of material she could use as a little scarf?]

[softlyfalling]

[ There are some scraps of material lying around, and a needle and thread; it seems like someone intended to repair them, or has been making some repairs to this ever-mounting pile of lost items. You could easily do the same. ]

[wonderlandgirl]

[Oh, well, that simplifies things.

[Yes, okay - the village is on fire. This particular house, however, seems safe enough. She sits on the floor and carefully sews up the rip in the doll's neck. It's a quick enough job - a fairly small and straightforward repair. Is it damaged anywhere else? Since she's here, she might as well make sure the job's done properly. Either way, she's going to tidy it all as best as she can.

[If it's fixed, is there a nice place to set it?

[Could she put one of the dried flowers in its hair?]

[handpuppets]

[ you end up doing some lovely work patching the doll back together; you might be able to set it in the window, or atop a small table where someone seems to have been attempting to sort all these items. a few springs of dried flowers in the doll's hair, and it looks good as new. ]

[wonderlandgirl]

[She's going to set it on the little table, propped up against something so it doesn't slump back over.

[Is there anything else that needs fixing...?

[If not, maybe she should put some of the other dolls with it, so they can be together.]

[handpuppets]

[ You find a collection of not-too-badly-damaged dolls, and cluster them together, like they're friends spending time together. Honestly, there's enough random lost articles with wear and tear on them that you could spend ages preserving the collection. You could also take some with you to work on. ]

[wonderlandgirl]

[Oh, that's a good idea.

[She's going to select a few to take with her and see if she can patch them up later. Cobalt probably has other things he wants to do, so she selects three of the nicer, but still sadly worn things with her, along with the needle and thread, just in case there's any more down time she can use to make a bit more progress.

[She pats the first doll on its head before going to join Cobalt by the door.]

Sorry, sorry...! I guess I got caught up in it.