Patrollogs
Valeries Ghost Banishing 241120
In the dimming light of dusk on the Sprawling Hillside of Arkwright Cemetery, a chilling encounter unfolds. Valerie, along with her companions Irene, Novel, and Vindicta, faces off against a sudden and supernatural assault. The air fills with the pungent aroma of brimstone as menacing, smoke-formed creatures emerge, attacking the group with vicious intent. Novel delights in the chaotic violence, engaging the ghostly beasts with a fierce joy, while Valerie and Irene prepare themselves for the battle ahead, arming themselves with salt, tasers, and ritualistic talismans. The fight escalates quickly as winged monkey-demons attack, slashing at the group with phantom claws and leaving psychic wounds in their wake.
The situation intensifies as the demonic smoke forms into progressively more dangerous apparitions—a chanting figure targeting Valerie with a hex, a massive hellhound, and an armored warrior wielding a dark sword. Throughout this escalating horror, the group fights back with everything they have—Vindicta firing specialized bullets, Irene utilizing her quartz pistol, Lenny intervening with brute force, and Novel engaging in direct, physical combat. Despite the overwhelming fear and the overpowering smell of smoke and brimstone, the group's determination never wanes. Novel's combative tendencies provide an unlikely source of humor amidst the terror, his banter with Irene revealing a complicated dynamic. Finally, their resilience and teamwork pay off as the smoke creatures are banished, dissipating into the cold evening air, leaving the cemetery quiet once more. The group's victory is hard-won, showcasing their courage, resourcefulness, and the strength of their bonds in the face of darkness.
(Valerie's ghost banishing)
[Tue Nov 19 2024]
On the Sprawling Hillside of Arkwright Cemetery
It is dusk, about 52F(11C) degrees, and the sky is covered by grey clouds.
There is the sudden smell of brimstone that fills the area, and along with a rising, black mist: smoke, coiling along the surface of the graveyard. It seems to form strange whorls and shapes, and as they draw close to %n they begin to look more and more like creatures -- horned creatures, with red eyes full of menace.
"Good evening, Agent Valentin," Irene greets Valerie with a smile as she approaches, but then the sight of Novel coming up just behind her causes that expression to falter. He gets a much milder, "Novel."
Novel strolls right up, heavy boots crunching through the grass, declaring, "Hey, motherfuckers, there was - oh, we're starting already?" He seems bemused by this. "Rabbit and - yep." He leers back at Irene. "Hey, Irene." He seems to enjoy the displeasure. "How's shit going?" He takes in a deep breath - an exhale, as if the brimstone was so much rose petal scent as he cracks his knuckles.
"Aww yeah. My favorite." As he advances on the crowded clouds.
The acrid tang of brimstone hits Valerie like a slap, carried on a chill wind that cuts through the graveyard. She waves quickly to the gathering of people, quickly reaching into her backpack to procure a bag of salt to begin laying out a boundary between herself and the acrid rising, black mist. "It gets more fun every time," she remarks under her breath.
No sooner has this brief greeting been exchanged, and then Irene's turning towards the sight of smoke rising from the nearby graves, her nose wrinkling at the acrid smell of brimstone. From the pocket of her coat, she quickly withdraws a taser, holding it aloft defensively. "Of course it's your favourite," she remarks of Novel.
With a howl, some kind of winged monkey-demon swoops down near Valerie, its body made of living smoke. It's all grasping claws, striking hard to leave psychic scars that hurt like deep slashes. Other monkeys attack anyone nearby, with similar screeching, rending claws.
Taking a few quick steps over to Valerie, Irene jabs out at the winged monkey-demon with her taser. Whilst the attack itself may not be particularly strong, the electric charge seems to have some impact on the ghostly ectoplasm, causing the billowing smoke to fizzle and be dispelled in an arc around it.
"Che cazzo?" Valerie immediately throws herself down into a roll across the ground to avoid the swoop of the winged monkey-demon. "This is new!" She winces at the sympathetic pain rippling out from phantom wounds, shrugging it off before reaching for a blessed talisman from her back pocket to hurl in the air after one of the creatures. "Begone, spirito!"
Novel just flashes a grin at Irene, full of glee, an exhale of pained breath at the sudden monkey business. He slaps his hand into one, grasping the smoke as if it were solid, and SMACKS it into another one of the demons, leaving shimmering red and black welts raked across his body that leave no true physical mark. Wham! Smack! The delivery of fists and slamming them into each other, sending them into formless smoke that falters back into the cloud as he liberally uses his body in a theater of violence. "Fuck yeah! Sure beats the fucking giggling fae bullshit one."
"Demonic spirits," Irene remarks to Valerie as she moves to the defensive. "They're awful, but ... honestly? Better than fae." She cuts a quick glance aside to Novel, when he seems to echo her sentiments. "And you can fight them with ordinary weapons."
"I would absolutely prefer the fae drudgery compared to this circus of stronzate," Valerie grates under her breath in sharp contrast to Irene and Novel, leaving the fighting to them while she fixates on instead conjuring together her fledgling ritual to disperse their energies.
Beating feet in valenki boots as she trudges through the graveyard, Vindicta comes up just a touch after the fun has started, though that doesn't seem to discourage her as she guides Lenny up to the group. "Spirito?" she asks Valerie playfully, seeming to recognize that the woman isn't speaking directly to her, but toying with the word nonetheless. When those monkeys appear, she's already got her revolver in hand, loading it with specialized bullets.
"Not move Val!" she calls out, firing one off in the direction of the Italian woman's personal flying monkey with a grin. The shotshell is strange to say the least- it explodes the moment it leaves the barrel, but rather than buckshot or birdshot, it sprays the beast down with strange, crystalline granules that sprinkle down to the grass below.
Novel winks easily at Irene and continues on towards Valerie "Exactly. You get a bit of a goddamn workout, get some fun, rip a few heads off -" He grasps one of the monkeys, tearing it's head off in an open display of violence as it PUFFS into smoke. "The rest of it is just standing around bored and annoyed and trying to catch butterflies." He scrunches his expression in thought at Lenny's words. "I mean, that part is kind of fucking interesting. Emmanuel's a good kisser." He goes back to a-mangling.
As the dark mists roil in the cemetery, Valerie and everyone with them are struck with a sudden fear. It's cold and awful, sinking into their heart to make the world seem impossible and alone.
"Ugh, the last one made me kiss a witch," Irene bitterly complains. When fragments of quartz go flying through the air, she ducks, having been fairly close to Valerie and the beast with her taser. Promptly, she decides to take several steps back out of the way, and instead draws her own quartz pistol -- one which Novel, at least, has certainly seen her wield before. "Flank 'em," she suggests. "We don't need blood magic for this one. Unless it's Norman we're bleeding, in which case I'm on board giving it a try."
"What is wrong with you two," Valerie shakes her head in exasperation at Lenny. "But I suppose that's far more tolerable than --" She grows stock still as the frigid fingers of fear coil tight along her spine, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. She glances around, breath misting in the dark as she draws back toward Irene. "Keep your eyes pealed, Agent," she murmurs, nose scrunching at Novel. "Don't you get plenty of excercise as is?"
Novel falls still for a moment, his teeth and jaw clenching in sudden aggravation and eyes widening as his violence becomes less direct and more just - in general, at everyone nearby, kicking and fighting. "Fuck you Irene! Only if you're paying me for it like everyone else," The man grouses in aggravation, a shuddering breath drifting out from between his lips as he works to hem them in. And another one of those almost-grins, grimacing at Valerie, "There's always time for a bit of violence."
"I hear you got some exercise with Yana at the gym," Irene snidely remarks, and cuts Novel a cold, sidelong stare. This brief distraction gives one of the demonic spirits an opportunity to get close to her, and before she can stop it, she's letting out a sudden squeal of alarm. Several sparkling quartz bullets go flying through the air, puncturing the creature, but a tendril of smoke ends up wrapping around her throat. She whacks the red-eyed spirit on the side of its head, and then ends up drawing her knife, instead, ready for the next onslaught.
Vindicta nods to Valerie even as she starts to shiver, little tears welling upon her lower lashes. "V-Vindi... Vindi fine!" she vows, taking a deep breath and stomping down those somber emotions as she presses her back against Valerie's looking in the directions that her eyes can't see. A world that feels impossible and lonely? Vindicta has endured that for twenty and more years. Endured worse than that for twenty and more years. This particular wave of fear means nothing to her, or at the very least, little at all. "Vindi can do this.." she whispers to herself quietly. "Vindi can do anything. Just put mind to..."
"I should really bring some quartz and iron knives to these things," Irene muses to herself, glancing down at her tactical black combat knife, which is likely made of only steel.
Some figure forms in the smoke: tall, it has twisted horns and red eyes. It levels a gnarled finger at Valerie, beginning to chant in an unknown language as the air begins to crackle with magic. Immediately, Valerie can feel something like a vise closing on their heart.
a dark shade takes over Lenny's features. He doesn't voice his feelings but the cloud that seems to hang over his head raises the tension around him. He doesn't have that much time to dwell on these dark thoughts before a figure forms in the smoke to begin hexing Valerie. He finally moves then, to help, charging at the smoke figure ready to barrel through with his whole body rather than strike it with any weapon.
Novel smirks at Irene. "That jealousy in your tone? Couldn't get anywhere with her, huh?" He mocks Irene easily - though from the way he stalks, he moves, and the darkness of his form. It seems he's well at home amongst the demonic entities he's laying into. "I mean, who do you think the blood fucking went to?" And then ducking briefly as a blast of salt spatters across his jacket. "Hey!" He calls out in aggravation to Vindicta as he stomps his feet as his foot kicks one of the figures in the chest, sending it into another figure, and sprawling all three, loosening up the gripping on Valerie's chest. The downside of being in melee. Shot in the back by your allies.
"Leave the topic alone," Valerie requests immediately of Irene when she makes that snide remark toward Novel. "We've been asked to leave it be," she relays quietly, keeping her attention fixated on the area at large until a figure coalesces out the dark, pointing its gnarled finger at her while chanting in an unknown language. Her eyes sudden widen, a hand clutching at her chest as her breath quickens, but it doesn't stop the deputy from stumbling forward with a warding talisman thrust at it.
Immediately, Vindicta smacks the cylinder of her revolver, knocking those salt-laced shots loose into the grass and starting to shovel in quartz bullets, all comfy cozy in a full metal jacket. "VAL!!" she shouts out twisting her body to angle her handgun in the direction fo the horned and red-eyed demon, aiming at its head rather than its chest. Perhaps this is because she takes into consideration Lenny's motions as he barrels towards the beast."Sorry!!" she squeals at Novel in the process, not quite sure what she had done wrong bu apologizing regardless.
"Not jealousy, no," Irene replies, but she doesn't elaborate further than to cast Novel a discernibly judgy stare. She turns to look at the figure that's pointing at Valerie, and her eyebrows raise, but she doesn't seem to fully understand exactly what it's doing to the curvaceous carina. With Lenny and Vindicta taking care of that, she swiftly spins instead to the devilish Disruptor's position, where she lashes out with several quick strikes of her combat knife. They are, mercifully, not aimed at him, but at the assailing spirits he's fending off.
A twisted figure forms out of infernal smoke, shaped like a terrible canine shape. It's a hellhound, leaping towards Valerie with an awful snarl. When its mouth closes on %n, it has some phantom force, sending a vision of suffering in hellfire.
"Is that an actual dog or a shifter?" Irene exclaims in sudden alarm, turning to look at the hellhound assaulting Valerie with wide eyes. "Quick, does anyone have a naturaliser?" Because in Haven you can never be too sure and never too careful ... any animal could be a shifter.
Novel flicks his gaze over to Valerie, a sudden flicker of genuine anger and annoyance fluttering across his features in response to something - but he turns aside, spitting on the ground and respond to Irene with a uptick of the middle finger before he automatically adjusts. Clearing space for Irene to assault one of the horned entities and shepherding them into the weapons and otherwise keeping their violent tendencies focused on him. And yet at some point he's lapsed into terrible silence. And the anger gradually fades for something more delighted as he spots the dog. "Oh!" He says, a certain thoughtfulness to his expression - even when he follows through with a charge and lunge to try and haul the animal off from Valerie.
With her reaction time delayed with the piercing pressure in her chest, Valerie throws her arm up to take the shadowy hellhound's force full on and combat rolls with it, twisting and locking her legs around its body as she throws a series of short and fast jabs to its body with an infuriated shout of aggravation.
Out of the smoke charges an armed and armored warrior, spun out of black mist. He is dressed head to toe in archaic plate armor, wielding some huge, two-handed sword as black as his armor. With a roar, he rushes at Valerie, swinging the sword in some attempt to cut off their head.
Lenny's reaction time is too slow to provide any real assistance with the hellhound but he does rush over to Valerie just in time to be there when the armored warrior is there. Though shorter and over-all smaller than the warrior he gives a growl of a battle cry and tries to clothes line the smoke monster, ultimately he hits nothing but air and goes right through
Lifting up her taser once more, Irene fires a couple of darts into the armoured warrior's neck, in a narrow gap where she sees billowing black smoke instead of archaic plate. She lets Vindicta and Lenny handle the melee surrounding Valerie, however, and instead directs her focus to some of the other shadowy figures around her and Novel. Yet, for some reason, even when one of them gets right behind him, and it would benefit her to do so to tackle it ... she refuses to ever fully turn her back to the Disruptor. "Watch your six!" she warns instead.
First comes monkeys, then whispering hexers, a hellhound and now a warrior hell-bent on taking her head off, Valerie barely comes off the ground in time to drop to a knee and flick out her mace, bashing the warrior in his plated knee with hard clank as Lenny closes in to clothes-line him with her. "I didn't ask to get down and dirty like this, but at least it is not alone!"
"Yeah, I think few people do, when Novel's involved!" Irene can't quite resist but retort at Valerie's exclamation, and she once more directs a stink-eye to the Disruptor, blade held defensively in front of her. She plunges it into the nearest spirit and twists, however, not taking the opportunity to try and stab him in the back ... this time.
Hands sliding through greasy smoke as Vindicta does all the dirty work, a slightly disappointed expression on his face grasping at empty air - then, Novel whirls, at Irene's warning, suddenly seeing the sword swinging towards Valerie behind him. "Fuck!" He calls out as he ducks the attack, nearly getting a haircut at the neck as he slides past the warrior and does the tackling for Irene instead, shoulder-checking them with a growl. Anger, delight, and then a sneer at Irene, mingling with amusement. "PLENTY of people like beating the shit out of me," He fires back with a joke.
With a howl, some kind of winged monkey-demon swoops down near Valerie, its body made of living smoke. It's all grasping claws, striking hard to leave psychic scars that hurt like deep slashes. Other monkeys attack anyone nearby, with similar screeching, rending claws.
"I wooonder why," Irene banters. She twists around to intercept the sight of another winged monkey-demon as it approaches Valerie once more, lifting up her blade to jab it in the stomach. When a shower of black ichor descends on her hair, she shrieks, shaking herself off, and takes several steps back, even though this soon dissipates into naught but black smoke. "Go to hell!" she tells the demonic spirits.
"Masochist as much as he is a sadist," Valerie immediately twists her body around to let the winged monkey-demon swoop in, quickly bringing her mace back and swinging it hard will all her might to spend the misted beast whirling through the air toward Novel. "FORE!" That is golf, sweet Italian child. Not baseball.
"Girl can't resist wrestling with me in the muddy grass when ghosts are attacking, Irene," Novel fires back to her with an easy grin and then, laughing, lowly, at Valerie's words - but there isn't quite that much of a disagreement as he hops into the air, snatching the monkey and then dunking it another another to create a dissipating, plowing cloud of smoke. "So I'm gonna guess stupidity!"
"Is it ... gone?" Irene asks the group, her wide, dark eyes scanning the cemetery as she turns this way and that, her black combat knife held aloft for new signs of the red-eyed spirits. "That has to have banished it, we got it good."
The smell of smoke seems to peak, and then, with a rush of magical power, it's gone. The smoke monsters in the cemetery disappear, banished -- fading away as wisps of mist in the air around $n.
The situation intensifies as the demonic smoke forms into progressively more dangerous apparitions—a chanting figure targeting Valerie with a hex, a massive hellhound, and an armored warrior wielding a dark sword. Throughout this escalating horror, the group fights back with everything they have—Vindicta firing specialized bullets, Irene utilizing her quartz pistol, Lenny intervening with brute force, and Novel engaging in direct, physical combat. Despite the overwhelming fear and the overpowering smell of smoke and brimstone, the group's determination never wanes. Novel's combative tendencies provide an unlikely source of humor amidst the terror, his banter with Irene revealing a complicated dynamic. Finally, their resilience and teamwork pay off as the smoke creatures are banished, dissipating into the cold evening air, leaving the cemetery quiet once more. The group's victory is hard-won, showcasing their courage, resourcefulness, and the strength of their bonds in the face of darkness.
(Valerie's ghost banishing)
[Tue Nov 19 2024]
On the Sprawling Hillside of Arkwright Cemetery
It is dusk, about 52F(11C) degrees, and the sky is covered by grey clouds.
There is the sudden smell of brimstone that fills the area, and along with a rising, black mist: smoke, coiling along the surface of the graveyard. It seems to form strange whorls and shapes, and as they draw close to %n they begin to look more and more like creatures -- horned creatures, with red eyes full of menace.
"Good evening, Agent Valentin," Irene greets Valerie with a smile as she approaches, but then the sight of Novel coming up just behind her causes that expression to falter. He gets a much milder, "Novel."
Novel strolls right up, heavy boots crunching through the grass, declaring, "Hey, motherfuckers, there was - oh, we're starting already?" He seems bemused by this. "Rabbit and - yep." He leers back at Irene. "Hey, Irene." He seems to enjoy the displeasure. "How's shit going?" He takes in a deep breath - an exhale, as if the brimstone was so much rose petal scent as he cracks his knuckles.
"Aww yeah. My favorite." As he advances on the crowded clouds.
The acrid tang of brimstone hits Valerie like a slap, carried on a chill wind that cuts through the graveyard. She waves quickly to the gathering of people, quickly reaching into her backpack to procure a bag of salt to begin laying out a boundary between herself and the acrid rising, black mist. "It gets more fun every time," she remarks under her breath.
No sooner has this brief greeting been exchanged, and then Irene's turning towards the sight of smoke rising from the nearby graves, her nose wrinkling at the acrid smell of brimstone. From the pocket of her coat, she quickly withdraws a taser, holding it aloft defensively. "Of course it's your favourite," she remarks of Novel.
With a howl, some kind of winged monkey-demon swoops down near Valerie, its body made of living smoke. It's all grasping claws, striking hard to leave psychic scars that hurt like deep slashes. Other monkeys attack anyone nearby, with similar screeching, rending claws.
Taking a few quick steps over to Valerie, Irene jabs out at the winged monkey-demon with her taser. Whilst the attack itself may not be particularly strong, the electric charge seems to have some impact on the ghostly ectoplasm, causing the billowing smoke to fizzle and be dispelled in an arc around it.
"Che cazzo?" Valerie immediately throws herself down into a roll across the ground to avoid the swoop of the winged monkey-demon. "This is new!" She winces at the sympathetic pain rippling out from phantom wounds, shrugging it off before reaching for a blessed talisman from her back pocket to hurl in the air after one of the creatures. "Begone, spirito!"
Novel just flashes a grin at Irene, full of glee, an exhale of pained breath at the sudden monkey business. He slaps his hand into one, grasping the smoke as if it were solid, and SMACKS it into another one of the demons, leaving shimmering red and black welts raked across his body that leave no true physical mark. Wham! Smack! The delivery of fists and slamming them into each other, sending them into formless smoke that falters back into the cloud as he liberally uses his body in a theater of violence. "Fuck yeah! Sure beats the fucking giggling fae bullshit one."
"Demonic spirits," Irene remarks to Valerie as she moves to the defensive. "They're awful, but ... honestly? Better than fae." She cuts a quick glance aside to Novel, when he seems to echo her sentiments. "And you can fight them with ordinary weapons."
"I would absolutely prefer the fae drudgery compared to this circus of stronzate," Valerie grates under her breath in sharp contrast to Irene and Novel, leaving the fighting to them while she fixates on instead conjuring together her fledgling ritual to disperse their energies.
Beating feet in valenki boots as she trudges through the graveyard, Vindicta comes up just a touch after the fun has started, though that doesn't seem to discourage her as she guides Lenny up to the group. "Spirito?" she asks Valerie playfully, seeming to recognize that the woman isn't speaking directly to her, but toying with the word nonetheless. When those monkeys appear, she's already got her revolver in hand, loading it with specialized bullets.
"Not move Val!" she calls out, firing one off in the direction of the Italian woman's personal flying monkey with a grin. The shotshell is strange to say the least- it explodes the moment it leaves the barrel, but rather than buckshot or birdshot, it sprays the beast down with strange, crystalline granules that sprinkle down to the grass below.
Novel winks easily at Irene and continues on towards Valerie "Exactly. You get a bit of a goddamn workout, get some fun, rip a few heads off -" He grasps one of the monkeys, tearing it's head off in an open display of violence as it PUFFS into smoke. "The rest of it is just standing around bored and annoyed and trying to catch butterflies." He scrunches his expression in thought at Lenny's words. "I mean, that part is kind of fucking interesting. Emmanuel's a good kisser." He goes back to a-mangling.
As the dark mists roil in the cemetery, Valerie and everyone with them are struck with a sudden fear. It's cold and awful, sinking into their heart to make the world seem impossible and alone.
"Ugh, the last one made me kiss a witch," Irene bitterly complains. When fragments of quartz go flying through the air, she ducks, having been fairly close to Valerie and the beast with her taser. Promptly, she decides to take several steps back out of the way, and instead draws her own quartz pistol -- one which Novel, at least, has certainly seen her wield before. "Flank 'em," she suggests. "We don't need blood magic for this one. Unless it's Norman we're bleeding, in which case I'm on board giving it a try."
"What is wrong with you two," Valerie shakes her head in exasperation at Lenny. "But I suppose that's far more tolerable than --" She grows stock still as the frigid fingers of fear coil tight along her spine, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. She glances around, breath misting in the dark as she draws back toward Irene. "Keep your eyes pealed, Agent," she murmurs, nose scrunching at Novel. "Don't you get plenty of excercise as is?"
Novel falls still for a moment, his teeth and jaw clenching in sudden aggravation and eyes widening as his violence becomes less direct and more just - in general, at everyone nearby, kicking and fighting. "Fuck you Irene! Only if you're paying me for it like everyone else," The man grouses in aggravation, a shuddering breath drifting out from between his lips as he works to hem them in. And another one of those almost-grins, grimacing at Valerie, "There's always time for a bit of violence."
"I hear you got some exercise with Yana at the gym," Irene snidely remarks, and cuts Novel a cold, sidelong stare. This brief distraction gives one of the demonic spirits an opportunity to get close to her, and before she can stop it, she's letting out a sudden squeal of alarm. Several sparkling quartz bullets go flying through the air, puncturing the creature, but a tendril of smoke ends up wrapping around her throat. She whacks the red-eyed spirit on the side of its head, and then ends up drawing her knife, instead, ready for the next onslaught.
Vindicta nods to Valerie even as she starts to shiver, little tears welling upon her lower lashes. "V-Vindi... Vindi fine!" she vows, taking a deep breath and stomping down those somber emotions as she presses her back against Valerie's looking in the directions that her eyes can't see. A world that feels impossible and lonely? Vindicta has endured that for twenty and more years. Endured worse than that for twenty and more years. This particular wave of fear means nothing to her, or at the very least, little at all. "Vindi can do this.." she whispers to herself quietly. "Vindi can do anything. Just put mind to..."
"I should really bring some quartz and iron knives to these things," Irene muses to herself, glancing down at her tactical black combat knife, which is likely made of only steel.
Some figure forms in the smoke: tall, it has twisted horns and red eyes. It levels a gnarled finger at Valerie, beginning to chant in an unknown language as the air begins to crackle with magic. Immediately, Valerie can feel something like a vise closing on their heart.
a dark shade takes over Lenny's features. He doesn't voice his feelings but the cloud that seems to hang over his head raises the tension around him. He doesn't have that much time to dwell on these dark thoughts before a figure forms in the smoke to begin hexing Valerie. He finally moves then, to help, charging at the smoke figure ready to barrel through with his whole body rather than strike it with any weapon.
Novel smirks at Irene. "That jealousy in your tone? Couldn't get anywhere with her, huh?" He mocks Irene easily - though from the way he stalks, he moves, and the darkness of his form. It seems he's well at home amongst the demonic entities he's laying into. "I mean, who do you think the blood fucking went to?" And then ducking briefly as a blast of salt spatters across his jacket. "Hey!" He calls out in aggravation to Vindicta as he stomps his feet as his foot kicks one of the figures in the chest, sending it into another figure, and sprawling all three, loosening up the gripping on Valerie's chest. The downside of being in melee. Shot in the back by your allies.
"Leave the topic alone," Valerie requests immediately of Irene when she makes that snide remark toward Novel. "We've been asked to leave it be," she relays quietly, keeping her attention fixated on the area at large until a figure coalesces out the dark, pointing its gnarled finger at her while chanting in an unknown language. Her eyes sudden widen, a hand clutching at her chest as her breath quickens, but it doesn't stop the deputy from stumbling forward with a warding talisman thrust at it.
Immediately, Vindicta smacks the cylinder of her revolver, knocking those salt-laced shots loose into the grass and starting to shovel in quartz bullets, all comfy cozy in a full metal jacket. "VAL!!" she shouts out twisting her body to angle her handgun in the direction fo the horned and red-eyed demon, aiming at its head rather than its chest. Perhaps this is because she takes into consideration Lenny's motions as he barrels towards the beast."Sorry!!" she squeals at Novel in the process, not quite sure what she had done wrong bu apologizing regardless.
"Not jealousy, no," Irene replies, but she doesn't elaborate further than to cast Novel a discernibly judgy stare. She turns to look at the figure that's pointing at Valerie, and her eyebrows raise, but she doesn't seem to fully understand exactly what it's doing to the curvaceous carina. With Lenny and Vindicta taking care of that, she swiftly spins instead to the devilish Disruptor's position, where she lashes out with several quick strikes of her combat knife. They are, mercifully, not aimed at him, but at the assailing spirits he's fending off.
A twisted figure forms out of infernal smoke, shaped like a terrible canine shape. It's a hellhound, leaping towards Valerie with an awful snarl. When its mouth closes on %n, it has some phantom force, sending a vision of suffering in hellfire.
"Is that an actual dog or a shifter?" Irene exclaims in sudden alarm, turning to look at the hellhound assaulting Valerie with wide eyes. "Quick, does anyone have a naturaliser?" Because in Haven you can never be too sure and never too careful ... any animal could be a shifter.
Novel flicks his gaze over to Valerie, a sudden flicker of genuine anger and annoyance fluttering across his features in response to something - but he turns aside, spitting on the ground and respond to Irene with a uptick of the middle finger before he automatically adjusts. Clearing space for Irene to assault one of the horned entities and shepherding them into the weapons and otherwise keeping their violent tendencies focused on him. And yet at some point he's lapsed into terrible silence. And the anger gradually fades for something more delighted as he spots the dog. "Oh!" He says, a certain thoughtfulness to his expression - even when he follows through with a charge and lunge to try and haul the animal off from Valerie.
With her reaction time delayed with the piercing pressure in her chest, Valerie throws her arm up to take the shadowy hellhound's force full on and combat rolls with it, twisting and locking her legs around its body as she throws a series of short and fast jabs to its body with an infuriated shout of aggravation.
Out of the smoke charges an armed and armored warrior, spun out of black mist. He is dressed head to toe in archaic plate armor, wielding some huge, two-handed sword as black as his armor. With a roar, he rushes at Valerie, swinging the sword in some attempt to cut off their head.
Lenny's reaction time is too slow to provide any real assistance with the hellhound but he does rush over to Valerie just in time to be there when the armored warrior is there. Though shorter and over-all smaller than the warrior he gives a growl of a battle cry and tries to clothes line the smoke monster, ultimately he hits nothing but air and goes right through
Lifting up her taser once more, Irene fires a couple of darts into the armoured warrior's neck, in a narrow gap where she sees billowing black smoke instead of archaic plate. She lets Vindicta and Lenny handle the melee surrounding Valerie, however, and instead directs her focus to some of the other shadowy figures around her and Novel. Yet, for some reason, even when one of them gets right behind him, and it would benefit her to do so to tackle it ... she refuses to ever fully turn her back to the Disruptor. "Watch your six!" she warns instead.
First comes monkeys, then whispering hexers, a hellhound and now a warrior hell-bent on taking her head off, Valerie barely comes off the ground in time to drop to a knee and flick out her mace, bashing the warrior in his plated knee with hard clank as Lenny closes in to clothes-line him with her. "I didn't ask to get down and dirty like this, but at least it is not alone!"
"Yeah, I think few people do, when Novel's involved!" Irene can't quite resist but retort at Valerie's exclamation, and she once more directs a stink-eye to the Disruptor, blade held defensively in front of her. She plunges it into the nearest spirit and twists, however, not taking the opportunity to try and stab him in the back ... this time.
Hands sliding through greasy smoke as Vindicta does all the dirty work, a slightly disappointed expression on his face grasping at empty air - then, Novel whirls, at Irene's warning, suddenly seeing the sword swinging towards Valerie behind him. "Fuck!" He calls out as he ducks the attack, nearly getting a haircut at the neck as he slides past the warrior and does the tackling for Irene instead, shoulder-checking them with a growl. Anger, delight, and then a sneer at Irene, mingling with amusement. "PLENTY of people like beating the shit out of me," He fires back with a joke.
With a howl, some kind of winged monkey-demon swoops down near Valerie, its body made of living smoke. It's all grasping claws, striking hard to leave psychic scars that hurt like deep slashes. Other monkeys attack anyone nearby, with similar screeching, rending claws.
"I wooonder why," Irene banters. She twists around to intercept the sight of another winged monkey-demon as it approaches Valerie once more, lifting up her blade to jab it in the stomach. When a shower of black ichor descends on her hair, she shrieks, shaking herself off, and takes several steps back, even though this soon dissipates into naught but black smoke. "Go to hell!" she tells the demonic spirits.
"Masochist as much as he is a sadist," Valerie immediately twists her body around to let the winged monkey-demon swoop in, quickly bringing her mace back and swinging it hard will all her might to spend the misted beast whirling through the air toward Novel. "FORE!" That is golf, sweet Italian child. Not baseball.
"Girl can't resist wrestling with me in the muddy grass when ghosts are attacking, Irene," Novel fires back to her with an easy grin and then, laughing, lowly, at Valerie's words - but there isn't quite that much of a disagreement as he hops into the air, snatching the monkey and then dunking it another another to create a dissipating, plowing cloud of smoke. "So I'm gonna guess stupidity!"
"Is it ... gone?" Irene asks the group, her wide, dark eyes scanning the cemetery as she turns this way and that, her black combat knife held aloft for new signs of the red-eyed spirits. "That has to have banished it, we got it good."
The smell of smoke seems to peak, and then, with a rush of magical power, it's gone. The smoke monsters in the cemetery disappear, banished -- fading away as wisps of mist in the air around $n.