Marigold & Chuck - Session 5

= The Silver Suited Menace =

2 May 2021 IRL

XXXXX 2250 SooN

They’re in the cemetery, 3 silver suited doofs are running away, one is left in the corner crying and cowering, but it’s hard to see his tears because of the weird goggles he’s wearing.

Marigold puts her sword behind her back to avoid scaring him, and gently speaks to the Silver Crier, Lelel, to figure out why he and his friends were in the cemetery. He reveals that they believe that if they “do the work” and kills the souls, they won’t “feed the demon”, and makes reference to the Nine Hells and to Tiamat. His outfit has a silver dragon on it, a symbol of Bahomet.

Ash joins the group, and Chuck flashes his own religious swag. He tells the silver-suited weirdo that he needs to calm the fuck down, they’re on the same side. Marigold and Chuck learned from their Azeroth teachings that if a soul goes from good to “corrupted evil”, and the soul dies, it goes to the Nine Hells. Once the soul makes it to a Hell, it is devoured by a demon. If the demons eat enough dead-dead souls, they gain great power.

The Bahomet fanatic believes that if he kills souls with his magic whip made out of light, they are permanently destroyed, and don’t proceed to any further plane. The whip is a physical manifestation of Bahomet’s power. Or so he says. When a soul is is killed by a whip, it isn’t dead-dead, it is dead-destroyed, and can’t be eaten by a demon. Or at least that’s what their teachings say...

Chuck eloquently threatens the ever-loving crap out of Lelel. There are promises of retribution to him, his organization, his life, if he tries to set any kind of bounty on them, or come after them. Chuck sounds incredibly calm and reasonable, and terrifying. Lelel nods his stupid-helmeted head in agreement, and runs away as fast as his sleek suit allows.

A “pffffft” noise sounds. Ash and Marigold look around, and Chuck’s hand comes up to his neck, he has time to say, “owww....”, and crumples to the ground. The three Bahomet silver dorks that ran away earlier apparently did not go far. They also seem to not be interested in honoring the agreement that their run-away friend made with Chuck, who is now unconscious on the ground.

The two ladies brace themselves to once again murder some Silver Stupids. The three Bahomet fanatics pull out hilts with no weapon attached. With a flick of the wrist, various weapons made out of light appear on the empty hilts. Ash swears she can hear a faint metallic “whooomp” noise as they pop into existence.

Ash heals Chuck as soon as she’s able, and moves up to Marigold’s side. A mighty magical battle ensues. There are some particularly nasty uses of things found in a cemetery and assistance from Tiamat. Marigold casts Hex several times, resulting in someone’s head being slammed into a crypt by a skeletal hand and a snake made out of the ashes of a blasted soul, among other things.

Ash calls on the power of Tiamat to help her. A crow flies out of her mouth, which is pretty weird. The bird then separates into several parts and the parts fly at the attacking Silver Dorks. A head burrows into one person, a wing burrows into another, another wing burrows into yet another person. Another prayer to Tiamat, and the bird parts, now whole ravens, burrow their way out of the faces of the attackers. Their cheeks are bloody and ripped, teeth visible through their faces.

THE SWORD BLOWS FIRE

Marigold’s sword talks to her and says “I’ll get the top, you get the bottom. Let me go let me go!”. Her eyes widen and she stares at Devourer’s Edge. Before she can reply, the sword Dashes and leaps out of her hand. It lands on the ground in front of her and quickly transforms into a bone Helhound surrounded by a red shimmer of power that appears to be holding it’s bones together.

Devourer’s Edge Dash-Dog attacks a prone Silver Suited Stupid. Tentacles of shimmering psychic power reach out from it’s face, while it’s bone mouth clamps down on the nearest limb. From the diagonal, a whirling mace flies at the fanatic’s face. Ash’s mace smashes into the man’s skull with a dropped-watermelon noise. Brains and bones erupt like a fountain.

Looking pleased, Dash-Dog trots back towards Marigold and jumps up, transforming back into a sword in midair. Chuck gingerly staggers up to Marigold and looks as amazed as she does. Ash seems to be completely unfazed by this sword trick - but she did just have a bird fly out of her mouth and murder some people.

“What the fuck just happened?”, Chuck hoarsely asks. “I have no idea, and I am trying VERY hard to just to hold it together right now.”, Marigold tells him. She then abruptly turns and vomits into the shrubbery. While she’s getting sick, Ash and Chuck search the bodies of the fallen.

Their search nets them a large amount of diamond shards, a few rubies, and a sapphire. Chuck finds a phone on one of the bodies, with a really odd-looking charging port. The phone is locked and displays a symbol of Bahomet on the screen, and displays 62% power. Chuck powers it down and continues his battlefield rummage. He ends up with a couple of silver-freak uniforms and all of the empty hilts for the strange light weapons.

Marigold doles out a bunch of gems to Ash and Chuck for future ass-kicking endeavors. The less-than-tidy trio jumps the fence in back, as discretion is the better part of not getting arrested. Chuck and Marigold really need to get out of sight and have some rest. Ash offers them a choice of discrete and uncomfortable, or comfortable but less hidden. When they find out that Dementia’s place is the less-hidden option, they eagerly ask to go there. They do their best to look innocuous, and walk back to Dementia’s houdoo shop.

Once on Bourbon Street, Marigold and Chuck start seeing little pink, or green, purple, and mottled creatures. They’re about 2 feet tall, following along behind some people who are partying it up on Bourbon. They must still be able to see ghosts and otherworldly creatures, because nobody is reacting to a street swarming with little demons. The wee beasts are there to encourage bad behavior and even worse thoughts. Are they the cause for Bourbon Street being so crazy? Or is Bourbon Street natural craziness the reason that they’re here?

Ash leads the way into her auntie’s shop. The front of the mystical store is empty of customers and Dementia. Thinking she might be in the back, they push through the beaded curtain back into the living quarters. Ash is calling for her aunt, and walks into another room to look for her. Marigold approaches the door to the room in which they had their spirit journey, and hesitates. This is a very private, very sacred space. She doesn’t want to disturb it, or upset Dementia. Chuck leans over her shoulder and knocks on the door, settling that decision.

They wait for an answer, standing in a hall next to a shelf of voodoo dolls, baskets of sage, arrangements of stones and crystals, incense, and various other accoutrements of houdoo and hippies. A sudden thump startles them and they whirl around. A doll with an Afro seems to have fallen to the floor. Before they can pick it up, the doll starts growing and swelling in size.

Emitting a muffled sound made of equal parts happiness and distress, Marigold flies into Dementia’s arms. The weave of her yellow-gold dress is soft against Marigold’s cheek as the 6 foot 4 inch woman hugs her right back. Dementia wraps her dark arms around Marigold’s pale body, and pulls her tight. It’s a GOOD hug, the kind of hug that feels like Home. The kind of hug that is warm and protective and restorative and amazing. Marigold instantly feels tremendously better in both body and spirit. She feels as though all the wretched events of the day have washed away, leaving her whole again.

Dementia cocks an eyebrow at Chuck. “You want some of this?”, she asks him, almost teasingly. Without a single speck of false manly pride, the second Marigold lets her go, Chuck moves in for a hug of his own. He feels so much better. His soul feels lighter, his body less weary, his mind less troubled. Dementia gives a damn good hug.

Hearing them talking, Ash comes back into the hallway. Like the others, she moves in for a deep healing hug of her own. “Y’all look like you’ve had some kind of a DAY. Come on, I bet you’re hungry”. Dementia leads the way into the kitchen, her enormous Afro almost bumping into the door frame. A gust of scents wafts out as she leads them in. The smell....oh, by the gods, the smell in the kitchen!

Ash sniffs appreciatively, her nose telling her what her mouth is about to experience. Chuck and Marigold, however, have no clue what they’re in for. “What is that”, she whispers to Chuck. “I don’t know, but it smells like home. Not our home,” he adds, “but someone’s home.”  The air is filled with the layered scents of sausage, crawdads, shrimps, okra, beans, toasty red roux, the Trinity of onions, celery and pepper. It smells, frankly, like the best damn jambalaya that anyone ever could make. Their inexperienced mouths start watering. They may not know what it is, but they know it smells amazing.

Marigold realizes that she’s still clutching her sword, and thinks that she should probably put it away. As soon as she thinks that, through no conscious choice of her own, Devourer’s Edge starts burrowing into her wrist, across her arm, and down her spine to it’s seat at the small of her back. The look on her face is horrified-scared-unnerved all at once. Chuck tries to comfort her, “Don’t worry, it’s only temporary, we can fix this”. Dementia shoots a raised-eyebrow look at Ash. Ash smiles ever so slightly and raises her eyebrows back at her aunt. Marigold catches the exchange out of the corner of her eye, and it unsettles her. Something about that look seems to say “Temporary? Hah”.

They sit down to steaming bowls of jambalaya. Dementia offers them a drink, and to Marigold’s surprise, Chuck accepts one. She glares at him, and he replies, “What? We’re not in the church anymore. We can do what we want now. And I want a screwdriver.”, without any twinge of remorse or regret. Feeling very, very annoyed at him, she turns her head in a huff and concentrates on her bowl of happiness. Chuck quietly slides the glass towards her hand when her attention is elsewhere.

“So,”, Dementia asks them while they eat, “you look like you got into some kind of big damn fight out there today. Wanna tell me what happened?”. Taking it in turns to explain and eat, Ash, Chuck, and Marigold explain. They tell her about the weird Silver Stupids, and the strange light weapons, and the battle - literally - over souls.

Dementia’s eyes widen at the mention of the silver suits. “You tangled with the Platinum Knights?! Ooooh. What happened? How many were there?”, she queries the trio. Chuck casually and yet enthusiastically  informed her, “We straight up murdered them! “.  On the other side of the table, not expecting anything like this, Ash laugh-chokes and spits some food on the table. “You damn better clean that up”, Dementia admonishes Ash, tossing a towel at her.

Marigold slides the screwdriver back over to Chuck’s side while he is distracted.

Chuck keeps explaining, “There were about 8, I’m not entirely sure. We killed 5-7 and one got away.”. Chuck seems unconcerned about the one that got away. That is not the case for Dementia, who immediately stands up. “Child are you telling me you let one get away, and then led those idiots right to my door? Damn.”.

Without using any shards or making any casting motions, Dementia draws a blue line in the air with one hand and a gold line with the other hand. Extending her palms, she looks as though she high fives the lines hovering in the air. A ghostly figure identical to Dementia peels off of her and wooshes north through the kitchen walls. A wizened old lady who looks nothing at all like Dementia detaches herself and whisks away south. Chuck is staring at her agog as she peels souls off of her like an onion. A middle aged man decides to head east, while a young teenage girl vanishes to the west.

Chuck asks her, very carefully, “I don’t mean any offense ma’am, and I’m asking with the utmost respect, but....what are you”. Not bothered in the slightest, Dementia reaches into her bag. She pulls out a tangle of threads and  limbs that resolve themselves into a pile of voodoo dolls, throwing at least a dozen on the kitchen island.

“This,”, she holds up a doll, “represents you. Humans, normal people.”  She lays the dolls out on the table side by side in a line. “And this represents the gods, the powerful ones”., she tells him, gesturing to a line of dolls above the previous line. With the same gesture she made earlier, she draws a magical red line right on the table, dividing the two rows. “This barrier separates the gods from the people.”, she gestures at the red line.

Dementia reaches her hand forward again, this time drawing magic vertical blue lines from the top row of dolls to the bottom row of dolls, crossing over the  horizontal red barrier line. “The power of the gods can pass through, here, just a little”, she tells Chuck, Marigold and Ash, who have moved to the island to watch.

“Until WW3,” she says,”when the barrier went away.”, and she wiped the red line away. “What if one single mortal was worth all their power? What happens if that one person had a baby, and that baby had a baby, and so on?”. Dementia arched a brow at the three of them. “What if WW3 wasn’t the first time the gods removed the barrier and all came together for one purpose?”. Holding her hands out, palm up, all the colors of the gods appear in her palm as separate but intertwined threads. Dementia closes her hand and brushes colored dust off her palms. “I don’t know what I am, but I know what you two could be”. She looks pointedly at Chris and Marigold as she shares that cryptic information.

Dementia’s ghosts swoop back in through the walls of the kitchen. They float over to crowd around her head and whisper to her. They each tell Dementia a direction and a number before melting back into her body. She sighs and looks at Ash, Marigold, and Chuck. “Well, looks like we gonna fight.”. Her posture straightens while her dress tightens into a golden suit similar to the sleek suits the Platinum Knights were wearing. However, Dementia is not going to dent her glorious afro with a stupid hat. Waving her hand,  a gleaming staff appears. She looks regal and martial, ready to take on the world. Dementia opens the door and walks out onto Bourbon, ready for a fierce battle.