The Castle (Rebma, for the heck of it, but don't hesitate!)

[Boog]

"And mine got in the way of some claws on this big damn ghost thing, so I'd say yeah, I go first," Jeremiah chuckled, absentmindedly scratching at the area around the gash. A thought occured to him and he looked up in alarm, "Wait, alright, someone refresh my memory. Does itching mean it's healing or that it's infected?" Noticing Gina, he looked down at her and smiled plesantly, on the basis that if there's so many personalities in there there's probably at least one or two who warrent a bit of politeness, "Something up?"

[Sunblink]

For what felt like an eternity, Keaton hung, suspended in limbo.

There was no sensation, no awareness, no nothing, save for the lifeless, smothering cape of darkness that enveloped her like an atramentous, sticky blanket. Occasionally, Keaton gave a twitch or some indication that she was still alive, such as the uneven, shaky rise and fall of her chest, but other than those subtle movements she seemed quite dead. Cadaverous white stained her skin beneath her fur, making its normally vivid coloration appear ten times lighter, save for the dappled splatters of blood scattered along the side that Mel was working to mend.

Keaton's body suddenly turned over slightly, the jackal's body threatening to fall over entirely, which would probably disturb the meticulous work Mel completed on her gash. Speaking of the aforementioned gash, it appeared less severe than it did when Stygian found her. It was obvious that the combined efforts of the group had aided its recovery.

Keaton suddenly jerked, as though fighting to release herself from the proverbial web of darkness that held her. The light was a few, tantalizing feet away, close enough for her to touch, but just a few millimeters from her grasp. Shattering the web, Keaton burst free from the clutches of the darkness that sought to hold her, flying towards the welcoming embrace of the white light--

Her eyelids fluttered slightly, allowing her a slight glimpse of the blur-marred world, her surroundings, and the people filling the room, from the frog to the pantheress to the now subdued ferret. For a moment, Keaton let herself slip back into the tumultuous sea of black.

Then, once what she saw registered, her eyes snapped open altogether, clouded pupils tiny.

Letting out a blood-curdling yell that would make a banshee green with envy, Keaton jerked herself back, crawling against the barricading arm of the sofa--which happened to be a centimeter away--ignoring the stinging pain of her gash and the two perforations in her back all the way. Keaton's head jerked from side to side, her body quaking spasmodically despite her efforts to control it. Her eyes were wild, wide, from beneath her disheveled hair's tousled bangs.

"Who are you people? What's going on? Where AM I?!" Keaton demanded, about to continue, but getting cut off with a sharp groan. Doubling over, she clutched her chest, cursing fitfully among her hyperventilating. Her hand groped for her mace--where the hell WAS IT?--off to the side, as she was too weak to use her wing-tentacles to try and defend herself. Too panicked, she didn't readily recognize the man who brought her in--her eyes were just too blurry.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Stygian was actually relieved to see the jackal open her eyes and look at them. However badly she was wounded, and however bad she still looked, that meant she would be able to answer questions and perhaps even aid them.
   However, as she really began to come to her senses, she began panicking, something that he found annoying no matter the circumstances. Muttering, the bat stepped forward and leaned down a bit, and grabbed her probing hand, which was looking on the wrong side of the couch if it was the mace she was after, and her shoulder, forcefully straightening and holding her to keep her from tearing her wound open. She struggled, of course, but he was he, and she was weakened by blood loss and bruising. She might as well have been trying to push away the wall behind her.
   "Calm down. Calm down!" he said, trying to fix her eyes. "Mel!"

   That itch on Jeremiah's shoulder mildened a bit, but rather than going away it was simply replaced by a sort of numbing, stinging chill that began spreading. A little jolt of pain came as it surged through his shoulder and neck. But it didn't really feel normal. It was like that sort of thing that one feels when a nerve gets squeezed together, but different. He actually almost wanted to laugh at it.

[Boog]

Keaton's screaming gave Jeremiah a start, understandibly. "Alright, that's not my responsibility. I've already got my 'looking after short, crazy girl' quota filled," rolled his shoulder again, frowning. It was feeling worse. Call for Mel and risk looking like an ass for attracting attention away from the really sick lady, or let it lie and die of infection. Decisions, decisions, Eventually, he reached a compromise.
"Hey, if anyone's not using that charm chuck it here, willya? I think there's something up with my-" there was another jolt of pain and the frog winced, glancing at Gina's rapt expression out of the corner of his eye, "- Ngh... Shoulder..."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel turned quickly on Jeremiah, her eyes wide. "Ghost thing? Like the ones that were just here? With a mask for a face?" Before she could get an answer the succubus began thrashing and shouting. As Sebastian stepped in to hold the jackal still Mel asked, "Someone check his wound. If it's the same thing that just poisoned me he might be in competition with this one for most critical."

Waiting for an answer to that she let hypnotic magic drift into her voice, "Shhh... you're safe. Relax. Relax." At the same time she mentally left a message for the cubi. "You're being healed. Calm down before you make it worse." She didn't try anything deeper than a surface message, the critically injured were often crazed and she didn't want to get trapped in a backlash.

[Aisha deCabre]

With a smirk to Sebastian's retort, Aisha couldn't help but wonder again about the castle.  With its size, it felt that even with the combined efforts of the party the surface of the place was only barely scratched...not even half-explored.  There was the foreboding feeling again, taking a glimpse out of the windows and to the grey and morbid storm clouds, before settling once again on the party.  Watching Mel work hard on the jackal's wounds, and seeing everyone alive, there was hope that soon enough they would be prepared for whatever else would take place.

It was then, hearing about Jeremiah's wounds, Aisha turned her head with the same look of surprise as Mel had.  "...Mierda..." she cursed beneath her breath.  "If it is, we may need the bracer again if the wounded wakes up."

With those words, she noticed from the corner of her eye some movement from the girl.  The relief from the others didn't last long however, as she suddenly panicked and leaped up, the others trying to get a firm hold on her again.  The panthress walked up beside them.  "Relax, or you're only going to tear your wounds open again," she said in a slightly-frustrated but calming tone.  She only hoped that the bracer's magic wasn't hurting the jackal girl, but she was ready to snap it off if that was the case...she looked lively enough that the wounds could be fixed further without it.

[Boog]

"Yeah, one of them, them thingies... Feeling woozy. Why'm I feeling woozy?" The frog put a hand to his forehead and staggered, his face taking on a panicked cast, "What'd it do?"

[Sunblink]

Keaton probably would've went so far as to fling herself off of the sofa in her panic if it weren't for Stygian's sudden restraint, his larger hands capturing her wrists easily. Electricity flashed dangerously in Keaton's eyes for a moment, the girl converting all of her energy and effort into trying to kick, squirm, and tug her way out of Stygian's powerful grip. Thanks to her weakened, numbed state, however, all Keaton could manage were a few, pathetic jerks, her wings' tips sharpening into serrated daggers for all but a second, but fluctuating back into their leathery base form five seconds later. In her anxiety, they continued to spasm, twisting gelatinously until Mel's mentally delivered words reached her.

Keaton's ears fell back against her skull, mind gravitating back towards reality, where the stabs of pain radiating from the gash lacerating her side were more provoked from her frenzied movements than ever. Twitching and face locked in what looked like an eternal wince, Keaton's muscles relaxed the best they could, and her wings returned to relative stability. Worse yet was that the duo of punctures in her back were equally agitated, where they were once just a mild hinderance if they didn't get infected.

The jackal was utterly silent now, save for feverish breathing, and the nervous shifting of her eyes. They flitted back and forth in their sockets, her vision uneven because of the absence of her glasses, as one of her eyes was colorblind. For a moment her gaze slipped down to the bracer which was clasped around her wrist, confusedly inspecting it. That hadn't been there before, but for some reason it felt as though its presence was helping her. She made no effort to remove it, although she was uncertain about it at first and would likely remain so.

Where the hell were her mace and glasses? She didn't want to think that she dropped them someplace in this godforsaken castle. To exacerbate the matters was that she hardly had any recollection of the events that transpired beforehand, as the resigned slump of her shoulders and the questing angle of her eyes indicated once they slid to the ground.

"...what the hell's going on?" she repeated, voice very, very hoarse.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel heard Jeremiah's confirmation of the source of his wounds. They now had two dangerously ill patients. "Aisha, would you mind swapping the bracer to Jeremiah? Hopefully it will stop the toxin until I'm free to deal with him."

Thankfully the jackal stopped thrashing and let Mel continue working, which meant she could get to the frog that much quicker. It also meant Mel was gaining on the wounds, since the girl was at least somewhat in control of herself.

[Stygian]

Stygian felt the girl calm down while looking back at Jeremiah, yet he still held her as he turned and gazed into her eyes again. His face was absolutely serious, but his mind was smirking, and in spite of the situation he just couldn't help himself.
   "You're in a haunted castle quite close to Hell, among people who would most likely kill you when in doubt, and we're all being held here against our will and pelted with ghosts and demons by a fallen angel. Keaton... That was your name, wasn't it? Right. Keaton, you need to be very, very calm and rational." He grinned, and his eyes went black again, as did his teeth and gums in his elongating jaws, glinting like obsidian razors. "If not, I am going to bite your neck off."
   Stygian was very much on the edge of laughing, but another part of his mind was tense. If it worked as he hoped, she would be practially frozen. If it didn't, he'd need to knock her out again.

   Another jolt of pain shot through Jeremiah's shoulder, the skin under his clothes rapidly beginning to blacken. This time, he actually felt a bit of a giggle rise up from his throat, before he could stop himself. The surroundings were becoming dimmer and more blurry, but also clearer somehow, as if the colours were blurted out slowly into a green-tinted sepia and the range of brightness increased.

[Cogidubnus]

"I hate to bother you Miss, but you still have my cross." Cog said, tipping his hat. "It might help. With whatever Jeremiah might have...be it physical or perhaps not."

[Aisha deCabre]

Watching the succubus, Aisha spared a quick glance to Jeremiah as he answered about his wound.  Her ears pinned against her head at the news, but her ear swiveled back to Mel and the girl as she finallly had started to calm down.

Carefully hoping not to come within range of a hidden wing-tentacle, Aisha nodded and reached over, using the words of the enchantment in one quick breath.  The lock of the thing clicked open once more, the slight glowing on its ornate outline growing a little stronger.  Aisha spared a polite smile and a nod to the jackal, taking it back, but rolling her eyes a bit to the bat's explanation.

With that, the adventurer then heaved a quiet sigh and walked over to the woozy frog, taking his wrist and using the light impliment on its third patient with an audible metallic snap, and quickly as she noticed a slight change in his demeanor.  "One of those things got Mel too, and I think it would've poisoned her...or turned her into a wraith, some such.  It might've done the same to you too."

Aisha stood up then, casting an apologetic glance to the ferret woman, if she happened to be in her way.  The panthress ran a blood-scented hand through her own hair.  Mistress Rynkura would be happy to know that I'm getting a healing workout.  She then glanced up at Cogi as he spoke, humming briefly.  At least there's more than one of us to help.

[Gareeku]

As the others conversed, Gareeku once again stayed silent, his eyes fixed on the hallway and the darkness beyond. It was then, however, that he heard a sudden yell. Turning round, he saw that the succubus had regaind conscious. Unsurprisingly, she was confused and defensive. Seeing that the others had calmed her down, Gareeku resumed his gaze on the hallway.

[Stygian]

The ferret standing next to jeremiah looked at him fearfully. Then, she poked him. And twitched, and jumped back. Then she spoke up in a voice as if a dozen people or more were speaking at the same time.
   "He ate my brother!" she said, and her eyes went wide open. "He is going to kill us all!" she, or they, screamed out. Then, with a nasty, cracking and fleshy sound, she bent in the oddest way, and showed much too big teeth, roaring at the frog.

[Gareeku]

Hearing the ferret's outburst, Gareeku looked at her with narrowed eyes. Walking over and standing in front of her, the wolf gazed gazed down at the roaring ferret for a second, before his fist suddenly crashed in her jaw. It was powerful enough to break anything, but it would silence her.
"Shut up." Gareeku stated flatly, a look of calm seriousness on his face. "Who ate your brother?"

[Stygian]

The ferret didn't take the punch the way one might have imagined; rather than get knocked back, she just bent with the fist, taking it, and then looking up at Gareeku with those big eyes before roaring out. Leaping up, she grappled him with a strength that seemed the sum of all the people in her, and attempted to twist his arm around.
   "Please! No! You're hurting me!" she yelled in a completely normal voice with a fearful tone, before twisting around in some joint- and inertia-defying manner and hurling the wolf away against a bookcase. When she got back down on the floor, she doubled back and began running around them on all fours like some sort of spider, screaming in panic half of the time and moaning in a distorted voice the other half.

[Sunblink]

Too confused and in pain to continue to resist, Keaton listened to Stygian as attentively as possible, her ears flat and her expression dazed. It took her a moment to register who he was, and to identify him as the person who had rescued her, but the true revelation came the next time he spoke.

Keaton absorbed his explanation swimmingly enough, nodding at his question. "Yeah... Keaton," she said the name uncertainly, as though her own epithet eluded her as swiftly as her immediate memories. Trying to exercise her mind back into relative order, she struggled to recall her full birth name, her favorite color... rudimentary tidbits which she had repeated several times before in nearly amnesiac states. "And you're that Sebastian guy, right?"

Right. He was. Keaton could clearly remember him now, invisioning the memory of their meeting in flickering detail. Keaton remained tempered throughout the rest of his presentation, at least, up until his darkly-humored statement, which made her entire expression deflate like a balloon. A muscle in her cheek twitched. Some part of her started to wonder if he was just attempting to play with her mind, while the other suspected he was actually serious.

Keaton was too preoccupied to notice Aisha darting up, muttering an incantation, and stealing away the charm so she could bring it to the afflicted frog, Jeremiah. Unresponsive, Keaton allowed her to come and go as she pleased, too stunned to snap at her or curse at her despite her courteous gestures.

Unexpectedly, before Keaton could regain her composure, the once-crestfallen ferret started spouting nonsensical jibberish about Jeremiah eating her brother, and even began to convulse in grotesque angles while she snarled and bared her teeth at the frog. A frown springing to her face, Keaton tried to peer at the ferret from around Stygian's arm, morbidly curious about the mustelid's behavior. Before the ferret could grow any more riotous, the wolf managed to sock her in the jaw, making her scuttle about the room like a deranged crab.

"...what the hell...?" Keaton started, her voice tinged with obvious, disgusted confusion.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Gareeku]

Hmm, I should have known she wouldn't react normally... Gareeku thought to himself as his arm as his arm was twisted around, before being hurled at a bookcase. Acting quickly, the wolf positioned in himself so that he landed on the book feet first, before using it as a platform and flipping to land on the floor, again on his feet.

"You're going to have to do better than that." Gareeku stated flatly, the look of calm seriousness still on his face. "Seems like a number of spirits are currently residing in you. I guess you're the only organic thing at this time that they can use as a vessel."

[Stygian]

Startled, Stygian turned back and looked at the ferret, letting Keaton go as a look of wariness crept into his face which slowly returned normal, all but the eyes.
   "You fool! Don't tick her off! The librarian alone is a danger!" he shouted at Gareeku.
   "Snooow!" the ferret screamed in that young man's voice, clinging to the side of a bookcase with her back against the wall and her arms twisted illogically. "Pleeease! Don't hate me!" she screamed, and roared as she threw herself into the air, flipping over and stretching out her hands at Gareeku. The hands themselves grew, along with her claws, turning a darker shade in their fur and bestial and much too large for the rest of her body. She spoke in tongues as she tried to hit the wolf and crack his bones.

[Boog]

Jeremiah shook his head and giggled again, steadying himself. "Thank you. That was... Odd," His voices were all clamoring about something, and his ears had this curious ringing sensation, "That was very odd indeed."
Although nowhere half as odd as what happened next.
"Eat someone? What in the-?" the frog fixed Gina with what could only be called a Look and stepped towards her, eyes widening as she changed. He put his arms up in the universal guesture for peace, "Just relax, everything's fine, you know ol' Jeremiah wouldn't hurt a fly no matter how hard he tried..."
Breakumbreakumbreakumbreakum-!
It's not stealing if they have spares, right? She has lots of extra-
Sir, it grows CROWDED in this skull!
Danger! Stay away from her!
Let me out, you greasy little-!
SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!
You can't scream at us for the crime of existing forever, greasy!
WATCH ME, BAL!
Alright, Jeremiah concided as he mentally subdued his Condition, Admittedly, the company I keep would. I wouldn't, though!

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha kept a close watch on Jeremiah from where she stood nearby, as the bracer of light took on its soft glow before encompassing the frog's body...she hoped that it would work as quickly as it had done for Mel.  His taint was further along than hers had been and would have probably had more time to plant itself, she thought, considering the time since he had been attacked.

Then, the ferret woman had started speaking again, so suddenly that the panther stepped back a few feet, gritting her teeth with surprise as she spoke in numerous voices at once...something that was impossible to do otherwise.  She was definitely possessed.  Aisha was about to step forward, when she noticed Gareeku take the opportunity and tried to get her to calm down in a most direct way.  That should work... she smirked.

But when the wolf was flung across the room, the look on her face returned to a grimace.  ...Or not.  She growled quietly and started side-stepping around the room, trying to avoid the mad spirits as their vessel seemed to want to go in many different directions, before deciding that Gareeku was its new target.  Her eyes widened, mostly in pity for the ferret girl, wherever her true spirit was.  Her hand was resting thoughtfully on a large book in the shelf.  This is just going to end in more bloodshed...

[Mel Dragonkitty]

"Shhh..." soothed Mel to Keaton. "Concentrate on healing, not on the other patients. I'm sure the others can deal with whatever is going on." At Cog's request Mel realized the cross was still dangling from her hand and she tossed it to him. Perhaps it would help the ferret. She forced a smile as her cool hands settled over Keaton's major wound. "If you feed on crazy you'll love this place."

[Gareeku]

Seeing the girl transform, Gareeku narrowed his eyes.
"Shit." he growled. Thinking quickly as the girl lunged at him, the wolf then rolled forward, before grabbing the girls arm and hurling her away.
"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." Gareeku muttered, with one hand resting on his blade as the other was enveloped in light magic.

[Stygian]

"Oh, but fuck...!" Sebastian said. He wondered if there was any way to stop this at all. He might be able to use something he remembered about the spirits inside of the ferret. The problem there was that he didn't know exactly who they were, save for two of them. And he didn't know which were the most prominent either. Still, he had to do some bloody thing. He turned, and moved in between the crabwalking girl and Gareeku, just as she was about to leap onto the wolf again.
   "Sto...!" he began, only to recieve a foot in the stomach and being knocked aside. He lost his balance, but fortunately didn't lift or fall.
   "My god! I'm sorry! Aaagagagagagaga...!" the ferret foamed, and then spun around to the side. A giant, vertical maw formed in her chest somehow as she leapt for Gareeku, arms flung out and head bent back. "They were in the restricted section, young man!" she shrieked, again in the librarian's voice.

[Boog]

"Hold her still!" Jeremiah yelled as Gina flung herself at Gareeku, "me and Cog were able to sort of calm her down before! Just get her to hold still! Cog!" Jeremiah whirled and pointed at the were, "You remember whatever it was you were chanting earlier?"

[Gareeku]

Easier said than done, idiot... Gareeku thought in annoyance as he heard the frog's words. Looking on as the girl advanced, Gareeku narrowed his eyes as Stygian was pushed aside, before they widened somewhat as a mouth something formed in the girl's gut.

Leaping out of the way just in time, the magic in Gareeku's hand intensified. He just needed the right moment to us it.

[Sunblink]

Wholly transfixed by the spectacle unfolding before her, Keaton watched with macabre fascination as Gina, the ferret, proceeded to rampage briefly around the area before she hooked herself to a bookcase. From there on, she--who sporadically seemed to adopt drastically different voices--underwent an alarming transformation, her body warping and twisting as she babbled archaic language after language, swiping furiously at Gareeku with her newly-oversized arms.

Keaton would've watched the chaos further if she hadn't have been rallied back to Mel's valiant efforts to mend her injuries, which Keaton had entirely forgotten about in the midst of all the panic. "Holy shit..." Keaton muttered, eyes trailing after Gina, who had yet to concede in her relentless assault on Gareeku, even as she inexplicably grown a horrendously proportioned maw on her chest.

She turned her head towards Mel. "What the hell's with that ferret? And where're my glasses and mace?" Keaton traced an outline of her adored weapon with the tip of her finger in the air. "They're easy to spot. Don't tell me I didn't have them with me when that guy" -- Keaton pointed to Stygian-- "brought me in."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Stygian grunted and moved around. Gareeku and Gina both looked ready to blow each other's heads off. As the ferret touched ground, the maw in her chest dissappeared, and instead black shapes, like disembodied, ghastly torsos with gleaming red eyes and clawing hands, sprouted out from her and around her. She wailed with the shapes, standing in place and twitching a bit.
   "Aaagh! Why won't you love me!?" she screamed, and then turned her eyes, now glowing red like those of the horrors around her, against the wolf. She sprang for him.
   That was when Stygian mustered as much as he could of his speed, and placed himself between them, shouting loud enough to make their ears pain.
   "STOOOOOOOOP!" he screamed. Halfway through, his voice changed to that of the original Gina, and some sort of whispy energy seethed around him. The crazed ferret stopped, and shook, returning to normal and looking up at him as if she were about to cry.
   "N-no...! We're Gina! Y-you...!" she said, then made a little sound in her throat, and threw a punch into his gut that smacked him halfway across the room and into a desk, which broke around him. The ferret then twitched, and fell unconscious to the floor.
   Grunting, Stygian sat up, and wheezed.
   "Bloody, thrice-damned ghosts...!" he rasped and coughed.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel continued to smile soothingly at Keaton, resisting cringing at the sounds behind her. She had to trust that the formidable party could take care of one possessed ferret one way or another. "Gina? She's possessed by multiple spirits. As Sebastian told you, this is a haunted house. As to your possessions, I'm sure they're around somewhere but I wasn't quite myself when you arrived to notice where they went. I'd been poisoned by a wraith and had to heal myself before I turned into one. It's just a laugh a minute here in House Caeruleus."

[Cogidubnus]

"Yes indeed, I remember." Cog said, letting the chain loop around his hand once and walking softly towards Gina. "Although, I don't think it would have been beneficial just then..." he looked warily at Stygian, and knelt next to the unconscious ferret's body. He looped the cross around her next once, and held the silver piece in his hand for a moment before letting it fall softly onto her chest.
As he did so, he backed up suddenly, ready to begin murmuring in the old tongue once more. He had the sneaking suspicion it would take something a bit more than a piece of silver and old liturgies to calm her this time, however. "If you needed that cross, sir, I apologize - I think it might be unavailable for awhile."