Archived Roleplay:Main Forum/General/Love, Death, Sleep

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The Shrike

Blair: Begging and screaming were drowned out by the howls of the cold mountain winds. Somewhere, in a valley between the peaks, a vast mile-high tree shook and swayed. Snow settled on it and hung there for precious seconds, then were scattered again. The banks far below were stained a deep red that never seemed to fade, as ever new were the tree's tender's victims. Hundreds were dead. Their bodies were transfixed through the chest upon the tree's many sharp branches. Hundreds more were still alive.

Blake: Blake found himself sitting high up on one of the branches his feet dangling over one side while he ignores the screaming happening around him. Something like this would happen to him more often than not, he would find himself in a dream world like this full of people he doesn't know, faces he has not seen, and lives he has not lived. This particular setting has become unique among them all, he hasn't seen a nightmare like this in a long time and it has his curiosity piqued. He looks down at the banks and stares at the mounds of snow, now a deep red slush after colliding with the blood that drips from the tree in a constant pitter patter of gruesome rain. "I wonder whose dream this is," he ponders out loud.

Blair: It was then that the entire tree shook, beckoning forth a new wave of wailing and a crimson veil of falling blood. Far above, near the top of the tree, a new victim had been forcefully slammed onto an open branch and left unceremoniously transfixed on several feet of thick wood. This new prey barely lasted seconds before death took hold. Blake would feel her life waver, and then, suddenly and unusually... nothing. Each live body on the tree was very much real. The massive dark figure that had carried the new arrival to the tree, and given it its gruesome fate, spread a pair of impossibly large wings and took off. The sky overhead was itself unearthly; black as night despite a deep red sun burning on the horizon.

Blake: As the tree shook, Blake held onto the trunk of the tree. Now covered in more blood, he started to make his way to the top of the tree. He felt a disturbance, as if somebody had actually died. He shouldn't be able to feel life in dreams, he usually never could as no dreamt life is real. He climbed in silence, no further thoughts, he was ready to attack if need be once he reached the top, if he ever did.

Blair: A few timeless moments passed, filled with nothing but the roaring of the winds. The tree was impossibly large in a way that only a construct of dreams could be. After what should have been minutes, Blake found himself passing through the same few branches - recognizable by the suffering souls trasfixed upon them - again and again.

Blake: After having passed by the same souls, he realized there was no getting to the top. He pondered if he should stay on the tree's branches for as long as the dream lasts, but the possibility came to him that this may not be a normal dream as life exists within. He sighs and makes his way downward; he could shadow travel but if he is caught at an inopportune moment, it may go wrong. So down he goes.