[RP] Spiritwater – Tides of Witchcraft

[HorusMyDude]

Ruford Mcdonough
Heahea Urgent Care Center, Section B
Affected RP'ers: @Neo Emolga, @Chakramaster

Ruford listened to the tail end of the conversation the nurses were having as he lumbered in. Some tourist, by the looks of it, while one of the Triad was talking to a tourist asking for directions. He had worked with the Triad a couple times already – helping with a couple of hexed victims and listening as they went over instructions for breaking the various spells throughout the island. He didn't like 'em, not one bit – there was something off about them, as though they were hiding something.

He couldn't place his finger on what though. They were probably pop stars.

He gestured to one of them to follow him as he made his way into the room Cynthia was occupying. The Sinnoh Champion was sitting at a desk she had taken over from a local doctor – a doctor who was now in one of the rooms, his left arm transformed into an Arbok. To say she was weary was an understatement – Heahea was under siege.

“Ruford,” she said.

He popped the head of the Lickilicky costume off, letting out a gasp of air as he did so. He begin extricating himself out of the costume as he gave his report.

“Came here as fast as I could. Whole town's a mess – kept seeing ghosts about the place. Low level stuff, basic Pokemon and whatnot, but there's some really big $%^$ just under the surface, I think. I took a taxi here, and well...”

He gestured as the taxi driver was wheeled in on a stretcher, his face a mess of boils and writhing tentacles.

“Kept going on about a mask he bought at one of the souvenir stands, said it was supposed to help protect him from ghosts and his ex-husband. Looks like he got it bad, though.”

“You think the masks might have something to do with it?” Cynthia asked.

“Well, it's a good start,” Ruford reasoned, “Easy to buy, everyone loves 'em, I guess you could put a nice hex on 'em or something. I don't know, I'm not a Shadowcraft expert.”

“That... makes sense,” Cynthia said, “It lines up with a few of the incidents we've seen thus far. And the reason why I called you here.”

She produced a small mask, “This here was being worn by a small child. The hex wasn't really anything special – just caused the poor kid to burp out fireworks. What I'm more concerned about is the design.”

Ruford glanced down at the old mask. It was a plain mask that you could buy at a party store and decorate, an off-white color that had been bedazzled with pink and blue dots. It almost reminded him of...

“A Blacephalon,” he said, “Well, I'm not surprised. One of those things rolled through here a couple months ago, blew up a small hotel. Was all over the news. Any kid could've seen it and decided it was a cool Ultra Beast, right? Unless you're saying it was intentionally designed as an Ultra Beast – and a Ghost type at that. Fits the theme. Fits making a scene...”