Riful's Heart.

[dramatispersonae]

[everything goes away.]

[sight, sound, taste, touch, smell - you lose yourself to the nothing that waits through the doorway. do you have a body? a mind? what is such a thing? for a dizzying moment, you might not even be sure you have a "you" to identify these concepts with.]

[then, wrenching and violent, the confusion of the senses pummels itself back inside you like seasoning pounded into raw meat, and you're left, painfully sensate, on an open plain.]

Comments

[youhadmefromhello]

[. . . ughhhh]

Hey! Is there anyone there?

[medpacksapunch]

[does not trust her voice, so says nothing, just hovering behind Goku, tense with brick at the ready]

[amivoringyou]

[no response. some movement - something up ahead opens a door - outside light shines in to the darkness, framing something huge and wide-shouldered in silhouette - it turns, light catching on white eyes and white needle teeth - it doesn't see you, and turns back inside, leaving the door swung ajar.]

[youhadmefromhello]

[oh no it's huge

. . . wait everything is bigger than me, whatever. Whispers to Sakura]

I think that was it . . . should we follow it?

[medpacksapunch]

would it... do any good? I don't think... there's anyone to help here, anymore.

[youhadmefromhello]

Help how?

[medpacksapunch]

[okay the stench of blood is so bad I can smell it with my inferior human nose it's pretty obvious anyone is here is dead]

I meant-- in the house. Everyone's dead. So let's-- let's keep going.

[youhadmefromhello]

[yyyyyeah, tugs his shirt up to cover his nose :T]

But what if there's other people? We should at least find out where it's goin', in case it's gonna attack someone else.

[amivoringyou]

[that, of course, would naturally be the perfect time for a POUND, the squelch of pierced flesh, and someone else making an unpleasant, pained noise.]

[medpacksapunch]

Ah--

[jerks back away from the sound in surprise, then stills]

We-- we should-- if we hurry...

[youhadmefromhello]

I really, really don't like this place.

[TO THE DOOR]

[amivoringyou]

[off in one corner, visible through the door, there is a small pile of corpses - some of them may be recognizable as strange, pale-colored versions of knights from both teams - riddled by long, thick rods; the roof is a wide open hole to let light in.]

[in the center of the room sits an empty chair ... and before it, facing away from it and towards his victim, hulks a monster, a brute: a gorilla-like figure who almost appears made of dark ceramic and industrial cable, with a mouth of thin, needle-like fangs and who is in the process of firing one of those thick rods from his hand into the belly of his target:]

[a person of uncertain identity, wearing two worlds, with hir long hair tied back like Sion's, but with pale skin and hair and slitted silver eyes like a claymore, and the exaggerated, feigned looseness of Sion, but the practical armoring of someone else entirely - not that all of this is immediately obvious, as xe is only half in any sort of clothing at all, and in excruciating pain from the rods wrapped around hir wrists, tying hir to what's left of the ceiling, and the rods currently being rammed through hir soft stomach.]

[the monster finishes jabbing hir in the side, and laughs in hir face, unkindly and echoing.]

How do you like that, huh? You think you're so strong. You don't know strong like Riful knows strong. I'll prove it to you.

[medpacksapunch]

[casts her eyes briefly over the pile of bodies before her attention is drawn by what's happening in the center of the room and she freezes-- rooted the to spot by shock and deep, visceral horror, unable to look away or move]

s-s-- stop...stop it...we need to--

[fumbles one hand at her side in Goku's general direction, like she's trying to reach him, trying to ground herself on something]

[youhadmefromhello]

[hoooooly crap.

GRABS HER HAND and drags her back out the door so they can at least peek inside without being seen]

Holy shit!

[medpacksapunch]

[huddles behind the door, peering around it with him]

Is that-- is that-- that's not Sion, it's not...

[resolutely does not look at the pile of maybe-knights]

[youhadmefromhello]

I don't think it is?? It don't smell like him, I think. I uh, can't tell that well with all the other stuff.

[amivoringyou]

[xe looks enough like him that the resemblance is unavoidable, unfortunately.]

[the grey ceramic gorilla man drives another rod through the diaphragm.]

Fuck you! You know what she wants! Just give it to her, already! What do you have against Riful, anyway? What's she ever done to you? I'll make you pay for that!

[medpacksapunch]

[nods and clings to that-- it's not him, it's not it's not -- wincing as the rod makes contact]

what-- what can we... what can we do?

[youhadmefromhello]

I dunno . . . I dunno if I can kill that.

[medpacksapunch]

I know I can't. But is it-- how can we just walk away...?

[youhadmefromhello]

. . . maybe we can knock it off the cliff?

[medpacksapunch]

[...nods]

we'd have to get it out of the house, first.

[youhadmefromhello]

[considers her]

Are ya fast?

[medpacksapunch]

[brand new hero, but]

I'm-- fast enough. I can be.

[youhadmefromhello]

'Kay, I got an idea.

I'll get it to chase me an' you follow behind, an' when we get to the cliff you can use those bricks t' help me knock it off.