Ghost of a Kind

by LostKagamiWitchInTheIsles

Cordelia Edevane had always been an enigma to the other ghosts haunting Button House. But when new homeowner Alison Cooper gains the ability to see ghosts and the Captain plots to use it to drive her and her husband away, Cordelia further confuses them by foiling their plans at every turn. Meanwhile, Alison may have found an unlikely ally in the only tolerable ghost of the bunch.

5. Chapter 5: Operation Haunt

A/N: Hello there and welcome back! Gosh, I never expected the last update to garner so much attention for this fic. It's nice to see people are starting to like it... even if it's taking me a while to get through the first episode. XD Sorry about that, but obviously each episode is packed and I want to make sure I give each scene as much detail and fleshing out as possible.

Speaking of which... this chapter is likely going to be a little uneventful outside of the haunting operation, 'cause I couldn't resist using this moment to have Cordelia and Jemima interact. Jemima doesn't get much attention in the series (naturally because of the Covid restrictions and also the actress likely becoming too old for the role of the child ghost), so I am hoping to try to implement her character wherever possible to give her some more love. The plague ghosts won't be appearing until the second episode, though. Figured that was the best thing to do to avoid cramming too much into the remaining chapters. Same with where I cut the chapter off at. It was getting too long and it seemed unnecessary to include Alison's accident. So, that'll be occurring in Chapter 6. If I play my cards right, I should hopefully have Episode 1 concluded at seven chapters. I'd also like to take this opportunity to let people know that this fic is going to be part of a series that follows in accordance with Ghosts' seasons. This means each season will be split between separate fics both on FF and AO3, with this fic only focusing on the episodes for series one. Just something I wanted to clarify for future updates.

Even still, thank you to everyone who has been favouriting, following, reading and reviewing this story. Your continued support and encouraging words are greatly appreciated. I will warn you all that I am still importing and editing chapters for other fics to AO3, and that my RL responsibilities have increased to the point where I have less free time to write as I normally would. So, expect that to be the reason why the next chapter will take a while, plus the updates for my Owl House fic. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the next instalment for Ghost of a Kind.

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Chapter 5: Operation Haunt

Eight muffled chimes rung from the corridor outside of Cordelia's bedroom, with the first chime penetrating through the thin wood of the door enough to rouse the biologically younger ghost awake with a slow and heavy blink. She squinted at the little sunlight streaking along her bedroom wall from the window behind her, giving herself a moment to come to and fight through her bleary vision with repeated blinks.

Vague recollections of yesterday's events with Alison and Mike crawled to the forefront of her mind, making her wonder if everything she'd experienced had been nothing more than a crazy fever dream. But then again… how many times had she thought that during the countless days she was forced to wake up to the reality that she was technically no longer alive? Many times, so much so that she'd long since lost count, she concluded.

'Goodness. Who would have thought the arrival of a young and ambitious wedded couple could cause such unrest? Though it is expected.' When a hush descended upon her room, Cordelia rolled onto her back and stretched her arms above her head with a small grunt, turning her drooped blue eyes towards the ceiling. 'We long to one day ascend from this realm and be at peace, yet despite this, some of us have come to see Button House as our home, while for others it was already so while we were still alive.'

Gradually, the bleary shroud that had covered her mind began to clear, bringing forth last night's meeting with the other ghosts back to her memory, including what had been said before the Captain finally dismissed them. Hadn't she been awoken by eight chimes?

'Eight o'clock in the ballroom: that was the agreed upon assembly time and place, was it not?' Dropping her hands to her face to brush away strands of dirty blonde locks, Cordelia lifted her body from the bed and shuffled forward to sit on its edge, running her fingers through the sides of her hair to neaten it as best as she could (not that it mattered, since none of the ghosts could look 'presentable' thanks to staying how they died). 'The Captain should consider himself lucky. Had it not been for my former employment at Button House, I would not habitually awaken around the same time each morn.'

Cordelia could admit that the chosen meeting place perplexed her a little, but then again, it was likely the Captain's way of accommodating her. After all, he seemed intent on recruiting as many of the ghosts as possible for this operation, even the gloomy, enigmatic and tiny Victorian lady who made every attempt in the book to avoid their company. And the ballroom was one of the few rooms in Button House big enough to accommodate all ten of them for a large gathering.

'I should make haste.'

And so, Cordelia departed from her bedroom with her hands clasped at her front, making her way through the corridors of Button House's first floor with hurried strides. Upon reaching the foyer, she took her usual long about route of phasing outside, strolling across the perimeter of the common room and then phasing through the last window to come inside opposite the area where the staircase was. However, as she phased back through into the common room, her eyes caught a tiny, humanoid figure loitering by the bottom of the stairs. They were partially hidden by the shadow cast from the early morning sun, yet what little light had managed to stretch over to the stairs highlighted a pair of sunken eyes staring unsettlingly at her.

"Goodness gracious!" Cordelia cried out and came to an immediate halt.

She instinctively hid her face behind her arms and squeezed her eyes shut, whipping her body towards the nearest pillar to press her front against it. Several seconds of silence passed before it was broken by a small, monotonous and child-like voice addressing her.

"Miss Cordelia?"

Cordelia opened her eyes wide and lowered her arms, turning her head slightly to face the speaker by the stairs as they stepped into the light. The blonde ghost was met with a young girl who looked no older than twelve years old making her way over to her with slow and cautious steps, possessing deathly pale skin and long, unkempt brunette hair that fell in front of her face yet failed to cover the large, visible sores on the sides of her forehead and her left cheek. She was dressed in a long and dirty blue peasant dress with black lace across the chest that Cordelia recognised to be from the medieval era, with woolly coverings on her forearms and a knit shawl over her shoulders. The girl was also cradling a straw doll in her arms and keeping it close to her middle, as if it was going to disappear should she let it go.

"Jemima," Cordelia spoke the girl's name through a heavy sigh, her body drooping the moment she realised she was never in danger to begin with.

'And once again I have been reminded that I am not the only enigmatic and elusive ghost to haunt these very grounds…'

Jemima was the youngest biological ghost currently haunting the Button Estate, supposedly connected to the medieval-era ghosts who occupied the cellar underneath the staircase on the second floor, something Cordelia had come to suspect based on the girl's attire and sickly appearance and sores. She was the only ghost of the 'cellar dwellers' who tended to linger upstairs and, like her, tended to prefer her solitude. However, from the few interactions Cordelia had had with Jemima, she was usually cordial and didn't seem to mind her company (though Cordelia had a feeling it was because unlike the other ghosts, she was the only one who had bothered to push past her squeamishness of the poor girl's sores—as she'd also done with Humphrey and his decapitated head and wandering headless body—and her… 'scary stare', in Kitty's words).

As Jemima stopped in front of the older blonde, she tilted her head at watching Cordelia pull herself from the pillar with a hand to her chest, the latter of which was heaving with each deep breath she took.

"… Did I scare you?" Jemima asked after a short delay, prompting Cordelia to nod vigorously while she attempted to pull herself together.

"Indeed, you did," she answered breathlessly. Cordelia took a moment to clear her throat before she continued in a steadier tone, keeping her hand to her chest with a furrowed brow. "I was not expecting to see you there. Do you not usually prefer to frequent the kitchen and the pantry?"

"The Captain told me to come," Jemima replied quietly while adjusting the doll in her hold to lie flat against her chest, her fingers absentmindedly fiddling and pulling at its straw. "He said he needed my singing to help scare the new lady of the house away."

"Oh…" Cordelia muttered with a slight gape out of realisation, blinking widely as she straightened herself out. "I see."

'Of course! Jemima is yet another who possesses capabilities that allow her to be acknowledged by the living, a tale I oft-forget I was privy to when I was still alive…'

Cordelia vaguely recalled the accounts of those employed at Button House who had claimed to have heard the voice of a child singing from the pantry, despite there not being any children there. And while Cordelia had not been witness to such a spectacle then, it wasn't until her death that she came to discover these 'accounts' were in fact true upon hearing Jemima's singing of a dark nursery rhyme—'Ring a Ring o' Roses', she believed it was called—during one of her daily walks around the manor house. She couldn't deny that despite knowing Jemima was the one behind the singing now, she never failed to get goosebumps (or at least, as close to goosebumps as she could get, being a ghost and all) each time she heard it. And why not, when the supposed 'nursery rhyme' was so morbid, especially given its suspected connotations and the related irony to the one who chose to sing it?

"Did the Captain call you because of your—?" Jemima started to ask, only to be cut off by Cordelia stretching out an index finger to place close to the young girl's lips.

"Sssh!" she abruptly shushed Jemima, her blue eyes darting towards the stairs to make sure none of the other ghosts were lurking nearby to overhear them. When she was met with silence and no sign of them, the blonde sighed and slowly retracted her finger, answering Jemima's question in a whisper. "They are still not aware of my…" She paused and furrowed her brow for several seconds to find the correct word. "…abilities, and I intend to keep it that way."

"But why not tell them?" Jemima enquired with a faint frown. "You could scare the lady away with what you can do."

"Quite right," Cordelia agreed, only to scowl and purse her lips. "But in turn, the Captain—and possibly everyone else—would see it as an invitation to call upon me whenever he saw fit." She briefly closed her eyes and tilted her nose to the ceiling with a shudder. "And heaven knows what that pompous old half-wit would make me do!"

Cordelia thought she heard a small giggle escape Jemima then, which was soon silenced when she dared to open her eyes and make eye contact with the biologically younger ghost.

"He can be bossy…" Jemima muttered under her breath, causing Cordelia to smile faintly for several seconds.

"In any case, we should depart for the ballroom," Cordelia said with the fading of her smile, preparing to walk past Jemima with her hands clasped at her front once more. "Should the two of us linger here for much longer, I wager we shall be having the calvary set upon us in due course."

Cordelia didn't look back at hearing the light footsteps of Jemima walking after her. She made the rest of the journey up the zigzagging staircase to the second floor at a brisk pace, with Jemima catching up and sticking by her left side somewhere on the way.

'I had forgotten Jemima once beheld my… 'supernatural gifts', yet I have no need to fear.' Cordelia dared to sideways glance the young girl then, catching Jemima returning the same stare with a calm blink. 'We have a mutual understanding. She will not tell a soul.'

By the time the young plague ghost and Victorian woman were approaching the open doorway of the ballroom, they could see the Captain awaiting their arrival by the doorway with his back straight and his black baton tucked underneath his left arm, his hands clasped behind him. Cordelia also spied Kitty and Fanny within her line of sight, the two women lingering on the far side of the ballroom by the windows. Kitty giggled the moment she spotted Cordelia and gave the biologically younger ghost a wide grin and enthusiastic wave, prompting Cordelia to nod slightly in acknowledgement and return the wave with the minor raise and movement of one of her hands.

"Ah! Jemima, Cordelia!" the Captain exclaimed as the addressed ghosts paused before the doorway. "Where have you been?"

Cordelia bowed her head before she responded and righted herself again. "Apologies, Captain. There was a…" She trailed off and exchanged a quick glance with Jemima, making her left eye twitch a bit when she became the first of the pair to break away. "…tiny misunderstanding on the way up."

The Captain briefly cocked a brow and shared a look between the pair, only to avert his eyes and shudder upon locking gazes with Jemima.

"Ahem!" The Captain loudly cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders. "Right! To the matter at hand." He partially turned to face the ballroom and slipped his baton from under his arm, pointing it in the direction of the hallway that led to the current sleeping quarters of Alison and Mike. "To get you both up to speed: the eagle is in the nest."

Cordelia saw Jemima furrow her brow at the Captain's strange phrasing, prompting the blonde ghost to sigh heavily and shake her head. Naturally, neither of the two ghosts understood what he was going on about, and that was despite the fact Cordelia had managed to pick up on the meaning of some of the Captain's confusing words over the time she'd known him.

'The constant evolution of the English Language is such a tiresome obstacle between us all…'

"In the King's English, please, Captain?" Cordelia requested.

There was a short pause before the Captain swivelled on his heels to face the two ghosts again, his eyes drooped.

"… Alison is in the toilet," he explained bluntly, to which Cordelia and Jemima both nodded in understanding to allow him to continue. "We have decided that 'Operation Haunt' will commence the moment she leaves that room. So, Jemima,"—he turned stiffly and faced Jemima, gesturing towards where Fanny and Kitty were standing—"stand over there, if you please, and I shall brief you on your role in this operation." Jemima immediately did as she was instructed and walked past Cordelia and the Captain, prompting the latter to return his attention to the former with the whip of his baton to point in her direction. "As for you, Cordelia…" He paused to give the biologically younger ghost a brief look from head to toe. "since you cannot physically participate, you will have to stand clear and observe." The Captain stretched his neck back to partially glance at the room behind him, focusing his gaze towards the hallway as he raised his voice. "Patrick!"

Several seconds after his shout, Cordelia heard hurried footsteps approaching, followed by the scoutmaster himself speed-walking round into the ballroom from the hallway and coming to a sudden stop by the windows, his arms set diagonally at his sides.

"Yes, Cap?" Pat said, prompting the Captain to jerk his head towards Cordelia slightly.

"Please give Cordelia the rundown."

Pat nodded stiffly and raised a hand to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose when the Captain turned on his heels and made to walk off towards where Jemima was stood, with Pat answering even though the Captain hadn't bothered to wait for confirmation to his order.

"Leave it with me!"

During this time, Cordelia took the opportunity to glance around the other side of the ballroom, where she saw Mary standing idly in the middle of the room by the windows and Julian a good distance behind her next to the farthest table at the opposite exit. Robin, Thomas and Humphrey were the only two ghosts she couldn't account for, though she did wonder if the former pair were standing in the hallway where Pat had come from.

"Come along then, Cordelia!" Pat continued and resumed his way over to her, gesturing towards the cluttered furniture that had been shoved together in the bottom left corner of the room. "We can talk more over by Humphrey."

"Humphrey?" Cordelia repeated with a forced blink. She turned her head in the direction of Pat's gestured hand, her blue eyes squinting and scanning the carpet-less floor for any sign of the Tudor man's severed head. "But where—?"

"I'm down here!" Humphrey's voice resounded and cut Cordelia off, forcing the Victorian woman's eyes to stare at an area near where a wooden table was situated.

Sure enough, she spied the back of Humphrey's short and curly brunette hair laying close by, whom she instinctively walked towards with Pat close at her side.

"How on earth did you manage to get under there?" she asked as she paused briefly beside Humphrey's head.

"I don't have the foggiest idea," he eventually answered, his eyes shifting once between Cordelia and Pat. "Um… Would one of you two mind just—?" Before Humphrey could finish his sentence, Cordelia swooped her hands down and collected his head from the floor as fast as a falcon snatching its prey in its talons, immediately straightening out and lifting him to the table nearby. "Wahey!" He cried out happily before he was placed upon the wooden surface on the right side of his face, allowing him to get a good view of where the others were standing. "Thank you! That's much better!"

"You are very welcome," Cordelia remarked with a slight smile, choosing to stand on the left side of the table while switching her focus to Pat standing on the table's right side. "So, Patrick, would you mind explaining why everyone is currently gathered in this…" She trailed off and twisted her hand around in the direction of where the other ghosts had positioned themselves. "…peculiar arrangement?"

Pat snorted and smiled proudly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a finger. "You don't even need to ask, Cordelia," he answered chipperly and clasped his hands behind his back, clearing his throat before diving straight into his explanation. "The Captain's decided to go after Alison using the ghosts who can interact with the living with a—" Pat paused to tilt his chin up and swing back and forth on his heels. "—full frontal assault, as he'd call it. So, he's positioned everybody using the layout of the ballroom. For example,"—Pat held up an index finger and swivelled to face where Julian was standing beside the last table pushed in front of the window, which had a white and intricate flower patterned vase close to the edge—"as Julian is able to touch things, he's going to scare Alison by knocking that vase onto the floor."

Julian righted himself and raised his head while adjusting the collar of his jacket with both hands, a smug smile dancing upon his lips. "Makes sense that I'm the finale. They say to save the best 'til last."

Cordelia's eye twitched at Julian's cocky comment, yet she sucked in a deep breath through her nostrils to refrain from retorting as Pat held his hands out towards Mary, who had since turned around to listen in on their conversation with clumps of her dress skirt clutched in her hands.

"Mary is out in the open because living people smell burning when they pass through her," Pat explained as he tilted his head in the direction of the fireplace in the ballroom, which wasn't lit. "What better way to bring the chills than to smell burning when there's no fire going!"

Cordelia squinted at the Stuart-era peasant woman. "But I thought Mary disliked the smell."

Mary nodded in agreement. "'tis a noxious stink, yes, and it doth reminds me of my death." She gave a lop-sided smile and shrugged her shoulders. "But Is always smells burnings, so…"

Cordelia shook her head to that, staying quiet and allowing Pat to continue at seeing him move his hands to gesture to where Fanny, Kitty, the Captain and Jemima were gathered by the door to the hallway. The former pair stuck by the windows while the Captain talked to Jemima just behind the door, briefly rocking on the soles of his feet with his baton clutched in both hands against his back.

"Jemima's also going to be out in the open." Pat turned back to Cordelia with a brief shudder and the smoothing of his moustache with one set of his fingers. "I think that one is self-explanatory."

"Indeed it is," Cordelia muttered in agreement and flitted her eyes to the ceiling of the room. "No doubt the wide and open space will help to carry the creepy tones brought about from that nursery rhyme. Though it is a shame that is all Jemima can sing…"

"I agree!" Humphrey piped up from the table. "She's got a lovely little voice!"

'Unlike the Captain…'

"And that just leaves Robin!" Pat declared as he pointed a hand straight towards the hallway past where the Captain and Jemima were stood. "He'll be opening the operation by messing with the lights, 'cause you know, he can control electricity."

"Of course," Cordelia remarked, her brow furrowing as her eyes glossed over the spaced-out line across the other side of the ballroom. "Though, I must confess, Patrick, that I do not understand the necessity for such a plan…" When Pat faced her with a raised brow, Cordelia elaborated with a hand cupping her chin. "When haunting was suggested, I was under the initial impression that we would be targeting Alison and Michael one at a time."

"So did I, to be fair," Humphrey said with a frown. "Seems a bit silly to have everyone go at it at once, innit? Especially in broad daylight."

"I did suggest not to do that," Pat began, only to pause to give the Captain a brief sideways glance and make sure he was still occupied. Seeing he was in the clear, the scoutmaster leaned closer to the Victorian and Tudor ghosts and lowered the volume of his voice a bit, adjusting his glasses with a hand and rolling his eyes. "but the Captain wasn't having it."

"Of course he wasn't," Cordelia quietly remarked through an exasperated sigh, lowering her own voice for the next comment she let slip. "Pompous old windbag."

Humphrey and Pat pressed their lips together to suppress the chuckles that threatened to spill as the latter straightened himself out, with Cordelia even hearing a loud and obnoxious snort from Julian (who had managed to overhear her, apparently) from where he was standing by the window. Yet the momentary mirth was disrupted by the shrill shrieking of Fanny, prompting Cordelia, Pat, Julian and Mary to look over to where the Edwardian woman was facing the hallway where the bathroom was.

"What on earth are you doing?!"

Cordelia and Pat stepped closer to the windows to peep at the commotion, looking just in time to see the bottom half of the body of Thomas Thorne outside of the bathroom door, with his top half phasing through to the outside of the room the moment he righted himself with a start.

"I-I was just keeping watch, as instructed!" Thomas stuttered as he swirled to face Fanny with wide eyes and his palm raised in surrender, making Robin (who was standing off to the side close to a lone and lit bulb dangling from the ceiling in the same hallway) recoil towards the wall with a startled grunt. "A-And anyway, I couldn't see anything!"

It didn't take much for Cordelia to figure out what Thomas had been attempting to do, which was why she found herself scowling and clasping her hands tightly together at feeling the heat rise to her face.

"Whether you saw anything is irrelevant, sir!" she snapped, causing Pat to flinch and the other ghosts to look towards her with wide blinks. "You should know better than to violate the privacy of a lady!"

"Exactly!" Fanny exasperatedly agreed and pointed her nose towards the ceiling, her eyes narrowed at Thomas as he turned his head and placed a hand near his mouth, his cheeks flushed a faint pink. "It is unbecoming of a gentleman!"

"Absolutely disgraceful!"

"Quite right!"

A low whistle from Julian had the ghosts' attention switching to him, a smug smirk on his lips as he glanced between Cordelia and Fanny.

"Well! Never thought I'd see the day Fanny and Cordelia agreed on something! Looks like your secret rendezvous yesterday paid off, eh?"

Julian topped off his teasing comments with a wink, prompting Cordelia and Fanny to both roll their eyes and click their tongues while averting their gazes towards the wall (for the former) and the window (for the latter).

"Faradiddle, sir!" Cordelia retorted.

"Yes, grow up, Julian," Fanny complained with the brief rolling of her shoulders. "We are perfectly capable of agreeing on certain matters and affairs without being peers."

"Hmph!" Cordelia added with a stiff nod, prompting Julian to stay quiet and raise his palms up in surrender, focusing his gaze on the window.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Cordelia saw Pat's eyes widen as if out of realisation.

"Oh! That reminds me!" he whispered and moved closer to Cordelia, getting the blonde ghost's attention with a light tap on her shoulder. "How did that talk with Lady B—?"

He was silenced by an unfamiliar high-pitched scream muffled by the bathroom door, returning the ghosts' attention to the hallway as Alison's shriek followed, along with the squeak of the shower tap to silence the running water.

"The water's cold! The water's gone cold!"

"All right, everyone! She's coming out!" the Captain announced and straightened up, pointing his baton towards the scattered ghosts with his next order barked. "Prepare for action!"

"… I'll follow up with that later," Pat mumbled as he and Cordelia walked back to Humphrey to keep out of the way.

Cordelia merely nodded in acknowledgement, her eyes drooping as she focused them on the sorry display that was about to unfold from the ghosts moving into their positions.

Julian stepped back to stand behind the vase on the table at this, jumping lightly from one foot to the other while shaking his hands around. Mary faced the hallway and took on a wide stance. Fanny and Kitty positioned themselves as close to the window as they could to create a gap between them and Jemima, who stood on the opposite side close to the door with the Captain crouched just behind her, his baton held up and at the ready. And Robin and Thomas each shuffled to opposite sides of the corridor to keep out of the way, with Robin spreading his legs out and crouching underneath the light bulb with his hands held up and his fingers bent like they were claws, a scowl on his brow.

'It does not take a genius to know that this is not going to end well. If only the Captain would choose to think through his plans logically instead of through efficiency…'

"Good luck, everyone!" Kitty said encouragingly as she glanced round at the others, her usual wide grin on her face. "Make sure to do your best!"

The creak of the bathroom door opening forced a hush to descend upon the ballroom, one that was disturbed by the voice of Alison.

"Mike, the hot water's stopped!" she shouted as she gained on the ballroom, emerging enough into view for Cordelia to see her in a pink dressing gown, with damp hair and a small towel wrapped round her shoulders that she was dabbing against her head.

The Captain wasted no time in nodding towards Robin and jabbing his baton towards the caveman, speaking up to confirm his verbal cue. "Now, Robin!"

Cordelia just about saw Robin crouch from her current vantage point and clench his fingers towards the bulb, his gaze focused intently on the glowing bulb. Seconds later, the bulb started to flicker consistently, with Robin grunting as his fingers trembled from the visible strain he was exerting with his abilities.

Cordelia wasn't surprised by this display at all, as the mischievous caveman was often seen messing with the electrics as one of his many annoying sources of entertainment. Unfortunately for the ghosts, though, neither was Alison. As soon as she saw the flickering bulb, she halted and turned back to give it a brief glance, eventually shaking her head and walking back down the hallway towards where the light switch was outside of the bathroom.

'Just as predicted.' Cordelia thought as she heard the repeated flicking of the light switch, her eyes drooping when Robin grunted in pain at his body suddenly seizing up, his own eyes bulged to the point the whites of them were exposed. 'She assumes it is merely faulty wiring…'

The others watched on with wide blinks and winces as the petrified caveman released a breathless cry and collapsed stiffly onto the floor of the hallway with a loud thud, while Alison resumed her walk out towards the ballroom completely unfazed by previous events.

"Man down!" the Captain cried, directing his baton to Jemima the moment Alison re-emerged into Cordelia's view. "Your cue, Jemima!"

Jemima showed no reaction to the Captain's words, yet she wasted no time in beginning to sing that dreaded nursery rhyme the moment Alison walked over the threshold with Thomas following closely behind her, her unsettling stare following the brunette woman's movements all the while. She did so slowly and in a small voice, one Cordelia knew very well by now.

"Ring a Ring o'—"

Loud bass suddenly blasted from the corridor behind Alison, immediately silencing Jemima and causing the others (barring Cordelia, who flinched and raised her brows) to either ball their hands into fists (in Fanny's case), whip round out of alarm (in Thomas' case) or scrunch their faces up with the stomp of their feet (in the Captain's case) out of frustration.

"Yes!" Cordelia heard Mike yell in triumph from the direction of the bedroom. "Managed to get the speakers working!"

"Yeah, 'cause that's the main thing!" Alison shouted back sarcastically.

'… I shall admit, that was unexpected.' Cordelia mentally remarked, her eyes continuing to follow Alison as she passed Fanny, Kitty, Jemima and the Captain by, with the four turning to follow her movement. 'I was certain Jemima stood the highest chance of success.'

"Mary!" the Captain called to the Stuart-era woman and beckoned with a hand for her to move forward. "If you please!"

Despite hunching her shoulders and partially turning her head away as Alison gained on her, Mary raised her hands close to her chest and dared to shuffle herself forward, prompting Cordelia to turn her own head away and partly cover it with a hand close to her forehead. Without knowledge of Mary's dislikes and fears, the Victorian ghost could easily understand not wanting to have a living phase through them; they'd all been there and they knew how painful it was.

'Oh, Mary, you poor, brave soul.'

Cordelia closed her eyes and pressed her lips together at hearing Mary's gagging, already conjuring the mental picture of the amount of soot flying around her like black and transparent confetti as she stayed hunched over, her arms round her middle.

The blonde ghost didn't return her gaze to the scene until she heard Alison call out to Mike again, with Mary having righted herself and kept a hand to her belly with further gagging and her tongue out.

"Mike, I think your toast is burning!"

"Dammit!" the Captain cursed between gritted teeth as he and the other ghosts moved to gather around Mary, scowling towards Julian with the flick of his baton when Alison continued to walk to the opposite exit of the ballroom. "Julian, it's all up to you!"

With his right-hand grabbing at his wrist and his left one shifting so his index finger was pointed directly at the vase, Julian leaned down and spread his legs apart, putting his fingertip as close to the vase as he could get it. Amidst the other ghosts' rowdy and encouraging yells (most of which were inaudible due to them doing it over each other), Cordelia silently watched Julian's finger tremble with the strain it was taking him to keep his finger pressed against the vase and try to shove it towards the table's edge, just about managing to hear his random noises and grunts of effort from his mouth above the ghosts' racket. All the while, Alison gained closer and closer to Julian's destination, her focus not yet stolen by the act the invisible residents were attempting to undergo.

'And this is exactly why it would have been more appropriate to conduct such a scheme gradually and at night-time.' Cordelia mused, her blue eyes following Alison moving past Julian while he was still struggling to move the vase, his whole body now shaking from the energy he was likely exerting. 'Julian has used his capabilities very little, yet each time he has, it has taken him a great deal of strength for even the smallest of objects. His failure was imminent.'

A loud scrape sounded against the surface of the table as Cordelia witnessed Julian finally manage to edge the vase forward a little, but by then it was already too late. Julian let out an exasperated sigh and relaxed his stance as Alison disappeared from the ballroom through the opposite entrance, with the other ghosts copying him and the Captain swiping a fist at the air.

"Dammit!" he cursed for a second time, prompting Julian to shrug his shoulders.

"Sorry!" he apologised, gesturing his hands towards the now slightly askew vase. "It might have worked better if it was a cup! I did say I was used to those!"

Cordelia said and did nothing when the other ghosts moved over to each other and started to talk incoherently amongst themselves, leaving her alone with Humphrey's head as he, too, followed in her example (mainly the first part, as he couldn't move without his body anyways). After a moment of watching the palpable disappointment lingering amongst the invisible inhabitants, though, the biologically younger blonde sideways glanced Humphrey when he dared to speak up, his own words spoken lowly so the others didn't hear him.

"Well… that was a mess. Though can't say I'm surprised." He paused to look up at Cordelia, forcing a blink as he did so. "Are you, Cordelia?"

There was a short delay before Cordelia chose to give her response, breaking her gaze away to once again focus on the gathered ghosts all trying to talk over each other, with some of them moving their hands about in an animated fashion.

"… Honestly, Humphrey?" Cordelia answered lowly, taking a moment to huff and close her eyes with the slight lowering of her head, her hands clasped against the front of her skirt. "Not in the slightest."