Log:This Spooky Old House: Exploration Edition, Part 6

This Spooky Old House 2020/08/03 Blink Blockbuster Bran Felix Kid Tengu Phantom 6

Kid Tengu bets he can't do much about Spectre Harrington but his Physical Aspect looks like it hits just fine!

KT leaps across the distance, arms lengthening into tendrils which he entwines into one large arm that he uses in his attempt to smash the mummy!

Kid Tengu easily hits the prone mummy but, like Blink, he finds it's like hitting a solid meatsicle. Other than knocking it a bit back from where it lay, he's not certain if he damaged it at all.

"That was /not/ satisfying..." KT notes. "Like hitting a bag of... dead ... rhinoceros hindquarters."

Phantom calls out the shots. "Bran and I can take on Harrington's spirit. The rest of you deal with his body!" He looks to Bran to confirm. "I don't think they'll be able to do much to his spirit. But I bet the two of us can take him down," he explains, then shoots a look to Harrington's specter. Bran will see Phantom's mind trying to assault the spirit.

The ghost, spectre, ka of Damon Harrington reels back a foot or two as Phantom's attack hits. The house yet again screams in rage and pain, but you can also hear the spirit here raging. "TEAR YOUR SOULS! FEED ON THEM!"

The spectral Harrington chants something short and vile sounding in an unknown language as he twsits his clawlike hands in painful looking contortions. A ball of white mist then shoots from his hands that he points at the largest gathering of teens (Phantom, Bran, Felix and Blockbuster). "CHILL OUT, KIDS! I'LL EAT YOU SOON!" he cackles.

A blast of subzero air lashes at all of the teens in the area the mist explodes in. But, it seems that that was not the true attack. Icy chains form out of the white mist but fail to entable any of you save for Bran. Freezing cold manacles of clear ice bind his limbs.

Phantom manages to quickly dodge away from the chains. Not bad for a blind kid!

Blockbuster nods to Phantom's called orders. She pivots toward Mummy Harrington, preparing to join battle against it with her other friends when Spectre Harrington pipes up and the chilly mist from the ceiling starts to pour down in explosive gouts of ice and chain. Whirling her arms around herself, Blockbuster reinforces her Blast Shield - her bodysuit suddenly flares brigther as she deflects ice and frigid cold from her immediate vicinity with blazing bursts of light and searing heat - while she stares at the ghostyboi.

"Like. Ew. That is so gross. Who goes around saying that to people?"

Once again, Blockbuster pivots in midair to launch a single, dull red orb of light at the Mummy. Whenever it hits something, the orb of light detonates like a firecracker.

Felix easily, almost unconsciously, sidesteps Harrington's icy bonds

There is a sizzling sound as Blockbuster's blast hits Mummy Harrington. It jerks a little at the detonation but is not driven back any further along the ground, digging a hand into the flooring. A faint hint of burning flesh adds to the general stench of decay in this room.

Bran has no prayer of getting free of the ice chains. Instead, he just focuses his mind on the spectre in the room, trying to lash out at it again with mental anguish.

Felix takes in the tactical situation, slides on the slick floor a bit over to the side to get an angle shot, then throws one of his steel string spheres at the mummy Harrington.

It hits the mummy on its chest and wraps the corpse in steel hard string.

The mummy doesn't casualy break free of its cotton bonds.

Blink ows. The dead guy is hard on the foot. Mostly herse, from kicking him. She's not going to try that again, and instead BLAMFs a few meters back away from him. Sure, he's been Blockbusted, and now wrapped up, but she agrees with Blockbuster: he sounds terrible. Maybe he's a little hoarse? So she'll fix that! One of the large marble equestrian statues in the room BLAMFs away. To appear over Zombington's head, as Blink waves to him.

The mummy Harrington is now pinned under a life sized marble statue of a kneeling horse. It still struggles to move and the statue rocks slightly as it does.

Bran is still bound by the ice chains that he can't possibly get free from...which does make him a target. Thankfully he doesn't have to be free to hit the spectre. He sends another wave of pain at the spectre, hoping to drive it away.

"Your staturary arrangement skills are second to few, Blinky. Maybe you have a future in the arts." KT says appreciatively.

 Phantom says, "I think Bran is stuck. KT, can you lend him a hand?"

 Kid Tengu says, "You got it"

The spectral Harrington reaches up and grips his head as Bran attacks. "NO! I AM A GO.." Whatever he was about to say goes unfinished as the spectre collapses into a black sphere that swoops over and apparently into the mummy.

The mummy seems to now glow with a darkling light. He dislocates one arm and rips at the strings binding him as he roars in a hoarse voice, "I AM MASTER HERE!" Harrington is still pinned but trying mightily to get free now. He seems enraged and, for some reason, fearful.

Interestinly, the house does roar with Harrington this time.

Kid Tengu gives up on beating Pinata Harrington any further. Especially with it pinned as it is.

He cocks his head at the voices in his head and nods.

He moves to be Bran & Phantom's shield wall. His tentacles widen out like paddles and he leaps to put himself between Spook Harrington & his friends.

He's about to try to free Bran from his icy shackles but Harrington & the house roaring distracts him, causing him to turn to face the spectre.

One pair of tentacles feels around for the chains to get a grip. He's obviously distracted.

A fifth arm sprouts from his chest and feels around for something.

"Guys... these papers are getting warm... someone tell me they are supposed to do that." He says to the others, but his eyes never lift off of the struggling Harrington after that roar.

"NO! NO!!!" shouts Harrington as he apparently overhears Kig Tengu. His dead frozen eyes open wide at the alien's words.

"What papers? No, papers aren't supposed to get warm," Phantom says, trying to sense around the room.

Phantom can now feel the minds of all the spirits trapped in this room, both the visible one's standing and pointing at Harrington and the invisible one's trapped in the jar scattered about the room. There are a hundred and twenty-one minds present other than your team and Harrington.

"Well he certainly doesn't seem surprised. Or Happy about that revelation, Phantom." KT says matter-of-factly, using that last arm to point at Harrington. "If I had geese he'd ahve given me goosebumps."

"Um. Maybe we can vaporize the contract?" suggests Blockbuster.

She brings her hands together, drawing in light from all around her to form a bright blue ball of light that floats between her fingertips.

"My dad always said, like, you can't be held to the terms of a contract they can't prove ever existed."

Felix rushes over to KT and tugs on his fifth arm. "Give them to me! I need to look at them! I think, um, something's coming." He sounds really concerned, for Felix, in any case. He impatiently waits for the alien to turn them over.

KT uses his paddle arms to try to smash Bran's shackles with two arms and then uses a third... or maybe fifth to retrieve and wave the warm spiritually bound contracts.

Felix snatches the contracts from KT's waving arm. He ignores the cool one and reads the warm one. By warm, it's steaming in the freezing air of this room quite how papers never normally do.

KT is careful not to strike at Bran himself. he focuses on the bindings that link him to the ground instead. He figures Blockbuster can melt him out from there without hurting him.

KT flashes Bran a big tardigradian smile... or at least an open maw of joy.

KT 's strikes causes the chains to shatter, freeing the psychic lad easily.

Bran looks to Kid Tengu and nods. "Thanks. I wasn't going to be able to get out of that on my own."

Felix's is rapidly thumbing the many pages of the contract. Those of you who know him well know he's a speed reader.

Bran takes several seconds to catch his breath. He was going to have to take a break anyway in a moment.

A skeleton runs into the room through the double doors. It's probably the one being ridden by Chalmers Hornbeck and the NIght Hound given it's still got that piece of dirty white cloth wrapped around its lower arm.

Phantom turns his head to the ceiling. "So many trapped minds..." he mutters.

KT returns to a human shape. One who happens to be a perfect amalgamation of all the Doomed Life Partners they faced today, though he elects to wear the most stylish tuxedo of those present- sans tattering of course.

He's mid-shfit as he sees the HornHound.... NightBeck... the mashed up entity and so brings his hands off defensively until he sees the white cloth around his arm.

Harrington's eyes are glued to the contract in Felix's hand as he struggles to shift the horse statue off of himself.

It's slowly sliding to one side when the darkness at the end of the room where he emerged from deepens even further. After a moment, a sullen red light starts to flicker in the heart of the darkness. And then, a slow clapping sounds from the heart of the darkness.

"Bravo, my braves youths! Bravo! Your pure spirits have rules the day! Bravo and brava!" calls out a rich sensuous voice.

Blockbuster squeaks and hurls a Pepper Bomb in the direction of the clapping in the dark.

It's dark over there. The Pepper Bomb may plausibly be eaten by a grue.

And indeed the Pepper Bomb is eaten...but by the darkness. If it ever strikes anything, well, something probably knows but not you all.

Phantom senses the skeleton's approach, checking the minds in it when he hears the clapping. "What's going on?" he asks, and then sees the darkness from Blockbuster's eyes.

Bran finishes catching his breath and stands up straight. "I have no idea. Who is that?"

A Gentleman steps out of the pulsing sullen red heart of the darkness as the skeleton responds to Phantom.

In simultaneous order, Chalmers/the Night Hound reply to Phantom over the Code Dark link, << It's Harrington's Master! The demon he serves! I don't know which one! (Chalmers)//It's the Gentleman come to claim his due (the Night Hound)>>

The Gentleman is carnal sin made flesh, at least today. He looks like some love child of Summer and Travis: handsome beyond measure with golden hair and glorioius ever changing eyes, muscles ofr miles and a gentle smile. He's dressed to the T in a form hugging tuxedo with tails. His only jewelry a large ruby ring that glows with a sullen light.

"Hello, my young heroes...So nice of you to be here at this Gathering."

"Why thank you. I think for our first haunted hous..." KT is saying before he slows, wondering if he may not be picking up some subtle Earth thing.

Soon enough it becomes clear what's actually happening.

KT moves to protect the others from the new arrival but he is otherwise silent- taking note of all th ebrillaint features provided in the comely shape of the Gentleman. He'll be using that later.

 Phantom says, "Okay. Uh. Felix. What do we do against something like -that-?"

Phantom can sense that this being's mind is sharper than Felix's and more stronger willed than even Phantom's father.

"I'm guessing rent is due on the property," intones Blockbuster as she drifts into a defensive position between Phantom, Bran, and The Gentleman. Tilting her head to one side, Blockbuster reaches up with one hand to brush some of her silver hair out of face as she adds, "And you're the landlord?"

Phantom feels a strange cold sensation in the pit of his stomach. He's never encountered someone more strong willed than his father.

The skeleton replies <<Don't attack him! He can't harm you if you don't attack him (Chalmers)/What the mage said. Be very careful what you say to it. (Night Hound)

"Well, not the landlord per se. I do hold a lien on the chattel souls here though." The Gentleman languidly gestures at the pinned and now frantically stuggling Harrington. "His and those he collected in his attempt at acenscion. Harrington has failed in his attempt...so, to the winner of the contest goes the spoils."

Felix thrusts the steaming contract at the skeleton and silently gestures at something in it to Chalmers/Night Hound.

"So... We won?" inquires Blockbuster, trying to buy time for the Legal Dream Team somewhere behind her.

The Gentleman looks over each of you in turn. It's more as if he looks into you that at you. It's a uncomfortable feeling.

Bran furrows his brow, "So...what exactly are the spoils you're collecting?"

KT acknowledges the advice from NightChalmers with a nod but is silent lest he say the wrong thing.

He looks content to keep hsi place here & while he won't fight he certainly looks ready to defend his friends.

As he replies to Bran, the Gentleman gracefully walks towards you all or rather towards Harrington. "Why Harrington's soul and the souls of those he's trapped here. He and his property are mine since he was forced back into his true body. That was our Deal: my gifts of power for time. To escape Death's hands for a chance at godhood." He sighs. "It saddens me he failed. He would've been a monster as god."

Bran shakes his head, "I get the idea that he sold his soul. Fine. That's his choice, right? But the others he trapped?"

Blockbuster looks momentarily perplexed. She taps at her chin thoughtfully and inquires, "We defeated him. So... Aren't we the winners?"

"They are his by right of, hah, possession, my dear boy. They are merely vessels to power his now never to be attempted acecension. They are too damaged to pass on now, the poor souls. Their time is past, they are lost, and I gather the lost," murmurs the Gentleman.

His gaze turns to Blockbuster and he contemplates her for a moment. "You are more than passing fair, my dear. And even if some Court did decide that, what use would you have for wayward souls?"

Felix waves the still steaming contract in the air to attract attention. "Um, that's now what this says," he stammers out.

Bran shakes hsi head slowly, "If they made no bargain, I'm pretty sure they should get to pass on. Right?"

"Seems right to me." KT says but maybe Earth Demons are different.

Phantom asks Felix as he turns his head towards him. "What does it say?"

"And they shall, dear boy, but through my hands," The Gentleman says with a gentle smile to Bran. "I am the only psychopomp present after all..."

His gaze then moves over to Felix. In a less mild tone, he asks of Felix, "What is is, childe of Artifice?"

"Well, um, it says here that 'in any case of the aofrementioned contractee being forced back into his body by forces outside of those of the aforestated Contractor, said forces shall have right of first refusal on any properties, real or spiritual, possessed by the contractee save for those items marked as owned by the Contractor as detailed in the above sections..." Felix looks at the Gentleman then away after a momemnt as he says, "So, is your Mark on anything here in the house other than, umm, him?" He points at Harrington.

Blockbuster pauses, looking over at Felix while she fights to focus on contract negotiations. Her brain is going a mile a minute at the moment, even if that's not really her speed. Tilting her head just so, Blockbuster shrugs at the Gentleman and replies, "Like, you're super scenic too. I imagine you don't know me or my friends, but we kind of gather people - souls - that don't fit in with other souls too. We don't really have a "use" for souls, per se, but that doesn't mean they're without, like, value to us."

Looking over at Bran, Blockbuster starts to say something. She pauses and looks back at the Gentleman, bobbing in place on her pillar of light as she considers him seriously. You can tell she's serious because her lips are pursed as she inspects him visually. It's a lot more concentration than Blockbuster normally puts into things.

"I mean, I get where you're coming from and all. I'm just saying that these souls hold value to us in a different way than it might for a guy with really great hair or a sociopath like Harrington. We'd kind of like to try to help them find the peace they deserve."

Harrington starts to speak, croaking out, "I'M NO ONE'S..." before the Gentleman sets one foot on the mummy's chest. A flare of hellfire engulfs the frozen body and Harrington screams tortously for a long moment before his face collapses into ash.

"So, the souls here have value to you do they?" murmurs the Gentleman. "And what would you trade for them, my brave youths? What is it that you desire?"

"No trade. They're ours by the contract's terms, right?" Phantom counters. "All this stuff except Harrington's soul."

Bran shakes his head, "I...don't think we need to trade for them at all, based on what that said? Based on the wording, we won, so they're ours?"

The Gentleman wags a finger. "Now, now, I've travelled a long way to get here, my brave youths. Leaving with one ragged soul? That would be a waste of my energy." He waves a hand. "And yes, I concede they are yours by right. But, why free them? What does it gain you? You can name a price for each and I shall grant it."

"Arid. LOoks like /we're/ in the Soul Business, #CodeDark! This is going to look great on the media page." KT says cheerfully- so cheerfully a quiver rolls all over his body.

"Did I say Business? I meant charity. We do good because its good, Mr. Plus- you already gave me what I wanted." KT says, imitating the Gentleman's form.

Bran waves his hand and snorts, "I don't really care what kind of psycho or pomp you are. I'm not going to make a deal with you. That's the stuff of bad movies."

"I don't think that, like, our desires are pertinent to, like, this discussion," replies Blockbuster. She frowns ever so slightly at the Gentleman and arches an eyebrow under her domino mask.

"They're our due recompense for, like, the service of forcing Harrington's soul back into his body for you. You get his soul. You no longer have to loan out your, like, powers to him. You also don't have to, like, have the spectre of a sociopath turning himself into a god and trying to stab you in the back."

Pausing a moment, Blockbuster looks around at the others before looking back at the Gentleman. Her lips are still pursed in concentration as she regards Him seriously.

"We're not looking to gain anything from the souls. We're just looking to give them the peace and rest that they deserve after all of their years being trapped here. That's our right to do with these poor, seriously, like, damaged souls. You've said it yourself."

 Phantom says, "This spirit whisperer thing has gotten out of control..."

 Blockbuster says, "Says the Phantom."

 Phantom says, "It's Felix's fault. He, like, put it out in the universe, and since then, ghosts and spirits have kept coming to me!"

 Felix says, "This is /not/ my fault!"

 Kid Tengu says, ""I'm pretty sure you could... just... I dunno. Ignore them, right? You're the one who told me I didn't have to accept every mind that tried to connect to my brain. Oh. Or its Felix' fault. I like that answer best. It just fits so well- right there. 'Where?' "There- see its Felix's fault." Its like the ultimate missing lyric."

Phantom folds his arms over his chest and smiles at the Gentleman. "Seems like you got your answer. The souls and this place is ours. And you managed to score yourself a truly rotten soul just begging to have all sorts of torture and damnation visited upon him. As I see it...this is his fault. So you can take your frustrations on your long trip out on him."

The Gentleman looks over at the skeleton who moving his fingers again in those odd ways. "YOu do realize that signing 'Retro me, Sathanas' is first, quite rude as that's not my Name, and second, only useful is one of you is an ordained priest?" He turns his back to them and looks over at KT with a smirk. "Be careful, youth, you might stick like that."

The Gentleman looks at each of you in turn and then shakes his head. "Fine, so be it. You are young and full of the rigtheousness of youth. Time will wear you down. That is the weakness of mortality." He does hold out a hand and through the open doorway come flying the books from down in the basement's hidden room. "These are Marked as mine. Books of forgotten lore which were part of the bargain." He snaps each open in turn to reveal a glowingin symbol inside each. "They go with me. Along with Harrington."

 Felix says, "I do not except that it's my fault! I refuse!"

"So- ... Immortals start worn down?" KT asks with no lack of surprise written on the Gentleman's face. "Sucks to be you."

"That's fine. We're not looking to, like, keep what's yours from you. We're just trying to, like, find our place in this world," replies Blockbuster. She holds out a hand to the Gentleman, "No hard feelings?"

 Phantom says, "I hope you memorized those cool books, Felix, cuz there they go."

 Blockbuster says, "Guuuuuuuyyyyyyssssss-uh!"

 Phantom says, "Uhhh, I don't know if shaking his hand is safe. Doesn't that seal certain deals?"

The Gentleman is orbitted by the books as he reaches down and into Harrington's body. He pulls out the shade of Harrington which smokes and quivers in the Gentleman's grasp. "I was old when this world was born, childe of another star. I will be older still when humanity's last soul is mine."

He starts to reach for Blockbuster's hand when the skeleton ocntaining the two spirits steps between the two of you. "No, don't let him touch you, Blockbuster," it manages to whisper in a ghostly voice. The Gentleman coldly regards at the skelelon for a long moment. "Ah, poor lost souls, poor trapped souls. I find your plights...delicious."

KT freezes mid-thought when the Gentleman calls him 'Childe of another star'. He purposefully avoids looking at Bran, hoping that gets missed in all of this craziness.

The Gentleman looks around at the frozen room then back to the group of you. "This place holds so many bad memories. I wish you luck with your new...possession," he says with a mocking smile. "It is a definite fixer upper." The then turns on his heels and starts to saunter back the way he came towards the heart of the darkness.

Bran doesn't seem to take particular notice of the comment. Everyone comes from someplace, after all. He keeps his eyes on the Gentleman.

"Take care of yourself," cheerfully calls Blockbuster to the departing Gentleman.

"I'll be watching your progress, my brave youths. You have definitely caught my interest," murmurs the Gentleman as he merges into the sullen red heart of the darkness. "I look forward to our next meeting."

And the darkness consumes him, or vice versa, leaving normal shadows behind.

"We'll be ready," Phantom promises the Gentleman firmly.

"Next?" KT says morosely. "I really do not like ghost stories." He decides. He is either going to be terribly disappointed or incredibly thrilled by the discovery most episodes aren't quite Ghost Stories.

All of the jars in the room shatter. And at the sound of the crystalline cracks, spirits rise from each of the hundred plus jars: young, old, male, female, every race and creed, and all dressed in the clothes of previous eras back into the 1980's.

They all look at your group.