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: /o/

[gigadevilbreaker]

[Oh, crud. Guess he'll quickly and messily write a note before the daylight dies.

No matter what you think you deserve

You are a light. You warm my life

I love you and I'll love you forever

Signed with a G in the shape of a wing. He folds it up into a small paper airplane and leaves it on the corner of the desk.]

Re: /o/

[handpuppets]

[ there's at least still a couple candle sconces around, but by the time you finish leaving this very charming note, they're definitely necessary; the sun is almost fallen under the horizon.

somewhere in the distance, you hear the gravelly howl of something very large. ]

Re: /o/

[gigadevilbreaker]

[Oh, fun. Guests!

Lights the candles and goes to arm himself with the practice swords, easy as you please. He'll grab a couple, in fact - and is there oil in the lamp? If so, drips some of that onto the dull blade.]

Re: /o/

[handpuppets]

[ it's chill. you know.

the lamp just has a candle in it because low-level military trainees don't rate more expensive resources like oil, but the swords are, at least, serviceable, and will definitely cut, if not with the finely-honed finesse of, like, knives crafted from random materials by that guy on youtube.

you can hear more howls join the first one; there's a rustling, like heavy footfalls padding closer through the brush. ]

Re: /o/

[gigadevilbreaker]

[Just another day on the job for a devil hunter.

Okay if he can't pour oil on the blades then he's going to at least run a blade through the candle flame to heat it up. Add a little sting.

Saunters outside once he's prepared, calling out,]

Hey! You shoulda called ahead if you were comin' over so late!

Re: /o/

[handpuppets]

[ normally i would make this spooky but

who are we kidding. this is griffin avanteengarde we're talking about.

there are three creatures padding closer to the little barracks-building; they're all about a foot and a half taller than you, and look like the bastard offspring of wolf and horse with teeth like steak knives, fur that blends in perfectly with the night it's so black, and eyes that shine like lamplights in the dark.

one was sniffing around at a nearby tree, and another pushing its face up against the window; they all seem a little surprised when you just saunter outside to taunt them, although it's extremely clear they do not understand english.

the nearest one drools a little, a viscous black substance, and then lunges forward to snap at you. ]

Re: /o/

[gigadevilbreaker]

[Yeah all this? Cakewalk.

With a sharp grin, he leaps at the incoming wolfhorse demon with his sword drawn high above his head-- at last minute, sliding underneath the belly of the beast, between the hooves, spliting it in two. Or if not, at least cleaving its stomach open as he skids out and leaps!

Catapulting into the air, he stabs his sword into the eye socket of the next closest and flips over to land on its back like a gruesome jockey, or a performer riding a circus pony.]

Nightcap, anyone?

Re: /o/

[handpuppets]

[ you absolutely fucking do that. you are so goddamn stylish it hurts. holy shit. the sword is a little dull, so it's not quite as perfect an execution as you'd want—you have to tug a little bit to pull the sword back out, but it shrieks at the blade in its eye, and—

—goddam, these things are big, and strong, and it bucks from the pain and throws you back, right into the trunk of a tree. it hurts. ]

Re: /o/

[gigadevilbreaker]

[On the plus side, he managed to wrench the sword out of that gross eye socket when he got thrown.

On the minus, trees don't make for the softest landing? Instinctively he tries to twist in mid-air to land with his feet on the trunk, forgetting that Stability wouldn't save him. So he kinda just crumples against the tree instead and faceplants on the ground. His Style meter dropped to Dismal :(

Griffin grunts in pain and props himself up with this shitting sword. Come on, focus. Get your head back in the game.]

Tough crowd...

Re: /o/

[handpuppets]

[ they're crowding in around you, smelling blood—fast enough that you don't have a whole lot of room to maneuver. close enough that you can feel the warm, sour smell of their breath closing in around you, the only light the glow of their eyes. ]

Re: /o/

[gigadevilbreaker]

[So this sword wasn't the best at cutting. That didn't stop him from ducking low and using it as a blunt weapon to bludgeon these beasts at the knees. Horsewolves: they still run on their tippy toesies. He swings it like a woodsman's axe, arching wide, then striking up at their necks with Kohime's knife palmed in his hand.

Fire burned in his eyes as blood soaks his skin and he roars, with joy and rage alike,]

YIPPEE KI-YAY, MOTHERFUCKERS!

Re: /o/

[handpuppets]

[ You're outnumbered, these creatures are enormous and primordial and hungry enough to tear you to shreds, and you're still going after them with a knife and a training sword, trying to kneecap them.

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.

now what do you do with it? ]

Re: /o/

[gigadevilbreaker]

[oh i see i pulled a devil trigger

Not skipping a beat, he mows a line of horsewolves in a spinning blade, returns smoothly to a stance with the sword lined up to his eyes-- stabs, right into another's side, between the ribs. A sharp twist and jerk downwards empties its chest cavity, before cartwheeling back to dodge the incoming lunge of another demon.

With impeccable acrobatic Style, he brings his sword down on the neck of another horsewolf as he lands, uses it as leverage to spring off its body and wrenches the blade free in a spray of blood, then slams it through a new victim on the rebound.

It's definitely not refined enough to be a ballet of carnage, but... a breakdance of brutality, maybe?

Griffin feels fucking alive.]

Re: /o/

[handpuppets]

[ a breakdance of brutality it is. the creatures fall, one by one, a pile of fur and bone and gore, bleeding green onto the ground—and you can tell it's green, because, inexplicably, the sky is lightening, and the sun is starting to rise.

as the day dawns, and the creatures shudder into stillness, the glow fades from you, and your blade dims to ordinary steel, although it still retains its newly sharp edge. you can't stay that way, not now, but that feeling doesn't entirely leave you. You gain +1 WILLPOWER.

and then... ]