Patrollogs
Ashs Ghost Banishing 241015
At the Arkwright Cemetery, on a 56F afternoon tinted by the imminent threat of a storm, an eclectic group gathers to face an eerie and decidedly piratical ghost trio. Irene marvels at the historical inaccuracy, Lance reels back in shock, and Illyana lights up, ready for combat. Ash, pinned by spectral daggers, moderates the chaos, suggesting tactical roles while attempting to initiate a mysterious ritual. The ghosts, a blend of historical remnants and spectral aggression, engage the group with flintlock pistols, cutlasses, and knives, embodying a threat that is both supernatural and, momentarily, overwhelmingly physical. As Illyana's fists blaze with incandescent light, striking blows that seem to dance between the planes of matter and spirit, Lance employs an increasingly unreliable tech gadget, and Irene discovers the unexpected efficacy of electricity against their otherworldly assailants.
In the evolving chaos of battle, Ash's attempts at initiating their ritual are hampered not just by physical attacks but by the need to direct their ad-hoc team. Lance's device falters under the strain of repeated use, prompting concerns from Irene, while Illyana's fiery determination and supernatural abilities keep the spirits at bay. Ash's dance, a complex and otherworldly rite, crescendos into a final act that demands the closing of eyes, culminating in a spiritual shockwave that sends the ghosts spiraling into oblivion. Their departure, marked by convulsions and a spinning embrace, is underscored by a mysterious orchestral tune, leaving behind a group that has weathered more than just the storm clouds overhead. In the aftermath, despite the phantasmal pain and spectral weaponry, the pierced veil between worlds is briefly mended, echoing with the silent music of a victory hard-won.
(Ash's ghost banishing)
[Mon Oct 14 2024]
On the Sprawling Hillside of Arkwright Cemetery
It is afternoon, about 56F(13C) degrees, and there are a few dark grey stormclouds in the sky.
A haunting piano melody suddenly creeps over the graveyard as one by one, three spectral forms raise up into sight. Each is somewhat decayed and dressed in a mix of ballroom gown and old pirate garb, one wields a pair of flintlock pistols, another a wicked cutlass and the third a pair of sharp looking knives.
Turning her head this way and that, Irene studies the arrival of these ghostly, piratical figures, raising her brows. "Oh cool," she can't help but say, "I didn't know this part of the States had a history of piracy."
Lance widens his eyes in evident shock when the ghosts appear, each one visible to the naked eye. His cable-TV-channel grade ghost-hunter equipment doesn't seem even the slightest bit necessary in the presence of such an obvious and dramatic manifestation. "Holy shit," is his understandable response, as he takes a step backwards, like he's considering diving to safety behind the nearest headstone. By his own admission, he's done this less than Irene and the rest have.
The dual-knife wielder disappears before her arms suddenly emerge from the ground, stabing into the feet of Ash to keep him in place as the cutlass wielder swoops forward.
"Oh great, these guys again." Illyana sighs. Her skill with light manipulation seems to have improved to the degree that she doesn't hesitate though, both lighting herself up like a pyre of incandescent light, as well as generate a rune circle around Ash. "For once I get to punch things though. This is novel." she tells Ash, her fists balling, angelfire dancing over her forearms like violently pulsing flaming knuckledusters. Those are promptly used to pound into the knife wielder before deflecting the cutlass with an explosive burst of fire and brimstone.
Ash groans, drawling, "Oh, these guys... Alright, Yana can protect me, if she so chooses. Lance, if you can interrupt them with your... gadgets, that would be great. I don't know what sort of radiation they need... but I've seen it happen. Irene, if you have physical skill, protecting me or physically attacking them, disrupting their manifestation is ideal. And I'll focus on the ri- FUCKING SHIT, LET ME FINISH!"
Ash double over in pain, reaching for their bare feet, though there's no wound, or blood. They start cursing under their breath, not ready for that, nor the cutlass wielder to come their way after. For an expert, they seem largely unconcerned with the physical danger... but perhaps they were expecting Illyana to act fact, preventing further danger and damage.
Lance repeats his earlier observation when the ghosts swoop at Ash with their weapons: "Holy shit!" For whatever reason, Illyana summoning gouts of mystical fire seems to surprise him a lot less. Presumably he's seen stuff like that before. He rummages around in his bag and withdraws something that looks suspiciously similar to a gun, but appears to have some kind of miniature radar attached to it. Some kind of frequency emitter, perhaps, but who knows the details. He points the thing at the ghost harrying someone and pulls the trigger. Whatever happens, if anything, happens on a frequency outside of human perception, but it does seem to momentarily disrupt the ghost's ectoplasm.
Glancing over to Illyana, Irene hesitates for a moment before reaching back to draw a knife from a holster. It seems Ash has the exact same idea of what she should be doing, and she offers them a nod in assent. "Man, I wish movies were more realistic," she confides in Lance aside, "they never show ghost hunters actually beating the shit out of ghosts, it's always just spiritual ephemeral stuff." That said, she strides on over towards the attacker closest to Ash, at whom she calls out, "Hey!" Irene taps it on its ghostly shoulder to get its attention, and then attempts to thrust her blade forward into its archaic-clad abdomen.
"Don't cross the streams Egon." Illyana advises Lance as she does in fact take up a protective stance before Ash, watching for the next spiritual onslaught.
Lance repeats his earlier observation when the ghosts swoop at Ash with their weapons: "Holy shit!" For whatever reason, Illyana summoning gouts of mystical fire seems to surprise him a lot less. Presumably he's seen stuff like that before. He rummages around in his bag and withdraws something that looks suspiciously similar to a gun, but appears to have some kind of miniature radar attached to it. Some kind of frequency emitter, perhaps, but who knows the details. He points the thing at the ghost harrying Ash and pulls the trigger. Whatever happens, if anything, happens on a frequency outside of human perception, but it does seem to momentarily disrupt the ghost's ectoplasm.
The double knife weilder appears suddenly behind Ash, cackling right in his ear before rearing back to stab him in the back.
Moving with angelborn speed, Illyana is behind Ash, moving to deck the knife-wielder right into Irene's path. "Oh shit, you do have a ghost busting wand." she cheers Lance on, having entirely too much fun.
It turns out the undead pirate is a little more skilled with a blade than Irene is. She manages to land a cut within its ethereal form, causing a billow of black smoke to bleed outwards in rolling plumes. But with a thrash of its lace-cuffed hands, it sends the knife tumbling out of her grasp, and Irene lets out a grunt. Still, it turns out she has other equipment on hand ... even less traditional for ghostbusting purposes. With an air of uncertainty, she pulls out a taser, testing a short current before thrusting the thing into the dead pirate's neck.
Are ghosts sensitive to electricity at all? Only one way for Irene to find out.
Ash recovers quickly enough, growling, but focusing on the ritual - as they were trying to say before. They hold their hands out, and their body starts to catch on fire! That is... small, pastel colored flames, popping up here and there... and then floating up to surround them, will o' wisps. They start to gather to their fingertips, hips, and toes, as if pulled magnetically, then melt into their skin, making them physically glow.
stepping forwards, they start to dance - yes, dance. They start with careful steps, a slow, sensual belly dance that leaves behind trails of light in exact patterns. Their swaying hips, spinning but careful footwork, and hand movements form three layers of what will clearly be an arcane ritual circle. Their hand movements resemble a mixture of tutting, mudras, and simply drawing runes and symbols in the air.
Ash stepped forward to dance.
The double knife weilder appears suddenly behind Ash, cackling right in his ear before rearing back to stab him in the back.
"It's not a wand," Lance tells Illyana, too green to have the same kind of devil-may-care attitude about the whole thing--or insufficiently demonic in nature, perhaps. He adjusts a dial on the side of his device, pointing it at the ghost. It makes a sort of high-pitched hissing noise for a second, its next blast disrupting the ghost's manifestation more visible than the first. It doesn't seem able to maintain the burst it outputs for more than a second or two, however.
Wrong move for the knife-wielder, because once more, Illyana is there and a flaming fist hammers-- Not into, but through the spirit. There are no words now, Illyana is in the zone, apparently and she's entirely focused on protection detail (What a good angelborn). And yet, there's something not entirely coherant there, as Illyana's lips peal back in a snarl as behind the lenses of her sunglasses, her eyes too begin to glow as she bats the wielder back with a flaming backhand to line it up for Lance to blast. Then there's a glance over to Irene. It's all too possible that Illyana thinks she can handle the cutlass wielder.
Ash moves in a grand circle, relying on the others to keep the spirits at bay. Their dance, though sensual to start, increases in speed and complexity as they go on. Their footwork starts to resemble a mixture of shuffling, cha-cha, house, and swing dancing, with feverish shifting of their bare feet, movement on their toe tips, and gyrating hip rocking. Their fingers flash, with a painter's skill and a clerk's typing speed, shifting from mudra to symbol to finger tuts - geometric shapes formed, framed, and traced by finger, wrist, and arm movements in tandem as much as separately.
All things considered, Irene looks a lot more horrified by Illyana than she does by the undead pirates attacking Ash. Wide-eyed, she starts to back up, stopping in a stoop just to pick up her fallen knife. "Jesus christ, that lady is on fire," she points out in a tone of alarm.
Maybe Irene also thinks that Illyana can handle the assaulting ghost-pirate just fine on her own, because she no longer attempts to assist the melee. Instead, she turns her focus to Lance, whom she urgently asks, "Lance, are you okay?"
Ash's shoulder suddenly burns as the flicklock wielder materializes long enough to fire a shot into him, there's no visible wound.
Ash drawls over to Irene, "Oh, electric disruption of ectoplasm? Fantastic idea, Irene. You...." They trail off, mind focused on something, suddenly.
Illyana isn't able to stop the flintlock wielder's shot, but she does spin to disrupt it for a moment with angelfire. Though she's glowing from within with a cool radiant light of incandescant angelic light- For those in the know, a protective measure from the art of angelic combat- The flames themselves don't spread past her forearms, the tongues flickering and dancing without burning her as she roars in the flintlock wielder's face. But where have the knife wielder and cutlass wielder gone? That is the question, and it's one that Illyana is trying to answer as Irene steps back and as Lance uses a more reasonable technological tactic, even as Ash's dance continues to complete their own arcane ritual circle.
"Just fine," Lance confirms at a quick holler over to Irene, though he shuffle-steps a bit in her general direction, away from the melee of ghosts swarming around Ash and also from Illyana, who is indeed (Jesus Christ) on fire. Probably he'd just slow them down, given their supernatural capabilities, if he waded into that messy tangle. He aims his anti-ghost-device, which seems more like an irritant than a gnuinely deadly weapon, at the third of the ex-pirates. He turns the dial up further, and shoots--its head briefly vanishes completely, before it stubbornly re-forms. The device also smells suspiciously like it's overheating and smoking on the inside.
It could be perfectly benign, but the sound of a fog-horn has Irene turning towards the sound, and then frowning back at the pirate poltergeists. It has gotten mistier, hasn't it? Perhaps this paranormal activity has something to do with it. Ash's words of encouragement turn the the uncertainty in her expression into a look of greater confidence, and she lifts up her taser once more, charging it back up to rejoin the fray. "Be careful with that thing," she warns Lance in a low tone, "it smells like it's overheating."
The double knife weilder appears suddenly behind Ash, cackling right in his ear before rearing back to stab him in the back.
"Yeah," Lance admits slowly to Irene, looking distrustfully and his anti-ghost death-ray. "It, uh. I sort of assumed it would work on the first go-round. It wasn't really built for rapid use." Rapid use in misty weather, no less. It's lucky it hasn't shorted out.
Ash increases their dance speed and energy, ballet without the polish, leaps and dips, doing way too much for someone in a dress, no matter if they're male or not. They are fortunate for the bullet shot to land right after they started into a dip - the pain and shout brings Ash into a scream, but doesn't disrupt their intertia. No doubt Illyana's rune circle also helped. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," they curse professionally, teeth gritted form the pain.
To Irene, they call out, "Irene, why did you stop- oh, good." If they started to blame her for the bullet, that blame washes away as soon as they see her coming back to the fight. There's a look of guilt on their face, so they turn to Lance instead. "Lance, try to time it for when they are about to strike me? That might help."
Not even bothering to move from where she now stands beside Ash, Illyana punches out at the knife-wielder. Thank god for supernatural senses and fast responce times. Once more, her fist fails to make contact, passing through the spirit until it once more manifests some way away. Never the less, she still tracks the other ghosts, ready to leap in to aid Irene or Lance if required, basking in the experience with a seemingly incoherant fury.
Flying blind out here, Irene relies heavily on the dancing Ash's instruction, approval and disapproval for guidance, at whom she keeps looking back for signs. The 'why did you stop' has her drawing back her lips in a slight grimace, teeth exposed, before she lunches back towards the ghost. This time, she forces the taser to make contact for much longer, electrocuting the ghost and shoving the device all up in its skeletal visage. Parts of it start to crumble in smoke, and she winces in visceral discomfort at the sight of it, but remains in close-quarters. "Is it? ... I think it's working ..." she calls out.
The three spirits encircle the group, flicking in and out of reality as they coral them.
Lance has been reduced mostly to a bystander at this point, because the device he'd been relying on is no longer functioning. Or at least, he's letting the thing cool off to try and use it at a strategically significant moment. He hesitates a bit, waiting and watching, as the trio of ghosts shift and shimmer and re-evaluate their approach.
But even as the knife-wielding polter-pirate crumbles, the other spirits start to circle and close in on the living ghostbuters. Irene looks up in sudden alarm, forced to disengage and round towards the other ghosts. Her attention keeps drifting back to Lance, whose welfare she seems most concerned about compared to the others.
Ash starts to slow down again, panting and sweaty, as they near the end of the circle. Fancy footwork, shifting hips, flashing hands, sans all the leaping and acrobatics. Though, their head watches the spirits carefully out of the corners of their eyes. "Yeah, it's working... something electromagnetic, I'm sure. I'm an occultist, not a scientist. And... they know that they're running out of energy. I'm almost done... prepare to finish them off. And remember... they can't damage you... it's literally just a phantom pain...."
Tracking the ghosts, Illyana circles the perimeter of her own light-formed rune circle; It is entirely possible that its purpose is largely just to let her know exactly how far out she can move from Ash, Irene and Lance, as she never quite leaves its bounds as she uses that angelic speed and inhuman jumps to harry the circling haunts.
Ash finishes their circle at last, their last movements agonizingly slow with the encroaching ghosts. Sensual bellydancing, shifting feet and hips, and slowly, surely... and then, with their last symbol drawn in the air, it's complete. "Close your eyes!" The circle flares, and a spiritual shockwave blasts through.
Heeding instruction, Irene raises an arm to shield her gaze when Ash demands it, bowing her head. She seems uncertain of how exactly to 'finish them off', so she mostly offers moral support, with a brief expectant glance at Illyana. "Their phantom pain knives and guns look very real!" she calls out.
The three spirits begin to convulse and shake, they quickly move to grip each other, forming a tight circle as they spin faster and faster, strange orchestral music flowing through the air from nowhere before suddenly they are sucked down into the ground and vanish.
In the evolving chaos of battle, Ash's attempts at initiating their ritual are hampered not just by physical attacks but by the need to direct their ad-hoc team. Lance's device falters under the strain of repeated use, prompting concerns from Irene, while Illyana's fiery determination and supernatural abilities keep the spirits at bay. Ash's dance, a complex and otherworldly rite, crescendos into a final act that demands the closing of eyes, culminating in a spiritual shockwave that sends the ghosts spiraling into oblivion. Their departure, marked by convulsions and a spinning embrace, is underscored by a mysterious orchestral tune, leaving behind a group that has weathered more than just the storm clouds overhead. In the aftermath, despite the phantasmal pain and spectral weaponry, the pierced veil between worlds is briefly mended, echoing with the silent music of a victory hard-won.
(Ash's ghost banishing)
[Mon Oct 14 2024]
On the Sprawling Hillside of Arkwright Cemetery
It is afternoon, about 56F(13C) degrees, and there are a few dark grey stormclouds in the sky.
A haunting piano melody suddenly creeps over the graveyard as one by one, three spectral forms raise up into sight. Each is somewhat decayed and dressed in a mix of ballroom gown and old pirate garb, one wields a pair of flintlock pistols, another a wicked cutlass and the third a pair of sharp looking knives.
Turning her head this way and that, Irene studies the arrival of these ghostly, piratical figures, raising her brows. "Oh cool," she can't help but say, "I didn't know this part of the States had a history of piracy."
Lance widens his eyes in evident shock when the ghosts appear, each one visible to the naked eye. His cable-TV-channel grade ghost-hunter equipment doesn't seem even the slightest bit necessary in the presence of such an obvious and dramatic manifestation. "Holy shit," is his understandable response, as he takes a step backwards, like he's considering diving to safety behind the nearest headstone. By his own admission, he's done this less than Irene and the rest have.
The dual-knife wielder disappears before her arms suddenly emerge from the ground, stabing into the feet of Ash to keep him in place as the cutlass wielder swoops forward.
"Oh great, these guys again." Illyana sighs. Her skill with light manipulation seems to have improved to the degree that she doesn't hesitate though, both lighting herself up like a pyre of incandescent light, as well as generate a rune circle around Ash. "For once I get to punch things though. This is novel." she tells Ash, her fists balling, angelfire dancing over her forearms like violently pulsing flaming knuckledusters. Those are promptly used to pound into the knife wielder before deflecting the cutlass with an explosive burst of fire and brimstone.
Ash groans, drawling, "Oh, these guys... Alright, Yana can protect me, if she so chooses. Lance, if you can interrupt them with your... gadgets, that would be great. I don't know what sort of radiation they need... but I've seen it happen. Irene, if you have physical skill, protecting me or physically attacking them, disrupting their manifestation is ideal. And I'll focus on the ri- FUCKING SHIT, LET ME FINISH!"
Ash double over in pain, reaching for their bare feet, though there's no wound, or blood. They start cursing under their breath, not ready for that, nor the cutlass wielder to come their way after. For an expert, they seem largely unconcerned with the physical danger... but perhaps they were expecting Illyana to act fact, preventing further danger and damage.
Lance repeats his earlier observation when the ghosts swoop at Ash with their weapons: "Holy shit!" For whatever reason, Illyana summoning gouts of mystical fire seems to surprise him a lot less. Presumably he's seen stuff like that before. He rummages around in his bag and withdraws something that looks suspiciously similar to a gun, but appears to have some kind of miniature radar attached to it. Some kind of frequency emitter, perhaps, but who knows the details. He points the thing at the ghost harrying someone and pulls the trigger. Whatever happens, if anything, happens on a frequency outside of human perception, but it does seem to momentarily disrupt the ghost's ectoplasm.
Glancing over to Illyana, Irene hesitates for a moment before reaching back to draw a knife from a holster. It seems Ash has the exact same idea of what she should be doing, and she offers them a nod in assent. "Man, I wish movies were more realistic," she confides in Lance aside, "they never show ghost hunters actually beating the shit out of ghosts, it's always just spiritual ephemeral stuff." That said, she strides on over towards the attacker closest to Ash, at whom she calls out, "Hey!" Irene taps it on its ghostly shoulder to get its attention, and then attempts to thrust her blade forward into its archaic-clad abdomen.
"Don't cross the streams Egon." Illyana advises Lance as she does in fact take up a protective stance before Ash, watching for the next spiritual onslaught.
Lance repeats his earlier observation when the ghosts swoop at Ash with their weapons: "Holy shit!" For whatever reason, Illyana summoning gouts of mystical fire seems to surprise him a lot less. Presumably he's seen stuff like that before. He rummages around in his bag and withdraws something that looks suspiciously similar to a gun, but appears to have some kind of miniature radar attached to it. Some kind of frequency emitter, perhaps, but who knows the details. He points the thing at the ghost harrying Ash and pulls the trigger. Whatever happens, if anything, happens on a frequency outside of human perception, but it does seem to momentarily disrupt the ghost's ectoplasm.
The double knife weilder appears suddenly behind Ash, cackling right in his ear before rearing back to stab him in the back.
Moving with angelborn speed, Illyana is behind Ash, moving to deck the knife-wielder right into Irene's path. "Oh shit, you do have a ghost busting wand." she cheers Lance on, having entirely too much fun.
It turns out the undead pirate is a little more skilled with a blade than Irene is. She manages to land a cut within its ethereal form, causing a billow of black smoke to bleed outwards in rolling plumes. But with a thrash of its lace-cuffed hands, it sends the knife tumbling out of her grasp, and Irene lets out a grunt. Still, it turns out she has other equipment on hand ... even less traditional for ghostbusting purposes. With an air of uncertainty, she pulls out a taser, testing a short current before thrusting the thing into the dead pirate's neck.
Are ghosts sensitive to electricity at all? Only one way for Irene to find out.
Ash recovers quickly enough, growling, but focusing on the ritual - as they were trying to say before. They hold their hands out, and their body starts to catch on fire! That is... small, pastel colored flames, popping up here and there... and then floating up to surround them, will o' wisps. They start to gather to their fingertips, hips, and toes, as if pulled magnetically, then melt into their skin, making them physically glow.
stepping forwards, they start to dance - yes, dance. They start with careful steps, a slow, sensual belly dance that leaves behind trails of light in exact patterns. Their swaying hips, spinning but careful footwork, and hand movements form three layers of what will clearly be an arcane ritual circle. Their hand movements resemble a mixture of tutting, mudras, and simply drawing runes and symbols in the air.
Ash stepped forward to dance.
The double knife weilder appears suddenly behind Ash, cackling right in his ear before rearing back to stab him in the back.
"It's not a wand," Lance tells Illyana, too green to have the same kind of devil-may-care attitude about the whole thing--or insufficiently demonic in nature, perhaps. He adjusts a dial on the side of his device, pointing it at the ghost. It makes a sort of high-pitched hissing noise for a second, its next blast disrupting the ghost's manifestation more visible than the first. It doesn't seem able to maintain the burst it outputs for more than a second or two, however.
Wrong move for the knife-wielder, because once more, Illyana is there and a flaming fist hammers-- Not into, but through the spirit. There are no words now, Illyana is in the zone, apparently and she's entirely focused on protection detail (What a good angelborn). And yet, there's something not entirely coherant there, as Illyana's lips peal back in a snarl as behind the lenses of her sunglasses, her eyes too begin to glow as she bats the wielder back with a flaming backhand to line it up for Lance to blast. Then there's a glance over to Irene. It's all too possible that Illyana thinks she can handle the cutlass wielder.
Ash moves in a grand circle, relying on the others to keep the spirits at bay. Their dance, though sensual to start, increases in speed and complexity as they go on. Their footwork starts to resemble a mixture of shuffling, cha-cha, house, and swing dancing, with feverish shifting of their bare feet, movement on their toe tips, and gyrating hip rocking. Their fingers flash, with a painter's skill and a clerk's typing speed, shifting from mudra to symbol to finger tuts - geometric shapes formed, framed, and traced by finger, wrist, and arm movements in tandem as much as separately.
All things considered, Irene looks a lot more horrified by Illyana than she does by the undead pirates attacking Ash. Wide-eyed, she starts to back up, stopping in a stoop just to pick up her fallen knife. "Jesus christ, that lady is on fire," she points out in a tone of alarm.
Maybe Irene also thinks that Illyana can handle the assaulting ghost-pirate just fine on her own, because she no longer attempts to assist the melee. Instead, she turns her focus to Lance, whom she urgently asks, "Lance, are you okay?"
Ash's shoulder suddenly burns as the flicklock wielder materializes long enough to fire a shot into him, there's no visible wound.
Ash drawls over to Irene, "Oh, electric disruption of ectoplasm? Fantastic idea, Irene. You...." They trail off, mind focused on something, suddenly.
Illyana isn't able to stop the flintlock wielder's shot, but she does spin to disrupt it for a moment with angelfire. Though she's glowing from within with a cool radiant light of incandescant angelic light- For those in the know, a protective measure from the art of angelic combat- The flames themselves don't spread past her forearms, the tongues flickering and dancing without burning her as she roars in the flintlock wielder's face. But where have the knife wielder and cutlass wielder gone? That is the question, and it's one that Illyana is trying to answer as Irene steps back and as Lance uses a more reasonable technological tactic, even as Ash's dance continues to complete their own arcane ritual circle.
"Just fine," Lance confirms at a quick holler over to Irene, though he shuffle-steps a bit in her general direction, away from the melee of ghosts swarming around Ash and also from Illyana, who is indeed (Jesus Christ) on fire. Probably he'd just slow them down, given their supernatural capabilities, if he waded into that messy tangle. He aims his anti-ghost-device, which seems more like an irritant than a gnuinely deadly weapon, at the third of the ex-pirates. He turns the dial up further, and shoots--its head briefly vanishes completely, before it stubbornly re-forms. The device also smells suspiciously like it's overheating and smoking on the inside.
It could be perfectly benign, but the sound of a fog-horn has Irene turning towards the sound, and then frowning back at the pirate poltergeists. It has gotten mistier, hasn't it? Perhaps this paranormal activity has something to do with it. Ash's words of encouragement turn the the uncertainty in her expression into a look of greater confidence, and she lifts up her taser once more, charging it back up to rejoin the fray. "Be careful with that thing," she warns Lance in a low tone, "it smells like it's overheating."
The double knife weilder appears suddenly behind Ash, cackling right in his ear before rearing back to stab him in the back.
"Yeah," Lance admits slowly to Irene, looking distrustfully and his anti-ghost death-ray. "It, uh. I sort of assumed it would work on the first go-round. It wasn't really built for rapid use." Rapid use in misty weather, no less. It's lucky it hasn't shorted out.
Ash increases their dance speed and energy, ballet without the polish, leaps and dips, doing way too much for someone in a dress, no matter if they're male or not. They are fortunate for the bullet shot to land right after they started into a dip - the pain and shout brings Ash into a scream, but doesn't disrupt their intertia. No doubt Illyana's rune circle also helped. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," they curse professionally, teeth gritted form the pain.
To Irene, they call out, "Irene, why did you stop- oh, good." If they started to blame her for the bullet, that blame washes away as soon as they see her coming back to the fight. There's a look of guilt on their face, so they turn to Lance instead. "Lance, try to time it for when they are about to strike me? That might help."
Not even bothering to move from where she now stands beside Ash, Illyana punches out at the knife-wielder. Thank god for supernatural senses and fast responce times. Once more, her fist fails to make contact, passing through the spirit until it once more manifests some way away. Never the less, she still tracks the other ghosts, ready to leap in to aid Irene or Lance if required, basking in the experience with a seemingly incoherant fury.
Flying blind out here, Irene relies heavily on the dancing Ash's instruction, approval and disapproval for guidance, at whom she keeps looking back for signs. The 'why did you stop' has her drawing back her lips in a slight grimace, teeth exposed, before she lunches back towards the ghost. This time, she forces the taser to make contact for much longer, electrocuting the ghost and shoving the device all up in its skeletal visage. Parts of it start to crumble in smoke, and she winces in visceral discomfort at the sight of it, but remains in close-quarters. "Is it? ... I think it's working ..." she calls out.
The three spirits encircle the group, flicking in and out of reality as they coral them.
Lance has been reduced mostly to a bystander at this point, because the device he'd been relying on is no longer functioning. Or at least, he's letting the thing cool off to try and use it at a strategically significant moment. He hesitates a bit, waiting and watching, as the trio of ghosts shift and shimmer and re-evaluate their approach.
But even as the knife-wielding polter-pirate crumbles, the other spirits start to circle and close in on the living ghostbuters. Irene looks up in sudden alarm, forced to disengage and round towards the other ghosts. Her attention keeps drifting back to Lance, whose welfare she seems most concerned about compared to the others.
Ash starts to slow down again, panting and sweaty, as they near the end of the circle. Fancy footwork, shifting hips, flashing hands, sans all the leaping and acrobatics. Though, their head watches the spirits carefully out of the corners of their eyes. "Yeah, it's working... something electromagnetic, I'm sure. I'm an occultist, not a scientist. And... they know that they're running out of energy. I'm almost done... prepare to finish them off. And remember... they can't damage you... it's literally just a phantom pain...."
Tracking the ghosts, Illyana circles the perimeter of her own light-formed rune circle; It is entirely possible that its purpose is largely just to let her know exactly how far out she can move from Ash, Irene and Lance, as she never quite leaves its bounds as she uses that angelic speed and inhuman jumps to harry the circling haunts.
Ash finishes their circle at last, their last movements agonizingly slow with the encroaching ghosts. Sensual bellydancing, shifting feet and hips, and slowly, surely... and then, with their last symbol drawn in the air, it's complete. "Close your eyes!" The circle flares, and a spiritual shockwave blasts through.
Heeding instruction, Irene raises an arm to shield her gaze when Ash demands it, bowing her head. She seems uncertain of how exactly to 'finish them off', so she mostly offers moral support, with a brief expectant glance at Illyana. "Their phantom pain knives and guns look very real!" she calls out.
The three spirits begin to convulse and shake, they quickly move to grip each other, forming a tight circle as they spin faster and faster, strange orchestral music flowing through the air from nowhere before suddenly they are sucked down into the ground and vanish.