Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

[bc56]

Eupharynx

Huh. Talking about children again. That's still creepy. Selekhael puts the note down and goes out the door and down the hall again. But she doesn't need to use the torch for light. She draws her flaming sword, being careful to not accidentally cut through any walls with it. Now she can head to the hold and check out those cars.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

Not stopping on the way to see if there's more clues? In one of the other cabins or the galley? Well, the far door does open into the hold. It's quite a large space, though it seems quite crowded- the ship isn't very large, and so the three vehicles it has salvaged take up quite a lot of space. There's a little three-wheeled autorickshaw; it looks reasonably good, given it's spent a week or so in the ocean and hit the seabed quite hard. There's also a black hackney cab, which has broken windows and a dented roof because it landed upside-down, and finally the van. It's a minivan, the white paint streaked with grime and saltwater and the back doors are open. This chamber is also dark. There's at least one and possibly two disarticulated skeletons scattered across the floor, humanoid if not human. The skulls are not present, but there's a few teeth amongst the bones.

If Selekhael goes to check out the vehicles, there's not really anywhere to conceal something on the autorickshaw. It's all open to the outside, though it has a frame for a fabric roof that is currently missing. If she thinks to check, concealed inside the cushions on the padded bench are magazines and bullets. The taxi cab is a newer electric model, of the famous London black cab design, and it's even black. In the rear footwell there's a sodden faded black cocoon, which has shrivelled and ruptured, leaking a foul-smelling glossy black liquid that looks like oil but smells of death. There's also a disassembled assault rifle hidden as part of the vehicle's chassis. The van has far more of those cocoons, some of which have fallen from the storage area of the vehicle. There's also three near the bottom that are a darker black than the others, and those are harder, too- and they've each cracked open, as whatever was inside has hatched. Perhaps there's clues as to what was inside them in the other cocoons.

Or Selekhael could ignore the vehicles, as a child behind her starts to cry, apparently in the galley.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

Selekhael goes to the vehicles, starts searching, and spots the cocoons. What could've made these? She doesn't have time to satisfy her curiosity though, because suddenly she hears a child crying. "Oh, uh, gosh, uh, it's okay, I'm coming!" She runs towards the galley, but the messages are playing in her mind. Fear the children. But the maternal instincts are strong in her. She has to protect that frightened child, lost and alone in the dark on a ship full of dead people.

[Purple Eagle]

[Silver Sand Stretch]

"I can take care of myself... but I'm still little, I may go overboard. Or underboard. It's a word, now." Zabb says as he considers her words. Things work differently, it wouldn't do to just barge into unfamiliar territory.

"Oo! Can I help make the plan less risky? Even if I can't intervene much, I should be able to bless them with protection and stuff!" The little celestial suggests. "I promise not to tell you and jeopardize the plan!"

All in all, he's grateful that Sekhmet cares enough to caution him, and it shows on his face. "Thanks for warning me, Sekh. Can I call you Sekh? Sekky? Metty?"

[bc56]

Silver Sand Stretch

"That's not what I'm, uh, worried about." But Sekhmet doesn't explain further. "Uh, I usually just go by Sekhmet. But, uh, I guess you can call me Sekh or Sekky, if you want?" Metty is just wrong though.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The galley is small, with a coffee machine on the side, several cupboards and a large fridge for storing food. There's a small oven, with a single hob, a toaster and a microwave as well. Next to the door there's a fridge, currently slightly ajar- though it's positioned that as Selekhael walks into the room, it's behind and to one side, and the fridge's own door blocks a view from the doorway. Sat on the floor at the far end of the galley is a child, a girl perhaps nine years old, with curly black hair. She's wearing a white adult's button-up shirt, with the sleeves pushed quite far up the arms, and possibly nothing else. Her back's to the doorway and hence Selekhael, and she seems to be gripping something plush or furry.

The ceiling is low enough that there's nowhere to hide upon it, but there's all the cupboards along the walls and the fridge itself as well.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

"Uh, hi?" Selekhael stows her blade to try to look less threatening. "Are you okay? Where are your, uh, parents?" She slowly approaches, hands outstretched in a friendly posture.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The child keeps sobbing as Selekhael approaches, and doesn't react. Nothing does- until she's about a quarter of the way into the room. At that point, the fridge door swings the rest of the way open and out pounces another child, a pale-skinned boy of about the same age as the first wearing a pair of blue swimming trunks. There's something wrong with the child's face, however; its mouth is open, revealing a large red eye nestled between its lips, and a pair of short tendrils ending in fanged mouths emerge from its eye sockets. That kyld wants to barge into the backs of Selekhael's knee and knock her over as she's taking a step forward. Simultaneously with the first, another kyld- this one an androgynous, nude and hairless figure with blue-green skin and webbed fingers and toes- bangs a cupboard door open, possibly into Selekhael's path and further overbalance her before it too pounces, jumping to grab the angel's torso.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

Selekhael is pounced on. Twice. She topples over onto the floor with kyldren atop her. Then she's suddenly gone, jaunting through 5th-dimensional space to appear outside the mess hall, which she quickly slams the door to and leans against the wall, gasping in fright. What were those things? She's pretty sure now that those are both what came out of the cocoons and what killed the crew of the ship. But she was entirely unprepared for them. She needs a minute to calm back down.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

There's hissing from the galley, followed by a child's scream. If Selekhael is foolish enough to burst in to rescue the bait, all three children will try to pounce upon her. If that doesn't work, however, then... Well, Selekhael can do whatever she wants. There's only one door to and from the galley, and whilst it does have a porthole, the window is sealed and doesn't open. The biggest issue is the door opens inwards, and has no lock, so she can't block them in and continue her explorations of the vessel. For all she knows, there could be someone alive somewhere; whilst there's three cabins, and she has encountered so far three skeletons, it's possible that the other two cabins are double or triple berths. The vessel's too big for a crew of three to be able to reliably handle if something went wrong.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

Ugh, this is terrible. All Selekhael's instincts say to rush in there and save the child. But that's dangerous! And there probably isn't a real child there!
Of course, now that she knows about those horrible, horrible monsters, she'll be ready for them. She draws her khopesh again and slowly, carefully opens the door.

Hopefully that isn't a mistake.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The door is pushed open, and the galley is once again revealed. The door gets heavier as one of the monsters, the naked androgyne, jumps onto it and redirects their gravity into the door, making it their 'down', though Selekhael might just think it's pushing against the door. It's aiming to surprise her when the door's mostly open by reaching out and grabbing at her from behind the door, hoping the confined space and the blocking door will protect it from the flaming sword. The girl has disappeared, though she's left the furry thing she was holding- a chunk of somebody's head, consisting mostly of brown hair and a pallid-looking pointed ear. The boy in swim trunks is rummaging through a cutlery drawer, turning and looking as Selekhael enters the room and pulling out a serrated kitchen knife.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

When the hand grabs at Selekhael, she responds violently by hacking at the kyld through the door. Her unnatural blade can cut through even a metal door like butter, so unless there's some manner of enchantment at work here, it won't provide much protection at all. What's more likely is that she misses because she can't actually see her target. But hopefully her guess is close enough. She ignores the other one for now. She's not experienced enough of a combatant to focus on multiple enemies simultaneously.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The sword easily cuts through the plywood door, and the kyldren behind it which screeches and hisses and keeps going on the attack. It tries to gouge Selekhael with its nails and bite with its extended mouths.

The boy in swimming trunks runs towards Selekhael and jumps towards her, holding the knife and trying to stab as it grabs at her and stab and bite.

The girl remains hidden, and doesn't appear.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

Selekhael steps away from the dying kyld in time to see the second one flying at her face. Her blade is too heavy to bring up fast enough in response, so she raises her hand to block. Instinctively, she partly unfolds, her arm becoming a powerful lion's paw to bat away the airborne kyld.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The kyld on the door falls off it as the sword is removed, hitting the ground with a thud and not moving. The wound leaks thick black liquid, and small white maggots start to emerge first from the injury then they'll begin to eat their way out of the rest of the corpse.

The kyld that just got batted across the room drops their knife and hits the counter then rolls off and hits the floor with quite a bit of force. Black goo is left on the counter, and the creature doesn't move- but it's not leaking as much, and there's no maggots either.

The girl continues to hide.

[Purple Eagle]

Silver Sand Stretch

"That's not what I'm, uh, worried about." But Sekhmet doesn't explain further. "Uh, I usually just go by Sekhmet. But, uh, I guess you can call me Sekh or Sekky, if you want?" Metty is just wrong though.

[Silver Sand Stretch]

"Okay, Sekh! And you can call me Zabb, rather than Zabbaiel!" He says in turn, but then he already said that before. "What are you worried about, then? How can I help? Can I make you less worried?"

[bc56]

Eupharynx
Selekhael doesn't notice the maggots. That doesn't seem important to her. To the other kyld, she raises her hand and calls forth a bolt of entropic power to consume it with rot and decay. And where is the third one? While she's doing all this, she finishes unfolding, her true angelic shape now revealed, part lioness, part tawny eagle, part ring, and part coral reef.

Silver Sand Stretch
"She's the queen of corruption! A fallen angel! If you, uh... Well..." Sekhmet hopes the implications are clear. Even to an angel, it would be a very dangerous fight. Perhaps even more so.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

Kyldren aren't affected by age in the same way as natural creatures, and so the one that Selekhael just blasted with entropic power remains. Were it truly dead, the rot and decay would take over- however, it's only faking death in an attempt to get Selekhael to lower her guard. It doesn't know what she's just done, but feels the attention of the attack and is smart enough to realise that its cover as a corpse is most likely blown. It jumps to its feet and hisses at Selekhael, but doesn't approach. It scuttles to the wall, touching it and then advancing up the wall as though it were ground at a slight angle so it's getting closer to the angel.

The maggots continue to eat their way from the corpse, seeking anywhere dark and secluded to pupate. Some will probably find their way into the cupboards, others may leave the galley and make their way to other parts of the ship. Some will crawl up the walls and even across the ceiling, if they get that far.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

In angelic form, Selekhael is a much more formidable close combatant. She pounces on the advancing Kyld, biting and pecking, clawing and buffeting the creature with her wings. Her other powers aren't so useful in this situation, so it seems like brute strength will need to prevail.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The kyld is ripped to pieces, hissing and clawing and biting as it tries to defend itself- probably hopelessly. It's full of black goo and white maggots, with some organs that quickly dissolve into more black goo and white maggots. It also tastes absolutely foul, like strong vinegar and week-old meat.

[Purple Eagle]

[Silver Sand Stretch]

"We have one like that, too. Lord of corruption, fallen celestial. Seraphim would be better, but they'd have more pressing matters to attend to than fighting your mum unless absolutely necessary." Zabb explains, understanding the implication. "Okay, Sekh, I won't do it alone, and not unless absolutely necessary!" He hopes that calms her down... don't want her worrying needlessly about the possibility of him biting off more than he can chew.

"I still think I could handle it, and I have a far greater force on my side should I fall... but I won't do it unless absolutely necessary." He doesn't say more, so that Sapphira won't have any more hints if she does pull things out of Sekhmet's mind.

Which reminds him! "If you want to be safe... I could make you forget things you don't want your mum getting a hold of." He suggests, smiling at her as he dumps more seashells in her bag.

[bc56]

Eupharynx
Selekhael spits and paws at her tongue, trying to get the awful taste out of her mouth. Once she realizes this won't really work, she instead focuses on finding the third kyld, the girl. She must be around here somewhere. Selekhael begins opening cabinets and other containers one by one in search of the creature.

Silver Sand Stretch
Sekhmet looks distinctly uncomfortable at that suggestion. "Uh, I need to remember those things. To have them, uh, removed from my mind would be..." A violation of her personal autonomy? Damaging to her life? Really weird?

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

Starting near the door, there's nothing in the fridge except some wrecked shelves and some gnawed bones. The next cabinet is half-filled with tins, mostly tomatoes and ravioli with some anchovies, spam and baked beans. Next cabinet contains a medical kit, a small fire extinguisher, a hand mirror, and a glass bottle filled with softly glowing holy water. Third cabinet contains the girl, hiding its face and cowering at the back, gripping a tin opener. It doesn't attack, just staring at Selekhael with its large duck-egg blue eye, its mouth tendrils retracted back into its face.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

Selekhael sees the girl. But she isn't attacking. That's weird. The other two seemed berserk, but this one is just cowering. Even when she first encountered them, the girl didn't attack at all. Selekhael is good at reading emotions, and something seems off here. "Uh, hi. Can you understand me?" She asks, curious.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The child nods, but brandishes the tin opener anyway. Her emotions don't map directly to human ones, not even really close, but she's currently feeling wary-illuminated-pain. It's a complex and inhuman mix, and even 'wary' doesn't quite explain the emotion, particularly since humans rarely have an emotion specifically tied to whether they're in the dark or not.

It might simply be this one knows, since the other two were so easily and brutally dispatched, that it can't fight Selekhael and thinks its survival might depend on a different track.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

"What are you? Do you have a name?" Selekhael understand. This creature is hurt and afraid that she'll kill it. Whether or not she will kill it is still undecided. Is it a person, or a monster? That's what she's trying to find out.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

The child-like thing lowers its tin opener. It then shrugs, and hisses before it makes a sound like a child sobbing. It isn't doing anything that would match the sounds it is making, just crouching at the back of the cupboard. There's no tears, its shoulders aren't shaking, none of that. It doesn't cry long, before pausing and tilting its head to one side. It feels... curious-hungry as a result. Not hungry in the sense of actual hunger, but more the kind of curiosity one feels when looking at a fruit or something for the first time, a curiosity as to what it tastes like.

[bc56]

Eupharynx

Selekhael bends down and picks up the Kyld in her mouth like a kitten. Then she, if successful, starts heading up to the top deck of the boat. She sends emotions back to the Kyld. That seems to be how it communicates, so she can use that. Protection. Peace. Curiosity.

[Earl of Purple]

Eupharynx

Part of the issue with the kyld is that whilst they communicate empathically, their emotions don't exactly map to the human ones that Selekhael is probably more experienced in. So what the kyld experiences are... more along the lines of 'dark/comfort', 'dark/comfort', and 'curious-hunger', which... means it won't resist, though it stiffens as it's picked up. It doesn't have any other clothing than the adult's shirt, and it nearly closes its eye- but then, the dark it's feeling isn't real dark, so closing that eye won't help.

The monster flinches when exposed to sunlight, and there's a brief emotional flash of 'wary/illumination/pain', but fully mature specimen such as the one Selekhael has adopted aren't actually harmed by sunlight or any other wavelength of visible light, and are resistant or unaffected by various other, less visible wavelengths of light as well.