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

[oh_brother]

[looks up]

-- did you see something?

[amivoringyou]

[yip yip yip]

[and he takes off into the trees.]

[oh_brother]

This dog is going to be the death of me.

[welp let's follow it]

[amivoringyou]

[the woods are dark and densely covered; it would be very easy to trip over a root if you're not careful. these are very big trees.]

[in the distance, something crashes and the ground shudders.]

[oh_brother]

[s-stumbles a bit but manages not to fall. he keeps approaching whatever's crashing out there, scanning the horizon for movement.]

[amivoringyou]

[the trees grow sparser and the sky bears down on the wood like a clenched fist, until they draw back at last on a large clearing - half natural and half not; the thin grasses of the naturally sparse center area stand out all the more for the cracked and broken stumps of where trees used to cover the violently cleared area growing out past it, a tumor of cracked wood and ruined ground.]

[something terrible walked and raged here.]

[on the other side of the clearing, in the ruins of the trees, a young girl with brown hair stands thoughtfully over the body of a man, ripping off strips of flesh and tossing them to the side.]

[the acediamikapuppy runs out into the open space, yipping, and she turns to regard it blankly ... and you might be surprised, upon her doing so, to notice that whoever she is, she isn't Sword.]

[oh_brother]

[that doesn't stop a single word from escaping him:]

Sword--?

[-- oh shit nope. he claps a hand over his mouth as soon as he realizes his mistake]

[amivoringyou]

[she looks up at you at the sound, with about the same regard and interest as a person might regard a bug, and holds up one hand, casual and relaxed.]

[spikelike tentacles erupt from beneath her skin and swirl towards you in a blur of devastating speed, and the one thing you might have a fraction of a second to notice, and be sickened by, is that she doesn't even bother to dignify your impending death with a continued glance, turning back to her previously chosen victim once again.]

[... unfortunately, only superhuman reflexes can save you from being flayed into pieces now, my friend.]

[oh_brother]

[well something in him TRIES for a split second--]

[oh_brother]

[--nope, dead. this is going to suck to revive from.]