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Raylene Dunwich     It wasn't hard gathering again. This time, arrangements were made, and there was still some time before nightfall again, just for pre-haunting checks and concerns. Raylene had actually arranged for a bus this time, which looked like a tour bus, for anyone who might have difficulty blending in with the place to take without issue. Thus the gathering commenced!

    As a refresher for those who weren't here before, the dossier explains the situation: the house is haunted by at least one ghostly presence, likely three or four, and a ritual circle in the basement is drawing power from these three presences in the various wings. One wing was explored last time, finding a greenhouse with a ghostly civil war veteran in it. Meanwhile, a dead body was found scalped upstairs, and the walls were bleeding and ghostly voices shouting to get out. However, the voices and the blood were found to be fake, generated by props hidden in the walls. So it's a fake haunted house with three actual hauntings.

    Raylene is again waiting, though this time she's dressed more practically. A shirt and jeans, with a jacket over it, and a backpack. A Hello Kitty backpack, actually. "Good evening, everyone," she greets without a care in the world, her youth apparently giving her a chipper nature despite the nature of the visit here. "Ready to bust some ghosts?"
Riva Banari Riva's back! She was more or less hanging out and making sure the squishier people with more delicate ghostly interaction capabilities didn't get eaten by horrors. She hates it when that happens. Still, the Casual Templar is back, still dressed in her jacket, a t-shirt and jeans. "We ain't afraid of no ghosts." Riva replies nonchalantly. Easy to do when you're /out here/ and not /in the haunted house/, of course.
Guest Psyber     Psyber's here! He's dressed casually, in jeans, a t-shirt, and a light leather jacket. He's got his Fetch Modus which is probably crammed with weapons, but currently only has one weapon actually on hand. That weapon is a simple axe one would use for chopping wood! It looks like it's made out of pure iron and has an oak handle. He's using a rag to rub some sort of blessed oil on it as he walks up.

    "Yo. I'm here to take care of that tree." He points at the axe and then rests it up against one of his shoulders, "Is that friend of yours coming back? I was really hoping she'd put in an application at my office." He asks to Raylene curiously, adjusting his stance and looking towards the haunted house.
Amalthea     Like the last time she had arrived, Amalthea emerges from the woodlands. Wrapped in her cloak, and lighter aromr for this second expidition, the old knight has not come UNPREPARED for it. Her sword and shield are with her as usual, but os is something else, in hand.
    It's a shovel.
Rebecca Chambers Ghosts? Do they really exist? If they do, Rebecca's not afraid of them. She's dealt with zombies and other freaks that make ghosts seem trivial. "I'm not afraid either!" Rebecca says without showing the slightest hint of a smile. "Whatever's in there will be taken out at any cost!" She loads a clip into her Beretta, just to be sure. Even if the ghosts aren't material objects, hopefully gunfire should show she's not defenseless.

    Out of all the others, perhaps Rebecca looks like the only one who's on duty. She's wearing her usual uniform, albeit with a jacket over it to keep her warm. She looks to the others, giving a smile and a nod to Psyber, before looking to the house. "Haunted or not, we're going to teach these inhabitants they picked the wrong haunt to haunt!"
Nozomi Houken     Taiga is on a bus.

    He has claimed a seat for himself. Nozomi sits across the aisle from him, and any time someone approaches as if they might want to share a seat, they will simply get a silent, lingering stare.

    Nozomi is rather more approachable about sharing her seat with someone.

    When they arrive, the girl and her pet robot stick close together again, though in Taiga's case he actually stays somewhat forward. They've taken a foray into the task for which he is specifically designed, after all. "I am always prepared, of course. It is in my nature."
Anna Renfield     "It is /super weird/ to have you as an employer, Dunwich," Anna Renfield says as she steps out of the bus. "But I guess I can't complain, with our current budget." She has her camera here, and as if she heard Psyber's question, she just walks over and passes an envelope to him. Her application, apparently.

    "I developed the film," she says to give an idea of what is happening. "It looks to me like the paintings were fetters all right, but the tree is what's keeping that one ghost /in/ and confined. Mostly. Anyone have a plan or will we use one of Vhander's?"
Sakura Haruno     Flowers will be here, as she'd offered the last time. She's mostly here just in case they decide to go for the 'sink the place into a deep, deep hole' emergency backup plan. The mednin doesn't have any particular expertise with actual ghosts, as opposed to fragments of her own mind.

    She doesn't really like haunted places, certainly, but she'll suck it up and approach Raylene anyway, having managed to dress fairly normally in things other people had given her for christmas, with the exception of the former hood on her jacket that had been forcably ripped off at some point. "Oh, are we getting an increased budget for this?" Sakura will ask curiously, in spite of her money-handling ineptness.
Raylene Dunwich     Haruno gets an answer first! "I'm hiring all of you for this task." Raylene still hasn't said why she cares about this place at all, though. Psyber is of course answered by Anna /showing up/, so all Raylene has to do is reply with a curt, "Renfield." She's smiling though... something she doesn't do a lot, which speaks volumes for what she thinks of Anna.

    "Oh... you will be," the girl says to Riva... then smirks in such a way that says she isn't serious. "Hopefully we won't be running into anything terrifying tonight, and..." she glances to Chambers. "You should avoid shooting up the place and damaging it more if you can. Don't get rid of the gun though. I have this bad feeling that we'll need it anyway."

    And finally, Amalthea gets a cluck of the tongue. "You and Psyber came prepared for the tree I see. Well, why don't we get that started? Who should I go with, I wonder, while those two handle the tree?" She looks at Taiga and Nozomi, and adds, "Specialists should probably be split amongst the groups, unless we're going to try to hit all three as one mass, one after the other."
Amalthea     Oh hey, Psyber brought an Axe.
    This is Amalthea's surprised face: Her expression does not change in the least.
    Though she keeps the HELL away from Psyber's iron axe, she gives the half-angel a nudge of her elbow. "Yo. Hook a sister up." She says, holding the shovel up and motioning for the holy oil. As for a plan. "I had a pretty basic one. Looks like Psyber was of the same mind. I donno about the rest of the house but I was gonna go digging for haunted treasure and figured Miss Ofuda could shaman purify whatever undead blues clues bullshit we find."
    'Miss Ofuda' of course comes with a gesture for Anna.
Sakura Haruno     "Oh. Well, that's fine, then. Let me know what you need me to do." Flowers will state, before glancing over towards some of the others. Particularly the weapons some have brought.

    She'll at least contemplate the splitting up offer. "I'll stick with you, I guess, unless you think someone's likely to get hurt otherwise. I doubt there's anything this many of us can't handle, but there's no harm in being careful." She may also be uncertain of exactly where all three are, because she wasn't here the last time and had mostly just skimmed the dosier. It'll probably work itself out, after all.
Riva Banari "I admit, I'm a /little/ less scared of things if I can hit them. It's kind of a reflex." Riva admits. She chuckles. "Still, we'll see what happens, right?" She shrugs. "I'm fine with either." She looks over the others present and ponders. "Looks like there's less people here than there were last time. Stick in a group this time?" She shrugs. "My usual method of interacting with angry ghosts is to hit them until they stop being angry. I know there's other stuff too sometimes but it's worked for me so far."
Rebecca Chambers Sometimes it's good to split up so that there are more people in more spots. Smaller teams, sure, but it means less targets all the same. While she's no ghost specialist, Rebecca nonetheless is willing to go along with this plan. "Um, I can go with whoever, all right?" She asks to nobody in particular but loud enough to be heard all the same.
Guest Psyber     Psyber takes the application from Anna and looks at it, "Oh hey, thanks." He slips it to the interior pocket of his jacket and keeps it there, patting a couple times and then looking over towards Amalthea.

    "Oh yeah, sure." He notes, tossing her what looks like a glass bottle with a thick, viscous fluid in it. Holy Oil, clearly. The half-angel then takes the axe up off his shoulder, "Rough plan is right on her part."

    He gestures a thumb to Amalthea, "We cut the tree down, uproot the stump, see what might be under it. All some pretty basic work." He looks to Anna, "You in?"
Nozomi Houken     "I am capable of operating either solo or in a group, so any composition is generally favorable to me," Taiga says to Raylene, seating himself where he is until a plan is settled. "However, I would prefer any group capable of defending my user. Avoidance of Rampart Mode would be favorable for my user, and also lessen collateral damage to my surroundings." Nozomi bites her lip. It's something she's had to deal with once already - the choice between 'transforming with Taiga' and 'having to put her allies through extra difficulty just by being there' is not a pleasant one. For now, though, they should be fine.

    Taiga turns to Riva, and adds, "I see no issues with this method."
Anna Renfield     Anna doesn't have a pistol or anything, just her own backpack and a pair of glasses. Riva's suggestion has merit... but then she makes a face. "Yeah, normally I'd agree with you, Riva, but tonight I think we should just take all three as fast as possible. I can do exorcisms if I need to, so if we have a third then let's split up. If not then I guess we don't have much choice." There's little point in splitting up into two groups for three locations.

    Either way, the dark-haired girl starts walking toward the house, stepping across the threshold with a shiver. She knows what the grounds look like on the inside, from last time.
Raylene Dunwich     Raylene thinks for a little bit... but then nods, "Let's do this all together, we can bring our full talents to bear. If we split up, we're guaranteed that someone's specialty will be needed and they're in the other group. That's how it ALWAYS happens." She turns around and heads into the grounds with Anna, while thinking about how to handle matters.

    Stepping onto the grounds is immediately giving the oppressive feeling of /something wrong/ even to those without spiritual senses. An oppressive feeling of dread, mainly, covers the place. Those WITH supernatural senses can tell there's a heavy sort of roiling static in the air, with the three powers now struggling more against one another and clashing in the middle. Those who were here before will note this is much more violent than before, with a lot more energy built up.

    This makes Raylene pause, but she heads right for the wing of the house anyway. "We'd best hurry, I think." The house itself is showing strange signs of wear... slashes along the wallpaper, nicks in the plaster, scuffs and streaks in the carpet or on the floor. Even a hoofprint from a shoed horse on one part. They look... not quite right, but as night nears, the 'damage' grows more tangible.
Riva Banari Riva nods in response to Anna, and shrugs. "You have a good point here. I guess we could-"

But then Raylene decides to go with the mob tactics. Riva just shrugs again and looks to Anna. "Well, I guess that's that." She says in response, chuckling. "Let's just get this done."

As the group gets back onto the grounds, Riva shudders, greening a little under the oppressive force. "Holy..." She mutters. "It's even worse than last time." She grunts, and then straightens, as if holding up under a weight. "Yeah." She agrees with Raylene. "Let's get moving." She hustles along with Ray, pulling that rapier out once again. It's easier to use in tighter spaces than her big ass mace.
Nozomi Houken     Taiga falls into a lazy stride alongside Raylene herself, with Nozomi following close behind. "You are entirely correct," he replies, ears flicking this way and that. This all shows a lot more menace than their previous excursion. He'll have to stick to more of a harassment role, moving around the edges and harrying while they go after their targets; with menace like this, going straight in will be risky. "Nozomi. Stay close to the middle of the group. They will ensure you're protected."
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca moves in alongside the others, gritting her teeth a little. She'd been on a recent training simulation similar to the Arklay Estate, but that's just a simulation. This is the real thing. And she wasn't dealing with the supernatural either. "Looks like I've got a bit to learn," She says to the others quietly as she looks around, holding her Beretta tightly. "I know a lot about zombies, but ghosts are another thing..."
Sakura Haruno     Sakura's been described before as a canary in the coal mine for these sorts of auras and atmospheres; it remains true, though the medic just slumps as she walks, managing to shake past the worst of the effects for now. Possibly because of the edge of violence to it. She's used to feeling fear and violence, after all.

    "..Mm. Nice place." She'll finally manage, as she looks at the damage to the wallpaper and to the house as a whole.

    "Hurrying seems good. If we have to hit all three of them quickly, that is." Flowers will fold her hands in front of her, carefully not looking at anything but the back of Raylene's shoes as they hurry towards the wing, unless people cry in alarm or something disturbing happens.
Amalthea     When the holy oil is passed her way, Amalthea uncorks the bottle with her teeth. She's a little generous in pouring some right onto the spade, but doesn't go overboard with it, stoppering the bottle and passing it back. She's already lazily using her cloak to spread it around, thus giving her the double benefit of blessed shovel and armor, in a complete if of supernatural cheating,
    "Alright, I'm good, let's get this show..." She trails off. The oppressive sense of dread and malice hanging in the very air giving her a beat of pause. Not out of ffear, but out of respect to the knowledge od how many terrible things in the night could bring terrible misfortune if the right care isn't taken.
    "Hurrying sounds like a good idea." She agrees. "That's not my fault by the way." She says about the slashes and hoofprint. She only wrecked paintings.
    Amalthea has another problem... One she intends to rectify while on the move. One arm lifts one way. Her other another way... She reeeeeaaaches out with one finger on each side... To release a jolting little static discharge at the lobe of Psyber's ear and the back of Sakura's neck, before any group splitting up occurs.
Anna Renfield     Anna lifts her camera, taking several shots of both the grounds, and the inside of the house. She can feel it, obviously. "Yeah... something's happened since the last time. Maybe we messed something up when we were poking around before." Click click goes the shutter.

    Noticing the trouble some are having - and feeling a little borne down herself - Anna stops to murmur a quick spell, summoning a small globe around the group. It's not much, but it should provide some basic protection against that oppressive feeling. Wards like this aren't her specialty, at least not on the fly, so she doesn't put a lot of juice into it.

    "Yeah, let's go..." she mutters, tugging out an ofuda as suggested.
Guest Psyber     "Augh, damnit!" Psyber flinches as Amalthea shocks him with static. The half-angel promptly delivers a very un-hard jab to the kidney-region of Amalthea's robotic body with a couple fingers, "Sonuvabitch, don't take advantage of the dry air," He grouses, complaining but still moving along with her.

    "Theoretically," Psyber moves on and back onto topic, "When we awoke all three dormant actual paranormal entities, they began to conflict over who had manifestation supremacy in the topic of this single host. WHICH MEANS," Psyber cautions, holding up his free hand to gesture.

    "Be careful about getting possessed by dumb ghostly bullshit. Something may be looking for a new host."
Raylene Dunwich     It's still daytime, thankfully. That means, mostly, that there are no actual GHOSTS here yet. No sign of anything like what happened before. Raylene is still cautious, moving along the halls and gesturing to the group at the walls. The paintings have been... restored, after a fashion. Damaged, to be sure, but put back together as if with an amatuer repair and restoration. Some were burned, though, so those are completely gone.

    "With all this power, there shouldn't be a problem manifesting," Raylene points out. "It's very strange... good thing we arrived early." She'll let the martial-oriented but not supernatural types stand guard, as the hallway leads down to the wrecked greenhouse and that ominous, twisted tree.

    "All right," she says, idly plucking up some plants. "Get to work on the tree while those who seal do that. I'll see if I can't get something useful out of this." She looks up suddenly. "If we hurry I think we can take care of this before it manifests anything."

    It is, for the time being, just a tree thankfully. Anyone watching the back will notice lurking, shadowy shapes trying to gather behind. Large rats, holding themselves back as if waiting.
Nozomi Houken     Taiga flicks an ear. "We see you," he says, ambling out into the greenhouse and staring straight at the rats. "If you value your continued existence, I strongly recommend that you retreat." The worst that can happen is 'they don't listen', whether that be because they're dumb ordinary rats, they're under something's control, or they just don't think they're in danger. Worth a try, at least.

    Nozomi, in the mean time, sort of drifts her way closer to Sakura. Anna has received a very grateful look from the girl for the warding, but she's still not exactly handling this oppressive atmosphere very well. Especially not with the paintings all around them again. "Aah... hey..." It's a mumbled, probably in-vain attempt to strike up casual conversation with the mednin.
Rebecca Chambers Psyber's advice may seem dumb, but Rebecca's willing to heed it. She looks to him and nods. "I'll keep that in mind, definitely," She says in a serious tone, although she's blushing a little because she's unsure if it's true or not. Once again she feels like a rookie, but she bites her lower lip briefly before deciding to go with it.

    With Raylene's advice, Rebecca moves towards the tree and draws her Beretta, keeping an eye on things around it. "Go do what you have to, I'll provide covering fire!" She's not sure if it'll work, but she's willing to take that chance.
Sakura Haruno     Sakura isn't really expecting the shock, and, of course, Earth is weak to Lightning. Even static lightning. The medic will yelp and slap a hand to her neck where the jolt had struck, getting shook out of her funk for at least a moment. Amalthea is spared a retribution by someone else trying to talk to her, though.

    She'll look over to Nozomi, trying to reassure her. "Well, hello." She'll offer, trying to cheer the younger girl up. "...You holding up okay?" She'll ask, ignoring her own rather fragile state to try and pretend.
Raylene Dunwich     Raylene absently comments, "Zombies are unlikely to happen here, but we haven't checked the other two wings yet. Never know, really." Maybe Chambers isn't as out of her element as she thinks! Right now, though, the rats seem mostly to be skittering side to side, keeping their distance with red, glowing eyes peering outward. It's still not nightfall yet, so they must be cautious.
Amalthea     CLANK. Even through layers of chainmail and her own mithril plating, Amalthea grunts at the jab. "Agh, I felt that one, fucker." She shoots back. before flashing a smarmy grin at getting Sakura to jump. "I'm made of metal, I gotta ditch the build up somehow. Least I didn't zap your junk." She grouses before... She looks right where Raylene is motioning.
    The unicorn halts in her tracks, at the sight of the paintings, partially restored. The paintings she very clearly remembers rendering down to the base components of shredded canvas and matchsticks.
    "I wrecked these." The says, in mild disbelief. "You all saw me trash these, right?"
    A snort, and she gives the wall a good kick out of spite, before rolling up her chainmail sleeves. She's brandishing that shovel menacingly. "Alright, I'll get to work on the roots." She'll leave the chopping to Psyber. At least she won't have to deal with rats trying to pull anything with Taiga nearby.
    Amalthea proceeds to shovel.
    Amalthea proceeds to bitch about shovelling.
    Unicorns don't shovel.
Nozomi Houken     "I'm... I'm doing alright, I guess," Nozomi replies. She looks like she's not having much better of a time than Sakura. "I'm used to it... th-this kind of thing, I mean... it's... it's what Taiga does, for the JSDF, too." She pauses for a second or two, then mumbles, "...don't think... it's ever quite been this bad, though..."
Guest Psyber     "Hi-ho, hi-ho," Psyber remarks to Amalthea, spinning the holy-oil-soaked axe in his hand as he jogs after her. The half-angel does remark, "I didn't see you wreck those. I was outside. And if I didn't see it, I can't be sure you did it. Unreliable narration and all." He asides, just to jab at her statements a bit.

    As Amalthea gets to work on the roots, Psyber grips the axe in both hands and steps towards the trunk of the tree. He's already immensely strong and not all that much of a slouch in terms of using a chopping weapon. He full force swings the axe blade into the trunk of the tree, trying to cleave into it.

    "Just tell us what you need to help your exorcism," He asides to Anna, "We'll do what we can."
Rebecca Chambers "We can't take any chances," Rebecca says with a sigh. "Granted, though, I'm not exactly trained in paranormal things. That's more of Psyber's forte," She comments while gesturing towards him. "Still, you're right, there's a lot we haven't seen either. We don't know what we're up against fully."
Riva Banari Perhaps conveniently, Riva has something that can help with the needs of taking down a tree. She swaps out her rapier for that big hammer, the anchor-like two handed mace surging with red-gold as the Anima conduits within begin channeling her power. She waits, holding back with the hammer to let Psyber chop into it a few times before she'll come in with support.

However, she's also keeping an eye on the other creatures, the others bringing attention to them. "Well, this could get messy." She comments offhandedly, keeping her grip firm on the weapon as she waits for a good time to support either effort.
Anna Renfield     The ofuda at the ready, Anna just nods to Nozomi and gives her a smile. It's not the first time that someone's had a problem like that, and Anna doesn't doubt the girl's competency. Besides, she has something to do right now, as in casting an exorcism.

    "This goes a lot faster with more people," she admits. "Alice is good at what you're doing, but it'd usually cause an explosion of some kind. Metaphorical explosion, I mean. Sometimes it's a literal explosion too, but always a metaphorical one. By which I mean-"

    Finally she shuts up, and Anna turns a little red. "Sorry, not used to working with people who know what they're doing." The paper talisman is flicked downward as the hammer and axe and shovel work to dislodge the tree, sending a pulse of mystical power in to try to tear the sealed ghost out and banish it. "I have some doubts this will work, given the power of this seal."
Raylene Dunwich     The holy axe and holy shovel start to get to work, and cause the tree to creak. Riva helping just makes it splinter faster, starting to crash down and making Raylene look up from her plant-gathering. "Oh, that was fast. Good, I guess." She hurriedly crams another batch of leaves into her bag. Ghost-touched plants are useful for things!

    What might be surprising is how the talisman and Anna's seal react! One would think that, well, it'd be a hard exorcism/sealing to do. That is not the case. As the tree snaps away, the shrieking, howling spirit begins to burst forth... and is then banished in a swirl of energy and window-shuddering squealing noises. Well that wasn't so bad, was it?

    Except that right after, the whole house starts to creak, and the energies surging about shift in nature to become /more/ violent for a moment. The other two forces clash, without any third to counter their balance... and then, mysteriously, lessen all at once. The oppressive feeling is still heavy, but it seems more like a typical haunting, less chaotic, as this part of the house is freed from influence.
Sakura Haruno     "Well, it's not the nicest here.." Sakura will admit to Nozomi, before looking up and over at the tree. This didn't seem too terrible, really. Hopefully the oth...

    She'll cringe at the sudden lash in feelings for a moment, but once they lighten she'll manage to stand up straighter, considering. "...Well. That seemed to help a lot. Two more to go, right?" There's no chance that either of them could possibly be worse than this had been.
Nozomi Houken     Taiga's reaction times are good. He's crouched low and ready when the tree comes down and the spirit rises out of it, but then starts to relax when it's banished; only to /immediately/ whip around and train both cannons on the rest of the house, crouched low as if prepared to attack. It's only when the sudden, violent swirl of supernatural contention passes that he relaxes again.

    Nozomi has a somewhat similar reaction to Sakura, perhaps even a bit moreso. She lets out a little alarmed squeak, shifting closer to Sakura as if for protection, and even once the surge has passed, she still looks a touch on the nervous side. "...two more," she repeats.
Riva Banari Riva takes her hammer to the tree, helping to smash it high to guide the fall and widen the crevice for Psyber to chip into, and when it falls, Riva stands back, preparing to SMASH GOAST.

She doesn't have to, because the people who actually know their crap manage to preempt said ghost. "Well dang. That's awesome." She says, nodding. "I almost feel like I can breathe properly in here now." She glances over her shoulder. "Still... This means the other two are going to be worse now, isn't it?"
Anna Renfield     "... maybe..." Anna replies to the others. Something about that whole thing bothers her. She chews on her bottom lip. "Come on... let's get back to the center and find another one..." A small gesture refreshes the ward, but she rubs her temple right after. "Dunwich, you have a lot more power than me, can you take over this warding? I know it's not your area but I'm handling a lot here. I won't be any good in combat at this rate."

    Either way she's going to start back toward the middle of the house.
Guest Psyber     Psyber wipes his brow with the back of his hand and responds to Riva, "It leaves us two options. We take out the other two issues simultaneously to prevent one from gaining a solid foothold in the power vacuum," Psyber begins, hoisting the axe up over his shoulder. He makes a note to come back for the tree later, since ghostwood can be useful He can make stakes out of it, mostly.

    "Or we can just suck it up and deal with the fact that we're gonna fight a midboss and then an actual boss. It's really an either-or situation," He concludes, leaving the decision up to the larger whims of democracy while turning towards the embarassed Anna.

    "You know, you remind me of one of my other employees. I think you'd get along with Duet if you start working part-time," He remarks to Anna, "She's kinda dorky like you."
Amalthea     Amalthea complains while digging.
    She complains for the WHOLE TIME.
    "Dude. I wrecked them. I totally wrecked them. Ask our new shaman girl, Renfield. She was there, she'll vouch. I was all straight up heroic vandalism." She grumbles at Psyber
    Chopped, smashed, and uprooted, once the tree falls... Amalthea actually stops digging. Lest she dig too deep. All is well and good in that regard when Anna tends to the final matter of sealing off the accursed blight brought on by the tree. The unicorn slings the shovel up to rest on her shoulder, one hand on her hip.
    Up until the rest of the house reacts.
    "Something says we've just upset an already very fragile balance. Best we work quick about the rest." Murmured as she looks over at the others. Then at her shovel.
    "So. I guess I can vandalize that thing in the basement. Who wants to come with?"
    short of being stopped or something better comes up, that's where she'll go.
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca feels that there's something going on with the house, and she's not liking it. "Uh, does anyone have any idea on what we should do?" She asks, now feeling like a true rookie. "Aside from me getting lessons in supernatural after this mission?!"
Raylene Dunwich     Those paintings? They're falling apart and decaying rapidly, at least the damaged ones. The ones that were untouched, what few were so, are still fine... well, aside from the weathering of age they already had. Raylene looks over toward the other wings and frowns, but she follows the group without complaint.

    Those with supernatural sight will see something else here though. Where before the three forces were in a violent struggle, now the two remaining powers are... still 'struggling' in the sense of opposing control, but it's more like two pressures that happen to be pushing against one another, with no real attempt to violently push away the other or tear it apart. It's still not a great situation, but it's much, much safer... for some reason.

    "Well that's odd," Raylene states, squinting at the sight. Those without such sight will still feel a 'weight' but it's not nearly as stifling.

    But Amalthea is going down into the basement. Here she sees where Raine, before, busted up the tiling that had the designs engraved upon it. The cracked and fragmented floor has buckled now, and it's starting to crumble and become a jagged cluster of rocky and sharp protrubances. From the middle of it, a viscous black sludge is oozing... and getting this close to it, the presence reeks of evil, slowly forcing its way out from the violated designs.
Nozomi Houken     Taiga relaxes at last, standing up straight once again, and then begins to stride his way back inside - though now, his ears are flitting to and fro, sweeping the building to assess the changes. It is a scanning he maintains until they have joined Amalthea in the basement, at which point it becomes much more focused. "Nozomi, stand back." He's giving the sigil, and the stuff starting to seep and surge and grow out of it, a very thorough, in-depth scan. Attempting to analyze it for original function, how far along that function is, and what might have been changed by everything they've done.

    Nozomi remains near the door for the moment. Probably safer there, close to the stairway out. Probably.
Sakura Haruno     The mednin won't follow Amalthea right away, not until the radio call for help. Once that's been made, though, she'll start down the basement herself, staring at the ooze. She won't quite recognize the intense danger of it, having been struggling against the mood in the air all along, and will move up closer to it.

    "Is this another of the things we need to seal up?" Sakura will ask, keeping eyes firmly fixed on the sludge. "..It's going to be really hard to get all of that cleaned up, though." She'll suggest to Amalthea, as though the unicorn should somehow take care of it for them. Possibly with a bucket.
Guest Psyber     Psyber doesn't follow after Amalthea. Instead, he stays behind at the ghost tree to whack it with his axe some more and carve off a few decently-sized chunks that he can stick into his sylladex for later conversion into ghost stakes. Never let good materials go to waste.

    He wanders his way over towards one of the basement windows from the outside, instead of heading down there himself. He kind of just... kicks in a glass window and pokes his head through it to look down at what Amalthea sees, "Well. Best I can recommend from here," Here being unhelpfully outside, mind you, "Is that you dump the rest of that holy oil in there and use the shovel to stir it up."
Anna Renfield     Anna looks at Psyber on the way back. "Dorky, huh? I'll be nice and take that as a compliment." She adjusts her glasses. "Whatever, we'd better get back to work before... we..." She trails off when she sees the middle of the house, and the results of the exorcism before.

    Okay.

    Hearing the trouble in the basement, she changes direction to peek down there, summoning another little light globe to shine a light on it. "... right. Hey, I don't think Taiga has to worry about collateral. Riva, do you have anything to help out here?"

    For her part she's going to pull out some of those talismans.
Amalthea     The duelling supernatural pressures by no means make Amalthea any less wary as she heads back in and makes her way for the basement. Though two dark forces fighting is marginally better than three in deadlock, at the same time, the disruption to what must have already been a very delicate and tenuous balance. As much as she copes with her light hearted banter and jabbering, the old knight is fully aware that a disastrous screwup would probably be... Pretty disastrous.
    Amalthea whips out the bottle of holy oil again. Though she doesn't pour all of it into the bubbling morass. She pours a measure on Taiga's claws.
    She holds her shovel out... To Anna. "Slap those talismans right on here. Taiga and I are gonna tear this up. If you know any of that awesome sorcery would be good... Right about now's the time."
Guest Psyber     "It totally is!" Psyber says to Anna cheerily, giving her a smile, "Considering she's one of my best friends and all."
Raylene Dunwich     The bubbling darkness shifts a little as the holy unicorn draws near and starts to prepare things. A leg, insect-like, breaks free and feels the air, before grabbing purchase. The rest of the giant roach-like body is starting to pull itself free, slowly enough that hopefully the crew can react without getting eaten first.

    Riva, however, gets a brief Buzzing. The broadcast is short, and a little incoherent due to the noise, but covers that this was put here on purpose. The power was feeding it to make it STRONGER, with the intent that it would eventually break free of the binding. Crushing the binding has allowed it out early, whatever that means.
Nozomi Houken     Taiga dutifully holds one forepaw up, then the other, almost as if he were presenting them for a groomer. Both cannons are trained on the ooze the entire time, as if prepared to deal with it, but he does not open fire quite yet. Even when the leg smashes its way free. He waits, patiently, until Amalthea has finished augmenting his already supernaturally-enhanced claws with a helping of holy oil.

    The instant she's done, he rebounds backwards, pinballs off one wall, to another, and from there straight down to the sigil.

    And he is vicious about it. Clawing and tearing with rapid, vicious strikes, like a furious cat who has developed an intense grudge against the litter in his litterbox. At the same time, his cannons train on the emerging... thing, and begin firing pulses of magical energy in steady cadence.
Anna Renfield     Two talismans get smacked right onto the shovel, without question. "Sure, go for it. I've charged those two already, I'll toss a third in as soon as-" Anna starts to say more, but it looks like she has a bit of a problem to take care of.

    The bubbling gives rise to a leg, and Anna backs away quickly. "Oh crap," she mutters, glaring at Psyber for some reason before lifting her hands and forming some symbols in the air. Two quick blasts of mage power are sent out, but she's also still maintaining the ward and has put a lot of energy into the exorcism talismans. The best she can do is hope to stun it while the others do the real fighting.
Riva Banari The arrival of that black bubbling seems to draw the Templar down towards it. Her eyes are dialated, her breath quick as if the mere presence of the creature was causing a reaction in her. Against the blackness, her hand grips that hammer, the Anima surging brightly through it as she looks upon the thing. She scowls...

And there is a crackling in the air, her smartphone suddenly sizzling and staticing to life... along with any unprotected speakers in the area, creating a dissonant, faint buzzing noise. Words form from it, overlaying one another as she hefts her weapon.

Our wisdom flows so sweet. Taste and see. TRANSMIT - initiate the tripartite signal - RECEIVE - initiate the detente frequency - AN EYE FOR AN EYE SHALL CREATE A WORLD OF THE BLIND - WITNESS - When Good Pets Go Bad.

Already screaming, half in defiance and half in pain, Riva hurls herself forward towards that bubbling mass. The hammer leaves wide trails as she descends upon the bug-like leg, bringing the hammer down with a shockwave of light and fury. "OUT!" She screams, immediately engaging the creature with extreme prejudice.
Guest Psyber     Being outside and looking in through a window puts Psyber at a disadvantageous combat position while he watches the creature begin to emerge, "OOoooh, it was an INCUBATOR. Alright, that makes sense. I get the principle. Huh." He rubs his chin and then looks around. He tilts his head when Anna glares at him.

    "If you combine the right configurations of spells here, you can probably turn the incubation chamber spell into a lockbox and seal this thing out forever," Psyber theorizes, "I can't, personally, since I'm not a mage. But the principle is just sealing the seam and taping a box shut."

    He watches people start to really open up on it, "Killing it's also pretty viable. We do have the firepower here. Try to save a sample in a jar for me, though."
Amalthea     Thusly properly equipped with a now doubly sanctified shovel, Amalthea gives it a twirl. She's getting ready to stir up that dark mess with Taiga when it turns out they're all too late regardless.
    The leg comes out and Amalthea jinks aside to evade getting smacked as it probes the room. But it's soon after followed by the REST of the gigantic cockroach. She... Does the first thing that comes to mind.
    She doesn't even draw Faith. She chokes up on the shovel like a baseball bat.
    And swings with everything she's got.
Raylene Dunwich     Magical bolts slam into the creature, the demonic insect shuddering as its flailing about is, indeed, stunned for a moment. Anna underestimates how strong she is against this... and how weak the demon is. It was not ready to come out, but it isn't intelligent enough to know that. This makes for a desperate probing that pauses...

    Which is a bad idea, with the hammer SLAMMING down on the leg from Riva, snapping it with a sickening CRACK! It spews vile blood, the smell alone assaulting the room.

    It does have five more legs, but now it's in pain, letting out a chittering squeal as it scrambles out of the buckling earth oozing with black tar.

    The cannon fire from Taiga batters it. The holy claws tore up the designs to 'help' it out, but then the cannon fire withers it, making the 'roach' stagger and limp backward, shaking its head as the exoskeleton tries to weather the assault. It helps a little, but it sags under the blasts, shaking itself and preparing to charge. It even does so, pinchers revealing themselves and snapping violently at Riva's leg and Taiga's side, lunging for the latter, then turning about and-

    CLANG!

    A face full of shovel, consecrated and covered with mystical seals, send it flipping over to smack into the wall. It's a resilient critter, but it hasn't found its legs yet. It isn't ready for the firepower here.

    Raylene... hides behind a support pillar because she's really not a combatant without the Horror to back her up. "Yeah! Smack it!"
Nozomi Houken     Taiga's work on the floor stops once the creature has emerged enough that they can all get really good shots at it. It's fortunate, because that's also about when it lashes out at him. For a second time, he pinballs a couple of hops around the room; the first back and away into a wall, the second from there up to the ceiling. His arc is perfectly calculated, the inverted rebound altering his course just enough that he can come down on the 'roach' from above. Claws-first, naturally.

    Meanwhile, Nozomi is currently hiding in the doorway. She's gotten good at finding cover while Taiga works.
Amalthea     That clang was fairly satisfying, but a shovel is not a weapon best suited for a knight. When the MASSIVE ROACH is knocked over, she tosses the sanctified spade... To Anna. All the better so Amalthea can draw her blade and take a few wild hacking chops at the beast while Taiga leaps it.
Anna Renfield     Firepower is plentiful, so Anna swaps to defense. A quick barrier is attempted to aid Riva and Taiga, though with her reserves low it's rather weak. Oh well, better than nothing. She hopes. "Uh..." She isn't used to having this much firepower available... so many things just tearing into the demon.

    Then... a shovel! She snaps it from the air without trouble, whipping it about and thrusting it forward with surprising skill. It's a little clumsy, but it IS a shovel, not a spear.
Riva Banari The battle is joined as the unholy... roach-creature makes itself known. vile goo splatters all over Riva as she strikes with a blast from her Anima-surging hammer, and she winds up only to take a shearing strike to her leg. She probably only /keeps/ that leg because of Anna's quick barrier. The crimson gash bleeds profusely for a moment as she staggers back, and there is a grunt of pain.

The words continue to speak through the fight, caring nothing for Riva's current predicament.

"Mortals always believe they have an eye towards the future when they plan. Some call it 'futureproofing'. Others 'sensible precautions'. But when you have immortals involved with mortal perspectives, sweetling, it sails into a heady eternal horizon."

"Against an infinite timeline, all things break down. Look at this cancerous mass, a blight on the world around it. See how it was torn from its place in the writhing bowels of reality. Look upon how it was fed with love and care and hate and disdain. A mutual plan to maintain a balance, shattered by the hand of vengeance, left to bloat and swell, leaking out through its kennel into the world around it like a suppurating, gangrenous pustule."


While this happens, Riva hurls herself forward, gritting her teeth against the pain and powering towards the flipped bug-demon. With a yell, Riva lunges, putting all of her weight into the blow as she drives the glowing weapon for its exposed underbelly with a scream!
Raylene Dunwich     The tumbling and careful arc of Taiga's attack tears into the roach before it can recover, and as a consequence another leg is shorn free, and the carapace torn away from a portion to ooze more black blood. The hacks from Amalthea's sword finish the job Taiga began, slicing off remaining limbs and cracking a mandible.

    Then it is beset with a thrust from a holy shovel, spearing the thorax while the hammer impacts its underbelly. There's no sound but a tiny wheezing one, the ripple of impact unable to be absorbed, worsened by the shovel blade's presence. The creature quivers... then abrubtly bursts, splattering the room with vile-smelling ooze that, thankfully, begins to hiss and disintegrate soon after, harmlessly evaporating from anyone splattered.

    Raylene stops shock still for a moment, then shudders deeply, closing her eyes. "Nnh..." She shakes her head. "That was... very enlightening. Multiversal acquaintances can be very different from what I'm used to."
Nozomi Houken     It looks as if it's finally been finished. Slowly, with some hesitation, Nozomi peeks out of the doorway. "Aah... is... is it-"

    Pop.

    Poor Nozomi. Poor, poor Nozomi. Despite that it's already evaporating, she's going to be washing her face for an hour straight tonight.
Riva Banari There is a loud CRUNCH as Riva crushes into that creature, splattering her with vile goo... "Ugh. Eeeeew." She mutters as she straightens. "I goddamn hate things like this."

As if to mock her, the speakers (and her phone) says one more thing.

"A lonely woman sits with her cats. She is happy, but for the cancer. The cats are happy, so long as they are fed."

"She lives. She laughs. She wheezes. She coughs. She seizes. She dies."

"The cats feed."

"It never pays to be the cleaning crew. But results are results. Eh, sweetling?"

Finally, the voices and unreal crackling die out, and Riva slumps, a trail of blood running from her noise as she grabs the side of her head, grimacing. "Well, that's... one less problem, I guess." She mutters, wiping her face as the goo evaporates off of her body. "Damn bees. And roaches."
Amalthea     Sakura had said it before. This looks like it's going to be hard to clean up.
    It pops.
    Amalthea is right there in the foreground with Taiga, Riva, and Anna when it does. Thank christ it's evaporating on its own.
    Amalthea is covered from head to toe in dead ghost-roach slime.
    The unicorn stands there for a long moment, looking none too dissimilar to a pissy, wet, cat as she sheathes her sword.
    Casually leans over...
    And sets one hand on Riva's shoulder, the other poking at the lobe of Raylene's ear.
    To unload the static charge that had been building in her body since dealing with the tree.
    *~Zap~*