bleed for bitterness - PDARPG: bleed for bitterness

Published Aug 27, 2022, 5:26:31 PM UTC | Last updated Aug 27, 2022, 5:26:31 PM | Total Chapters 1

Story Summary

Character development challenge, for Icarus. 651 words

 

#31 Crossing a thousand universes sometimes brings you face to face with things you’d never expect. Your character has met an alternate version of themselves! Show them with their alternate and how they would react.

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Icarus PaperDemon Art RPG 🧑🏽 #pd318
150 total points
4 approved points

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Chapter 1: bleed for bitterness

The wyfex crouched down. Wind howled at the altitude of the rooftops, the aggressive breeze tossing the tail of his brown jacket like a tattered rag. The edges of his hood flapped against his neck, as his false eyes were drawn downwards, to the street below.

This was how Icarus always started - he scouted the surroundings, made a mental map, and drew paths on it, as if it was a piece of wood he carved into a picture with a scorching hot blade. No matter the portal, no matter the location, no matter its reputations - he always took his place on the highest place he could reach, and mapped out anything below him as meticulously as he was able to, with the allocated time at hand. While, yes, he definitely had a god complex without realizing it himself, he wasn't stupid. He knew better than to get into trouble on soil he  didn't know. He was used to dealing with any human law enforcement, but whatever he would face on the other side of a portal, he wouldn't take any chances with. Reputations and stories did not convince him - curtains could be pulled aside, facades could crack, and a good reputation could be stained in an instant. Words weren't something to trust - and he didn't.

 

Icarus stood up, and was about to start descending, as a strange figure down below drew his attention. His fake eyes narrowed in the sockets of the pale mask, as he kneeled down on the roof tiles. A deep cold crept up his spine, as the being turned around, showing its shape better.

 

This was what they had always warned of, even Karmen had done so. Under a thousand suns there were a thousand universes, and any of them could show an adventurer something they never wanted to see. Down there, standing at the crossroads of a street, Icarus stared at an image of himself - he could recognize the strange proportions of his own body anywhere. A sallow, tall lamp bathed the other wyfex in its light. Icarus's tail whipped from one side to the other, striking the roof tiles under him. He bared his teeth. The matter in his veins boiled.

 

No.

 

There was no mask on the caricature. It wore no disguise to cover its shame. Its face wasn't scratched, it had no cracks to hamper its ability to see. Its body language neutral, with an underlying tinge of-

 

Icarus struck down his hands on the tiles with a force that made them break under his palms. He opened his jaw, until the hinges couldn't go any further - and he screamed. The sound echoed on the cobblestone of the streets, rattling the town's windows. It made babies cry, and sent children into a spiral of panic. As if a storm was brewing, people underneath sought shelter. And down there, unmoving, the other wyfex stood still. It stared right at Icarus, none of its synthetic muscles even so much as twitching. Its face was blank, dark as a gaping void.

 

Suddenly, a blanket of silence wrapped around the town.

 

Icarus stood up on the roof, and wiped off the green gas residue from the corner of his mouth. No need to bleed for bitterness, as Karmen would've said, he thought. Still, the version of himself that Icarus saw down on the street made no sense to him. He shook his head gently in disbelief, as he turned on his heels with a firm, aggressive spin.

 

That dipshit could choke on its fucking happiness if it was up to Icarus. He'd need a memory wipe for this - he knew very well he wouldn't be able to forget and let such an encounter be on his own. A sigh escaped from the wyfex's lungs, and a strand of greenish, teal gas wormed its way through his teeth with it.

 

There was no need to bleed for bitterness.

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