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]

Well . . . we just gotta get outta here or do somethin' and we're done. I think. It's different every time.

[medpacksapunch]

Okay... um, I guess I'll keep my eye open for anything that might look like a way out.

[reaches ...what's left of the house, peering down into it]

[amivoringyou]

[not!Sion is still hanging there, pierced through with rods, hir breathing shallow, hir eyes unfocused]

[xe is barely hanging on to sanity, much less consciousness.]

[youhadmefromhello]

[. . . oh that's lovely]

What should we . . .

[medpacksapunch]

[wwwwwwwish xe didn't look so much like Sion]

I... I don't know any-- healing or first aid or anything. Do-- do you...?

[youhadmefromhello]

[shakes his head]

'M not a healer.

[medpacksapunch]

[...swallows, curling her hands into fists again]

...Do you think-- should we just...kill him..?

[amivoringyou]

[xe's eyes flicker, slits ... ffffocusing on one of you, it doesn't matter which.]

Uhhh ... who ...?

[youhadmefromhello]

I don't—

[o-oh xe's talking]

. . . um. Hi?

[medpacksapunch]

[--is moving as soon as xe speaks, almost unconsciously, stumbling down into the room fully, her previous train of thought discarded and forgotten]

--Sion..!

[amivoringyou]

Wuh ...

[blinks at ... with almost no recognition at first, then a faint ... spark ...]

Do I ...

[youhadmefromhello]

[. . . I will let Sakura talk to you while I look for a way to get you down]

[amivoringyou]

[you can probably yank the rods out of the roof, if you pulled at them hard enough ... the ceiling's been fractured enough, thanks to the gorilla man thing's rampage, that everything up there's a little looser than it should be.]

[pay no attention to the pile o' corpses in the corner, they'll just keep on smelling like death and blood and soiling themselves from pain and post-mortem muscle release.]

[medpacksapunch]

[YES IGNORING THAT PILE AS HARD AS POSSIBLE and kneels in front of maybe-Sion, hesitantly reaching out like she'd like to touch him]

I'm-- I'm sorry, there's nothing I--

[amivoringyou]

[xe breathes harshly]

D-Dauf --?

[youhadmefromhello]

[PULLS ON ONE OF THOSE CEILING RODS like a helper]

[medpacksapunch]

[whatever maybe-sion said doesn't mean anything to her :x, looks up to watch whatever sunlight is doing-- shielding her head and maybe-sion with her arm, just in case of falling debris]

[amivoringyou]

[the rod comes out of the ceiling in a hail of rubble; the rest of the ceiling cracks and sags noticeably, but doesn't fall.]

[xe grunts] D-Dauf - where --