Forums » General Roleplay » Ripley and the Ghost Club (1x1)

Ripley rolled her eyes. These doofuses. They were just going to get themselves killed. She huffed in annoyance and got on her bike, following them at a long distance. Someone had to be there to bail them out when it all went wrong. It was totally and completely going to go wrong, of course. They were going up against something that they couldn't stop before, and they were going to get in its way, meaning it would do whatever it was it wanted to do, and then it was going to go after them. Might as well stand by with the bandages.

Like before, Francis pulled up at a distance to scope the place out. Unfortunately, his concerns turned out to be true. Edrie was out in the yard, trying her best to continue pruning the weeds that were left. The boy swallowed hard. For all his heroic talk earlier, he was still a terrified child about to walk into the lion's den. Said walk was slow and shaky, making his way through the fence gates.

"Salutations, Mrs. Christiansen!" he greeted. "You may remember us, we were assisting your husband with the yard for a school project. Would you be interested in further assistance?" She wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled at him.

"Thank you, that would be wonderful." she panted out. "Dayer has been handling most of the yard work. I'm really not cut out for it." She took a seat on the porch steps to catch her breath. Like the previous day, he and Visia picked out gloves and tools and got to work.

Ripley stayed back out of sight, just keeping an eye on things. She had no idea what she could do, if anything. All she had was a bike, a hermit crab, her school backpack, and a string of Rosary beads that she didn't know how to use. She took a moment to open the smallest pocket on her backpack and transfer Jonsey into it with a bit of padding. Hopefully, he'd be safer in there. She didn't want a repeat of last time with how scared Jonsey had been. Then she parked her bike with her packpack hanging off the bars near one of the other houses. Hopefully, no one would steal it while she snuck as close as she dared and kept an eye on things.

It wasn't hard to tell when the demon was about to appear. Visia dropped the trowel she was using and stared at the same dark corner. Just like before, the spindly red creature crawled out of the darkness. Frances was visibly shaking, even from the distance Ripley was viewing them, but he pulled a car battery out of his backpack and hooked it up to the radar gun he'd used before. He aimed it at the demon and fired, creating a high-pitched whine that caused nearby dogs to start barking.

The demon looked as though it was being flattened against the wall by the force of the device. It struggled to move, but eventually, it managed to curl up like a spring. Pushing against the wall, it leapt up, seemingly over the influence of the device. Francis wasn't fast enough to follow before it landed behind him and tore the radar gun to pieces with its teeth.

Again, Visia held her hand out. There was sweat beading on her forehead as she seemed to be exerting herself more than before. This time, the demon had its arms extended, as though they were being pulled in opposite directions. They were being pulled so hard that it looked like they might get torn off. Suddenly, the monster savagely kicked her, seeming to knock her out. The moment she fell, its arms were freed.

Well, that didn't work. In fact, it probably just made the demon mad. Now what? What could she do? Find a phone and report a demon attack? Run up and get attacked, too? That would do a fat lot of good, but she was running out of ideas! Taking a deep breath, Ripley ran forward. Maybe she could distract it without getting eaten. That'd be nice. If she could buy the lady some time to run away, maybe she'd do something more meaningful.

"Hey! Egg breath! Stop it!" She stood at the edge of the lawn and flung the rosary as hard as she could at the beast.

The creature recoiled at the sight of the rosary. It tried to shield itself, as though expecting something horrible to happen, but the rosary passed through it harmlessly. It looked back at it, then glared daggers at Ripley. Before, it had been mostly focused on its target. Now it seemed to be furious at her for using such a thing on it. Slowly, it stalked towards her, flexing its claws. It brought one of them up, prepared to strike.

"Stay back, servant of darkness!"

Livia had run between Ripley and the demon, holding up her own cross necklace like a ward. Its claws raked at the air, as though stopped by an invisible force. She glared up at it with seemingly no fear. "It is written, 'Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you!' You have no power here!" One of the creature's clawed hands melted, burned away by the force that held it back. "'Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand!' I cast you out, in the name of Jesus Christ!" The demon watched helplessly as its other claw melted. "'Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you!' I command you to flee, and never darken another doorstep!"

With an agonized roar, the creature sunk into the ground. Only then did Livia relax. Letting out a breath, she put her necklace back around her neck. She went to pick up the rosary and hand it back to Ripley. "This does nothing without faith. Devote yourself to God and He will protect you."

"You can keep it," Ripley said, "and now really isn't the time."

Not to mention, from what she'd seen of this god, she had no interest. Who wanted to follow someone who picked and chose favorites and left his followers unguarded? Dayer and his wife and that old lady were probably no less devote than anyone else, but because they couldn't see the demon, they couldn't stand up to him and spout religious words, so they got hurt. How was that fair? And why was it down to some kid to stand in the way? Not the literal leader of the church? No, that was no god she wanted.

Still, Ripley admitted, "That was really cool what you did. Is that thing really gone?"

"Suit yourself." Livia said. She would have to find a way to dispose of it without her mother finding out. The rosary was a catholic implement. Her cross necklace didn't have beads on it, so that made it okay. Somehow. Her expression grew smug as she was complimented. "Thank you, but only through God was I able to drive the demon from us." Ironically, she sounded very proud of how humble she was being. But after that, her demeanor became more professional. "I think so. Those sorts of demonic entities don't seem to come back after a good exorcism."

At that point, Edrie came over to check on them. "What on Earth was going on over here?" she asked. From her perspective, she watched a whole fight with something that didn't exist. What made it especially confusing was the fact that Francis was in the process of bringing Visia back to consciousness.

"I... I have no idea," Ripley admitted. The outrageousness of everything that had just happened fell beyond even her scope of lying and manipulating adults. "There was a thing, and the thing looked like it was going to hurt us, and V fainted, and... I don't know. It was a mess."

"I- wh- okay?" Edrie said. She could only chalk this up to kids having an overactive imagination. Visia was just starting to wake up when the old man from before showed up at the house. Seeing that Edrie was unharmed, his smug smirk fell instantly. He pulled out a small statue shaped like the demon they'd just exorcised, and threw it onto the ground in frustration.

"Piece of junk!" he grumbled. Seeing the trimmers nearby, he picked them up. "Gonna have to do it myself then." Brandishing them like a weapon, he advanced on Edrie as fast as his aged joints would carry him. When she noticed this, she started backing away, eyes wide.

"Mister Bagley? What are you doing?" He didn't respond, but kept advancing. "Stay away!"

Ripley charged forward without thinking. The old man was technically bigger than her, but he was older. She grabbed the sheers and yanked as hard as she could. "Francis! Grab the statue thing! You! I know you! You're the one who made a list to make Papa Purpose," wrong name, right idea "sorry for the stuff he taught! You jerk!" She yanked and tugged on the sheers. "You didn't like what someone said, so you went and called a demon on them? Isn't there stuff in the Bible about not conducting with witches and supernatural? And not hurting people? You should be ashamed of your hypocritical old butt! You hurt innocent people!"

The old man didn't have much grip strength. Ripley was able to get the shears from him without any trouble. Understanding the importance of what Ripley told him to do, Francis immediately leapt into action, quite literally. He made a baseball dive, sliding through the dirt as he grabbed the statue. With an unnecessary tactical roll, he was prepared to keep it away from its former owner. The man was shocked. Normally, he might have had some words for Ripley about respecting your elders or something, but he realized he was caught red handed. Even if no one would believe he summoned a demon, he was still about to stab a woman with shears.

"He did WHAT!?" And now he was in even more trouble, because Livia was mad too. She had her hands on her hips as she glared at him. "You viper! How could you do that to your own congregation? To your brothers and sisters in Christ?" She snatched the statue from Francis. "I'm going to make sure everyone knows about this! Especially mom!" That threat seemed to terrify him more than anything. He took off running as fast as his ailing legs would go.

"Are you kids alright?" Edrie asked. "He didn't hurt you did he? I'm going to call the police on him."

"Ha! L's Mom! So busted! You can run, but your consequences are still going to catch you!" Ripley called after him gloatingly. She turned to Edrie when she came over. "Yes. He's the one who hurt V earlier. He's such a jerk. He said he was doing it to make Papa Purpose sorry. Talk about having a kind and loving heart, right?" She looked at Visia. "Are you okay now, V?"

Edrie had no idea how Mister Bagley could have been the one to hurt Visia when she'd seen her fly back from seemingly nothing at all hitting her. But clearly he had malicious intent, with how he was advancing on her.

"Don't worry, I'm going to make sure he gets in trouble for this." she assured them. Pulling out her phone, she made a call to the police. Visia blinked back to full consciousness, then nodded.

"My chin hurts, but nothing is broken." she said, matter-of-factly.

"So...dad actually talked to me and mom about what happened." Livia explained. "He said that what we're doing is okay because we don't use seances to commune with the dead. I'm... not sure if mom is fully convinced, but she did say I could rejoin the club." Her face grew into a smug smirk. "Just as well. I'm sure you guys would be helpless without me." She rubbed the back of her head. "... and... I missed being here." Francis smiled and shook her hand.

"It's great to have you back." he said. With that done, he turned to Ripley. "Thank you for everything you've done for this club. Your contributions will be sorely missed, but I wish you luck in your future endeavors." Livia whipped around.

"Wait, you're leaving? You can't leave! You're the only one who realizes what a dork Francis is!"

"Thanks," Ripley told Edrie and went to join the other kids, leaving the adult to handle the police situation. She shoved her hands into her pockets as she watched Visia check herself and Livia have a pretty well-deserved gloat session. These kids really seemed to have it together. At least, as far as kids chasing ghosts can have it together. She was glad Livia was back and their gang could get back together, not just because Livia did, indeed, seem to bring a certain something to the group, but because everyone seemed so much happier that way.

Then Francis made the announcement that Ripley would be leaving, and Livia did not react how Ripley expected. The church-girl wanted her to stick around? Really? Although she did have a point. Visia never expressed any opinions, so she could think Francis was a dork, or she could hero-worship him and no one would be any wiser, but she was definitely a follower. Anything Francis did or said, she was mutely on board with it. Ripley and Livia, on the other hand, might tolerate his presentations and let him take the lead most of the time, but they still called him out and teased him in a friendly way. They were united by Francis' dorkness.

Ripley shrugged. "Well, I mean, that was the plan. I didn't particularly like the idea of actually maybe dying for no good reason when it wouldn't even slow a demon down, but I guess I could maybe hang around. If you thought I had somthing to offer, and if you needed help teasing a certain someone," she said nonchalantly.

Livia still hadn't entirely forgiven Ripley for calling her mother a demon, (as fitting an assessment as it had been,) but in that moment, she was just feeling the panic of being the only one to make fun of Francis. When Ripley said she would stay, Livia let out a sigh of relief. Francis was shocked, then he smiled brightly.

"That would be capital." he said, his eyes starting to well up.

"Oh my gosh, are you actually crying?" Livia teased. "You really are a dork."

"N-no I'm not!" It wasn't clear if he was denying the fact that he was crying, or the dork allegations, or both. But he did hurriedly rub the evidence from his eyes.

"Aw!" Ripley walked over and slung an arm around Francis' shoulders. "With that reaction, how can I possibly turn you down, huh? Sure, I'll stick around for a little longer. As long as everyone's okay with it."

Visia was the only one who hadn't weighed in on it, but she wasn't normally talkative, so maybe she didn't have an opinion?

Francis would have been happy about being hugged, but in this case, it was likely a form of teasing, so he pouted. Visia was spacing out and didn't realize that everyone was looking at her. "Visia?" Francis said. She snapped out of it and looked at him. "What do you think about Ripley staying in Ghost Club?" She paused to ponder a moment.

"I think she should if she wants to." she said. "She's been helping a lot."

"Well, sounds as though it's unanimous!"

Ripley grinned and let go of Francis so she could reach over and pat Visia's shoulder. "Glad for your vote of confidence. Hey, I have some allowance money. Actually, both of my parents gave me my allowance because neither of them realized the other one already had, so I'm loaded! How about we go get like ice cream or something? My treat to the gang! Club. Whatever."