S:10 Tired of these Motherfucking Snakes in my Motherfucking Art Instillation

The endless crisp sky bled into the horizon with little more than vague shadows of islands in the distance was a delightful change to the odd and dark home of her dear friend Zephyra. Making their way to the long boats to return to their triremes, Orri occasionally rubbed her tongue with her thumb and forefinger. The feeling of horrendously sharp candy will linger with her for some time. Her unique mind focusing on the feeling of the actual cuts as they dug into her tongue like an oar smoothly going through the water. She felt much better knowing that when she struck someone it was a blunt affair and did not cause much or any bleeding. Well perhaps the occasional ki burn here and there but nothing like an unstoppable torrent of blood from a series of small cuts. She thought about swords and axes and how they work, but then again being cut by a sword or an axe seemed a lot better than those doors, at least the bleeding could be stopped quicker and easier. Those doors could even act as weapons she giggled to herself in surprise as she was sure Anaxa would have wanted one of the doors and turn it into a weapon. She mused to herself picturing Anaxa jumping into battle with a door, she suddenly let out a slight laugh, "Ha ha Witness my thermos as I unlock your doom." She imitated Anaxa's voice as she mimed the motion of swinging a door. Zephyra's voice knocked her out of the daydream, "What in Tartarus are you mumbling about?" looking up at Orri with a smile. "Oh, ha ha I was imagining Anaxa taking one of your sharp kill doors with her and making it her new weapon." Orri spoke plainly to her elf friend, and showed her the motion of the door once again. Zephyra couldn't help but smile at the idea and how of course Morrigan would be daydreaming about something so ridiculous. They laughed together as the crew of the fleet reached the longboats. Morrigan smiled warmly at Zephyra simply happy that she could distract her dear friend from what was bothering her in her old home. She would do what she could for Zephyra so that her pasts would not make her sad, watching Zephyra laugh made the martial artist happy. They climbed into the boats and made their way to the fleet toward their next goal, "Where are we going again?" The fleet sighed together at Orri's question.
 
The Captain, after reminding Orri where they wanted to go, handed the compass to her original quartermaster. "Ye still be a top notch navigator, you will be guiding the fleet to Pelios." Orri took the compass with fire in her heart for the next challenge that the officers wanted to go to right away, FINALLY, from one challenge to the next right away what a perfect training regiment. With excitement and the hope to find strong fighters at their destination she unlatched the mechanism deftly and a bolt of light formed into a single beam pointing in the direction they needed to travel. The light burst from the compass and shot right over the vast ocean, Orri stared at the direction and distance attempting to see what they might pass. The route seemed straight forward as she looked from the light to her maps, something tugged at her mind as she stared at everything. Something was off? Not off but there was something she must have missed. The group finally realized that is the compass is on the whole time, then someone else will see where they are going, or even might beat them to it. Orri had to check the mechanism every morning to be sure they were in the right path, turning on the light for a minute or two and confirming they are good. A journey of five days meant that would not be such a problem, it was something she had to waste her mornings on. It would not be such an issue if she did not already have a training plan after seeing that she needed to improve her techniques. "There has to be a way to improve my Crimson Ignition Drive transformation!" She passionately proclaimed to herself....loudly enough for her crew to hear her. Dame Deadeye, the Blazing Chariot's bosun, overheard her determined statement and wanted to join in. This tall slender terran woman matched her captain in fiery passion, energy, and blazing hair colour. Morrigan was excited that her crew was very very slowly warming up to her, well warming up to her adorable first mate Artemis. Never the less Orri was overjoyed that Deadeye wanted to assist her. They spent the next five late evenings trying to truly master Orri's transformed state, each night Morrigan would burst into a swirling red and blue aura and do everything in her power to stay in it. She would dodge gun and arrow fire from her bosun as she kept her form up, digging deep in her will to keep it manifested so it would become just a second nature to activate it. With time this would hopefully break her limits and she could make the transformation stronger.
 
Her Crimson form could only last about a minute and she exhausted herself using nothing but her determined will to see if she could extend it. Each night this became her main focus, she tried summoning all her ki at once which lead to explosive results. She tried gaining full control of her ki and letting it bleed out just a little to get a slow burn, but not enough power was manifesting and she couldn't fully transform, so brute force of will and body was her option for now. On the third night Orri was not sure she was progressing or maybe Deadshot was helping her distract herself by bonding with her captain. Morrigan enjoyed her company but Deadshot was not quite strong enough to really spar outright. Which was alright, Orri had met a fair amount of very strong challenges recently so it was fine. Both women seemed excited to see what might result from this training, "When I master this new form Anaxa will be so surprised at what's to come. Maybe I'll teach it to her someday, she can't transform or anything." She tried to say through the strain of keeping the form up. Deadshot aimed her gun right for Orri's shoulder to see if she could dodge it, "Yeah? She seems really powerful without one. I wish I could even come close to you two. You guys have sparred with each other a long time right?" Her gun went off as Orri struggled to move, the bullet grazing her shoulder and a few drops of blood pour out. Orri ignored the small injury the aura still blazing but flickering little by little around her. She was pouring her all into it as a minute and twenty seconds elapsed, "Yes we have, she is a powerful warrior, and sparring with her is worth weeks of training in itself! It's also a lot of fun!" Sweat poured down her forehead as the struggle became more real, the energy still emanating off her and her muscles cried out in despair. Dame Deadshot looked on at her captain and was almost taken aback with respect for the dedication she put in training and becoming stronger, she could see Orri's body acclimating slowly to being in her form for almost a minute thirty. It was obvious she could barely fight or move like this, but hopefully it would result in something new, "Wow Captain, you look rough, so what's the point in all this? You want to be the strongest or something?" Orri's vision went blurry for a second as she looked Dame in the eye and her aura burst outward and she returned to her normal self. The light was bright and the night returned with a vengeance around them and Orri let herself collapse on the deck of her ship. Her bosun ran up quickly, "Holy Flame!! Captain are you good?!" The captain of the Blazing Chariot looked up at her bosun with a smile, "I'm fine, I'm just out of energy. It's not about being the strongest, in fact the worst thing to happen would be the be the strongest...." She breathed heavy trying to catch herself, "It would be awful, then there would be no challenges left, or strong people to test myself against. Like Drake, he got crazy strong which was good. I hope there are more people like him and me who keep breaking their limits and get stronger..." Orri's complete loss of her energy was making her slowly drift off to sleep, "...hungry.." Deadshot was surprised by her answer, "Damn, you are really different than Drake, I'm glad you are the captain and not him, but you're still crazy. HEY IFEGENIA! Get the captain something to eat before she completely falls asleep." Dame turns back to the ragged looking demi human and smiled warmly down at her.
 
Captain Morrigan was happy to spend this week with her crew and getting a better feel for being a captain. She wanted to take this moment to make Ifey, the ships cook, to feel more at home. The crew was certainly unhappy that she was brought on board, they put up a stink when Orri brought the timid half elf onto the main deck. It took hours to stop the poor girl from calling Orri master, calling the martial artist Captain was the best she could muster. She was slightly timid, but Morrigan's warmth did a lot for her to jump into her role as a cook for the ship. The meals she created made up for her "unluck" curse to some degree and the work Artemis put in to sway the crew's fears. Captain Orri brought her into join their shanty sing songs and visited her many times in the mess, and only after she ate her fill did she spend time with the half elf.
 
Perhaps around the fourth night, after training so much she thought about Anaxa and her ship. Not being able to spar with her at a moments notice was a little saddening. Not that Orri could not simply jump or swim over to her ship, but she figured Anaxa was busy or her own crew would feel some sort of way that their captain was jumping here and there all the time. This night however she was inspired to sneak over in the night. She awoke from her magical bed and immediately set out to make a plan, after thinking for about a minute she got bored of planning and boiled it to either challenge the hoplite in the dead of night, or paint something she would hate on her sails. The captain paced for a few moments on the main deck finding her way to Francois at the helm, "Captain, good evening. Is everything alright?" Orri straightened her posture and regarded her crew member, "Good evening Franky, would you be so kind as to veer a few degrees starboard?" The helmsman looked at his captain's unusual serious demeaner and obliged with little prodding. "Thank you helmsman." She said it containing her giddiness with great effort, and with a blur took off at full speed and jumped into the dark of night. Her form disappeared into the sky and Francois regarded her blankly with a sigh, "Vell, I suppose she is still betta than Drake..." he sighed again and returned to the wheel.
 
With the speed and silence of an owl in flight, Orri traveled through the air and landed soundlessly on the main mast of the Python's Scale. Unable to contain herself she landed with a toothy smile and shuddered with suppressed chuckling. She walked daintily upon the post of the mast without making even a creak on the wood, not a single crewman knew of her presents. Only one man saw and knew what was happening, a massive individual who spent all his time starring at the stars upon the Scarlet Web. Tikal just happened to be looking toward the Python's Scale when he saw a woman in bright red pajamas jump from one ship to the other. He sighed and went back to reading the skys, "Ah look, the not my problem constellation." The woman in pajamas slid and climbed back and forth gauging her canvas, at the last minute deciding to paint upon her friends sails. A moment of frivolous fun, she was not as good at pranks as Anaxa but this seemed a good start. She grabbed a spreader rigging off the side of the mast, her bosun could reattach it no problem, and dangled herself across the center of the sail proper. From that position she began to paint on the tough canvas, carefully coating the brush so the paint does not drip below her. With each stroke of the brush she tried hard to hold a chuckle, and what seemed like an eternity, was no more than thirty seconds. Her massive speed makes quick work of the few heart shapes. Her brush glowed with the red hue she used to make the simple shapes, and she marveled at her work and climbed back up to the top of the mast. She thought about Zephyra as she got to the top expecting a house to be there. She smiled as she took a look down to the people walking around with snakes around their necks. "I should spend more time with Oboros." She whispered to herself about the fire snake Anaxa got her. Looking back toward her Blazing Chariot she dug her feet into the wood and took off like a flash. With the speed and silence she displayed moments ago she leapt into the air heading directly toward her vessel.
 
"...raise the colours hiiiiiigh." humming and singing to himself Francois held lazily onto the wheel as the night stared back at him. "Bloooow the man dooo SUC LE BLEU!!!" He yelled as his captain returned with a surprise in front of him. She appeared out of the night right before his eyes, "Oh heya Francy, sorry if I scared you. I can take over if you want." Her smile was warm and told the poor man that she did not notice how much she startled him. The man surveyed his over the top captain and with a smile and a shrug he waved her off. "I don't mind, remember I have a magical bed." She said with not a grain of implication. The helmsman nearly burst with laughter, "Yes captain as you have said, but I am fine." Orri looked back at her sparring partner's sails nodded her head in accomplishment and returned to her training for the night. She disappeared into the underbelly of the vessel as Francois watched her walk off, "Bonne nuit Capitaine."
 
The daystar moved up quickly on the horizon on the fifth morning and shone on the fleet's special brained quartermaster as she checked on the compass light beam. Everytime Morrigan activated the compass she imagined it was her letting loose her energy over the horizon. Some day she would be strong enough to send a powerful beam of energy that far. Smiling to herself at the thought she took a look at her maps and course corrected, as she took a double take at the maps it finally hit her. The beam of light was aiming them right through Echidna's Graveyard. "OH that's what I was trying to think of before! All the monsters and stuff in there could be an amazing fight!!" She exclaimed to Edea. The powerful bard took a second to think and realized what Echidna's Graveyard was she took out her sending stone to tell the Admiral. "Yes, Admiral we are headed right for it...umm Hey captain, can we go around?" She turned to Orri with the question. The captain of the Blazing Chariot turned slowly toward her bardly quartermaster with an enormous and almost sinister smile, almost laughing, "NO! ISN'T IT GREAT?! We get to go right through it! There has to be a fun challenge in there!" Edea stood silent for a moment staring at Orri, she eventually lifted the stone back to her lips and blankly spoke, "Umm no Admiral...the captain says we have to go through....yes...yes she is smiling with joy." Morrigan the Queen of Hearts, Captain of the Blazing Chariot lead the fleet into Echidna's Graveyard, passing the threshold quickly enveloped the ships in thick malevolent darkness. The martial artist gripped the helm tightly while strong emotions hit her in waves, she knew malevolence well, but never experienced it in this manor. The waves of darkness seemed to have a strong effect on Calliope especially as she immediately popped into her squid form and placed into her secured tank on deck. Orri relieved she was alright returned her attention to the Graveyard. Her strong will took her by the spine and held her strong, she was unaffected by the darkness and was quickly surprised by something in her brain. It swirled and came out of her mouth like a foreign soul, a good idea. "CREW! FIRE THE BALLISTA FORWARD! GIVE OUR LOOKOUTS SOMETHING TO SEE!" She bellowed to her crew, fairly proud of the idea. Sir Lionel nodded at the captain after the order and directed the auxiliary crew to continue firing directly forward, "Keep it up gentleman! Make sure to keep your eyes sharp!" He may not be an officer, but his knight and wartime experience was essential, as their captain came to grips with how to be a captain. Edea saw the idea and added her own magic to ensure success. She raised her kithera and played a very upbeat and light tune, as she did so a swirling and unruly group of bright spheres danced far in front of the Blazing Chariot. They floated up and down creating a more solid light ahead of them, just in time for a massive bone caressed the side of the vessel.
 
Orri felt proud of their combined effort as a crew, and her pretty good idea with the ballista, the smile on her face boomed with confidence, "HA who the hell do you think we are?! We are the Blazing Char..OH GODS MY EYES!!" her voice trailed off in her mind as her senses were bombarded with nothing but light as if the day star itself broke the darkness to have tea with the Hive. Unbeknownst to poor Orri who had turned her head to see what the other ships were doing The Admiral had cast the medium tier arcane arte Daylight. A massive sphere of literal daylight blasted the demi human's eyes and she saw spots. Turning quickly back to her own helm, just in time for Edea to declare a hard turn to port to escape a massive dead snake monster's decaying head. The spots began to fade so she could finally see the massive wave that formed from nothing, with few options Orri had to steer just right into the very tsunami itself. Just like the stories back on the Silver Sea Isles she fought the seas and steered right into a killer wave to save her crew, to keep her crew safe she did all she could. "Now remember, all life is precious, and will be protected." The Admiral's motto that she declared often rang in Orri's memory. Morrigan liked this motto and held it true, she wanted to make sure her crew made it through this and tried the best she could to steer the ship safely. "GET THEM BELOW DECK!" She screamed with authority as the few injured sailors were helped below the ship to safety. Before she finished her orders some of the water on board began to grab and attack her crew. "What the holy flame! Is that what dark water does?!" She mumbled to herself. Through the many years of being on the Hive she never actually encountered dark water and thought it was probably just some black stuff on the water. She held tightly onto the wheel to keep them on course and could only look to Calliope and Edea, "CAN YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT?!" She nodded to the bow as weird tentacles formed from the water.
 
Calliope bubbled in her tank and locked her large squid eyes with Edea and they gathered the ocean water from below and coalesced it toward the bow and it erupted with the force of a geyser and attacked the dark water directly, forcing it back into the ocean. Orri marveled at the display and rejoiced as the sailors were free and could return to aid the injured. Grabbing the wheel once more the captain noticed yet another tsunami coming right toward them. She wanted to make sure no more people would get hurt but the wave would have none of it and injured the group helping the injured to safety. Edea saw an option of the island close by, "Orr the island!!" The captain steered directly into the wave and headed for the island, "WE CAN CRASH SAFELY OVER THERE!!!" She yelled with an odd confidence. The whole crew, healthy and injured alike, looked back to her with a skeptic and panicked expression. Their skepticism was unwarranted as the Captain certainly did what she promised and grounded the vessel somewhat safely on the shore of this island with very little injured crew. "Ha There we go!" She proclaimed to her officers, with an impressed reception. The fleet made their way off the triremes and laid out the injured of each vessel. It looked as though it was close to twenty from each ship and a somewhat solemn atmosphere. The captains made their way together to make a plan of action, but Morrigan stopped and surveyed the scene for a moment, digging into her brain for information. "Yes, they are!" She snapped her fingers as she seemed to find what she was looking for. Zephyra and Anaxa overheard their passionate friend and were about to ask what she was mumbling about when Orri erupted with energy. The captain of the Blazing Chariot looked upon her crew and the other crews, realized they all existed in one group as a fated entity, and called upon a great power of the temperance tarot. She focused the energy on every injured sailor and with a massive wave of light healed every single person hurt from the tsunamis and crash. She came close to floating off the sand as she sent out the tarot's healing magic, the light aura around her slowly fading away as the act was complete. The sailor in the large arms of "Filthy" suddenly came back to consciousness, his wounds immediately healed, he took in a deep breath of the man carrying him and he passed right out once more. The crews of all three ships were stuck in a hushed silence seeing the power of the fated in action. The crew of the Blazing Chariot completely stunned that their kind yet clumsy captain was capable of something so amazing. The light from Orri faded completely and she continued her trek toward her friends, not much reaction from her as she just did what seemed right at the time, no big deal right?
 
The darkness left just enough light for the group to make their way to a strange temple that just happened to be on the island. It was derelict and faded from what seemed like time. Orri knew the effect of salt water on surfaces, but maybe dark water does worse damage? The architecture was beautiful still after all that time, and the inside nearly stunned Morrigan's artistic eye. Someone had mentioned that the temple was dedicated to Lumina, but Orri was completely distracted by the murals, mosaic, and the incredible sculptures placed in a chaotic fashion along the floor. The demi human's artistic mind went into overdrive as she took closer looks at the gorgeous statues. "The detail on the cloth is incredible, this would take months to get such smooth technique in stone." She said to no one in particular. Orri walked the room inspecting every sculpture with stars in her eyes. The two dozen statues seemed to be placed at random and all had looks of horror on their well carved faces. The smooth yet realistic imperfections upon their faces filled her with delight, the markings of a true master. The Hive seldom encountered a art, let alone master works of skill and majesty so she was in her element and loved every moment. She commented about the range of motion and the placement with a well knowledged mind, "This must be an instillation to insight some kind of emotional event!." Morrigan quickly announced as she studied the work in it's entirety. She spoke the moment they entered the hall and the entire group walked in behind her and saw everything right away. Zephyra listened to Orri go on about these "sculptures" and could not get a word in to even attempt to tell her.
 
"Yes Orri it does look like an instillation..." Zephyra attempted to build up the upcoming very bad news to the naive martial artist. The group spend a long few moments introducing more information about gorgons to Orri, each new piece of info hoping to hit home. The awkward air in the room hit Orri like a ton of bricks as she finally put the pieces together. Her world shattered as she realized the statues were people, whether more for the fact that an artist did not make them or that the people were still technically alive is only for Orri's subconscious to know. "Can we help them?" she asked finally coming to grips with it. Anaxa stood next to one of them and nudge it fairly hard nearly breaking it, "Well we can smash and free them!" Going to nudge it again, Morrigan and Edea motioned for her to stop. Since Orri found out the sad truth about these poor people she focused her mind on a solution to help them, forgetting the possible how they got that way. Anaxa and Orri went back and forth while the rest of the team worked to solve the actual problems. Zephyra understanding that it was obviously one of the petrifying gorgons, "Here put this blindfold on Orri, you can fight without sight, right?" They sensed a presence down below and found the secret chamber leading to it. After getting hit in the head once or twice she took off the blindfold and followed her friends down the tunnel.
 
On the way down Morrigan noticed the Admiral and Anaxa staring at each other pretty hard, and Anaxa mumbling to herself. Orri worried the malevolence was getting to her, but she was distracted as Atlante stirred in her head with a warning, "Be careful, I sense a choice." Her attention went from her friend to her mind fate person, "Like how I sense people's energies?" Orri attempted to get a conversation going, but as usual, when not in the tower their talks were very one sided and Atlante did not respond. They continued a slow walk while Orri attempted to make heads or tails of the cryptic warning. Her mind took her through the events bit by bit. The view of the treacherous sea as they averted crashing into a massive snake monster head, it's dead eyes staring down at them a body that could have gone all the way to the oceans floor. The massive ophidian body over the horizon that Anaxa and the Admiral claimed to have seen. The upper floor of the temple which was adorned with serpentine sculpture and decoration. The notion that a powerful and possibly evil snake like creature down below, and of course walking behind Anaxa she got lost in staring at her shield which, as always, depicted a beautiful ornate snake theme. These scenes playing over and over as she stared at her dear friend whom has always kept a beautiful snake theme, Morrigan did her best to connect all these things to Atlante's warning and her eyes suddenly lit up! Her eyes drinking in the snakes decorating her hoplite companion, and her mind reeled at it all and suddenly came up with, "Holy Flame I am hungry." She muttered to herself. There is a space, a place leagues away where two women sit together and suddenly feel a wave of something they have felt before, and in unison look at one another with affection and a little concern they speak as one, "Oh Orri...."
 
"So what is this about consuming?" The Admiral broke her silence toward Anaxa. This made Morrigan finally take notice, "Consume?" The demi human did see that her dear sparring partner was having trouble with something, it must have been the malevolence. Morrigan had seen it in it's purest form...well calling malevolence pure is odd in itself, but it can slowly effect the soul and take the body. Some are effected quicker than others, was her comrade falling victim? She whispered, "a choice.....Anaxa what do you want to consume? I'm hungry as well." Orri may have been a bit off on her conclusion, but followed along as they all attempted to wrench it from Anaxa's mouth. Consuming malevolence was possible? Was there a way to absorb it? To take it from someone else? Could it be that this awful substance was similar to ki?! "Anaxa don't eat the snake lady, please. Your stomach already hurts from your bad moon cycle. Malevolence won't help, and if some weird voice wants you to eat it....well that's can't be good." Orri did her best to get her point across, she wanted to be sure to make sure her friend would be ok. The group kindly bombarded the hoplite with help and suggestion, which slowly made it's way in and convinced her to not do anything rash.
 
Last night, before the Graveyard, after Deadshot left Orri for the night, the captain of the Blazing Chariot's determination hit a crescendo as she exploded once again with energy. She HAD to make a break through in her Crimson Drive training and then teach it to Anaxa. Her hoplite friend couldn't explode with power and breach her limits, and transforming is so much fun! It was also very fun to hold back your power and learn more about what you can do, Anaxa was always at her top power at all times, just think how she could get stronger by having a base form and then BOOM transform. This is what Morrigan thought up until her dear sparring partner suddenly started throwing up a horrible black smoke woman.
 
Anaxa's body seemed to throw up a woman for what seemed like an hour, it looked so horrible and off putting. The smoke and much that poured out of her formed into a strange snakeish looking female figure and seemed ready to strike. It looked a bit like the snake lady chained up behind them. It was very hard to focus one one or the other, but once the shadow being seemed keen to strike, Orri went into an attack stance right away. It was hopefully going to be like sparring with Anaxa, she became excited for a nice match when she looked back at Anaxa. "Let's fight your weird shadow snake baby toget..." Morrigan began to say to Anaxa when the hoplite's body suddenly began to crack and bend in the most horrible of ways. Arms tore from her ribs and grew skin around them, they wriggled as her legs started to merge together and grow to nearly double their size. The woman who towered over most of the crew was now miles higher than before and equaled the poor chained gorgan. Assuming that the tremendous snake monster was still Anaxa, Orri jumped up her snake body and leaped high to administer strike after strike on the shadow creature. To Morrigan's dismay the strange apparition went down with barely any fight, and she hoped if they freed the big snake lady she might agree to a spar.
 
Orri was wrong, this odd woman kept calling them flesh bags, a lot. If she was a large snake woman, and was part of this material plan then would she also be made of flesh. Orri went over this a few times in her mind and couldn't get over the fact that a snake would make a better bag than a humanoid form....wouldn't it. I mean the tail is just one big bag, right? Because of this unnecessary thought process she forgot her friend Anaxa turned into a giant snake woman, "OF COURSE!" she thought to herself, "Anaxa would spar with me in this weird form!" Thus another day dream tangent in Orri's head took form.