Holes/Session 37
A fragment of the Garden of Remembering
INT. Cave cavern thing
The shadow versions of the party loiter uncertainly before them. The copies, solid and three dimensional, are exact - there is even a shadow Rasputin on the shadow Greibel's head - but absolutely black. To Amadi and Greibel, they seem to be gleaming.
Because the shadow Gravedigger-tree is right on top of where the pinpoint hole was, it is also unclear whether or not the hole actually closed.
Everything is silent.
Then the shadow Amadi jumps out of its tree and starts to approach its vivid other self.
AMADI
(to her shadow-self)
I'm not the whole. Are you the whole? Probably not. This is a bad idea.
She hears it repeat the same back at her, but the words aren't quite there.
The shadow Greibel picks up some water and it turns into a blob in its hand.
The shadow Rhu reaches out to poke the other Rhu. To Rhu, it looks like a dark, crisp-edged silhouette, and, unlike most everything else he can see, not hairy. It feels like nothing at all.
RADEK
...That's not right. Not at all.
Rhu steps past his shadow self, and the shadow turns after him.
The shadow Amadi looks up at Amadi and then licks the Gravedigger tree below her.
Ellemerr (Amadi): So I'm sitting in the Gravy-Tree. And my shadow is walking up and... licking my tree?
Amadi suppresses a sudden urge to lick the Gravy tree as well.
Rhu waves his arms around the shadow Rhu form where the hair should be.
RHU
(to the shadow Rhu)
...why aren't you hairy?
The shadow Rhu tries to hit Rhu with its maul, though it misses. (rolled 13 vs AC)
The tree bristles in fury.
The shadow tree also bristles in what might be fury.
Then the shadow Rhu tries to grab the other Rhu's head, hands outstretched. This doesn't work either, and it winds up smearing a palm across the side of Rhu's face. This time the touch burns like ice.
RHU
HEY!
Rhu responds by slicing at his shadow with a strike through the fabric of space itself, but misses as well. (rolled 14 vs AC) Only after does he remember to swear an oath of enmity against it.
The Gravedigger, still being a tree, summons his cloud of boiling blood and grit and then attempts to pummel the shadow Greibel into the earth with his shovel. It doesn't entirely succeed.
Meanwhile the Georges kneel down and aim their weapons at each other.
Greibel decides now would be a good time to try to summon a lightning storm inside a cave. Then he thinks better of it and instead calls forth the spirit pack on his and the Gravedigger's other selves. The spirits trample through and out another wall without any apparent affect. (rolled 12, 11 vs reflex)
GREIBEL
I guess they were....
(he puts on glasses)
Spooked.
Amadi sticks her tongue out at her shadow and climbs higher up in the tree, viciously mocking her black clone as it's left behind.
It staggers from the force of the attack.
Radek shakes his head and powers up the eyebot and sets it loose over the battle.
RADEK
Try to leave one unharmed for study, please.
The shadow Gravedigger assumes the form of the fearsome shadow ram-tree, takes a step back, and then rams the other tree with its shovel, throwing him back a few meters. (rolled 19 vs fort) Radek shoots it with some sort of lightning pellet, reducing the effectiveness of the shadow's attack and doing what looks like considerable damage. (rolled 32 vs AC (natural 20))
Amadi falls out of the Gravedigger's branches as a result. (rolled 10 acrobatics)
The shadow Radek shoots his counterpart as well with some sort of shadow pellet, to similar, though less potent, effect. (rolled 22 vs AC) He seems almost to be grumping.
The shadow Greibel summons a massive swarm of clinging insects, clouding the air, centred on Amadi, and covering George, Greibel, both Gravediggers, and Radek as well, eating at Amadi and the other Greibel in particular. Then it swarms away, coalescing around the shadow Greibel in a horrible black cloud, buzzing silently.
Amadi seems mildly surprised at this, and possibly a little pleased - this actually hurt her.
SHADOW AMADI
(silently, to Amadi)
Are you real?
Only Amadi and Greibel hear this.
AMADI
More or less. They think I am. I think. And that might be good enough. Does anyone think you are?
The shadow Amadi walks up to the other Amadi and pokes her. There's a massive spark, but it doesn't actually hurt either of them.
SHADOW AMADI
(silently)
I'm real. I'm real. I'm real, I'm real, I'm real!
AMADI
(grinning)
You don't sound like you believe that.
The shadow Amadi shrieks something silently and lashes out at her other self with focused sound that nobody can hear. (rolled 22 vs reflex)
Amadi clutches her ears and no longer looks like being hurt might be a fun thing.
Meanwhile the shadow Rhu takes this opportunity to randomly fall over.
Ganelon (Radek): Clearly he's been blessed by Hazz. Even more so than you.
Rhu looks down at the shadow Rhu with something approaching pity, but from the direction of annoyance, and takes a step back and smites his counterpart with consuming light, setting it alight with holy fire. (rolled 25 vs reflex (natural 20)) Above, the eyebot shoots it for good measure.
RHU
Stop this! Your life is worth more than dying in disgrace in a filthy hairy cave!
The shadow Rhu doesn't respond and just lies there.
Ganelon (Radek): We're not in a great spot here. People are hurt and I can only heal so much.
Frezak (Gravy): Don't worry about me. I'm A TREE.
Apheori (GM): A felled tree. Roots sticking up.
Frezak (Gravy): I CAN RISE AGAIN.
Apheori (GM): Defruited.
Frezak (Gravy): My fruit!
The Gravedigger tree gets up and shakes its leaves, and the cloud of grit and bone drips from them like ravenous pollen, gathering around the trunk before blasting out at the three nearest shadows: Greibel, the other tree, and the Amadi.
The cloud tears through them all, scouring at their shapes, before drifting back out of this particular reality. The eyebot also lasers two of them.
Then the Gravedigger slams the other tree into the ground with his shovel, knocking it over, following through with a mighty chop from the edge of the blade. The silhouettes of branches and crap fly everywhere.
And then the Gravedigger proper explodes out of the tree-shape he had adopted, landing next to Amadi.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
NOT MY FRUIT!
The other tree, including dislocated branches and leaves, dissolves into a puddle of strange black liquid. Already it seems to be sinking into the rocky floor of the cavern.
RADEK
...Interesting.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
GERRROF MY FRUUUUIIIIIT! Raaarghaaarglearrrgh.
George, meanwhile, shoots the shadow George. This unfortunately doesn't kill it.
GEORGE
(backing up)
Oh fuck.
The shadow George, meanwhile, shifts its aim and shoots Amadi instead. Looking very, very surprised, she falls limply to the cavern floor, not moving.
GEORGE
Wait, what?
