1767/B Point: Roll the Bones

B Point: Roll the Bones
Date of Scene:	15 July 2024
Location:	Dark Kingdom
Synopsis:	Content Warning: Implied Death. Jolly Roger and Bow's spirit reunites with Pulp Noir and Yellow Pearl Voice in the catacombs and find an ossuary of walking bones for their trouble. Much spooking happens and Jolly Roger apparently sacrifices herself so the others can progress.
Cast of Characters:	Erika Shimizu, Hinote Kagari, Bow, Coco Kiumi
Tinyplot:	Dark Kingdom Finale

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Erika Shimizu has posed:
    o/` " Yo-hohoho, Yo-hoho-ho...
    Yo-hohoho, Yo-hoho-ho..." o/`

    Somehow... Some way... Erika Shimizu-- Jolly Roger- had been separated from the others after the battle with the Doom and Gloom girls last night. It's bad. It's dangerous as hell to be wandering the catacombs alone right now as she sings to herself for multiple reasons while shining her flashlight down the webbing hallways and corridors of the catacombs under Paris.

    o/` "Gather up all of the crew!
    It's time to ship out Binks' Brew!
    The wind it blows, to where who knows?
    The waves will be our guide!" o/`

    One purpose of the song is to lift her spirits; after watching Guardian Daifuku and Bow meet their untimely ends last night it's been a hideous shot to the normally jovial pirate's morale, and her heart almost isn't in the song at all, but she sings it anyway.
    Becuase certainly if someone hears her they'll come for her, if they're friend. But also...

    o/` "O'er across the ocean's tide, rays of sunshine far and wide!
    The birds, they sing, of cheerful things in circles passing by!" o/`

    If any creature of darkness hears it and comes for her... The song serves as an open challenge. As though she were saying 'come and take me IF YOU CAN...'

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir got separated from the group himself and he drew his fedora down as he used his totally not Batman Arkham Series Detective vision to follow footprints in the dust of the floor of the catacombs. Soon, he'd hear singing. Eureka! He found Jolly Roger.

"Jolly, wait up." he said, his flashlight shining down the corridor behind Jolly.

"It's me. Pulp Noir." he says as he looks around.

"Looks like it's just you though. What happened to the others?" he asks a little concerned.

Bow has posed:
After Bow perished in the catacombs, something strange happened. His soul seperated from his body, but it didn't carry on to... wherever. The afterlife isn't really well known on Etheria, and he's a stranger to Earth. But now he knew that Erika was an undead. And while he's a fully dead, he hoped that Erika would take him in for now. And he knows how she felt, so he's tagged along with her.

As she starts to sing her sad song, she will find herself with the sound of a spectral violin that is following along with her music. As he draws across the strings with his bow, he becomes part of her crew, following along the song's path. He can't fire arrows, after all. So maybe she will hear the violin's haunting melody.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco wasn't doing too badly, despite having gotten lost in the catacombs: being surrounded at all time by a sphere of light that also doubled as an isolating factor by the ugly aspects of the environment was a huge boon like dirt and rats (the normal kind at least), even if it didn't stop her from being unnerved by the bones and the restricted space. She hated feeling the walls so close to her that she was basically relying on her songs as a crutch alongside the purification.

Which means that just as much she hears that Erika is nearby, the others can also probably hear her (which hasn't provided the yellow princess as much headache from the nearby youma as she would have guessed since they had to push past the purification too).

Even so, she is very much relieved when she hears the fellow mahou singing, going faster towards her until she has catched up with the pirate. "Noir, Jolly", she smiles at the two of them. "Are you alright? Did you land here together?" The music of the violin is, to Coco, just a violin. She has no reason to single out Bow specifically.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Losing Bow had been a devastating blow, and though the pirate can't cry, it's as she's singing that... For just a moment... Was that his violin she heard? It WAS... Pausing to wipe at dry eyes out of habit, she scowls.
    "Blasted fool... Sacrificin' yerself like that. What were ye thinkin'...?" She mutters before drawing a breath.
She's about to resume her song when a light shines from behind her. Wheeling around, cutlass in one hand and flintlock in the other she readies herself for a fight but a fight doesn't come when Pulp Noir reveals himself to be the source of the light and voice.
    "Oh. It's you, you're a sight for sore eyes, lad." She says, lowering her weapons, before shaking her head.
    "I got separated from the lot after a fight." She explains before pausing gravely, tugging off her hat and resting it over her heart.
    "... Guardian Daifuku and Bow... They didn't make it." She says, breaking the bad news as gently as she can.
    Coco arrives likely in time to hear that bad news as the pirate places her hat back on her head. "Ah, Yellow; glad I'm surrounded by friends here at least in this dismal ossuary." She says taking up the lead and heading down the corridor into a much wider open chamber. Holes in the ceiling allow for moonlight to filter through to the room, dimply illuminating in places and revealing Jolly Roger's true accursed form as she steps into the dim silver light.

    o/` "Bid farewell to weaver's town...
    Say so long to port renowned...
    Sing a song, it won't be long before we're casting off." o/` She continues the next verse challenging the room to throw whatever it may have at them.

    There's a soft rattle. A chatter as her boot lands on some bones. The floor is covered in them, loose bones as far as the eye can see into the darkness.
    They aren't loose for long as several figures rise up from the piles, eye sockets glowing darkly as their jaws hang open as though in silent screams... The skeletons rise and start trudging towards the group, and Jolly Roger immediately makes one explode with a shot from her flintlock.
    "Prepare for action!"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir frowns when she hears the group got separated, and goes wide eyed when he hears that Guardian Daifuku and Bow didn't make it. He grimly goes straight faced. "I'm sorry you had to be a part of that's..." he takes a deep breath.

"We should start moving again." he says, turning around to Coco. He grimly nods at her. "Hey." he says. It's all he can managed right now.

As he walks forward with the group... and they walk into the bone chamber, the filtering moonlight let's him temporarily put away the flashlight to conserve battery power.

He can hear the crunch of bones beneath his feet as he grimly frowns. "This must be a proper ossuary chamber." he says. "Let's get through it quickly." he says.

Then. Spooky. Scary. Skeletons. Crawling up your spine."

Pulp Noir draws not one .45 pistol, but two and channels Tracy for a moment. "Prepare for my Blazing Automatics....!" he calls out as he starts shooting powerful jets of water at the nearest skeleton, quickly turning around to make sure one isn't creeping up behind him.

One is. That also gets blasted, similarly, coat whipping behind him in his turn.

Bow has posed:
Bow contuinues to play along with the tune, a mournfully cheerful melody that would almost be worthy of a second line in New Orleans. "We were losing." he says to Erika, since she's the only one he can hear. "And Daifuku had fallen, and we needed to turn the tide." the ghostly archer retorts. Never stopping in the playing of his song, he floats behind Jolly Roger, until there's the rattle and clatter of bones.

And then the call to action. There is no bow for for him, no way he can defend them. All he can do is play his music and try to keep morale up.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
A grimace appears on Coco's face as she comes in just to overhear the grim news that Erika has to offer. "No way..." she whispers, the Live Stage responding to her emotions and dimming ever so slightly for a brief moment. "They were just so..." She doesn't finish the sentence, because really what did it matter how good a person you are? Rather, with their circumstances, that only makes you more susceptible to dying rather than less.

"Aqua Regina, please guide their souls to peace", the mermaid prays, touching the pearl on her microphone. "Has someone managed to recover their bodies for the burial?" she asks the two companions.

Walking along the moonlit path, Coco doesn't bat an eye to Erika's cursed form. That was how she had first seen her, a time that really feel like centuries ago. And she doesn't have to worry about disrepecting the dead with her Live Stage keeping her above the the layer of bones.

A different matter however is reserved when those bones come together and get on the attack. "You should have at least keep resting if you could", she shakes her head with displeasure, even if she doesn't know whether those were just moving skeletons or their actual owners cruelly brought back by the darkness.

"Legend of Mermaid: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!". With the familiar cry, her purifying voice sings of joy and wonder, singing of a nostalgic melody, with stars that like pearls release a wondrous light, a miracle filled adventure like the kind mother wishes for everyone in her heart.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    "Blast ye, we coulda taken 'em." Erika mutters quietly. That's to Bow, "Let's get this one with so ye can go rest." She murmurs almost pained that he's taken to lingering about her after his death like a member of her very own crew.
    Nevertheless it's chaos in an instant as the skeletons come, their clawed hands reaching out. Some wield femurs like clubs, others have nastier, sharper, shards of long bones as makeshift swords as they come.
    Pulp Noir's water guns are more than effective as blowing skeletons back into piles of bones while Jolly Roger shoots a skull clean off another skeleton's head and then they're in melee range.
    Yellow Pearl Voice's singing weakens the risen dead with its purifying power, but the issue here comes in their *numbers*.
    For every one or two skeletons the group knock down another rises from the bone pile to replace them.
    "Blast it all..." Jolly Roger says scowling. "We ain't gonna win this, we gotta fight our way through." She says motioning towards the exit at the far end of the chamber, the undead pirate proceeds to lose her cutlass in a ribcage and leaves it there, pulling a full-sized ship anchor from her greatcoat like she just had it laying around in her pocket and bats away a few more skelly boys.
    "Start movin' ye two, I'll cover ye!" She says to Noir and Yellow Pearl Voice.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir blasts skeletons apart... but for everyone he blasts apart it's like two or three rise from the pile. There's just too many now. He draws his pistols back into his coat and pulls out the Tommy Gun, for more firepower, and starts blasting a line of skeletons in front of him in a line, with pulses of powerful waterjets making some space.

He looks over to Jolly. "Don't do anything reckless. Not point in you taking the big sleep." he says as he starts to move forward towards the exit, bones crunching under him as he walks past skeletons he's blasting unconditionally.

"This is getting increasingly morbid." he says tersely.

Is that a violin in the room? He doesn't understand that.

Bow has posed:
As Jolly Roger mentions that they are going to have to fight through, Bow calls out to her crew. "Be prepared, boys! Load your cannons, prepare your swords!" And with that, he starts to play a live fight shanty and starts to sing.

o/`In the depths of old Paris, where the living won't go,
We sail through the catacombs, deep down below.
Our ship is a ghost, our crew's made of bones,
We fight in the shadows, where the dead call their homes.

With lanterns dim, we navigate the maze,
In caverns and tunnels, in a deathly haze.
The skeletons rise with a rattling clack,
But we strike them down, and we drive them back.

Yo ho, yo ho, through the catacombs we roam,
With swords of bone and ghostly moan,
Yo ho, yo ho, our spirits never rest,
We fight the skeletons in the city's haunted chest.

Their eyes are empty, their faces are grim,
We clash with our foes in the twilight dim.
The echoes of battle resound through the stone,
As we claim the treasure, for we're never alone.

In the heart of the darkness, where the secrets lie,
We laugh in the face of the eternal night sky.
For we're pirates undead, with a fearsome will,
We'll battle the shadows, and conquer still.

Yo ho, yo ho, through the catacombs we roam,
With swords of bone and ghostly moan,
Yo ho, yo ho, our spirits never rest,
We fight the skeletons in the city's haunted chest.

So raise up your flagons, and sing with delight,
For the undead pirates will conquer this night.
In the catacombs of Paris, our legend will grow,
As we sail through the shadows, down below.

Serve your Pirate Queen, For the Jolly Roger,
We shall fire our cannon, listen to our anger.
We shall avenge the fallen from the day before,
And in our battle, let our cannons roar! o/`

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The mermaid really doesn't need to be told twice, and she is floating forward as best as she can, ignoring with a frown the fact the skeletons are reforming and continuing to sing her purifying melody, occasionally conjuring a Live Stage to crash into them and hopefully dispersing the bones again, though most of the time, she is still relying on her song. There really are so many though. Will they be fine?

As she keeps singing she sneaks a glance at Noir and Jolly, and she breathes a sigh of relief when she takes note of neither of them breaking a sweat even if they are swarming quite a lot. A song is given to the pirate, light surrounding her into a sphere, recognisably a Live Stage that would help Erika out.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    The echoes of battle and chaos create a cacophony and riotous din in the confined space of the ossuary, the crack of flintlock pistols, the roaring jetting spray of Pulp Noir's water cannon tommy gun, the mermaid's heartfelt singing and...
    Another voice joins them.
    The voice of someone who should rightly be dead and gone.
    jolly Roger squeezes her eyes shut as Bow's spirit begins to lead in song.
    And her crew responds.
    Phantoms stir in the mist of the musty bone chamber, ghostly images of sailing men, rough men, hardy men all emerging from the gloom, bearing their muskets and blunderbusses and cutlasses.
    "Me crew'll cut us a path..." The Dread Pirate says, surging forward as the ghosts of her crew join the fracas.
    There's a brief pause though.
    Time seems to slow down for a beat as the party fights their way to the room's exit.
    This is when Jolly Roger suddenly grabs Pulp Noir by the collar of his badass trenchcoat and looks him dead in the eyes.
    She has a long shard of bone stabbed into her chest. There's no blood, but one of the skeletons must have gotten her in the chaos.
    "Listen to me. You find my girl. Find my Hinata, back in Tokyo. Ye tell her... I did my best." ... She pauses there, wobbling where she stands. She can't feel the pain but that's a bad wound if ever there was one.
    "I feel... Alive." She says softly as she lets him go and turns her back on Pulp Noir and Yellow Pearl Voice. The exit is in sight, just have to make one last push for it as the Pirate and her crew fend off the skelly boys to the best of their ability.
    And Jolly Roger starts to sing one last song from her very own Live Stage courtesy of Yellow Pearl Voice.

    o/` "Of all the money that e'er I had I spent it in good company...
    And all the harm that e'er I did alas, it was to none but me.
    And all I've done for want of wit to memory now I can't recall.
    So fill to me the parting glass good night and joy be to you all...

    So fill to me the parting glass...
    And drink a health whate'er befall.
    I'll gently rise and softly call:
    Good night and joy be to you all" o/`

Bow has posed:
And in the crow's nest, as it were, Bow stands, violing playing hard in time with Erika's song. His song may have riled the crew and rouse them to battle, but it's the Captain who leads them into the fight. His eyes are froward, on the battle they are rushing into.

He doesn't notice the others, instead, he's only concerned with the crew, and the battle.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir is firing his tommy gun in front of him as Jolly Roger begins to sing. He looks over his shoulder a moment at her as he looks forward again and grimly continues to move forward, as he releases the handle on his tommy gun to literarily punch the skull in of a skeleton that gets too close to fire at, giving him a mean right hook.

He's almost to that door as he looks behind him again and calls out. "Come on, hurry forward you guys!" he calls out to the others behind him as he grimly frowns.

That's when Jolly Roger grabs him by his coat's collar and gets his attention as his arms and gun hang at his side. He grimly frowns. "Huh? What!?" That's when he looks down at her wound and he frowns heavily. "...Alright." he says. "I promise. I will." he says grimly again as he quickly uses the attack by the spectral crew to start to get to the exit, brandishing his tommy gun and trying to give covering fire to the crew and for Coco to start moving.

"HURRY." he calls out to Coco.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
With the hurry of escaping from the skeletons, Coco fails to hear what Erika is telling to Noir, and she is kinda assuming that she is just in with her, especially with Noir putting putting pressure on her to go forward, as the exit in in sight. They really just need to make this last push and everything will be fine. They have almost made it.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    It's just another push- the exit is in sight. But the skeletons push back all the harder, putting up all the dogged resistance they can to put the mahous to death and halt their progress.
    "Go." Jolly Roger says hoarsely as Pulp Noir and Yellow Pearl voice cross the chamber threshold.
    "Take what ye can. Give nothing back."
    This is when she reaches into her greatcoat and drops a cannon on the ground like she just had the thing in her pocket. Propping a boot on the four pounder to aim it, it goes off, the magical cannonball hitting just above the exit and causing it to collapse so no skeletons can follow though, only the sound of the dread pirate's voice:

    o/` " There is a fair maid in this town, who surely has my heart beguiled...
    Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips... I own, she has my heart enthralled.
    So fill to me the parting glass, good night and joy be with you all.
    Of all the comrades that e'er I've had: They are sorry for my going away.
    And oh the sweetheart I have back home. Hina'd wish me one more day to stay.

    But since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not...
    I'll gently rise and I'll softly call: Good night and joy be to you all." o/`

Bow has posed:
As Erika shows Pulp and Yellow thwe way out, Bow provides the musical accompanyment for her song... and then plays one last song hiself as he will follow Jolly Roger into the unknown.

"Farewell, my friends, the tide is callin' me,
The ocean's wide and blue, and I must set it free.
With wind in sail and stars to guide, I'll journey far and wide,
But in my still heart, ye'll always bide, forever by my side.

So raise yer mugs, me jolly mates, and drink a toast so bold,
To friendships true that never fade, though tales be yet untold.
We'll meet again on distant shores, beneath the skies so grand,
'Til then, me friends, upon the seas, I'll hold ye in me hand.

Then his voice, as well, is gone.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir passes the threshold of the exit and he turns around to fire some more into the chamber as he calls out to Jolly Roger. "You can still make it...!" he calls out. "Just let me...."

Then she summons a cannon. And then the exit collapses as his eyes go wide as he covers his face with his arm and coughs into it from the dust in the air when it all settles. His eyes continue to be wide, before his expression steels a little as he turns around.... he says to himself...

"Forget about it Pulp, it's Chinatown."

He looks over to Coco. "We gotta find the others. Or fight this sun demon." he says grimly as he starts walking away, putting away his gun into his coat and re-producing his flashlight.

He moves forward. He has to.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Roger...?" Coco turns around when she hears the noise of door and wall collapsing behind them. "Was that her cannon..?" she asks incredulous. The skeleton certainly didn't have something so explosive with them. Why would she just... They had almost made it.

"She really didn't have to. Why, Roger?", Coco asks to the silent wall, as implacable and cruel as the will of the demon they are chasing. It would be all too easy for her to give in to her instincts and send her Live Stages crashing back to open a path, but she knows that is not going to work out, and it would be just as likely to bury all three of them here with the instability the cannonball had created. Not to mention what would happen above grounds.

"I am sorry, Jolly. Let's meet again", Coco sighs with discontent and guilt as she turns around, bringing with herself the belief that those skeletons will have nothing on Jolly Roger. "Yes, let's go", she replies reluctantly to Pulp Noir.