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It's not every day the twins turn 20, nor is it every day Kaleb convinces his father to give up the familys 80' yacht to him as his birthday present. It was sensible enough as Kaleb used it most and their father was travelling too often to need to use it. One might be skeptical if Kaleb did it to try to wound hte pocketbook enough for notice, but if so it failed spectacularly, but still boat.
In further desire to seize the day the twins accomplished their goal: spend their birthday together which was for the most part their norm, and go back to the Island that Maximus took Vic and Kellan to where Vic battled iirates and Kaleb ate a bug.
Ahhhh, yes, the island. You'd think that it would take weeks to get there, truly, but…alas, Max was left alone for a couple hours in the engine room, and pretty soon the vessel was practically hydroplaning and /also/ possibly bending little bits of space. Easy come…easy go, since within sight of the mysterious isle, he pushed a blue button which, he insisted would extend some sort of photonic ladder, and all the modifications he made imploded. And no photonic ladder. Such it is that on their birthday, they are treated to the first sight of the place they left behind, years ago, back when Max was still checking out Kaleb's ass and pretty much not sure he'd ever have a shot with that.
The island itself is mostly unchanged, densely tropical, with broad, light-colored sand shores. The season is different, and the place is cooler, with winds coming off the cold ocean currents. A whole group of some sort of sea lion are on shore, just laying there, harmlessly.
This time, Vic isn't dressed like a boy scout, so there's that. It's a pity, he was rocking that ascot the last time. He's in white, today. White twill shorts, a white polo shirt, white shoes and socks. He's also wearing aviator glasses and a white cap atop his curls. He could be a yacht captain, at a glance. Only at a glance. In reality, he's got a beer in hand and is looking for Kellan.
Kellan didn't go to the island the first time, and has only heard about it from the others, seen the drawings, and has the coins that Kaleb gave him when they returned. So he's been interested in finally seeing the place for himself. Having enjoyed the ride, he is dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans and running shoes with a light but long-sleeved shirt to protect him from insects and other things. He has a small backpack with him that has a few things in it. He isn't hard to find, being up on the top deck of the ship, wherever he can get a good view of the island from.
Kaleb actualy go to help them just not crash into anything. He finally, after figuring out to slow its trajectory coast. Once anchored he looked to Max, "You tweaked my boat." He squint but kissed him before looking to teh island again, different than it did in memory but ore real. "Thankyou for the heads up. Kellan…" He exchanged a grin to Vic and then glanced up to his twin, "Welcome to other home." That's what he was calling the not-the-apartment.
"What heads up? Are you two talking in your heads again?" Max asks of the twin pair, then looks over to Vic in all his white. "Might want to change to something…browner." He suggests, with a little sly grin. He winds an arm behind Kaleb. "Other home. A long time ago. And now again. THIS is the land of mystical properties…a young place, but also an old place for inhabitants. We will need to find fresh water." He babbles a little. The sea lions on the shore arf a little, but otherwise the island itself seems…welcoming? For now!
"You've probably got a point," Vic says. "I brought a change of clothes in case I fell off the boat." At least he plans ahead? He sets his beer aside and peels off the polo shirt, than wanders off, shirtless. He's been working out. Off he goes, and when he returns he's in cut-off jeans and a t-shirt. It's not brown, but it's got orange stripes in it. Close enough? He takes up his beer again and smiles amiably. "Ready."
Kellan smiles a little over at Maximus and shrugs his shoulders. He hadn't said anything, either in his head or otherwise, but he seems willing enough to go along with Kaleb either way. But then he sees the sea lions and his eyes widen in surprise. He rushes to the edge of the ship to look at them and says, "Vic, look.. sea lions!" Then he looks around and Vic is gone, and he frowns a little bit, but then turns back to watching them. It's only when Vic returns that he says a little quieter, "There are sea lions here."
Kaleb was generally observed not to be a huge fan of living things that could form opinions, but Kellan's exclaim caught his attention. His hand curled around Max's sleeve and his eyes got huuuuuuge. "Woah, like… who named them after mermaid cats?" Sowly he approached the edge of the boat. "Max, are they carniverous? Can we ride them? How much you think they weigh in and out of water? Kellan, what are the odds of taming one because?" Now the hundred questions return.
"Those creatures? We cannot ride them…they are fish eaters, and…most likely, they will primarily ignore us unless we do things like…/try to ride them/." He stares at Kaleb, then thinks better of it and stares at Vic too. It seems Max trusts Kellan to be responsible.
Vic sidles up beside Kellan and looks into the water. "Look a them!" he says with delight. One arm drapes over Kellan's shoulders, a comfortable habit. He catches Max's stare, and he ducks his head as he says, "I won't try to ride them." He tries to keep the disappointment out of his voice as he adds, "Or go swimming with them and try to make friends."
"I don't think we can ride them — they're wild animals," Kellan says to Kaleb in agreement with Max, "But they are really cool to see up close instead of from a distance or at a zoo." When Vic returns and drapes an arm around his shoulders, he leans into that comfortable embrace and laughs when Vic ducks his head. "I think we could probably go and watch them, just keep your distance so that we don't disturb them or rile them up."
Kaleb considered this and set his jaw like he was working a way around all that logic, though he gave up. NOW was the time he reminded, "Last time we were here the island was defended with traps. As we only tok teh one approach it stands to reason there are likely others." He looked from Vic and Kellan back to Max, "Guessing the areas where the animals are congreagating are likely clear though?"
While the arrival hand sea lions, a sandy shore, and drinks involved, the landing to the shore is a little /wetter/. It simply cannot be avoided. Its wet. About 30 yards from the shore, /currently/ starts the foliage, though the tide changes that by 10 yards depending which way its going. "Yes…I do agree, where the animals are cannot be a trap. And, if we can find the same way into that city, then, there should not really have been any opportunity to set up new traps, since…its uninhabited."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Kellan asks when it seems that there is both a path into the city and that it's unlikely to be re-trapped at this point. He gives Vic a little tug and then makes ihs way over to wherever it is that they need to go to disembark from the boat and get onto land to look around. He seems to be in a good mood, and enjoys watching the animals as they make their way ashore.
Vic comes along with Kellan, hand in hand. "It's such a nice place when you're not fighting for your life," he remarks as he too looks around. "So are we going in the way we did the first time? I seem to remember the trail wasn't all that bad." He looks to Maximus for guidance, which in and of itself probably isn't a good idea, but the Inhuman was in charge last time, so…
Kaleb commented looking down at Kellan scrambling forward and back up to Maximus, "Well… it's inhabited now." He double checked the anchor and everything so they were not marooned. coming back his voice rang out though he didn't speak, or really need to, "Remember it doesn't me we found all the traps, jsut anyhting broken wasn't reset guys-" He stopped stunned as the sound rolled off the water and his voice bounced around the trees bringing an odd, impish grin to his face, "Woah… cool…" he muttered. Any other guy would yell 'echo' into the canyon , or a reverb spot. Kaleb was not that person and instead yelled, //"… ME… Me… me…ee.."
Maximus puts his shoes back on after the landing and then stretches. "Yes…there are still…terrible things and other traps. Just not new ones where the old ones were. If we can find the trail, that would be excellent. Though, I do seem to recall a particularly rickety bridge. And, you know…none of you touch the terrigen that may still be around. If its blue and glowing, leave it alone." There's a pause, though. "Unless you think you might be inhuman. There's actually a way to test it, you know. All I need is some of your blood."
Kellan smirks just a little bit at what Kaleb shouts into the distance and shakes his head with a grin. He gives Vic a little bit of a hip-bump as they make their way onto the beach. He's never been here before, and so his focus is just on looking around and taking everything in as much as possible. He then glances over toward Maximus and says, "I think all of us here are not inhuman except you." He grins, "But duly noted. No touching the blue glowy things."
Vic's brow furrows. "I could give you my blood," he tells Maximus, "but I'm pretty sure I'm not Inhuman. I'm directly related to humans, so…" He slings an arm around Kellan's shoulders and gives him a grin. "I won't touch any of the terrigens. I'd probably come back to life, but it's a pain."
Kaleb hopped off the boat with a dimpled grin, ear to ear, back to Kellan. Yes. Yes he was really that arrogant that he'll yell his own name at things. "Noooo , Vic, you're a mote, not an Inhuman. Thoughthe host body? That'd be messed up and kinda cool. Huh." He thought about it and rolled a look to Max with a shrug, "I'd take em up on the offer personally. Be neat to know." Looking back to Vic he offered, "Met this interesting woman at school around the winter holidays. She was raised by humans. Turns out she wasn't. She's from Jersey though so I don't trust it."
Maximus grins wickedly, and overbraodly, as he moves towards the jungle, looking around to see if he sees the path from last time…or a new, exciting, trap-filled path. Perhaps someone else should pick! "I would enjoy it very much if the son of Dr. Strange turned out to be an Inhuman, because then /I/ would be your /king/." He chuckles in a delighted manner, just giddy with the mere thought. "But, probably you are not, and your blood will turn to ash. But, we can find out later." He looks to Kaleb curiously. "And who was this woman?"
Kellan grins over at Kaleb and shakes his head, and then just keeps on wandering along the beach and toward the trees as the others talk. He chuckles a little at the mention of Jersey but has no comment on the subject. He is not quite as Jersist as his brother is. He does glance over at Vic though and say, "No dying."
"I'm actually related to him by blood, too," Vic says, "so yeah, probably would turn to ash." He gives Kellan a little squeeze and kisses his cheek. "No dying," he agrees. Kaleb's anti-Jersey sentiments are taken with a wry smile. "If she wasn't human," he asks Kaleb, "what was she? Besides from New Jersey?"
Kaleb hopped off the boat onto solid ground. He shrugged and looked up to Max offering, "Kamala." He was expecting begrudgingness and offered simply, "She was at the school. SO what I can'ttell is are we on teh same side of the island that we saw before? Ooh Kell, There were um… bugs. About as big as a bicycle. Vic had to like… wrestle one lat time. So if it looks like a coffee table with 4 too many legs don't sit on it. I remember that part."
Maximus chuckles. "Were there statues that came to life, or was that a different place?" He's probably joking, though…that HAS happened to him. Tra-la-la…" Maximus pokes at a leaf. The location is not the same, but…there IS a path. Its actually one with old stones on it, barely peeking through a scattering of leaves. Its the boon of the ocean that sometimes makes it up this far to have kept a few clear. Or, they can continue around the island to find the original path.
"Noted," Kellan says to Kaleb at the warning against coffee table sized bugs and the sitting on them. He notices the path with the old stones, and he begins wandering toward that, since it's a place to go and he doesn't see any other paths. He lets them converse about what they've seen before, but he seems more focused on actually poking about and exploring. He keeps an eye out and is observant about his surroundings, remembering tales of pits and such from last time.
Vic comes along with Kellan. "Careful," he tells him. "You have to be careful for traps. They could be anywhere." He inspects the trailhead for signs like the last one had, with hints of possible traps up ahead. "There was a marker last time," he says. He nods to Kaleb. "I remember the bugs. They weren't so tough though." Says the super strong one.
Kaleb snapped his fingers "Yeah that 1, 1, 2 ,2 1, thing? wih the wood planks and the me not dying." He had to admit, "Honestly? Huge fan of that part. Fanning out he was not the hiker his brother was and seemed to have a different look at the place. He paused and pressed his fingers into teh dirt (yes, dirt) and brushed away some of teh foliage and earth to examine the stone for markings. Overhead could be heard the sound of birds stranded here generations ago doomed to live in a tropical paradise unbothered by humans… lucky flappy bastards. Stepping back up he brushed his hands together and informed Max, "Found a note saying crystals are stored this way." He paused and shook his head, "No not really but I think Vic and Kellan are finding a pretty good path. So far no bears. No traps."
|ROLL| Vic +rolls 1d20 for: 8
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 20
Searching for sign posts, Vic finds the wooden remains of what was probably a sign post, but whose actual sign has fallen away and is gone. Its not very big, though, and there are no divergent paths here. Kaleb's efforts in the dirt and stone though come up with a section that is cut into the stone. There is clear writing that says, in Roman letters, bit archaic, but still readable to translate to "No Slaves, Only Masters". Maximus picks a berry off a waxy-looking plant and offers it to Kellan, "I dare you to eat this." Its reddish orange.
Kellan looks over at Max as though he'd grown an extra head and says, "I dare you to eat it." Because Kellan has no plans to eat random berries off of unrecognizable plants, and his expression says as much, both brows raised. There's a glance over at Vic and he says, "I am being careful… and watching for traps." Which he is. Frowning slightly, he shoves his hands in his pockets and just plops down on a rock nearby and watches the others wander around finding signs and words.
"Here we go," Vic says, then pauses as he notices the signpost he's found is sans sign, with no glimpse of it in the underbrush. "Oh, nuts. I guess we're just going to have to watch our step." He eyes Maximus when he dares Kellan to eat a berry. Kellan can speak for himself, but Vic does have a very concerned expression. "Any luck, Kaleb?" he asks.
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 5
Kaleb tilted his head and murmured, "No poisoning my brother." Said so casually he wasn't really worried about it at all given Kellan's likely run all factors on those odds. Calling back up he said, "Ooh yeah here's something. Old Roman latin… No servants, only masters? Aww they rolle dout the welcome mat for us. Definiately in the right place." Because Kaleb's hubris really didn't know any bounds to make him consider it might mean only safe for Kree or something.
Maximus tilts his head and then tries the random berries himself. "I would never poison anyone." Maximus lies. "I would never poison anyone I actually care about." Max totally goes along with their choice of path, following in line as the overgrowth reveals a stone-paved path. rather swanky, given the other state of the jungle. There are mild signs, Kellan picks one out, that there were once refreshment stands here and there. There is a crumbled pagoda during a section that perhaps once…was sunny. No longer, though, vines and trees have overwhelmed it. There's a sense of being watched and to Kaleb, it is NOISY. TWEET TWEET CACAW, RIBBIT.
"I'm just not eating unidentified things that could kill me to find out. I don't come back from that," Kellan points out with a slight shrug of his shoulders. But when the others find a path and they start heading down it, he follows along afterward, pointing out that there used to be some stands of some sort or another. He continues to examine the landscape as they go. He doesn't understand the language, but he seems interested enough at what they might find along the path.
"I could," Vic says, "but I'm immune to poison, so it wouldn't give you an accurate reading." God knows how he found out he's immune to poison, but apparently that's a thing. He follows up the rear, letting the others set the pace. There's a bounce in his step. It's an adventure! After all, last time they got through all of this okay, so what's there to worry about?
Kaleb wasn't going to bring up the spike trap, or the zombie pirate things…well…skeley pirates. He didn't want to be corpsist. He did reach into Max's hand and grab one of the berries and popped it into his mouth just to see wha the fuss was about. They had Vic there who he was confident enough in to stave off terrible things. It was then he made the face, twisting and blinking. He held up a hand sound reworking around him "Not poisoned. God that's more tart than I thought." Important to clarify that early on! Still the noise made him slightly distracted. "That langauge, that Kree?"
|ROLL| Maximus +rolls 1d20 for: 14
"You know…some poisons have nothing to do with killing a person. Would you still get a stomach-ache and have to…take a break in the woods?" Maximus chuckles. "Wipe your arse with leaves?" He's still laughing about it 20 yards further down the path, the image of Vic tromping through the woods. The berries do not seem to have harmed Maximus. The group, whilst Max is laughing, come upon their first potential obstacle in the path. Its the bridge that leads over the same chasm. There is a definite mist here though, from a crashing, roaring waterfall, and…oddly enough, a path diverges to go behind the waterfall also. The bridge looks fairly sturdy, but, its very wet, and wet boards do not really do well over time. The path behind the waterfall looks equally as slippery, and it is on stone. There is, also, a circle of stones between the two bridges with an odd dial on it, that allows a person to select from three different runes. One rune is a triangle, the other is like a small square stacked on top of a bigger square, and the final selection is what looks like a tree.
Kellan seems less and less happy the longer that they talk about poisonings, and Maximus' laughter doesn't seem to take that edge off. He falls entirely silent and just follows along behind. There's a glance over at Kaleb every so often, perhaps checking to see if he falls over from eating the berries, or suddenly runs off into the woods. He wanders over to the dial and looks it over, taking note of what it seems to currently be set to, out of curiosity, before re-examining their path. "I'd like to see what is behind the waterfall," he says, but not particularly loudly, and it sounds more like he's musing to himself than anything else.
Vic sidles up beside Kellan so he can look at the runes. "I can help," he says gently. I can catch you if you fall. Do we have any rope?" He looks between Maximus and Kaleb. "Did anyone bring rope? I mean I could carry us, so it doesn't really matter, but rope would make it easier. He smiles a little. "If that's what everyone wants to do. I'm kind of curious about the waterfall, myself."
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 8
Kaleb was having more trouble getting the taste out of his mouth and looked to Kellan, "It's kinda like… a really tart grape. I don't think it's… we're good." Uncomfortable from getting exactly what he didn't think he would but that was Kaleb with pretty much anything on the planet until Harry Connick Jr. will be discovered. That shit is fine. The waterfall got acurious look, "Yeah I'm sorry I was distracted and that is SUPER loud but if you want to get soggy you can, uhhhh yeah actually in the backpack there's rope because last time. Knife some matches. Flashlight. Coffee." Yes he packed the dry roast though they had no pot and no coffeepot. He was super terrible with kitchen hitngs. He tried being thoughtful though. "We know what the dial does?… it has a tree and squares and a triangle." He looked around for any of these things. Oh boy. Trees. Lot and lots of unhelpful in teh way trees.
Maximus studies the runes for a moment before shrugging. "Well, just guessing, but I think its a teleporter, though…no idea what the shapes mean. It would have a similar looking device on the other side, though. This is not Inhuman. Its…wizardly. The mystics inhabited this place when the Inhumans departed. They must have put this in." He grins when Kaleb offers that he has rope. "Ahhh, of course, darling, you think of everything. So…getting wet behind the waterfall then? mmm…sounds good. The bridge looks dangerous."
Since everyone is agreed, the path to the waterfall gives them plenty of time to tie themselves to each other, or to various objects, however they want to do it. Good thing too, because its like walking on snot. A thin layer of green hair covers the rocks here, beautiful in a way, thoroughly slippery. The Waterfall is lovely from the other side, though the spray gets them totally wet, and lo and behold, there is a /cave/ behind it. Its super dark.