#i've been excited for playful land to drop on EN

[crystallizsch]

WHO is ernesto foulworth and gino 🧍

[townofcadence]

Where he had initially been chastising Opal for trying to hit the ghost with her bat, potentially scaring it away, the sudden realization the blow landed jars him back into silence, and with dinner-plate sized eyes. He watches the guy stumble back a pair of staggered steps, and only one thought crosses his mind.

This wasn't a ghost.

Which meant this guy was real, physical, and could maybe be dangerous. Who else would be out here, all this way from town? It was already a long walk since the path was too overgrown to drive, so you really had to want to be here. And the fact that this guy starts his interactions by rushing at you brandishing a weapon? Ruby red flag right there.

Maybe he was an outlaw of some kind, and they'd stumbled on his hideout? It was secluded enough to hide out, and it'd explain the aggression. Also why people could see a man on the second floor sometimes.

Shit wait-- he needed to focus. Right now he was way too close to someone who'd just charged him, and he was in Opal's way of maneuvering, sitting here with his jaw hung open on the floor. He needed to---

Jace cuts off his own thoughts, scrambling backwards on his long legs and arms, back towards the doorway. Once he clears the jamb, he scrabbles to his feet with the squeak of rubber soles, before ducking behind the doorway for safety. He turns the camera so he can see in the room on recording from the adjustable monitor, peeking it at an angle to view inside the room.

Maybe he hadn't really seen her use that bat on cases, but he had seen her use it. And the one thing he knew for sure?

Stay the fuck out of Opal's way.

Opal herself is still smiling, way too wide. She feels her heart pumping, getting ready for the exertion and it makes her shiver with excitement, like the first gliding strings in concerto. However, the air she carries as she stands is diametric, shoulders relaxed and weight on one-hip, a smug little smirk on her face. She doesn't speak again, her warning already issued, but the bat comes up like a fencing sword, an almost playful 'en guarde' should he choose to try again.

Oh, she hopes he will. She hasn't had fun since her last tussle with Reverb.

The wooden cross in his hands slamming on her bat is a bit of a surprise-- he's faster than she gave it credit for, and the confidence in her expression drops like a swatted fly. Her grip tightens, but just as quick as he lowered her weapon, she feels a bear-paw of a hand on her shoulder. It's not a gentle tug, but it's strangely lacking the violence of the first attack, or even his second maneuver, that she almost doesn't resist the pull, focusing more on staying upright despite the force. She twists the bat, ready to spin this fucker and maybe fuck up one of his legs with the nailed edge of her bat---

He lets go with a startled noise, a comical one, and his hand flies away like she might've been a live-wire. He stumbles away on his own this time, looking at her like she struck him. Even the weapon dropped from his hand.

Her adrenaline is still pumping, raring to go, but the words he'd said on yanking her register, and she--- stares at him, wordlessly, offering him only the slowest blink. Then he says the rest, backpedaling with such fervor that any violence she intended on him evaporated into fine mist.

She laughs instead, the absurdity of all of it catching up to her, laughing hard enough to lower her bat to the floor and hold her stomach with her free hand. "What--- what the hell are you doin'?" She grins, but it's half confusion, half amused, eyebrows arched. "Darlin', you lookin' at me like you done seen a ghost because I got tits?" She laughs again, one brow quirking all the higher. "Well can't say I've ever been doin' this song and dance before."

" ...HWHOOF!..."

That very solid blow across the chest certainly served as enough of a physical deterrent to make him skid into an abrupt clumsy halt and stand there a second, wheezing noisily to catch his breath with the crosspiece held loosely in the other hand. His eyes popped open, squinted at the door and immediately narrowed.

It wasn't clear if he hadn't heard Opal's words over his own noisy gasps of air or if he was outright ignoring her but at any rate this immediately led into his next regrettable choice.

In a breathless burst of movement, the crosspiece slammed down on the end of Opal's bat and drove it down to the floor. His free hand shot out, grabbed Opal's shoulder and pulled her forward a bit.

" Wh-HEY!!! Y'ain't no...GHOST you sonava..."

That's when he finally got a clear view of who was on the other end of the bat.

"...bitch?!?! "

He immediately made a mortified heeep! noise (a comically odd little noise to come out of a beefy guy like him) and released Opal like he'd grabbed a hot coal. " WaitnoshitSHITnosorry!! " he gasped out as the crosspiece clattered to the floor. " Shit!! L-lady!!! Erm ma'am!! Ma'am!!! Look I...hhhshit ok look I ain't never hit a woman in m'life..."