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

Comments

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[forgottenmercy]

[picked back up the sword when he saw Crow. also don't ask how he managed to find a parasol lying nearby - someone's treasured possession, discarded when they fled. sheathes the sword in it like he would his own and then -

oh. well. hurries over, pulling the knife out of his skirts where he had hidden it earlier and throws it at Crow's back. he's not exactly skilled at that, relying more on natural dexterity, but what he is good at is misdirection: trying to make it seem like the attack is coming from another angle than where he actually is.]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[handpuppets]

[ some things are just constants and shrike in her heart knows persephone needs one i guess

between both of your extremely sick stunting, you catch him by surprise—not least because he didn't expect the revenge of Persephone SensitIV. Griffin grazes Crow, but Persephone's knife lands true, lodging itself in his back—

...he staggers, a trail of blood spilling from his mouth, and wheezes in what, somehow, sounds like a laugh. He's still laughing.

you both gain +1 WILLPOWER. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[inspiteful]

[ WHY DO I KEEP WALKING IN ON SHIT? ]

-- Why does this keep happening?!

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[worthathousand]

[ Well would you look at this. ]

Allow me the honor of serving as her substitute, then!

[ She vaults around the staff of her glaive, sending herself into a low whirling kick that chases the dusty ground up into a swirl of ash.

There's no pause in her motion as she moves the blade in a flurry of attacks, unfolding like the petals of a blossom. The strikes knock him up from the ground, meant to keep him off-balance. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[gigadevilbreaker]

Ama-- Flower mom! The last of the town's barricaded in the mansion!

[Oh, are we air-comboing a man now? Griffin can get behind that.

He leaps up into the air, opens up Crow with a string of vicious slashes, before spinning in a living, vertical buzzsaw, cleaving him over and over and over until they both slam into the earth.]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[handpuppets]

[ He's faster, but you're the more skilled combatant by far, and also you're all stunting. He seems to have an endless arsenal of knives at his disposal, but—

maybe this place doesn't actually want him to win.

the glaive slices through his light armor, rendering it nearly useless; he slashes back, but it's only a shallow wound. he's on the defensive, and realizing he's outnumbered.

he manages to roll out of the way of Griffin, Buzzsaw of Death, but still gets clipped, his tunic opening up in a sea of red gashes. he's clearly weakening, but this seems to egg on his bad personality. ]

Come on, come on! This is great! Why let it stop with me, if you're like that? It never stops, anyway. Blood begetting blood begetting blood—

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[deicider]

[Called by the sounds of battle, Cardigan shifts from sprinting to bounding into the fray like a ram, sword already aimed in a center mass strike with all the frantic energy of their run behind it.]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[forgottenmercy]

It is time for you to stop. [gentle. inexorable. he draws his sword from the parasol and attacks, all unearthly grace almost like dancing but barely any strength, trying to at least get rid of the last of Crow's armor, to clip his (figurative) wings.

maybe there isn't much he can do, but there is something he can do to make this better. a better world, without this violent man in it, and one more step towards-]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[inspiteful]

[ Okay you know what.

You all seem to have this pretty handled and that is going to be one very dead man.

While everyone is busy he's going to go try to open the door to the mansion. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[softlyfalling]

[ the door to the mansion is still barred from the inside. you can hear the faint sounds of voices, alarmed, unsure what's going on. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[inspiteful]

Oh come the fuck on --

[ Are there any windows he can reach? He's going to try something. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[handpuppets]

[ there are; there's a number of ground-level windows within easy reach. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[inspiteful]

[ He sure is going to pick up a stone and throw it at a window to break it. ]

Can't believe this is how I'm going to end up breaking and entering...

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[handpuppets]

[ this is how you're going to end up breaking and entering. you find a decent-sized stone and yeet that thing through the window with all of your strength 2, and it shatters because real glass is actually very fragile.

also people are screaming now. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[inspiteful]

[ Rip window, Eclipse is climbing in and holding up his hands to show he is unarmed.

Maybe he should have taken into account people would be panicking though, whoops. ]

-- Excuse me!

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[handpuppets]

[ Cardigan arrives on the scene and—no one expecting that, and, in the moment after Persephone slices through the last of Crow's armor, they just—absolutely run him through. Blood blossoms around the wound, soaking through his tunic and running down his front, and he looks down, a little disbelievingly. ]

's funny; I didn't see it ending this way...

[ and then he staggers for the last time, and falls face-first to the ground, knives falling from his nerveless fingers. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[gigadevilbreaker]

Oh look, I did find a tool.

[Griffin kicks him for good measure.]

You.

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[forgottenmercy]

[will shake the blood off his blade and sheathe it in the parasol. once Griffin is done kicking him, will kneel down next to Crow's body and trace a necromantic symbol on his forehead, the familiar one to ensure that he passes into Lethe. and closes his eyes.]

...may you be better in your next lifetime.

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[worthathousand]

[ Amaranth looks down at the man's fallen body and sighs, then cleans the blood from her blade. ]

...A pity. He surely would have lasted longer, if he were not so sorely outnumbered.

[ a pause; then, turning to Ǵ̷͟ŕ̢͢i̕͟f͘҉̵͜f̢́í̷́n̷̨̧̨ ] "Flower Mom," really?
—In any event, can you give us a few more details on what's going on here? As well as what name we should be calling you right now.

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[gigadevilbreaker]

[Shrugs apologetically] Heat of the moment. I can go by Tsuba.

[He taps the big mansion doors,]

The head honcho the army's looking to take out is holed up in there - along with all the other survivors in the city. Seems like he's using'em as meat shields.

Sounds like a piece of shit, but. We can't let everyone else meet the same fate as the poor fucks out in the field.

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[forgottenmercy]

...[that is definitely a man he wants to murder too.] I, ah, see. Of course he is.

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[softlyfalling]

[ though, funny you should mention that, because there's some sounds of scuffling from inside the mansion, and a little bit of shouting, and then there's a creak and the doors open—

people come pouring out, some making a mad dash past you, others looking around uncertainly. some are children or infirm. there's one man calling after them, leaning on the door frame, at the end. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[worthathousand]

Tsuba, then. [ it sounds familiar, though she can't quite place where she's heard it ]
"Amakura" will do for me—it is my family name.

And I agree. The way that man fought... he was some sort of exalt; he'd easily have slaughtered the lot of them, had you not struck back.

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[gigadevilbreaker]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[gigadevilbreaker]

Okay... I'm sure I know what an exalt is, but. Uh, run it by me again just in case.