ic Ghosts and Grimalkins: The Wonders of the English Language

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Bigot, racist, oppressor! You will not cage me or my kind, family, race, I will...!?" 

 

Thesaurus Rex revelled in his victory, but stopped in his tracks, grunting as he sunk into the ground. 

 

"No! Not again! I will... I will!" 

 

With a grunt of effort, the mighty beast began to struggle against the ground that held him, pushing against it, with cracks beginning to form.

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Sorry, should've warned you. He's damn strong." 

 

Yeah, that didn't feel great at all. Seeing Grimalkin being hurt by Rex was... yeah. Casper had to admit that he had probably gotten too used to that big guy, forgot how dangerous he could be when he couldn't be touched.

 

"Alright, alright. Ground's not gonna hold him forever. Best bet is to knock him out. No need to get cute, just hit him."

 

His entire body shimmered lightly with light blue lightning crackling around thim, just for a brief second, then he moved forward, flying quickly towards the struggling Thesaurus Rex. He passed through the beast, drawing a pained sound in response. 

 

"If that's how you wanna play it, big guy. Then we'll play it that way."

[Heritage]

Grim rose unsteadily to her feet, clutching her side; the pain wasn't as bad, but her head was still swimming. Looking up, she realized she was much closer to the bizarre dinosaur than she thought, an opportunity she hoped not to waste.

 

"Hiyaaah!"

 

There was a lot of power behind the thrust, but the sudden movement nearly made the shapeshifter puke, and her talons swung wide of the mark.

 

"Damn it!"

Edited January 20, 2022 by Heritage

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The giant dinosaur stared at the dark fae hero for a moment. It was blinking, trying to figure out what was going on, and, in it's addled state, it seemed like it barely noticed her strike. Or her miss.

 

"I... I will eat and devour you... feast on... you. As soon... in a moment... when everything no longer... spins. Turns. Vertigo?" 

 

His vocabulary were clearly starting to suffer with the blows, especially as his entire body seemed to go into cramps for a brief second.

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

That hit to the wall must've been worse Casper had thought. Grimalkin seemed really out of it, so... He had to do his best to end this fast.

 

"Come on, Rex. Give up, alright? Just take a breath, relax and lie down, and someone will be by to pick you up."

 

Thesaurus Rex was still stuck, so Ghost simply reached out, sending another shock through the dinosaur's body when they touched. 

 

Any time now, and he'd give in. Casper really hoped so, at least.

[Heritage]

More angry with herself than anything else, the changeling drew a deep breath, and her chest expanded like a stallion as she grew a full foot taller and her arms extended in reach. Rearing her talons back like a major league pitcher (all this happening in a blink of any eye), Grim slashed out at the ridiculous beast before her, snarling with rage, her face distorted and demonic with fury.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Thesaurus Rex grunted and strained, flinching for a second when Grimalkin's claws raked across his skin.

 

Then, the dinosaur grunted.

 

"Is that it? Is that all? Is that the extent of your power?"

 

The dinosaur laughed, a strange rather unnatural sound. It moved again, the ground around it starting to crack.

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Not sure how much longer it's gonna hold him," Casper yelled, as he moved around the dinosaur. 

 

See, this? This was the issue with Thesaurus Rex. He was big, he was dumb (no matter what he thought), and he was strong and tough as hell. Kept taking their hits like it was nothing.

 

"C'mon, don't make us bring a meteor, Rexie!" 

 

He passed over Thesaurus Rex, passing his hand through the monster's body once more, sending shocks of pain through it's body.

[Heritage]

Grim snarled, her pretty face now contorted with fury. "Okay, now I'm pissed; time to fight dirty."

 

Hunching forward, at first it appeared as if the changeling wasn't doing anything. But then Ghost noted the tips of her spiky hair getting wispy...then the top of her head...then her eyes... In a truly unnerving display, the shapeshifter was rendering her body into pure glamour, the misty stuff of dreams. But this strange gray vapor had a purpose, and it was bringing down Thesaurus Rex!

 

The gaseous glamour flowed over to the captive beast and began pouring into his flared nostrils at an alarming rate, and soon was filling his lungs.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Heritage

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Thesaurus Rex coughed and sputtered as the dreamy mists crept into his body, shaking his head to try and get rid of the feeling.

 

"N-no! I will, I shall, I can... I will devour!" 

 

The beast roared and made one final push, it pushed itself out of the ground, breaking through the pavement on the way.

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

Casper wasn't quite sure what Grimalkin was doing to Thesaurus Rex, but if anything, it seemed to be affecting him, at least.

 

He had been right, though. It didn't take long for Thesaurus Rex to break free, and now here he was, ready to rampage again, and Grimalkin was still hurt...

 

Yeah, alright. This took a bit out of him, but he could help. "Alright, stand still a sec." He reached out, touching her insubstantial shoulder with his own insubstantial hand, and focused. He could make himself and others he touched ghost. Go through things. Disappear through things. It wasn't easy to do, but he could do that with a lot of things. Like the pain and fatigue that Grimalkin were feeling right that second. 

 

Was it easy? No. But slowly, but surely, he did it. A deep breath later, and Grimalkin was back in fighting condition.

[Heritage]

Grimalkin

 

As he broke free from this confinement, thin trails of vapor seeped out of Rex's nostrils, and coalesced back into a solid Grimalkin, now perched crosslegged on top of the theropod's head. She leaned over and peered into his monicled eye, just as Ghost rested his hand on her shoulder to give her aid. At his touch, she looked up at the friendly neighborhood specter and smiled.

 

"Thanks, bud."

 

She leaned over and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. And then she reared up and buried her claws into the top of Rex's head.

 

"Hyargh!"

Edited February 14, 2022 by Heritage

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The beast cried out in pain and frustration, reeling back from the strike, as it's hat and monocle were thrown off by the blow.

 

"You... small, insignificant... small.... sm..." 

 

It's lower jaw started opening and closing, like it had trouble articulating, before it fell forward, faceplanting into the ground. The entire area shook as it hit.

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

Casper let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding as dinosaur finally fell down. 

 

Sooo... yeah. That was probably what Grim could do when she got worked up enough.

 

He hadn't been kidding when he considered his little trick to be draining, though. He was gonna be feeling that tonight. His arm was already sore.

 

"Nice." 

 

Ghost floated down in front of the dinosaur, waving his hand in front of it's closed eyes.

 

"Yeah, I think you got him good. Guess he should've stayed in that cage, huh?"

 

This was good. Great, even. Rex usually caused way more property damage before Casper managed to take him down.

[Heritage]

Grimalkin

 

As the great beast fell, Grim leaped off his head and landed with a well-practiced acrobatic tumble, knees slightly bent and hands on the ground. The changeling hopped to her feet and dusted herself off, then looked back at Rex and sighed with visible relief.

 

"Jeez, what a colossal pain in the ass!"  She shook her head and casually gave a Ghost a high five before putting her hands on her hips and walking off a bit of the tension and exhaustion she was feeling right now. 

 

"I need to work on some new tactics; that glamour feedback nearly did me in!" She doubled over with her hands on her knees for a few seconds, then made a sort of rolling gesture with her index finger. "I need to find a way to...make the glamour stronger, but also disconnect it from myself. Summon it without using myself as the anchor point, y'know?"

 

"Hey, we worked really well together, huh? Maybe we should do some training sometime." She gestured vaguely over one shoulder. "I have some property nearby with a sort of obstacle course-slash-shooting range set-up. Could be fun." Then she frowned. "Uh, how up-to-date are you on your tetanus shots?"

Edited February 17, 2022 by Heritage

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

Ghost floated down near Grimalkin, quickly raising his hand to meet the high five.

 

"Y'know, it actually went better than normal," he mused, crossing his arms, while continuing to float a foor or so above the ground, moving around Thesaurus Rex. Had to make sure the big guy was down. "Rexie usually ends up causing way more property damage than this."

 

He paused a bit, looking at Grimalkin when she started about magic and things and... "That's... certainly words. Lots and lots of words." He shook his head. "Sorry. I don't really know anything about magic. Aside from how to fight people with magic, I guess."

 

"You think I got money for something like that?" Casper was grinning under his mask, despite that. "I usually try to not get hit, y'know, but sure, I'm in."

[Heritage]

Grim snapped her fingers and a leather sofa appeared on the sidewalk in a puff of gray vapor. She walked over to it and dropped into it with a thump. 

 

"Well, that's me done for the night!" 

 

She drew a circle in the air with a finger, which seemed to open some sort of portal; she reached in and pulled out a small plastic cooler, which she set on the sofa beside her.

 

"Hey, you want a beer? I think they're still cold." 

 

The changeling fished out a bottle of Blue Moon and held it to her wrist.

 

"Mmm; cold-ish."

 

Flicking out her talons again, she deftly popped the top off her beer and took a long swig.

 

"Ah, that's nice! So do you usually call the cops at this point?"

Edited February 19, 2022 by Heritage

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

Casper blinked behind his goggles, before pulling them up, away from his eyes. Yeah, Grimalkin was being awfully nonchalant about all this, but alright, that was cool. Most would probably freak out a bit more about something like Thesaurus Rex, but he figured she had plenty of experience. 

 

He really shouldn't, but... just one beer then. He knew what happened if he got too much.

 

"Hit me." He grabbed a beer, opened it and sat down next to Grimalkin on the couch, quickly pulling up his mask to reveal the lower par tof his face and taking a quick swig.

 

"Sure, that's what I'd usually do, but hey, I'm in the Aux now, y'know. I got contacts, now." 

 

Ghost pulled out a phone and sent a message. "There you go, somebod from AEGIS is probably gonna show up soon." He held up the phone, moving it a bit back and forth. "See?"

[Heritage]

Grimalkin

 

The diminutive heroine nodded in approval. "Here's to having friends in high places." She clinked the neck of her beer against his in salute. Tucking her legs up under herself, she turned to consider Ghost, resting her head on on ones fist.

 

"So how do you normally celebrate a victory like this? I mean, I say I'm done, but I know I won't be able to fall asleep for hours." The changeling looked off into the distance thoughtfully. "I could really go for some pinball and mozzarella sticks right about now."

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Movin' up in the world," Casper agreed, clinking his beer against Grimalkin's. 

 

Honestly? He still wasn't sure about the whole Freedom League thing, he still felt out of place there, but at least it had made him start to do better as a hero. And who knew, maybe Carrie would be proud of him one day...

 

He was brought out of his internal musing by Grimalkin's question.

 

"Haven't you heard? Action's my reward." He winked at her, as he stood up from the couch, placing the beer on the ground before stretching his arms out. "Yeah, I'm beat. That trick I used to make you better takes a lot out of me, but still patrolling to do. Somebody gotta keep this place safe at night, y'know." Ghost paused, just a second. "But I could probably go for some hot dogs."

[Heritage]

Grimalkin

 

The changeling nodded thoughtfully "Okay, well...we're in the Fens, so-" She held up her hands in a semi-shrug to indicate the obvious. "It's gotta be Lenny's Superdawg."

 

A Fens staple since 1957 when Leonard Shonfeld moved from New York to open up a burger stand, Superdawg used only Hebrew National kosher beef franks, as a young Lynn Epstein discovered during a visit to her grandparents back in the 90s. Lenny's grandchildren still owned the place, and they still wrote out customer's orders on brown paper bags.

 

Superdawg had no internal seating; you walked right up to the open counter that faced the sidewalk and placed your order, the delicious smell of french fries and grilled onions wafting out to the street. Joey at the counter recognized Grim from her years working the Fens, but she'd been a way for some time.

 

"Oh my God, it's little Grimmie! Where you been, sister?"

 

"Joey! God, it's been too long!"

 

Grim hoisted herself up onto the counter so she and the cashier in the greasy apron could exchange a quick hug.

 

"I ain't seen you in forever! Are you back here slummin' in your ol' stompin' grounds or what?"

 

"Uh, maybe, maybe!" Rubbing her hands together in anticipation, the diminutive heroine peered up at the menu mounted to the wall left of the counter. "Okay, can I have-"

 

"A Superdawg with mustard, onions, relish and sauerkraut, large fry, large Cherry Coke."

 

"Oh jeez, you know me too well!"

 

Joey pointed at his head with this pen. "See, I remember, I remember..." Seemingly noticing Casper for the first time, the cashier smiled again. "Hey, it's the Ghost with the most! What're you havin', big guy!"

Edited February 25, 2022 by Heritage

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Joey! How's it going, buddy?" 

 

Casper knew about Lenny's. Of course he knew about Lenny's. The best dogs in the Fens, he was a regular here, in and out of custome. Unlike Grimalkin's hug, he greeted Joey with a fist bump. Casper liked Joey. Nice, down to Earth, friendly, respected people when it was earned.

 

"Sheesh, the city still haven't fixed the road back there? What's it been, a month since Banshee ripped through it?" He looked over his shoulder at the road behind him, which had several rips in it, and chunks that looked like they'd been ripped right out of it. "At least they got rid of the debris, huh?"

 

Ghost shook his head, before returning to the menu. 

 

"Two Superdawgs with everything, extra onion, and a large coke."