ic The Sick and the Serpentine (IC)

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh believing and worshipping stay two different things." Kimo said. It was true, he wasn't sure how the gods did it but they quietly siphoned mana off the world without any worshippers. At least as far as he knew. "Honestly I no get one major problem with none of the ones who give me power. But none are going to save me either." He did not want to get into a lengthy Theology discussion. He stamped out what little was left of the fire. 

 

"God of the ocean depths, Kanaloa god of the sea lend me your secrets." Kimo said, he felt his mind expand as knowledge and acuity that was not his exploded inside his brain. He inhaled before looking around. He should find some vines, he could tie the hands together, maybe even make a gag. He honestly hoped the doctor wouldn't ask why he was any good at that cause that answer was more uncomfortable than the source of his powers. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

It seemed Rosa was not in the mood to discuss theology now, either. She dropped the subject but clocked the new information into a vault in her brain for further and probably uncomfortable reflection. But now was not the time to doubt ones faith. In either God or man. 

 

As Kimo searched the shrine, with Rosa helping, her focus regained, he found plenty of vegetation to use as bonds. Strange twisted vegetation, strange twisted leaves and flowers. Racks of herbs and tiny pickled horrors. 

 

A petrified hand that looked quite human. 

 

And a jar full of preserved white flower petals. Sickly, and sweet....

 

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by Supercape

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh Rosa try look." Kimo whispered. They weren't exactly the right color, but the smell seemed right. A close relative perhaps? 

 

The hand was disturbing. His first thought was of the captain. The Slaughterhouse Cousins had known about this woman. Perhaps they had been in on the entire affair. He felt the desire to know creep into his mind, the darker touch of Kanaloa. 

 

"Kahuna will have choke explaining to do." Kimo said. He wasn't happy about being bitten and he felt sore and tired.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"This...looks like the orchid...." said Rosa, a little uncertain. "Not fresh, but...yes, it could be..." she muttered, with growing hope. 

 

"It smells like it too...not the best of smells. Like rotten fruit or something" she added, opening the jar and sniffing with wrinkled nose. 

 

"I'll take it, anyway. Run some tests on it. Best to get a fresh sample, of course. Even better..." she wondered aloud "...to ask her..." she offered, cautiously, pointing at Vesper. She was aware of the risks of doing so, and even more than that, seemed to tread carefully, mindful that Kimo had lost his temper with the yellow eyed woman, and had displayed frightening power when he did so. 

 

"I mean, she has stored this, yes? she might now where the real deal is?"

 

She caught sight of the hand. "Eewww! What's that?" she yelped, although like Kimo, her mind lead to the same grim conclusion. 

Edited April 26, 2017 by Supercape

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh. Sorry if I scared you. The powers come at a cost." He sighed. All the training of the god of war only delayed the onset of them. The rage. The jealousy. The flightiness. The hunger for knowledge. The flirtatiousness. All except Lono would twist and warp his mind if he wasn't careful. "I try not for use some of these if I can help it. No like what they do to my head." Kimo said. He had to know. He had to know. HE HAD TO KNOW. The thoughts echoed in his mind. which meant he needed to gaze into the witch's mind. Which just might give him relief. 

 

"God of the evening hunter, Puenui god of owls lend me your vision." Kimo declared. No trickery should be safe from the owl god's eyes. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"There is always a cost" muttered Rosa, in agreement. 

 

The mind of Vespa was a slippery, some might say Serpentine, mind. It did not feel entirely human, as if the primitive centres belonging to pre human antiquity were more dominant, colder. 

 

She was coming round, but slowly, like a groggy drunk in a fog morning. 

 

What have they come for? My boys...they said they were coming. Said the sailor wanted his hand back...

 

The hand? I need it...only the dead can pluck the orchid...

 

I can't use the old witch anymore...she dead but spiteful still....still so spiteful...

 

Fear...fear the old witch...

 

Remember you are safe...she buried deep, deep beneath the black soil...right under you....STOMP the ground if she rises...

 

What was that hammer that hit me?

 

Wait...they came for the orchid?...the woman wants it?....how does she know about it? The boy wants it? Huh...last boy that wanted it, said he wanted to be cured...look how that turned out....

[Kolohehonu]

Kimo blinked hard. He didn't have the mask on. But he still needed to make an impression. Perhaps it was the training of Ku, but he perfered to make a statement. Quietly Kimo peeled off the Emerald City University t-shirt. The glowing yellow tattoos across his chest pulsed with each heartbeat.

 

"I have questions." Kimo stated. He knelt to the ground. He took a handful of earth and tossed it aside. "What will I find Kahuna? How many bodies? One fo sure, stay angry kine yeah? Two? A boy came looking for one cure. No can hide nothing from the Hand of Hunamoku." 

 

"What about the orchid, where it stay?" He asked his eyes all the while peering into her mind.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Vesper groaned, and vainly, feebly even, strained against the vines. 

 

"You making la big mistake!" she said, a weak laugh emitting from weak lungs. Her mind was strong, but her body had been essentially crushed. 

 

She peered at him, through those almost alien yellow eyes. Her face and hair splattered with wet mud and slime. 

 

"Me boys coming for you, boy! Me boys! hahaha! And worse! Maybe much worse...."

 

Duke and Billybob, they coming, me snakes let them know...

 

Where are me snakes! Come, come! Big and fanged! I love....

 

And maybe the swamp-boy...hahaha...he stay away, scared of me, I dunno why...he angry with me too...he think I changed him...not me...he took the orchid, it was the orchid that changed him....he took it of own free will....

 

Then she considered Kimo's insinuation. 

 

"No bodies! No bodies!" she denied, but her mind said differently....

 

Only the old witch, the greedy old witch, evil and spiteful...hahah...I take her place....she dead now...buried deep...she MUST be buried deep....Big strong Duke, he made sure it was a DEEP grave....

 

....the boy...he still alive but CHANGED! Maybe he come now...if he do...we all dead!!!

[Kolohehonu]

"I don't think you understood. I am the Hand of Hunamoku, I can gaze into your mind." Kimo said. His voice slow and he painfully tried for English. "No can hide nothing. Not the old witch beneath the ground. Not the fact that them Slaughterhouse boys are coming." Kimo hesitated before wrapping his hands around the old woman's throat. He instead turned towards Rosa. "Eh we need for warn Captain." 

 

"What happened to her brother? He stay changed. How." The last word was a demand not a question. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

So you can read minds can you? came Vesper's thoughts, slippery as an eel and hard as steel. She was not strong of body, nor quick. But her mind was. 

 

"Hehe, my boys they will come" she said, without fear. "And it's your brother is it? The boy who came, riddled with disease. Ha! He belonged in the swamp, where a million insects buzz and fungus blooms. Hard to survive here, full of disease. But I know how, hehe, herbs, potions, well they drive you half mad in the head but cure the body. You met Duke, have you? He was a sickly child, but Vesper saved him. He may be slow in the head, but he is strong now, you will see!"

 

"As for your brother. I cured him too. The Orchid. It can cure anything, but twists them too. He is alive now, gloriously alive, but changed. A thing of green and vines, mad and scared...." she said. 

 

"But at least he is alive, thanks to Vesper!"

 

Rosa looked suitably horrified, and her aghast face was punctuated by an inhuman bubbling amphibious howl that moaned awfully across the wetlands...

[Kolohehonu]

"I'm sorry Rosa." Kimo said softly. Just because he could, and because he was absolutely sick of her, Kimo backhanded Vesper. "We should leave you for the other witch." Kimo said before turning his attention away. He had more important things to do. He looked out in all directions, the eyes of the evening hunter piercing cover. 

 

"We need for warn the Captain. And we need for try and help your brother." He wasn't sure how, but perhaps he could do some work on the mind with the power of Hina. At the very least he might be able to mind control it or Duke into submission. He didn't exactly have a plan yet. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Vesper laughed contemptiously at the both of them. "Weak! Ignorant! You lack courage, you lack conviction...." she taunted. 

 

"I was born weak, feeble, a sickly child. But with will you can grasp more" she said, clutching the earth. "I found the old witch living her, learned all I could from her. And the killed her hahaha! She was a witch after all. I've seen the horror of the past, the snakes, the things that live underground, and between worlds! hahaha!" she laughed, like a steely madness. 

 

"And I have imposed myself on the earth and the bones, the fangs and the venom!"

 

Rosa stormed outside, Flare Gun ready, whilst another mournful howl echoed across the wetlands. 

 

"And as for that old witch? Well, the Orchid dies when plucked by the hand of the living. So one has to use the hand of the dead!" she screamed, clutching at the black rich muddy earth with both hands. 

 

The skeletal hand hanging up twitched and spasmed. 

 

And from the earth, burst two withered ancient dead hands, with leathered skin and crumbling flesh, clutching at Kimo...

 

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh no get time for none of this!" Shouted Kimo as he jumped away from the grabbing hands. This was the time to be a warrior, and luckily that was what he was most comfortable with. "Goddess of the heart of the earth, Pele goddess of the volcano lend me your power." 

 

"Kulikuli hehena." Kid Kamehameha bellowed before slamming his hands together. The force of the shockwave blasted towards the hands and at Vesper.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Black muddy water exploded around Vesper, and she passed out completely. Her predecessor, however, just had the earth explode off her, showering Kimo in dirt. Her hands, exposed, curled for a moment in a death rattle, but then the body climbed out, silent and mailgn. She was not exactly rotting, but she was leathery skin and bones only; her organs rotted away. Only bulging black eyes remained, oozing something horrible and liquid. No voice, just a groan. 

 

Outside, Rosa screamed and came in, still clutching her flare gun, with both hands, shaking, holding it like a weapon. "Duke and Billy Bob are here!" she gasped, fearfully, to Kimo. 

 

"We're a coming to get you! Knock knock!" laughed Billy Bob. 

 

"I tink dey kiled mama...." moaned Duke. Billy Bob stopped laughing. One could practically hear his machete being drawn. 

 

And now, a worse horror: Something rumbled by the crumbling splintered Shrine. Something awful. It was man sized, but broad, green, black, and blind, its skin crawling with animated muck and vines that slithered over its powerful body. It sniffed the air and then moaned...

 

"Roooosssaaaaaa!"

[Kolohehonu]

First thing first, if the witch was still a magic user that made her the most dangerous. With a swift strike Kid Kamehameha aimed to grab the Witch by the head and instead crushed it to dust. Seeing it crumble Kimo grinned. "One mage." 

 

"Goddess of the unattainable beauty, Hina goddess of the moon lend me your charm." Kimo said before stepping up and interposing himself between the Slaughterhouse and Rosa. He felt power fill his voice as his muscles relaxed. A plan was creeping into his mind. He flashed a disarming grin.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Wait..." said Billy Bob, sensing something was up. He gripped his Machete tightly.

 

"What's going on...oh no...." he caught sight of the monstrous swamp thing that had been, or perhaps still was, Rosa's sister. 

 

"They killed mama!" roared Duke, his thin, close set eyes howling wide. Something red hit his head, and veins pumped out of neck and temple. He shrieked, and awful high pitched mewl for somebody so massive. His shotgun came up...

 

"Wait...wait...." mumbled Billy Bob, losing his cool, and starting, without any hint of success, to pull Duke back. 

 

Duke's fury was complete. He pulled the trigger. The noise echoed over the wetlands, and the shot hit Kimo squarely, to the scream of Rosa...

[Kolohehonu]

The impact hurt. Which was not what anyone had any right to say after being hit with a shotgun. But magic was magic. Kimo calmly brushed off his bare chest. The force of will it took to use his powers translated to his resolve. 

 

"Eh try calm down." He smiled. If he gave into rage so easily, he might just be easy enough to bend.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"What the hell?" muttered Billy Bob as the shot fell of Kimo's chest. 

 

The Swamp horror started bashing his way into the shrine, the vines crawling all over him. "Rosaaaa!" came the mournful wail. It was not clear if Rosa panicked, or the panic drained away. But something cold and brutal came over her. 

 

"Get away from me!" she whispered. And fired the flare gun straight into the thing that had been her brother. The brute screamed, on fire, staggering backwards, shards of burning wood exploding around them. 

 

And now that horrible shrine to Set was on fire too, with Rosa and Kimo inside!

 

"I rip head off!" screamed Duke, throwing his shotgun to one side and gazing straight at Kimo. 

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh duke we didn't do nothing. It was all Billy Bob. You no like for hurt us." Kimo said. His words dripped with magic. He looked around calmly at the burning shrine. He had a little bit of time. "Eh brah you like for beat him." He pointed at Billy Bob. The tattoos pulsed. 

 

"Rosa, why'd you shoot him? That stay your brother!" Kimo asked. "I think we may be able for fix him. But not if he stay all burn up!" Eh! And not if we do too you lolo buggah!

Edited April 29, 2017 by Kolohehonu

[Supercape]

GM

 

Billy Bob surged forward, his machete in hand, angry but not out of control. "What did you do to her? She raised us both, you scum! I'm going to make you pay..." he said, but not too loudly. He was looking at the deformed swamp beast. 

 

And with good reason, for that very same creature hammered at the fragile burning wood and broke in, standing next to Rosa and Kimo. It was eyeless, and blind, flailing and lost, but strong and vital all the same. 

 

"Or I'll let him do it!" said Billy Bob, growing with confidence every stride through the muck. 

 

Dukes rage had not diminished, and he charged, running full pelt into Billy Bob, knocking him sprawling and winded just outside the shrine. 

 

The wood creaked, groaned, and burning embers rained down on Rosa, the beast, and Kimo...

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh I no like for let you die yet." Sighed Kimo as he grabbed Vesper. "Eh Rosa, I like for get outside!" He hollered dragging Vesper out. He was having trouble focusing inside a burning building. 

 

He could deal with the swamp creature later, but he was gonna let Duke beat down Billy Bob first. Time to let the beating happen. He wasn't going to let Duke kill his brother, but this guy deserved all the beating he was gonna get.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Duke smashed his fist into the ground, all his weight, muscle, and fury behind it. One could only imagine what would have happened to a face that received it. But whilst Duke was strong, we was clumsy, and Billy Bob was a lot faster than his cousin. He rolled to one side. 

 

"What you doing? Ya idiot! I'm going to cut off your stinkin'" he shouted at his brother, then rolled again, the other side, to avoid another pounding fist. 

 

Rosa was tearful with confusion, and singed from a few embers. She still held the faintly smoking flare gun in both hands. "What...what are you?" she asked, talking to both Kimo and what remained of her brother. 

 

"It huuurttts!" moaned the twisted creature, who hurtled, blindly, out of the shrine, wiping away burning splinters and full of...fear? "Wiiiitch! Wiiitch!!!!!" he groaned. 

 

The shrine was ablaze now, and threatening to collapse on itself from all the damage it had taken. And in response to the blaze of fire and light, a call came across the wetlands. 

 

"I'm coming!" yelled the Captain, as he started to pick his way through the treacherous swamp...

[Kolohehonu]

"Try wait already!" Shouted Kimo at the horror that the brother had become. He held his hands up. He just needed to buy time for Duke and Billy Bob to beat each other down before he could try to fix the brother. Kimo put himself in front of the creature's sister. 

 

"Brah, I know you're in pain, but I can help. I can make the pain go away. I can help you. For your sistah. For you. I can help brah. But not while those two are around." He gestured at the brothers.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by Kolohehonu

[Supercape]

GM

 

"That thing will kill us all!" yelled Billy Bob at, it seemed, everyone. He tried to jab at the thing as it swung around, only clipping off some still writhing vines. 

 

"Noooo!" screamed the swamp beast, flailing around. 

 

Duke picked up his brother like a feather. "Eat fist..." he mumbled, and smashed a telegraphed arm straight into Billy Bob, who crumpled like a sack of potatoes. Dukes strength was extraordinary to begin with, but fired up, it was unbelievable. Billy Bob sailed through the air, flying through burning shattered wood, landing a few dozen feet away, amidst the wreckage of the shrine. He looked like he was been tossed into a pyre. 

 

He screamed as the flames licked him. His machete tumbled through the air, and landed with a boiiiing! a few feet away, embedded in a stout tree root. 

 

"Me hurt! Killl mee! Killl mee!" screamed the Swamp Beast. "Kill her!!!! Kill herrr!!!!" it added, seemingly wanting both outcomes. 

 

One of his massive arms collided with Duke, who took a few steps back, head wringing. In fury, he tore off the vines that wrapped themselves around his face. 

 

"Hurt Billy Bob...." he explained, like a mantra to himself. 

[Kolohehonu]

Kimo watched the chaos unfurl. He saw Billy Bob on the flames. He rolled his neck out. Ok Duke was the biggest threat still. As much as he enjoyed watching this he was going to end it. He was fairly certain that Billy bob wouldn't burn to death. 

 

"Goddess of the heart of the earth, Pele goddess of the volcano lend me your power." Kimo declared before leaping down onto Duke. His hand came down hard on the shoulder going not only to smash it but also to Grapple. When he impacted he locked his arm around Duke and used his other arm to immobilize the massive arm.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Kolohehonu