The more you think about it, the surer you are that this is the answer, and the less sure you are of how to actually execute it. If she's 95% screaming madness and 5% Lex (give or take some arbitrary percentage of frog for unknown reasons) then calming her down has to be the key to reaching whatever Lex part is left.
"Kate!," you shout over the melee. "Do we have any of the weird level left?"
"We gave it all to Lagi!," she shouts back. "I have regular level?"
"...Fuck it, sure!"
You don't even need to explain the plan--either Kate intuitively picked up on what you're suggesting, or she was already thinking it herself. The ghost slips past Bebe and Cici once more... only to be met with a faceful of level smoke from Kate.
The ghost
slows down. A little. Pauses.
Maybe it's smoke in general. You don't fucking know.
You don't care.
You have eye contact.
You step forward. No matter how dumb it sounds. No matter how ridiculous it is to give these instructions to a ghost. No matter how afraid you are of fucking this up.
"Breathe," you tell her. "We're not here to hurt you. We're here to help. You're having an attack, or an episode, or... something, but you're not--"
The attention doesn't last long. Lex makes a break for it, with Bebe and Cici lunging to keep some semblance of a hold on her and Kate trying to rapidly exhale more level at her and you don't know how to CALM A GHOST DOWN, YOU CAN BARELY CALM YOURSELF DOWN? YOU'RE NOT EXACTLY HANDLING YOUR OWN MENTAL ISSUES WITH GRACE AND DIGNITY, HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO--
"It'll pass."
The ghost
stops.
Turns back.
Stares at you, her eyes somehow managing to widen further.
"It'll pass," you repeat more confidently. "You'll get through this. It's gonna happen and then it'll be over with. You're gonna be alright."
Everyone else is fucking silent. Everyone is still.
You take another step forward. "It'll pass," you begin again. You can already see the last vestiges of Lex slipping back beneath the mania, the twitch in her eye and the scream in her throat struggling to regain control. "You'll get through this." It's not enough. You can't just talk down a ghost, no matter how many supernatural sister memories you possess.
Maybe that's it, though.
Maybe supernatural problems need supernatural solutions.
You reach down. Deep.
Deep into yourself.
Your whole self. Plaire Stevens. The Choir. Whatever's left of Lex's sister in there.
They've offered you good vibes before, and admittedly, the sentiment does make you feel better--but you generally assume that's because having someone wish you well feels good but is still like, normal human brain shit.
This time you accept. You attempt to receive.
You attempt to channel.
Peace.
Calm.
Lex is about to gun it.
Focus.
Vibe.
You take a deep breath.
You take a step forward.
oh
You quickly realize the major flaw in this plan.
The Choir is... big. You barely comprehend it as being more than a single entity in your head but there's actually a lot of different voices in there. ...And you're still only using the word voice for lack of a better one, you can't hear them but it's nonetheless clear there's a wide assortment of Choirlings (?) BUT THE POINT IS
You are rapidly approaching a state of mind in which you are roughly fifteen people worth of relaxed.
Which is to say, you are quickly passing the fuck out.
But also, for how easily you invoked the vibes you cannot seem to project, the vibes
like
hands out
wavy motion
good vibes go
please
leave
leave th e brain plz
get out haha
need to
not sleep
right now
buuut waaant?
She begins to turn.
To run.
You reach.
You reach out.
You touch-a the faaace
face sandwich
witchwich
HOHSHIT
What they're saying is ridiculous
irrational
illegal.
She doesn't even dispute it.
She just has questions.
Like, why?
If the library's being shut down, is she out of a job?
She lives here, her dad helped build this place, how is that going to work...?
They don't answer her questions, though.
They just keep repeating themselves.
Talking over her.
Treating it lightly. Laughing.
Growing louder as she asks more insistently.
Cutting her off.
Acting like she's arguing when she just has questions.
Repeating themselves.
Antagonizing her.
Alluding to her "psychopath of a sister"
She asks them to leave.
They don't.
They press harder.
They want to see it.
If she'll snap, like Natalie does.
Like her mom used to.
She tries to be polite.
They get impatient.
They try harder.
Allusions.
Insinuations.
They want to see it.
She just has questions.
She just has questions.
She just
snaps.
The spirit vanishes into the suspicious wall.
. . .
"What did y'all DO?!," an exhausted Marlow suddenly yells from the first floor.
Bebe is the first to shout back. "Plaire just did an exorcism!"
"That," you begin to clarify, "is uhhh... it's... probably not what just happened."
Kate takes a long drag of her level.
"I don't wanna pry," Cici chimes in, "but what the heck DID happen?!"
"I--"
oh god you are on the shaky legs
"Scientifically speaking--"
. . .
"I... I think I vibed all the bad out."
. . .
"And then got hit with the splash."
. . .
"Works for me!," Cici says.
Kate withdraws the level from her mouth. "Are you pine, my dude? You sound, uh, off."
"I'm... wood," you force out. "I went from normal to... tired to... ghost show. And back. Really fast. I... just..."
you have yourself a little sit and everyone joins you
even Marlow, once he gets up the stairs
after several minutes of silence, you announce "Also there's a miasmatic wound in the library," earning two "WHAT"s, one "a what?" and one tired, drawn out "nooo" from your companions
Will Schrag | Snervalton | Skullrama | John Wood | Tom Axon | David J Wu | Sekwel | Mochi | Wisp Pandemonium | arbit | Travis Whittaker | Avasraali | Nicolas Arboleya | Trent Brossman | Clotty Cola | TacticOwl | SomeRando
21st Feb 2022, 1:03 AM
zophah
Ok, um... I hope we didn't overwhelm you there. I'm glad everything turned out good. You're getting rather good at 'manipulating the veil' or whatever supernatural it is. Are you sure you aren't psychic?
Now, we should probably reel those calm vibes back in a bit so Plaire doesn't completely pass out, and then go have a little look at that blank patch again.
+1, rancid vibes. evil, malicious vibes
(joking. this is a joke. let's look at that wall again though, maybe it slides out or something, or maybe it's hollow?)
I know that is a joke... anyway... No need for rancid vibes. Officer Johnson is right there in the flashback, that's evil vibes for a week. That guy exudes bile enough to leave a bitter taste on anyone's mouth just by looking at him.
Reel in the vibes, but don't stop them completely. This is still a stressful situation, plus we're about to be tackling the miasmatic wound. But like... moderate vibes. A low level of vibes, certainly.
The irony there is that I think "vibes" are by nature kinda vague and unfocused; choral assistance could probably help Plaire focus on some specific thing, but we'd have to specify what.
We now have some proof that there’s definitely something going on with the suspicious wall. Can we examine it further? (Blowing Level smoke on it probably won’t do anything, but as long as it’s already lit, why not?)
Actually, best simple test might be to try the Cici crowbar test on it. It might just be… well, not indestructible.
We should brainstorm stuff that could maybe seal the Wound IRL. Although there’s a good chance that the library alcazar is leaking into the real world, making such distinctions invalid. (One wonders why Rill Parsons hasn’t done anything about this.)
Also, don’t take a hit of Level, although if Marlow wants one then that might be a good idea.
So, I think one of two things are going to happen with Lex. Either will probably require more ghost therapy sessions.
(Hopefully)
Either she is going to make peace and leave this place and go wherever imprints go when they have had their mortal issues resolved.
Or she is going to slowly develop more states of being than simply this one.
Prolly gonna be the former of the two I think?
She still got to the wall, like she wanted to
But now, hopefully she has some things to think on
I think she probably needs some time
Lets try and get a ladder so we can deal with that wound.
We may not need a ladder if the two Animal Control girls can hoist Marlow (or Plaire, who is injured but less winded) and Kate on their shoulders.
Just in case it needs to be specified again due to being a new page, Plan A is to tape tinfoil over the wound. I think someone suggested spraying salt water on it, so maybe that's Plan B? Holy water IS made of salt water, after all. Our gun's a few fancy words away from being actual-factual holy water. (Gotta say, it's kinda rad that our gun of Almost Holy Water was briefly The Devil for a minute just now).
Also, I guess we should explain what Miasmatic Wounds are, and how to brace for their Aura of Impending Doom. Cici and Kate definitely need the briefing, since they're waist-deep in this mess; Bebe might just kinda deserve to know what she's gonna be sticking her face in front of. Or at least how to deal with it.
I mean, why take in someone into the bathroom with us and have them deal with all that nonsense when we can just get a ladder? It would be faster to drag someone in to help us with it, but it'd probably be safer and easier if we just go and find a ladder.
To reiterate from last page: ask Marlow to help us plan how to seal the wound due to his maintenance and occult experience.
+1 to briefing everyone about the wound.
+1 to Plan A being tinfoil and duct tape, Plan B being saltwater.
On the topic of whom to bring in, remember that Marlow found himself unable to even enter the room of the first Miasmatic Wound. We can't simply assume any given party member can handle it. Maybe Plaire's unique characteristics, Arcana, and/or Choir just provide enough "Static Damage Resistance" to approach it, and nobody else can.
Let each party member get exposure. Then listen to them concerning their ability/willingness to approach.
Alright, let's snuff the level. We don't want any heartsplosions when we get to the Anxiety Hole. How's everyone doing? Kate? She was hermiting up in the vents for a while, how was that?
Now that we aren't hyper-vibing a witch, let's warn our party to stay away from the bathroom until we're doing better.
Once everyone's collected, and the hype is ready, seal the wound, but don't go in there when you're scrambled and they're just getting over fighting a ghost like yakkity sax was playing in the background.
There're no obvious threats here, so it WOULD be a good time to take a breather.
Is there, like, any plausible explanation for how Level can work on a ghost?
We know Marlow's safe now (hi, Marlow!), and probably just got left in the dust since Bebe and Cici are genetically-engineered to be super athletic. So we can check that mystery off as solved.
We don't know where the ghost was chasing the rest of the group, that they'd be out of earshot from the main lobby. Is there more to explore after we're done up here? (I'm reluctant to visit the centipede-infested basement.)
Can Marlow get Phanton readings on the immediate surroundings, as well as the mysterious blank wall and the restrooms?
We don't know how or when or where Kate escaped her Air-Exchanging Gay Baby Jail, so that might be a thing to ask.
We don't know whether Bebe and Cici and/or Kate heard the stuff Plaire was shouting at the frog (i.e. Flirtations of the Dangerously Gay persuasion). ...Do we want to ask? (I do, because it'd be funny. But do the rest of you?)
We should share what we saw in that weird mind-meld flashback, try to place it on the timeline (apparently before this library's closure, though that happened 5 years ago-- before the Thale incident, before Mondol arrived, and long before Rill Parsons was elected).
"GET OUT," huh... So Lex probably was screaming that at the police. Maybe threw magic at them, or maybe just had a more mundane breakdown.
Good job Plaire! We all did it. I'm proud of us. Also: ability unlocked motherfucker. We can now channel multiple people worth of whatever emotion you need directly into you.
Also: time to see if tinfoil works to suppress Miasmatic wounds. I'll be sending you good vibes so you can channel significantly fewer people worth of calm if you need it.
Have people investigate the wall after everyone's a bit calmer and discuss the miasmic wound problem before we go back in the bathroom to try to seal it.
You did really well. Rest as much as you need, take the time with no ghost to just... Sit and talk with people who are not trying to consume you or get you to leave. Ask Kate what happened in the vents. Talk about miasmatic wounds. Ask the puppy patrol of frog bury shit, and ask Kate and Marlow if frogs mean anything to them.
Marlow knows shit, maybe if he looks at the wound he'll learn something. Bebe... Needs explanations of how you know what the thing is that you haven't explained to her yet, so get cooking up something there- be honest, call it 'more ghost shit', your ballpark honestly.
Also, because I wanna see what happens if you do, wad up a ball of paper and throw it at the wound. Someone else other can you can do this if you're absolutely beat.
It may be a small thing, but I'm also curious about it. Plus one to throwing something at the wound; hard to believe nothing else has entered it all this time and we could learn something more about it.
Hmm. Kate shouldn't be on the Wound team, since level can make your heart explode if you do too much, and a Miasmatic Wound is pretty close to the definition of Too Much. If Marlow really doesn't want to deal with it either (which is fair) then he and Kate can use his equipment to check out the suspiciously blank wall.
That leaves Plaire, Bebe, and Cici to work on the wound, hopefully after everyone's had some medical attention and a break.
Just throwing out there that if the party gets stumped, try asking the library for help/suggestions on sealing the miasmic wound. Maybe it won't have an answer or CAN'T give an answer, but it (most likely) won't hurt to at least ask.
Also there's still more library to explore for materials. Maybe there's a non-hole-in-the-floor way to get into the basement (though be sure to check phanton levels just in case there is still yet ANOTHER ghost haunting THAT part of the library).
So we have Lex and Natalie, 2 sisters who are also witches and apparently learned everything from their mom.
Maybe the name of their mom was already mentioned, is there any name we know of we couldn't place until now?
Regarding the miasmatic wound I'm wondering if there is probably DNR-Tape, or something similar, anywhere in this library for us to use against it.
There may be some kind of log, if this was an official police callout. Mayor Parsons, should she feel like could help dig those out.
Timeline wise -- I'm guessing this was back w/ the former mayor. The place got shut down but Lex continued living here. A number of the magic defense and stealth stuff would be increased or added then.
If Plaire touched the Miasmatic Wound maybe we could try to Vibe it closed. But that could be a very bad idea, so instead try to Vibe objects Plaire touches:
Try to pour anti-miasmatic wound feelings into the tin foil, duct tape, and super soaker, then apply that to the miasmatic wound.
Yes I am literally trying to get the choir to make real holy water.
the power of Morgenstern compels you, the power of Morgenstern compels you, the power of Morgenstern compels you, the power of Morgenstern compels you,the power of Morgenstern compels you,
It should be mentioned, last time there was a miasmic wound Plaire’s connection to the choir was cut off. I dunno how that’ll work here, since this is a real instead of in the dream and we did get a lot closer to it then last time physically speaking, but any choir-vibes might not be accessible near the Wound even if they’re imbued in an object.
+1 to trying anyway though, no harm done if it doesn’t work.
So the local police shut down the old library 5 years ago. This was before either Mondol or Parsons were on the scene.
Did the old mayor have a grudge against Lex's family? Or was it somehow connected to today's spooky goings-on? If the latter, then why did local police handle it and not the Feds?
We should ask Marlow and Kate about this, ask what the official reason was for the shut-down and whether there were rumors of anything else going on at the time.
*seethes* Officer Johnson... of course it woukd be your kind meddling in here.
*prepares wooden beam full of rusty nails in one end*
...
This is NOT to say he may be a great criminal mastermind or something like that, hell no! But it does mean that he may well be responsible for her condition; he must have done something terrible, for her to even share with us. It was even mentioned that her sister and her mother also snapped, possibly because of that kind of treatment. As expected of lowly bullies, like Orificer Sonnuvajohn and his pen mates.
Any-freakin'-way... Plaire Stevens... you did great! Please, you all take a rest, before doing anything.
After that, we could check the blank wall. If Lex had no problem going back for it in front of the gang, we may want to check it. Preferably in a subtle way; no breaking, no wrecking, unless there is no other way to proceed.
If we can't do a thing about the miasmatic wound now, maybe we could either camp here tonight (unless it's too risky, maybe other time; do bear in mind the thing about alcazar and masterminds), or schedule some other day in the next future, to sleep here or trying to do it awake. More info is needed about it, though... we just learned about those things recently (three nights ago _ My Supposititious Patricide chapter).
If everything looks okay, we could go down to the basement, to try and retrieve the flashlight and its battery (if they still work). ONLY if it's okay; if there's still danger (centipedes, increase in phantons or some such), then forget it.
*Sips caffienated energy drink, specifically a Bob Ross Positive Energy Drink (yes it is a real thing yes I have one)*
*Sends positivity AND energy to Plaire*
Good job punkin <3
Vibes Work! Good to know. Use that calm when dealing with the wound To deal with it. Inform all how the tinfoil hats work/don't work.
The Now: Story time! Patch up leg (wood splint+duct tape if sprained), check if any other injuries in the group, inform all of what you saw and what it means
The Soon: investigate wall, close that f-ing thing. discuss how to best go about it, may be some clues to do so where ghost went
if Able:dig up dirt on cops in here for more 'i'm on your side' tactics for Lex.
+1 to trying to identify the cops from the vision.
Here's some data on the other two:
One cop was a custom; bigger than the Animal Control girls. Shoulders so wide he needs double-doors to clear fully front-facing. In the tallest tier of characters in this comic so far. Short brown hair. If the scene was five years ago (since that's when the library shut down), he may already be dead (MPLE). Wears shades, of the style Johnson wears.
The other cop was older; gray haired, with a buzz cut. Medium-tall, medium-light build. Over his uniform, he wore a long coat (still with police insignia). His shades had heavier frames and temple pieces; they may be vision-corrective as well as being asshole-cop-shades.
Heyyyyy... aren't there two troublemakers thereabouts in Ninelives who fit those builds-ish? The wolfman and something-or-other? What are the chances that these are those two, posing as cops? Or maybe actually *being* cops?
It looks like that Wound directly caused Lex to be so confrontational, and possibly led to (or sped up) the haunting of the library. We should probably prioritize closing them up in the future, it might make it easier to reverse it’s effects.
Speaking of, being able to vibe off the effects of the Miasmatic Wounds is huge. That’s why Plaire and Marlow were able to get going so quickly after we encountered that first Wound. This will definitely come in handy in the future, and also means we can potentially use positive vibes in the dream to help people there. It probably won’t help Vainglory on its own, but positive vibes might be able to help the Trades Man.
Before we leave the library, and hopefully after we deal the Miasmatic rift, we should announce at the suspicious wall that Lex could come haunt Nat's (Plaire's) house so Lex doesn't have to be alone.
Jazz hands for the win! Yay!
(I was mostly joking about the hug it out solution. We'll done making it happen. I hadn't expected us to have this direct an effect on the story from here in the bleachers.)
Suggested order of actions:
1) regroup and recoup. I don't see things re-escalating in the short term. Of course, there could be other defense that have been activated, but Lex-Toad feels like she was the major guardian.
2) Swap stories and gather some basic history.
3) Examine wound, plot treatment.
4) Treat wound.
5) Explore the librarian's quarters. I'm saving this for last because the wound could be agitating Lex. Fixing it might help Plaire talk to her. Or, this might be some sort of reverse demonshell and closing the wound removes Lex's presence. There are risk.
--Plaire should go in alone, or with one person tops. We don't want Lex to feel too cornered.
The Police made Lex snap. Maybe ghost Lex could take revenge by helping us break Franklin out of the police station. Franklin was also friends with Nat so that's another reason for Lex to help:
Lex at Nat: "You've been hanging out with Franklin too much." http://mda.wtf/comics/208/
EDIT: Also, if Vainglory is what's left of Nat, bringing ghost Lex into the Alcazar may be one way to get Vainglory to stop shooting Plaire. The other may be to tell Vainglory Plaire sealed a Miasmatic Wound. The other may be MAYBE to Vibe Vainglory just like we did to Ghost Lex, if Vainglory is so bitter that the Choir isn't around.
So yeah before leaving the library Plaire should both suggest Lex move in with her and also help break Franklin out and meet Vainglory.
That went a lot better than expected. If there aren't major obstacles forthcoming, it may be possible to stabilize the library.
If so, I would be not surprised at all if Cici volunteered to squat in it. Cici wanted to bring more people into dreams to increase EXP gain. She's got a truck. There's a possibility that this alcazar could connect to Casa de la Salamandra's alcazar, thereby providing direct support in the God Gore problem (to say nothing of the discoveries this one could yield itself).
Now, it's obvious that Cici squatting isn't going to give her legal ownership of the library, but an alcazar doesn't seem like the type of thing to really care. Replace the locks and sleep there regularly, and it'll likely accept it.
+1 somebody needs to figure out the Old Library's magic, maybe by living there, but I'm worried the snow might make the roads to the Old Library difficult. Otherwise, I'm not sure if the Old Library still has power, water, and internet.
Please bear in mind that, if we go that route (staying the night at the library), it means that we're probably going to be Lex's accomplices. And this is the best case scenario... no word on when the mastermind is a ghost.
Oh, and having no power and/thus internet will drive Plaire real mad, I imagine.
What about wrapping turning on the power to the old library into the coming police heist, since we're going to be turning off power (thus at the power station) anyway?
Hmm. Small rant time. No real impact on current matters, just some random shower thoughts.
From what we've seen so far, I get the feeling Plaire is quite special in terms of individual talent. When compared with our adorable Blondie, who mostly took useful cues and bits of advice from her Choir, there's been a much deeper sense of awareness and interaction since we started following Plaire. For one, she's explicitely acknowledged our existence; she gets psychic nosebleeds when she taps too much into whatever links us together, which indicates some sort of (possibly dangerous) ESP. But she does all that without visible magic or any sort of ritual - it feels intrinsic to her self.
Combine that with how we almost could alter the global noosphere when we attempted to summon an item in the Alcazar; how she gets her accomplices' powers in such an unrestricted fashion (as if she only has the choice between 'open' and 'close' while channeling them); how she can actually access our previous owner's memories that even we forgot; how she just transferred our calming vibes over to a ghost with a touch...
I think she's a living conduit. Or medium, or whatever word you think is best to describe it.
I don't know how it relates to her arcana - it could be either cause or consequence of being the Fool. We'd have to meet another to know, or maybe our friendly tradesdude can shed some light on that.
I don't know why either. Could be purely biologic, since mutants can do some crazy stuff. Could be eldritch, if her meridians are resonating on the right frequencies. Could be a mix of both. But essentially, she allows interactions between things that would never have been able to.
The whole bringing vidya powers into the Alcazar could even be entirely due to that.
It goes together with why Hunger hates her so much - Plaire's biggest strength lies in using what she can attune from her surroundings. In Hunger's view, this goes entirely against her notion of self-accomplishment. She probably will never budge from that point, and if Plaire ever tries to use her in such a way I fear Hunger would blow up in the most dangerous fashion (probably not a good thing to try...).
Her nature is probably the reason why we 'woke up' when she entered the house. Something destroyed our link to our previous carrier, but Plaire 'caught' us, like an antenna brings traveling EM radiation into a circuit. Someone might have planned to disable the Choir for much longer, but she just kicked that plan right out the window without even meaning to.
Anyway, that's about it for now. Maybe that'll end up relevant if she ever has to do some sort of introspective delving, who knows.
It almost sounds like they closed the library just to get at Lex and her sister. Either that or, considering how there's a miasmic wound here and all.... maybe that's what they were trying to do in the first place. Make the wound. To crack open a way to the god corpse.
Updates are probably slowing down for a bit, some big ice shit is happening IRL with everything that entails (atmospheric pressure induced migraines! Anxiety from driving on ice! Anxiety from burning through more gas when money is already tight! All this and so much more)
Honestly I like slightly slower updates because it gives me a chance to think and go back over everyone's comments but do whatever you are most comfortable with!
I had another idea today. Back when meeting Vainglory, she identified Marlow as a Moon Arcana. Yet, it was revealed that he didn't reveal it to her.
The theories I remember at the time were (paraphrasing from memory), "The Arcana each possess unique characteristics that a well-studied character can easily identify," and "She was friends with Marlow to the point that she saw his Accomplice form, but he's completely forgotten her (as well as his other involvement in the adventure)."
But, what if she has a power that lets her see that? Like, she gets to query targets at a distance, and in one of her menus, she gets to review data on those targets; or she gets something like the UI of the Fallout games, where she can pause and view target stats and choose where to try to shoot them?
Somebody else might have thought of this first. But I don't—at this moment—remember any mention of it before.
I have a last, probably useless suggestion: seeing as we're still in the old library, I'd suggest for Plaire to look for the books she first found in the dungeon, right in her starting cell (page 5, be sure to check "bookshelf").
It may not yield anything important, but we never know. They were "chosen" by the alcazar for a reason.
By the way, is it just me, or is the MDA site a bit slow these days? I've been experiencing a longer time to load on the browser. Not any other problem, just takes a lot to load (including reply box and when I successfully send a comment/reply).
"Kate!," you shout over the melee. "Do we have any of the weird level left?"
"We gave it all to Lagi!," she shouts back. "I have regular level?"
"...Fuck it, sure!"
You don't even need to explain the plan--either Kate intuitively picked up on what you're suggesting, or she was already thinking it herself. The ghost slips past Bebe and Cici once more... only to be met with a faceful of level smoke from Kate.
The ghost
slows down. A little. Pauses.
Maybe it's smoke in general. You don't fucking know.
You don't care.
You have eye contact.
You step forward. No matter how dumb it sounds. No matter how ridiculous it is to give these instructions to a ghost. No matter how afraid you are of fucking this up.
"Breathe," you tell her. "We're not here to hurt you. We're here to help. You're having an attack, or an episode, or... something, but you're not--"
The attention doesn't last long. Lex makes a break for it, with Bebe and Cici lunging to keep some semblance of a hold on her and Kate trying to rapidly exhale more level at her and you don't know how to CALM A GHOST DOWN, YOU CAN BARELY CALM YOURSELF DOWN? YOU'RE NOT EXACTLY HANDLING YOUR OWN MENTAL ISSUES WITH GRACE AND DIGNITY, HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO--
"It'll pass."
The ghost
stops.
Turns back.
Stares at you, her eyes somehow managing to widen further.
"It'll pass," you repeat more confidently. "You'll get through this. It's gonna happen and then it'll be over with. You're gonna be alright."
Everyone else is fucking silent. Everyone is still.
You take another step forward. "It'll pass," you begin again. You can already see the last vestiges of Lex slipping back beneath the mania, the twitch in her eye and the scream in her throat struggling to regain control. "You'll get through this." It's not enough. You can't just talk down a ghost, no matter how many supernatural sister memories you possess.
Maybe that's it, though.
Maybe supernatural problems need supernatural solutions.
You reach down. Deep.
Deep into yourself.
Your whole self. Plaire Stevens. The Choir. Whatever's left of Lex's sister in there.
They've offered you good vibes before, and admittedly, the sentiment does make you feel better--but you generally assume that's because having someone wish you well feels good but is still like, normal human brain shit.
This time you accept. You attempt to receive.
You attempt to channel.
Peace.
Calm.
Lex is about to gun it.
Focus.
Vibe.
You take a deep breath.
You take a step forward.
oh
You quickly realize the major flaw in this plan.
The Choir is... big. You barely comprehend it as being more than a single entity in your head but there's actually a lot of different voices in there. ...And you're still only using the word voice for lack of a better one, you can't hear them but it's nonetheless clear there's a wide assortment of Choirlings (?) BUT THE POINT IS
You are rapidly approaching a state of mind in which you are roughly fifteen people worth of relaxed.
Which is to say, you are quickly passing the fuck out.
But also, for how easily you invoked the vibes you cannot seem to project, the vibes
like
hands out
wavy motion
good vibes go
please
leave
leave th e brain plz
get out haha
need to
not sleep
right now
buuut waaant?
She begins to turn.
To run.
You reach.
You reach out.
You touch-a the faaace
face sandwich
witchwich
HOHSHIT
What they're saying is ridiculous
irrational
illegal.
She doesn't even dispute it.
She just has questions.
Like, why?
If the library's being shut down, is she out of a job?
She lives here, her dad helped build this place, how is that going to work...?
They don't answer her questions, though.
They just keep repeating themselves.
Talking over her.
Treating it lightly. Laughing.
Growing louder as she asks more insistently.
Cutting her off.
Acting like she's arguing when she just has questions.
Repeating themselves.
Antagonizing her.
Alluding to her "psychopath of a sister"
She asks them to leave.
They don't.
They press harder.
They want to see it.
If she'll snap, like Natalie does.
Like her mom used to.
She tries to be polite.
They get impatient.
They try harder.
Allusions.
Insinuations.
They want to see it.
She just has questions.
She just has questions.
She just
snaps.
The spirit vanishes into the suspicious wall.
. . .
"What did y'all DO?!," an exhausted Marlow suddenly yells from the first floor.
Bebe is the first to shout back. "Plaire just did an exorcism!"
"That," you begin to clarify, "is uhhh... it's... probably not what just happened."
Kate takes a long drag of her level.
"I don't wanna pry," Cici chimes in, "but what the heck DID happen?!"
"I--"
oh god you are on the shaky legs
"Scientifically speaking--"
. . .
"I... I think I vibed all the bad out."
. . .
"And then got hit with the splash."
. . .
"Works for me!," Cici says.
Kate withdraws the level from her mouth. "Are you pine, my dude? You sound, uh, off."
"I'm... wood," you force out. "I went from normal to... tired to... ghost show. And back. Really fast. I... just..."
you have yourself a little sit and everyone joins you
even Marlow, once he gets up the stairs
after several minutes of silence, you announce "Also there's a miasmatic wound in the library," earning two "WHAT"s, one "a what?" and one tired, drawn out "nooo" from your companions