new orleans ♔ need a fix cuz i'm going down | down to the abyss

[romanticidal]

♬ Season of the Witch - Dr. John

WHO || Rafael, Buffy, Spike, Des, The Mind Master, Olean Gilbert, anyone guarding Olean in the car... (including Gar) [closed]
WHAT || The Knights go to investigate Chad Becksworth's mysterious 'advisor' in her bayou home
WHERE || The Lousiana Bayou, outside New Orleans
WHEN || Thurs, Oct 18th, evening
HOW || Actionspam, don't sweat tag order! Keep it a rollin'.

Crammed inside a big white van, Olean rides up front, directing the driver outside the city of New Orleans, and in the direction of the stretches of swampland for which Louisiana is famous. He has them turn down a side dirt road, which leads them far off any highway or main street, and seems to go on without passing anything remotely similar to civilization for at least sixteen minutes of the drive.

The closer they get, the more he begins to sweat profusely, wiping his face repeatedly with a handkerchief, until he can't find a spot on it that isn't drenched. Finally, he tells them to pull over, waving his hand at the side of the road, and the vehicle pulls to a stop.

"T-this was about where we w-went in," he says. "But I can't tell you anymore, because it was only the once, and there wasn't a real path and ... and... I wasn't exactly paying attention to how to get back there anytime soon. Or ever."

Rafael cranes his neck to look out the back window, but then just pops the back doors of the van open and hops out.

"We'll find it," he says, a determined look in his eye. He nods a bit up the road, at what looks like a dilapidated shack that could be straight out of Cabin in the Woods. In front of it stands a sign that's fallen over, with "FREE TOURS" in white paint that dried dripping half down the wood. There's a light on inside, glowing through one of the windows. "And it looks like someone knows of a path."

Comments

[bigbad]

[Yeah, that's gonna happen. Spike glances from Chad (or Chad's mysterious long lost twin?) up to the Mind Master.] Sorry, love. Think we'll have to put off that date.

[Then he crosses the room and grabs maybe-Chad's shoulder.]

We're not done, mate.

[extremist]

[ ♬ Wild Honey Pie - Beatles

except spike never makes it more than a couple steps, and the man's about fifty feet away by now. it was a nice thought.

a horrible keening pain cuts through his brain abruptly when he tries to follow him. it feels as if a machete's been buried into his skull. or that his brains are alive and trying to drill a hole out through the inside. it's momentarily crippling, and he requires a fortitude save of 15 or higher to keep it from knocking him clear unconscious from the blinding pain. (35 dmg) ]

[bigbad]

[He screams and drops to his knees, though he doesn't pass out (fortitude 17).] Bloody hell!

[That date is so off.]

[slay]

Spike! [ buffy drops to crouch beside him, hand reaching out to rest on his back to help him stay somewhat upright. she looks up, distressed. oh yeah. they're way over their heads. ] So, I guess fair fight's out of the question. [ her lips tighten into a thin, grim line. she searches for some way to regain the upper hand, assessing the situation (listen 11, spot 25). ] Think I preferred his brother.

[romanticidal]

[ ♬ beauty of the beast - nightwish

spike's the first to hear the distant echoing splashing noise echoing up from the grate. all of them, however, see the sudden pair of glinting yellow eyes that appear in its depths, low to the ground. there's a soft hissing noise like air escaping from a tire, that grows louder as well, as the thing comes into view, slithering its way through the canal.

it's when it rears up, twice as tall as any of them, that it becomes clear exactly what they're looking at.

it's top half is that of a scarred, naked human woman: the only thing alien about her is her unnatural reptilian eyes. her hair hangs wet and black like she's the girl from the ring. from below her belly button down, however, she has the tail of a gigantic anaconda, sickening green and black.

the most disturbing part of all, however, is that there's no smooth transition between the two. instead, big ugly black stitches like some kind of human centipede nightmare are visible all around, and it doesn't look like a clean job either.

quick as lightning, it suddenly strikes forward with its back half, picking rafael up right around the midsection, pinning his arms to his side (wow, he CAN crit fail). he groans and his guns slip from his hands, clattering to the ground. ]

[bigbad]

[Spike doesn't much care for Rafael, but he's not about to let his teammate die. Even if his teammate is way too pretty and close with Buffy. He staggers up and steps in, stomping on the thing's tail (atk 18, dmg 7).]

[nothingsodivine]

[WOW GOOD THING DES NEVER PUT HIS GUN AWAY. He whirls on the thing and aims at the beast's chest. (atk 15, dmg 11)]

I always knew the music industry was full of reptiles, but this is getting ridiculous.

[romanticidal]

[ The beast squirms a bit at the impact of spike's foot and des' bullet. while it's distracted, rafael wriggles about and makes a NAT TWENTY escape artist check to slip right out of the thing's grip and land softly on the ground below. he lashes out an arm to where his guns lie within a couple feet and scoops them up again.

meanwhile, the creature HASN'T EVEN NOTICED HE'S GONE and constricts around... nothing. when it looks down and realizes this, it lets out an inhuman scream of frustration, and whirls around, looking for rafael. instead, it sees des, pointing a gun at it, and howls, heading straight towards him. he shoots at it, but it's moving too fast, and the bullet whizzes by it (atk 9), and when it reaches him, it lashes out with an arm to try to bat his gun out of his hand. but des has MAD SKILLS apparently and with a nat 20 on his opposed disarm check, I'll let him even shoot her in the hand (dmg 8). she screams again, looking extra pissed off.

up on her golden throne, the mind master just watches all this with an expression of pure amusement, and says: "You have no idea." before ... vanishing. into thin air. ]

[bigbad]

[Encouraged by the success of his last attack, Spike rushes after the thing and slams his knee into the tail again, harder this time (atk 25 dmg 12), then glances up to the empty throne.] Where'd she go?

[nothingsodivine]

[Des hates his life forever right now, BECAUSE NO CRAZY SNAKE LADY GO AWAY, but at least he still has his gun. He backs away from her swinging arms and goes for another shot (atk 9, dmg 4), before getting distracted by Spike's voice.]

Horseshit. She's got a real nasty habit of doing that.

[romanticidal]

[ rafael is up and taking aim already, and while three of his shots hit the mark (17 dmg), one of them hits des in the right side of the chest (11 dmg). oops. he is sorry, american friend 8( ]

[slay]

[ buffy was too distracted because HER BOYS to catch up quickly and when they do start moving again safely, she's still like BUT SNAKE LADY, but she does actually catch up after a few moments and makes her way to the ghetto-rigged naga, and gives it a rough punch to her gut near the stitches (atk 24, dmg 12). she's really not above trying to tear this bitch in half, lbr. ]

[romanticidal]

[ buffy that is gross, not to mention rude. it swings its tail at buffy to be like YO STOP THAT, but it's big and bulky and slow and fails. :( ]

[bigbad]

[Spike swings around and aims another kick at it (atk 22 dmg 12), sparing a glance over at Raf.] You're really not good at remembering who to shoot at, are you? [STILL HOLDS A GRUDGE.]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des yelps in pain AND HITS THE GROUND. Immortal or not, that shit does, in fact, sting. Yeah, he's gonna waste his turn cursing up a storm and bleeding.]

It's a giant fuckin' snake. How d'you miss a giant fuckin' snake?

[romanticidal]

I cannot say that I fight very many monsters. They seem to be a common theme around you all. [ he takes careful aim to start with this time, but it costs him the shot, though he makes the second shot with the same gun. one bullet from its twin also finds the mark. (17 dmg) the beast is bleeding profusely from wounds on its upper half now, at least. ]

[slay]

Better get used to it. [ buffy crouches under the tail and spins into a roundhouse kick aimed for snake-lady's side, just at the juncture of her, err, bodies. again. (atk 33, dmg 15.) she doesn't seem particularly concerned that rafael keeps shooting her teammates. maybe bc she's aware they're both immortal. ] Because somehow, it's all we ever seem to fight.

[romanticidal]

[ welp, that'll do it. a hot hundred points later, the thing's eyes are rolling back in its head at buffy's kick, and it keels over face first, slamming into the ground with a hideous death wail. of death.

rafael advances a few cautious steps towards it to ensure that it's not moving, and then crouches down beside it, examining the stitches. he speaks solemnly, in a low voice. ] ... This was no ordinary monster.

[slay]

No. No, it wasn't. [ she hovers behind rafael, not crouching down, but peering at it over him. it's hard not to notice the role rough experimentation has played in it. ] I'm willing to bet she used to be very, very human.

We've known NOVA and the Brotherhood are collecting Shadowkind DNA. Smart money's on this is precisely the kind of experiment they're using it for. But, it does still beg the question why. [ she turns to look at des and spike for answers, but while she's at it, babies them a little. ] You guys okay?

[nothingsodivine]

Peachy keen, Blondie. [Des sits up with a groan, checking the status of his wound- healing and hurting like a bitch. Go go gadget immortality.] Maybe they want to Frankenstein themselves a mutant boy band.

[He retrieves his gun and checks his bullets. He's running low, so that's... gonna suck.]

[bigbad]

My head's still ringing. [He glances down at the experimental monster lady then back at the empty throne.] Wonder why she left. She was loads scarier than that thing.

[romanticidal]

Most likely because she did not seek to fight. Though I do not believe it was out of fear of us. [ not with the way she raped spike's brain over there. he turns his gaze back to the double doors ] The swamp was not easy to travel through. We may be able to at least catch him yet.

[slay]

Good idea. With the entrance we just made, my bet's this'll be our last chance for a while. If people crashed your secret lair, wouldn't you make plans to move it? [ she started to walk for the doors, but quickly enough picked up into a quick-paced run. if they were lucky, maybe-chad would think himself to classy to actually put the run in his big scaredy runaway. ]

[romanticidal]

Si, though I have a feeling she will be much more difficult to keep cornered than he, unless he bears so many surprises up his sleeves. [ he shoves the doors open to usher everyone through, so they can make a run for it ]

[bigbad]

[Or a fast-paced stagger in Spike's case. His leg did get munched on by a crocodile. He's trying not to let it show.] Way this day's been going, he probably does.