Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 8
This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on Sep 16th. 2007.
So, like I said in my previous entry, I woke up the morning after we dealt with all the giants and I felt terrific. The almost fatal wound I took from that giant’s axe had healed completely. The others were a bit confused by my sudden recovery at first, but like me, they figured it out quickly enough.
Unfortunately, Mad Dawgg has been paying more attention to me than I’m comfortable with. Apparently he’s got the hots for me, which isn’t really that weird (a lot of guys do), but for some reason he thinks I like him too…which I certainly do not. Sigh. It’s probably because I agreed he could stick with me and the rest of my girls last night so that Dahlia could join Ray’s henchmen in protecting T-Bone. Ray’s been my protector here just as he is in most other situations, though. I almost feel sorry for Mad Dawgg. Almost.
By the way, I’m a bit mystified by how hard Dahlia has fallen for him. She’s always been a bit…promiscuous…and I’m not sure that’s going to end anytime soon, but she certainly seems to have a thing for T-Bone. He doesn’t seem like he’d be her type…he’s way too reserved and quiet and he doesn’t even like the same things she does. If this isn’t a case in favor of the old cliché that opposites attract, I don’t know what is. Maybe the Blues Man is just really good in bed.
Anyway, that’s beside the point. I was going to suggest that we go back and investigate the giants’ mill in more detail since we didn’t really do it last night after finishing off the giants. I mean, sure, I was ready to get out of the great outdoors and back to civilization…but I wanted to make sure we did things right, y’know? Before I could bring it up, though, Anna announced that she was going out to hunt the Nemean bear that Artemis commanded her to kill. And, well, the rest of us couldn’t exactly let her do it alone, so we tagged along.
Ray’s followers were still recovering from their stomach-turning fight with the harpies from the night before, so they stayed at the camp, and I left Quinn, Kimiyo, and Dahlia with them. Keiko and Sera came with the rest of us, though. Ray and I had another silly argument while we were hiking. I don’t know why. I like Ray, I really do. He’s a great guy to have around and he really looks out for his friends. But he and I just have a tendency to get into the most pointless little disagreements. Oh well, I’ll just have to look at it as part of his unique charm. ^_^
Unfortunately, the bear wasn’t the first thing we ran into. The remnants of the park’s resident harpy flock ambushed us in the forest while we were looking for the bear. I hung back and stayed out of the way, taking pictures of my friends as they fought. I got this absolutely incredible picture of Adam lunging at a diving harpy with his enchanted knife. It’s probably the most dramatic picture I’ve ever taken. I think I’ll Photoshop it to remove some of the color, except for the red, red blood spraying from the harpy.
T-Bone didn’t fare so well in this fight, though. He couldn’t withstand the harpies’ disgusting aura, and ended up retching his guts up. That left him open to attack, and then a harpy dove on him and shredded his neck and shoulders with her talons. I thought I got it bad when that giant hit me with his axe, but at least I was still standing. I rushed to T-Bone to see what I could do for him. Meanwhile, Ray, Anna, Adam, Pierre, and Elisa made short work of the rest of the harpies. Even Keiko and Sera did some damage with their guns.
I healed T-Bone as well as I could, but he was still pretty beat up and stayed unconscious for awhile. It did occur to me as I was seeing to his wounds that it’s a good thing we have Pierre with us. With his skill, even if one of us dies, he can just raise us as zombies. It may not be the best fate, but at least we won’t really have to lose anyone that way. Like I said when I almost did die, I at least hope they’d keep me around as a zombie if I died. I actually think Anna would make a good zombie. She just has the right look for it. I hope she doesn’t die, and I don’t think she’s likely to anytime soon, but if she does, I’ll have to encourage Pierre to make her undead.
Speaking of Anna, she didn’t have any trouble tracking down the bear, and I have got to say that it was the most frightening beast I’ve ever seen. Imagine a hulking black bear the size of a bus, with fur that seemed to absorb the light and eyes that glowed like embers. The thing had claws like swords, and I’m not exaggerating. The thing raised its head and looked at us, and I felt this chill in the pit of my stomach that told me there was no escape from it (the chilling feeling wasn’t Oiwa, by the way; I checked). There was no way we could retreat from this fight.
That was okay, though, because no one really wanted to. Well, I did, a little, and T-Bone might have, but the others didn’t waste any time laying into the beast. T-bone was awake by this time, but was still beat to hell, so I stayed by him and kept an eye on the fight. I’ve pretty much figured out how my comrades fight by now, and I know how best to help them coordinate their attacks. I shouted out warnings and directions to help direct the flow of the battle, and I think it helped a bit even though not everyone was listening to me. Elisa sure was. She injured the bear first with her rifle. It took Ray awhile to warm up to the fight, though. The first time he hit the bear, his sword didn’t even pierce its skin! That’s a first. It must have been a first for Ray too, because he shouted something like, “What the f**k!? I didn’t hurt it? There’s no way I’m lettin’ a motherf**kin’ bear show up the Shogun!”
Anna and Ray did most of the damage to the thing, as usual. And it…well, it hit hard. Those claws were fearsome! It focused its attacks on Anna, and even she was hard pressed to avoid getting mauled by the beast. I could sense her channeling her divine blood; it was like a story from some Greek epic…which, now that I think about it, it kinda was.
In the end, Anna killed, it, though I think Ray had to pull his punches there at the end (when he sets his mind to something, he’s unstoppable!). I was just glad it was over. I was never in any immediate danger…but the sheer amount of violence involved in the combat was…distressing.
Actually, that leads me to what happened next. I commented on how we had to find a better way to deal with all of our problems than the bloody carnival of violence my friends tend to unleash on our enemies. I mean, sure, there really wasn’t any other way to deal with the bear…or the harpies…or, maybe, the giants. But…still, the amount of violence I’ve been subjected to lately has been a bit traumatic. It’s not that I have a big problem with gore. Zombies don’t bother me, and I don’t really mind it when the rest of the group mutilates the corpses of our enemies to harvest mystically imbued body parts or to sacrifice a heart or two to their parents. It’s just that I feel like I’ve stepped into a Kill Bill movie all of the sudden (only worse), and Quentin Tarantino is just not my thing. I pray to the kami that any future “problems” we run into involve a little more talking and a little less bloodletting. Of course I got into an argument with the others about it, which wasn’t really my intention. So I gave up.
Anyway, after defeating the bear, the others skinned it and took one of its claws. Adam says we can get some dwarves in Minnesota to turn them into some really powerful weapons and armor. You know, Adam must be more knowledgeable about occult stuff that anyone else I’ve ever met (well, except for my mother, of course).
With all of our tasks in Beaver Creek accomplished, we were ready to get out of there. And none too soon. But, I couldn’t let us go without following up on the giants’ mill, so I finally brought up my suggestion that we go back and look it over more carefully. After all, we didn’t know if there was anything important there or if anyone else would come along to check on it. We found some interesting things, though we still don’t know exactly what the mill was for except that it was meant as a receptacle for the gem we found. A crude diary we discovered (it was left by the giants) showed that the mill had an important visitor about every week or so, so we decided to move our camp to the mill and wait and see if this mysterious visitor would show up again.
But first, we went back to the visitors’ center and got cleaned up. I don’t think a shower has ever felt so good. The first thing I’m doing when I get home is run a tub of steaming hot water and take loooong bath with my favorite bath salts – the sweet smelling ones that turn the water red so that it looks like diluted blood. I would have done so already, but I’m typing this on my flight back to Boston, so I’ll have to wait a few more hours. Sigh.
After getting refreshed, we settled in at the giants’ mill for a few days. There wasn’t much to do, so it was a bit boring at first, but things got very interesting on about the second day of waiting when Ray, Adam, and Anna decided to spar. Ray agreed to take on both Anna and Adam at the same time. It was…brutal. I tried to ignore it. I’d already had enough violence, and the whole situation looked to me like another way for everyone to prove how macho they were. I think Pierre decided to get involved using his Cheval powers, though, because according to Adam, people started getting some weird urges, and eventually Adam even cut his belt so that his pants fell down and he was standing there in his boxers (not an unwelcome sight, I might add).
Adam got hurt pretty badly early on (he’s a great guy, but he’s not in Ray and Anna’s caliber when it comes to fighting). Ray cut down a tree and then drop kicked it at both Adam and Anna! He’s nothing if not dramatic! Because of that, and because he was tired of Pierre’s attempts to control him, Adam dropped out of the match and slumped down against a tree to catch his breath and nurse his wounds, so I decided to go over and nurse his wounds for him. I used Mara’s pendant to heal him a bit, as tenderly and affectionately as I could. I realized then that the moment was right, and so I turned on my charms, gave him the most alluring look I could, and leaned in to kiss him.
It was a wonderful kiss. I made it last as long as I could. And I think Adam enjoyed it just as much as I did. I’ve definitely opened the doors for a real relationship with him, I think.
Unfortunately, Anna and her pet psychosis may have closed those doors again.
See, I was still enjoying the afterglow of the kiss when I heard something crash behind me. I turned and found that Ray had thrown another tree, this time between Anna and me. Anna was stalking in my direction, and she had murder in her eyes. I realized immediately that things were apparently not as “over” between her and Adam as she told me they were. Ray threw something else between us to try and forestall Anna’s advance…I think it was a part of the mill…but she kept coming. I think she was going to kill me.
I stood up and stepped toward her, though, which may have frightened the others (I know I saw Ray cringe). Then I turned on my charm and felt my divine blood stir. I gave Anna a serene, soothing look that immediately quelled her anger, if only for the time being. It calmed her down enough to listen to me, anyway. I talked to her as one friend to another and managed to convince her that she and Adam had broken up for a lot of good reasons. They weren’t right for each other, and deep in her heart Anna knows that. She understood what I was saying, and after taking a deep breath, she backed down and let me be. I don’t know how she’ll react in the future…she strikes me as someone whose jealousy is likely to get the better of her a lot. But for now she’s appeased. Even so, I didn’t flirt with Adam any more at the time.
However…Adam lives in Chicago, and I’m pretty much welcome to visit him whenever. While we were still in the park, I talked to Keiko and asked her and Sera to work on arranging gigs for me in some Chicago clubs. With any luck, I’ll be heading there within a few weeks to perform, and I’ll definitely make sure to schedule some time to spend with Adam. As long as everyone else doesn’t crash the party…which they seem determined to do…it’ll be fun. ^_^
And of course I’m really looking forward to getting back to Mara. I’ve missed her over this past week!