idolpro | Shrike's Heart (#4)

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!heart games

Shrike's Heart (#4)

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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[ you are still, and you are silent, and you are yet living, and somehow—they can smell it.

there's a grunt from the other side of the door, and then an ugly, gravelly howl, and then the tearing of claws through the wood of the door, with a horrible wrenching sound. ]

[oh. good. lifting his parasol, then, to have the sword in it close at hand-]

[ You lift your parasol, and wait. It doesn't take one of them long to shred the door, like impatiently trying to get to the chewy center of a tootsie-roll pop, not that you know what that is.

When its muzzle is able to poke through, it looks like some snarling combination of horse and wolf, all sable fur that blends into the midnight darkness and all teeth like steak knives, and it's hungry and primordial.

What do you do? ]

[hungry primordial monster. well. maybe if he was as timid and helpless as he so often pretends to be, he would have shrunk back from it in fear.

but he is a flower of silk and steel, and gentleness does not mean soft. instead, he reverses the grip on the parasol and brings down the sword hilt in the parasol handle square onto its snout, before it can get anything else through]

[ it yelps, and then snaps back with a fury, its teeth razor-sharp—it nearly takes the sword hilt clean off.

you can hear the growling of the others coming closer as they hear the other one distressed. ]

[...well, not good. drops the parasol, then, drawing a knife and the fan he'd had earlier.

are there any other weapons in here? this is a barracks, so...]

[ there are some swords in the closet—more for training, not honed to a particularly sharp edge, but if it's what you've got, it's what you've got.

the first creature is snarling, thrashing its muzzle around the hole in the door; another rams its head into the door, buckling the wood. ]

[puts the fan and knife away for now, picks up one of the swords. he'll work with those, first.]

[ you pick up a sword. it feels... right, in your hand, somehow. the door, meanwhile, is almost splinters, and—

now it's only splinters, and there's nothing between you and three slavering beasts of the night. ]

[very measured movements. not going to panic or rush or do anything hasty. he isn't afraid.]

[ you are the very picture of determination in the face of trial and adversity. for a moment it seems like the world goes still and silent, and then they're upon you—

one delicate youth, alone, armed only with a plain found sword? well. now that's a story, isn't it?

and suddenly the world around you is awash with light, like the sun has just dawned, and it's within you. when the light fades, it's brighter than it was—almost as if you yourself are glowing—and the sword you hold in your hand shines gold, sharp, and true.

you feel strong, healthy, alive, awake, unbending. ]

[um. what.

what.]

[ hey buddy how's that solar exaltation feel ]

[ w h a t

w h a t

why is this happening?! he knows what he is and it's not this!!!]

[ WELL YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT FAST BECAUSE YOU ARE GETTING ATTACKED BY KNIFEHORSEWOLVES!!! ]

[okay he will be perturbed later. time to...deal with the knifewolves then.]

[ there are approximately two of them trying to squeeze themselves in through the door and not being terribly successful about coordination, but one of them surges forwards, teeth bared. ]

[and gracefully tries to stab the knifewolf, then, blade flashing out in a graceful arc.if he...this power, now, he might as well...do something with it?]

[ your sword is sharp—it pierces through fur and skin and muscle and bone like scissors cutting through paper, and the creature rears back, yowling with a piercing screech that manages to shake the room.

it bleeds green, splattering on the floor, and slamming itself back into its companion, who'd just been trying to get in behind it, causing a momentary distraction while they snap at each other. ]

[sadly momentary distraction not good enough to try to get away, and going to try to intimidate the night-creatures with the sunlight sword to get them to go.]

[ the nearest one recoils back again—it's not smart, but it remembers that it hurt, and it's trying to get back out the door. The other one doesn't quite understand yet, and is trying to get around it to get to you. ]

[will poke the other one with his sword, then. to encourage it to leave, too.]

[ even just a gentle prod cuts, spilling droplets of greenish blood onto the barracks floor, and it howls, snapping angrily, but another jab forward of the sword and it recoils back as well, following its fellow out the door, creating... a slightly larger, knifewolfhorse-shaped door in the process.

and, impossibly, outside, the sky is lightening; the sun is beginning to rise. ]

[oh. oh. honestly going to...take a moment to breathe and watch the sunrise, before he will shake the blood off this sword and pick up the parasol, taking the hiltless sword out of it to replace with this one, still watching the sun rise as he does so.

he's usually never up this early to see this.]

[ the light fades from you, and from the sword—though it keeps that sharp edge, and seems... newer. you were right, that it's not who you are, right now, but...

well, a little of the feeling stays with you. You gain +1 WILLPOWER, and, soon, the pastel hues of sunrise give way to a clear blue, dotted with a few white clouds. It's going to be a lovely clear day.

and before you, a path unfurls. ]

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Shrike's Heart (#4)

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