xp_logs | Living Pele

While Alex is doing some work for Dr. Rocca at the Kilauea lab, Vida comes to visit him and brings him lunch. They flirt a bit before Alex finds out why the tacos taste funny.

Alex looked up from his desk in Dr. Rocca's office at the Kilauea lab when he heard someone approach. He had just been going over the figures of Kilauea's latest activity as Dr. Rocca was in the midst an experiment up lab and she wanted an in-depth summary of data up until that point so they had a ground point to work from.

He couldn't help but grin when he saw Vida standing there. Standing up, he leaned over to give her a kiss in greeting. "Hey babe. What are you doing here?"

It was a testament to Vida's control that she didn't grab the boy by the neck and shake him. Instead she gave him a sweet smile and returned the kiss. "Just checking up on you, sweetie." She held up a brown paper bag. "Lunch?"

Walking around the desk, Alex pulled her in for a proper kiss. "Ah babe, you didn't have to do that." He appreciated it nonetheless and poked at the bag in her hand. "What did ya bring?"

"Tacos," Vida said, pulling Alex in for another kiss before letting him go. He was hers, dammit. "Watch the bag, I think the grease is eating away through the bottom." She carefully set it on Alex's desk, away from any important-looking papers.

Grinning after the almost possessive kiss, Alex turned to move his papers off to the side and put his computer on stand by. Then he sat on the desk and patted the space next to him for her to join him. "To what do I owe the company? Don't you have class soon?"

"Not at the moment, no," Vida said. "Something important came up." She shrugged and flashed Alex another smile. "But I thought I'd steal some alone time before I get to that, if you know what I mean?" she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and kissed Alex deeply.

Chuckling softly, he put a hand up to behind her neck to kiss her soundly in return. "Mmmm...and what would that be?"

Vida worked her hand under Alex's shirt, rubbing her fingers along the line of his shorts and then up his back. "Dunno," she said coyly.

He started slightly, a little tic still left over from Selene, not that he had ever explained it to Vida. It was always the first touch, then he was fine. Bending his head, Alex nuzzled at her neck. "You realize your mother is in the other room right?"

"Shoot," Vida withdrew, a mock-pout on her face. "And here I was hoping you'd just sweep the papers off the desk and make wild passionate love to me regardless." She pulled away further, but not before running her thumb under the waistband of his jeans. She loved the way his muscles felt. She leaned back on her hands and tilted her head. "Anyway, lunch?"

"I would...except she pays me to work for her, not fuck her daughter on the desk." Alex said with a cheeky grin as he opened the bag to examine the contents. "Are you joining me?" He asked, offering the bag to her before taking anything out for himself. "It looks like there's plenty in here."

"Nah, I snarfed mine on the way over here." Vida put a hand on her stomach and patted it contently. "Sorry, babe, couldn't wait. You go ahead though, eat them before they congeal."

Chuckling, Alex gave her a quick kiss before diving in, eating one in a manner of seconds, a feat that could only be done by a college age male. As he pulled out another one, he examined this one a bit more carefully. "I think they already have. That one tasted funny..."

"Really?" Vida said, pulling the bag closer and peering into it curiously. "Are you sure you could taste anything? I swear you unhinged your jaw there."

He gave her a look before taking a bite of the new one. Alex wrinkled his nose when it too tasted funny. "This one...tastes...wow, why is the room spinning?" He dropped the taco on the desk, his hands going up to hold his head.

Vida's looked on coldly as Alex swayed and then slumped to the floor. "Perhaps it's because I drugged them, doncha think?"

Managing to roll onto his back and look up at her, Alex fought off unconsciousness long enough to ask, "why?" in a soft questioning voice before his brain groaned Not again!

Vida put one sandaled foot on Alex's chest and leaned in close, a wicked grin on her face. "Because you made a choice, honey-bunny. So I made mine. Don't worry, we'll take really good care of you."

As the familiar drug induced haze came over him, Alex couldn't help but wonder exactly what that choice had been...

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A flashback to Thanksgiving Day: After witnessing the accidental kiss of Alex and Lorna, Vida goes to her mother to tell her that she's ready

Three Weeks Ago

The luau was a time of celebration and she considered that more important than the mainlander's tradition of Thanksgiving. Let them gorge themselves on turkey and stuffing. Here on Hawaii, the island made the tradition its own, assimilating without breaking as it ever had.

It was difficult to pry Dr. Madison Rocca from her laboratory, particularly as now with the volcano seething and the seismic processes far from quiet. But as devoted as she was to her work, so much more was she to her daughter. For her and her alone did she set aside what should have been done this day.

So it was unmistakable to Dr. Rocca that her daughter was in a very bad mood. The tight body language, and the fact that Vida was swiping angrily at her eyes as she drew nearer to her mother were something of a clue.

Without hurry, she set aside her drink and bid a quiet farewell to her companions and rose to meet her daughter. "Vida, child. What's the matter?" Even as she spoke her heart swelled with pride to see her. The tall and beautiful girl that had come from her blood, her power was the true focus of her life. There was nothing that she would not have done for Vida. Indeed, the volcanic activity warned that she should have pushed the girl for more but... There was time yet. Let the child be a child. The tide of history was patient.

"That...that..." Vida hissed, so angry she was stuttering. "That bitch. That dickless loser." Vida raked a hand through her hair. "How dare he cheat on me! How dare he!" Her. Vida Rocca. Favored out of her entire generation by fate and destiny.

Fury boiled in Madison Rocca's veins but her face remained impassive. Drawing her daughter aside, beyond the hearing and sight of the luau, she inquired in muted tones precisely what was going on. The slowly uncurling excitement and anticipation in her belly was controlled as ruthlessly as the rage. "He was always meant to betray you," she reminded Vida. "That is all they do. Come here, rape our treasures and leave again."

"I know, I just...I thought he was ....I thought he was different," Vida wiped at her eyes again. Her Alex, so innocent and trusting. Like a little boy. Something about him had called to Vida, and she had wanted to protect him. Even though he was everything they wanted, everything she needed. It had been destiny that they were to meet, Vida knew, but it wouldn't hurt anyone if she let Alex have as much fun as he could before he helped her. The girl sighed, hating herself for being so weak. "I should have know better, huh?"

"Hiwahiwa." Her mother passed a fond, sympathetic hand over her hair and cheek, drawing out the connection between them. Reinforcing the power of blood and destiny. "Milinanea, the folly of youth is also her glory. You trusted him and loved him. It is not your fault that he has betrayed you. Perhaps you have protected him long enough. Now is the time for your choice, ke kaikamahine."

Vida leaned into her mother's touch. It didn't matter that she should have been old enough that such contact would have been embarrassing. She rested her head on her mother's shoulder, feeling the woman's trust and faith in her. "Yes, perhaps it is time. He has made his choice, and so have I."

"We have much to do," said her mother, even as her hands rubbed small circles on her back. "You must be sure, Vida. Once begun, we cannot go back." There was steel in her tone, "He must not suspect."

"He won't," Vida's jaw was set, and her eyes were hard. "As far as he's concerned, I never saw him cheat on me." Privately she vowed to go and let the green-haired bitch know whose boyfriend she was messing with.

-------

The process of awakening the goddess with the power of the outsider begins with a ceramony

Sunset was power. Death and night came at the same time and the sun lit the ocean ablaze. Kilauea glowed with life and heat, slow-moving lava flows framing the site. In the midst of the blackened rock and burned brush was a little pocket of life, a small oasis in the cup of the goddess's hand, preserved from the magma that seeped up from the island's heart. Lush vegetation grew thickly around a clearing with a small pool, heated by the lava that flowed beneath. Tropical flowers drugged the air with their scents, heavy and cloying with sweetness. This was a heiau built by the will of Pele.

Hula is the language of the heart and therefore the heartbeat of the Hawai`ian people. Sacred to the goddess and the domain of her favorite younger sister, they danced now to honor the old ways, the Hawai`i that had been. It was a dance of joy and of grief. A release and a calling. Every movement told a story. The stamping of feet on the earth summoned power. This was not the <i>hula ʻauana, corrupted by Western influence but hula kahiko as of old.

Drumbeats ended without warning and the high priestess stood among them, tall and straight with her black and silver hair unbound. She raised a slender arm, "The time is now. The goddess waits no longer."

It was the drums that did it. Alex groaned at the vibrations going through his sore and drowsy head. He kept his eyes closed, trying to remember what the hell had happened...

The female dancers wore the pāʻū, the traditional wrapped skirts that left the breasts bare. They were also adorned with anklets, bracelets, and leis on their necks, heads, wrists and ankles. The male dancers were in the malo, or loincloth and adorned like the female dancers in leis. This was nothing like the hula shown to the tourists, every movement was structured, every gesture and nuance had its own meaning. To call forth the goddess, to bridge the gap between the spiritual realm and the physical realm, and not even the figure stirring on the altar could break their rhythm.

Especially to the figure in the center. Vida Rocca, last descendant of Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes, and violence, and patroness of the islands of Hawai'i.

Slowly, Alex managed to crack an eye open. He really didn't feel like he could move so he didn't even try but he wanted to know why he heard people. Oh...That's why... There were people in traditional Hawai'ian garb dancing around him. Now the question was why but Alex's brain wasn't awake enough to try that one yet.

Kahuna was the name they gave her though the meaning had been corrupted through so many years of mainlander influence. Priestess served instead, the Christian conquerers' word brought to their own meaning and power. Like "doctor" it meant nothing to a true child of the islands but the meaning was preserved. Madison Rocca had passed the goddess from within herself to her daughter. That was the truth. "Kaikamahine, your destiny calls. The goddess waits. Too long we have been smothered by the forces of the mainlanders. Extinguish their power and return Hawai'i to her rightful place of freedom."

Vida heard nothing her mother had said, so entranced was she by the hula kahiko. She could already feel the power gathering with each step she took, each graceful wave of her hand. The steps of this hula taught to her when she was a child, to ready the way.

The dance took on a new pattern, to call forth the energy from the boy on the table and transfer it to Vida.

The pull on his mutation was what finally woke Alex up fully, causing him to strain against the bonds that held him in place. He began to panic, not so much at being the center of a very odd ceremony but the fact that his containment suit was gone. The energy would be uncontrolled!

He looked around quickly to find a way to stop it when he saw who else was at the center of the ritual. Vida. Everything came back to him now. How she'd drugged him. "Vida!" He called out desperately, hoping he could appeal to her even if she was the reason he was in this mess. "Stop! The energy...it's too dangerous!" The pull became too strong for him and he gritted his teeth against it. At least this was preferable to Selene's method...

The dance grew more heated, the graceful floating movements became quicker and more vicious. And Vida began to glow.

His hands were itching and it was adding to his frustration that he couldn't scratch them. They were glowing, as they did when he used his mutation but the glow was diminishing as the glow around Vida got brighter. Alex started to feel the drain on him and made a last ditch effort to fight. "Vida, please! Whatever you're doing...stop!"

"Vida." The readings on the monitoring device spiked, but her mother's voice remained calm. She stepped forward with a knife that glittered in the dying sun like black glass and drew the tip over his chest, watching blood and power well out from the shallow cut. There was still blood on the blade as she held it out to Vida. "He will keep your power from you no longer. Take this now."

Vida accepted the knife from her mother, palm closing around the naked blade. Her blood mixed with what was already on the blade and the power drain intensified. Vida dropped the blade as she was suddenly encased in fire.

The dancers finished at a fever pitch, as the flames engulfed the young woman. The ceremony was a success. Pele was reborn. The flames died and Vida collapsed onto the ground into a dead faint. The figure on the altar did the same.

"Hurry, we haven't much time," snapped the priestess as she stared down at the motionless figure of the girl at her feet, skin veined with fire. They would take them to the lab and place the boy in the chamber that would constrain his powers, keep them from overwhelming the newly reborn goddess. This was what they were meant for. It was not a sacrifice unwillingly given.