ph_logs | May Event - All Too Familiar

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May Event - All Too Familiar

Content Warnings: Walking dead, character deaths, potential for gore | Special Thanks to Meghan and Kalineh

It was a fine spring day when mysterious letters began cropping up all over Pumpkin Hollow. Letters whose apparent senders do not remember writing them, whose recipients or discoverers were harmed by reading them. Eventually these mysteries, though still unsolved, come to a quiet halt as stealthily as they began, but not before a mail carrier in a cowboy hat trots out to Elsie’s tree with a letter in hand, unmarked aside from being addressed to her.

She gleefully rips open that letter, hoping it's another message from her father. It isn't and, at first, she's crushed. But only until she starts to actually read it.

Elsie,

River la Croix has been hiding something in her forge for a while now. It is called the Book of the Dead. In its pages are hundreds of spells from across time and space with the power to give life to those no longer with us.

Your father is doing his best to revive your mother. But this island’s barrier is blocking his will, resisting his magic. I can no longer watch you suffer in solitude when a solution exists. All you have to do is decipher the text, and its powers are yours. Your mother will be returned to you.

River does not want to part with it. She will become suspicious of you if you ask, and it will become harder to acquire it. You will have to take it without her notice by levitating it out of her forge. She, like many others, is fearful of the Book’s power. This fear isn’t entirely unwarranted for them, but for you, your connection to the Feywilds’ magic will be enough to grant you access to that otherworldly power.

Good luck, and all my love to your dear mother when she returns.

Fond regards,
A friend

Could this be it? Could this be the miracle she's been waiting for? Hope swells painfully in her chest as she clutches the note close. She mustn't celebrate too early. She still needs to get the book. At least her mysterious friend has already told her where to find it. Her jaw sets in a look of determination, and she speeds away into the dusk.

It doesn't take long to reach the forge. River has defended it well, but Elsie slips into her own shadow and sneaks beneath the door without so much as a whisper of sound. Only her hand extends from the puddle of shadow on the floor inside, like a disembodied arm hovering before the flames. Mustering her will, she reaches out to the ancient book and commands the winds to lift it. Sweat beads her shadowy brow while she concentrates, the flames flicker and dance around the slowly levitating book. Just a little more, a little more… There!

It's heavy in her hand, and remarkably cool to the touch despite having been pulled from the fire. She retracts her arm and the book back into her shadow and slips out the way she came. Her heart thumps in her chest as she races back to the safety of her tree. To her mother, who will soon be able to wrap flesh and blood arms around her like she once did. All that's left now is to read. Her friends have been teaching her how. Her mother will be so proud of her.

Carefully now, she opens the book, feeling her skin crawl as a sudden unease grips her very core. No, she will not be deterred. The language is unlike any she's ever seen. The letters, if indeed they can be called that, feel jagged and painful to her mind. Still, she will Not Give Up. She screws her eyes shut, thinks of her mother, and holds tight to her desperate hope to be reunited.

When her eyes reopen to behold the page before her, understanding strikes like lightning. Suddenly, she knows she can speak the words. As they escape her mouth, an unknown magic swells into the space around her, then beyond her. The ground shakes. The air turns foul. And as the trinkets in Elsie’s tree chime together in the unsettling breeze, ringing out with notes more sour than usual, it quickly becomes clear that the advice she received was not from any friend.

The forms of people begin to pry themselves loose from the ground all over town, as if emerging from water, leaving the ground unbroken as they lift themselves out of the ground. They bear horrid injuries, shambling along grotesquely, telling a story of death. However, these are not skeletons from the graveyard, housing the souls of long-dead locals. These are things of flesh and blood, however exposed they might be, wearing newer faces.

Much newer.

Since the barrier went up, many people have died, only to have their bodies vanish and replaced by a new one. Those bodies now walk the town, seeking to unleash a wrath brought on by the corrupted magic of the Necronomicon. Anyone who has died inside the barrier will have a violent, undead copy of themself representing each death wandering the island looking to increase their ranks. Which means that there will be many, many, many Yoricks.

Destroyed copies will remain destroyed for the standard overnight period of any other person. But there are too many of them to defeat this way, and their destruction is impermanent. Thankfully, help is on the way!

In the midst of the undead and their attack on the citizens of Pumpkin Hollow, tiny glimmers of hope appear in the form of folded paper birds. The little gold birds flit from fighter to fighter, small whispers promising that if enough enemies can be felled then the High Priestess can intervene. The necessary number is unknown, but if a bird alights upon someone, they will feel their weariness vanish for a short time, and perhaps, should she feel like it, they may receive a temporary boon to use against the undead.

Eventually the High Priestess will show herself, making good on the promises of the little birds. With a smile, her magic will wrap around the remaining undead, returning them to the unseen graves and binding them into Death once more, leaving the living to pick up the pieces.

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Outwardly, he manages to keep himself collected, some of the strain of stress easing those furrowed brows of his with the reassurance that this isn't irreparably damaged, that he can still make this right, that they're willing to see where he's coming from in all of this.

(Internally, he's downright sentimental enough to be fighting off tears in those big eyes of his, if he hadn't gotten so good at it after all these years. They're a family. Even so far away from home, so far away from the rest of his Boys and a whole world that he'd wronged and still needs to make right with, he's still got a family.)

"Families stick together," Inspekta agrees, finally managing a little, sentimental smile. "And I love yew two too, I hope yew both know dat. I ain't takin' none'a this for granted. We're gonna get it all figured out, okie dokie?"

A beat, and he tips his head down to look at them a bit better, his smile turning to a playful grin.

"And hopefully I won't give neither of yew too many grey hairs in da process."

"I can feel my nose bleaching as we speak," Patty jokes, but she leans next to Pokey, bumping Inspekta's finger with her shoulder. "But I love you too, you big noodle. Now let's get back to Capo, feels weird not having him barking orders at me during a mess like this."

Between their legs, she reaches for Pokey's hand, lacing their fingers together. She doesn't know what it'll look like just yet, but as long as she and Kel stick together, something, things will work out. She hopes.

Kelaiah gives her hand a squeeze in return. They don't know how this will look either, where they'll land with all this. They don't want to lose Hector to Inspekta after just getting him back. It would be nice if these two sides of him could exist harmoniously, creating a complete person. It'd be nice if Patty and Pokey could help.

But they weren't bluffing before. If it came down to it, if they were ever in the position of having to choose, they'd choose Patty every time.

Please don't make me choose.

The rest of the flight over is quiet, but blessedly short as the three of them hurry into the house that Inspekta's extra hands have nearly finished boarding shut. Capochin looks immediately relieved by their arrival.

"Gods, there you three are! I was startin' to feel my blood pressure go up." He loops one arm around Pokey and one around Patty to hug them, before going to Inspekta to kiss his oversized face. "I checked in with the other Bizzyboys, told 'em they could come here if they wanted, and Spamton's holdin' down the fort at the Burger King. Apparently he's killed like three zombies, so. I think he's fine. You guys okay?"

"Hanging in there," Pokey murmurs, looking to Patty.

"Yeah," Patty agrees, hugging Capo hard. Holding back the urge to sniffle, she flashes Pokey a brief, reassuring smile before tugging on Capo's arm and saying, "Come on boss, we should, um...we should check the back door and windows."

The slight against Inspekta's work isn't intended; actually, Patty didn't even think of that. She's seizing on the first excuse she could think of to get Capo alone -- so they can talk.

"Huh? Oh--- yeah, good idea," Capochin agrees, following after her. He gives her a playful nudge. "Lookit you, barkin' orders like you own the place. Whenever I finally retire, I know who I'm trainin' to take my job. If I can be persuaded to retire before I croak."

A beat, and he notices how distressed she seems. "Hey, you okay, kiddo?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm a regular bossy boots," Patty says, accidentally pushing the resemblance to an uncanny degree. She gives Capo a helpless look and, as soon as they've turned a corner and gotten to the back of the house she immediately hugs him again, burying her face in his shirt.

Pokey's probably going to be able to hear them no matter how quiet she is, but hopefully Inspekta can't hear a thing as she mumbles, "No."

A little more clearly, she manages to get out, "I'm tryin', but I'm really not okay at all, Capo..."

"Woah, hey." Capochin returns the hug, a bit tentative, but only out of concern. He rubs her back firmly, heavy-handed by nature. He smells like cigarettes and coffee and whatever he made for breakfast. "Hey, hey, hey. Talk to me. What's goin' on? Is it--- did you see somethin' scary, or did Spek say somethin'...?"

Patty shakes her head. "He didn't have to say anything. Just seein' him like that, I..." She doesn't know how Capo can stand it. But that, at least, reminds her that she's not the only one who might have a problem with this turn of events.

She jerks her head up, giving Capo the saddest, most lip-wobbling look he's probably ever seen on her face. "How are you holding up?" she asks him suddenly. "What do you think of, you know, all this?" She waves her hand back at the front of the house, where Hector and Pokey are.

"Oh. Dat." Capochin lets out a long breath, scratching the back of his head.

"I... I dunno. I really don't. I just... It's a lotta mixed feelings. I mean, I loved him, just as much as Inspekta as I do as Hector. I knew him like dat for longer than as a human, y'know? I... I wanted him to succeed as a god. All I ever did was try to help him. And--- y'know the other gods, right? They offered him a chance to come back, right? Or so I hear. We... we came here a few minutes before that. So we never--- we wasn't there for the part where he said no."

"But that's only a few minutes!" Patty protests. How can a few minutes make that much of a difference? If she'd shown up here a few minutes before Pokey'd thrown all that paint on the statue in Buzzhuzz, instead of a few weeks after, would she still be struggling to stand up to Capochin? She tries to picture it, but she just can't. There's too much emotion between then and now, she can't see past how much she's felt and changed since then.

"...He said bein' a god was no good for him," she says quietly. "And now, seein' him like that...he's changed a little, yeah, he's better, but what if it's not enough? Kelaiah said we gotta give him a chance, but I-I'm scared, Capo."

"Big things can happen in a few minutes, kiddo. You can change a mind in a few minutes," Capochin points out. If there's one thing he's learned in his years, it's that a moment can change a life.

Still, he relents with a sigh. "Bein' a god ain't good for him. But part of that was the--- the isolation." Capochin admits it reluctantly, knowing his role in that. "He didn't have good people lookin' out for him the way he does now. He had me, but I wasn't good people then. Plus... ehhh how do I explain this."

Capochin rubs the back of his neck, choosing his words.

"One of the things he told me is that bein' a god made him feel too different from everyone else to trust 'em. He couldn't confide in other gods, too scared of bein' seen as weak or a bad fit. Couldn't talk to humans, 'cause he figured we couldn't understand him no more. But that part... it ain't like that now. He can still change back to human, so--- there's some parts we'll never understand, maybe. But at the end of the day he can just go back to bein' Hector. Y'know? He's just scared for us. He wants his people to be okay. That's why he took the deal. It was dumb, but we can't do anything about it now except make sure he don't forget what he's in it for."

And then there were two.

Pokey looks to Inspekta, a little awkward. "So, how's all this work, anyway? You said you could switch back and forth, right?"

Godpoke catches him just in time, in the fleeting moments that he'd waffled on trying to follow the two, before he can settle on a decision. Inspekta looks just as awkward, but tries to crack that signature grin, even still. (It only just barely works, and that shows.)

"Shore can! I could even show ya!" He assures them. "All I'd need is a couple'a seconds and a room with nobody in it to do the lil' trick to it. I was thinkin' about switchin' back, anyhow. Seems like this look, uh... still ain't sittin' too good with Patty."

"Noooo," Pokey agrees awkwardly. "I think she'll adapt, but--- Patty feels things pretty hard. It's not so easy for her, you know? Me, I just get in my own head, I kinda wish I felt more instead of thinking so much. But."

They catch themself rambling, and trot after him. "I'm definitely curious about how all this works."

"Don't I know it. She shore, uh... made how she was feelin' real known!"

It's reluctant, his leading Pokey into the God Complex, but he does. In a perfect reversal of what he'd shown Capochin, he pulls his head into the collar of his coat, grabs the edge of the fabric, and instead of revealing any hands beneath his coat, it parts open like a curtain, vanishing and revealing Hector once more, his smile forced and absolutely dripping anxiety that he'd managed to just barely hide as Inspekta.

"Aaand there we have it!" He cracks that tense smile into an uneasy grin. "Let's get outta here for now, okie dokie? We can, uh... check on tha upstairs windows, I s'pose, since it, um. Seems like they... might need a few minutes."

He clearly doesn't love the idea of leaving them to their own devices, to most assuredly express how they know he'd messed this all up, but what can he do? Go lurk? At least this way, he can get Pokey's temperature on it, and show that he doesn't have to have his finger on the pulse of everything that goes on.

There is a palpable relief as Godpoke sees the transformation in action, confirming that he can indeed go back to his normal self. They try not to let out a sigh, but they're grateful.

"That's kinda cool," they say, entirely earnest. "Like a magic trick. Yeah, let's go upstairs."

Hector's just as relieved by Godpoke's reaction as they are the sight, letting out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He waves them along without much further fuss, and as soon as they're out the door, and it closes, the God Complex is gone once more.

It's only once they're up the stairs does he speak again, peering tentatively out the window before trying to pull the wooden shutters closed.

"...I only did it to help us. Me, yew, Capo, Patty, the rest of da Boys... we needed it. I couldn't say no."

"I think we were getting through okay. But I understand." They linger back a ways, letting him fuss over the windows.

"...You're not worried?"

He's quiet, for a few seconds longer than he ought to have been, before he lets out a soft sigh. He doesn't want to do this, be this person who puts the weight of his world on someone else's shoulders--- much less someone who he needs to be carving a path to a better future for, who he needs to be looking out for.

Parents aren't supposed to put worries like this onto their kids.

Kelaiah's always had a way of getting it out of him, though--- getting the fears and worries out of all the gods they spoke to, current, former, bastardized and otherwise. They're one Drain of a godpoke, that's for sure.

"...'Course I am," he finally admits, not looking back, pausing and letting his hand linger on the curtain he'd moved to pull closed. "How could I not be? I almost ruined everything, last time I had power like this. Almost ended the whole wide world. But--- things are gettin' worse n' worse. I'm sure yew're seein' it, too, right?"

Another beat of quiet. His fingers curl tighter into the fabric. He's not really looking out those narrow gaps in the slats of wood anymore, staring right through the wood itself. His tail sweeps the floor anxiously, once, twice, before curling loosely around his leg.

"...I didn't wanna lose this. Didn't wanna lose anybody to gettin' hurt by this place, over n' over again. I was scared, Pokey. Am scared."

Quietly, gently, Pokey comes up behind him, taking his hand and prying it loose from the curtain. "Things are scary," they murmur. "But we're not alone. ...I trust you, though. You're not so far away now. Not trapped in a room, not so impossibly different from all your friends. You have a family. Everything's going to be fine."

There's a moment of shock, when his hand is pulled away and held, but it's what Godpoke says that resounds all the way to his very core. It's like they can see right through him, right through everything that had him tangled up into such unsalvageable-looking knots. He isn't alone the way he'd used to be, is he? He's let himself get close. He's let people reach him, closer than he's ever truly let them before.

He takes in and lets out a slow breath.

Maybe this time will be different. No--- it will be, because it has to be. And, at the very least, he won't be alone while he tries to make it so.

"...Yew're a good kid, Kel," he finally replies, after his moment of stillness. "Yew been real good to me. ...I hope yew're right to be. And I hope yew understandin' don't put yew in any tight spots with anybody else."

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May Event - All Too Familiar

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Split - Capo & Patty

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Split - Hector & Godpoke

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