Deirdre laughs at her lover's antics, thinking them cute. She nods and jingles her keys. "Sure thing, Let's go!"
Eva pauses. "I believe they contained lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin and methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Known effects of these chemical on biological systems include sensory hallucinations amongst other side effects. Do you think my experiences may have resulted from 'Special Gummies'?"
There's a mid-sized mall near Summerwood's campus, complete with a good variety of stores, an arcade, and a food court. The two of you happen to notice Cal leaving a tacky gift shop as you enter. He's holding a shopping bag.
Xavier is silent for a moment. Then...
"The stairs. In the foyer. I... I fell."
"I think that's almost certainly what happened, Eva. Demons, ghosts, fairies... none of those things are real. You know that, right?" Beacon nods to you. "It's good that you're making friends and trying new things. I'm sure a lot of it is overwhelming. I just really want you to make sure you're thinking critically."
"I won't bore you with the details; it's all a bit metaphysical. Remember when I told you that when I help you learn a secret, it comes with a price? All you're really doing is lending me a tiny bit of yourself. Parts you don't even truly need, really. Think of it as like donating blood. It's like that with this particular deal, only you'll be giving me a bit more than usual. I have to warn you, some of my clients experience a bit of... discomfort at this particular stage. But I can quite easily make that discomfort go away. I'll just need you to do a few things for me. Just some minor favors. Nothing you can't handle, I assure you.
"So." Malphas licks his lips hungrily. "Do we have a deal?"
"No, they bought the place... I guess I don't know when, exactly. My family lived there before then. I just..." Xavier looks away. The walls of the room seem to vibrate for a moment. "It was an accident. I fell."
Malphas grins and takes your hand. In an instant, you feel strong, hardened, practically untouchable—but you also feel hollow, hungry. There's an emptiness inside you that desperately needs to be filled, and you can somehow instinctively know that only Malphas can make the emptiness go away.
"So." Malphas folds his hands together. "There is something I'd like for you to do for me, if you'd be so kind.
"Your friends have recently become acquainted with an entity known as Xavier. He interests me. I would like for you to help him confront the truth about how he died." He gives you a meaningful look. "How he really died."
Ugh
She did not want to deal with Cal right now. He probably wouldn't be asking about what she owed him (again) yet, but she wanted to stay as far away from debts and what was owed as possible.
Sensing Hayden's reluctance, Deirdre sticks close to her side as they try to dodge Cal--to no avail...
“You’re a resourceful person. Consider this a challenge of sorts. I have every expectation you’ll succeed.” Malphas stands up. “But if you truly need assistance, remember... I’m always here to help.”
He snaps his fingers, and you awaken. (It is still nighttime.)
Xavier seems about to say something in protest, then falls silent and simply nods appreciatively.
“What about you? What can you tell me about yourself?”
Cal locks eyes with the two of you and rubs his neck, looking embarrassed. He doesn’t seem especially excited to see you himself, but comes over anyway.
“Uh, hey there. Funny running into you two.” He nods inquisitively. “Had a good time last night, I hope.”
"Out of this world Cal; you're an artiste. I'm sure there'll be awkward texts and explanations happening for weeks to come due to your handiwork. Possibly a couple 'the veil of reality has been peeled back, the ground is shaking' revelations as well." Her hand trailed up Deirdre's back, "Right Dee?"
It wasn't necessarily the best idea, but Hayden couldn't help but peek down his shopping bag while they talked...
"Oh yes, worlds were definitely rocked last night," Deirdre giggles, leaning into Hayden's touch.
Xavier sheepishly motions to the shelves, which include the same mix of occult paraphernalia you saw in the real world version of the room. "I actually used to mess with some of that stuff when I was alive. Never banished any demons or anything, just... little things." He seems to catch himself and looks away again.
Cal raises his eyebrows at the two of you and smirks. "Thought so." Noticing Hayden peeking into his bag, he reaches in and pulls out a snowglobe with a pirate ship inside. "For my kid sister. She's coming back from Peru in a couple days. I told her I'd get her a nice 'welcome home' present. Cute, right?"
That doesn't seem like a nice present. Maybe I'm wrong though.
"It's a little 'chocolate in my peanut butter' with the Caribbean blizzard. Does she really like pirates or something?"
The hairs on the back of Deirdre's neck stand up as she looks at the snow globe. For some reason, she gets a weird hunch that everything here might not be as it appears. She stares at the patterns of the swirling flakes of fake snow as if the snow globe were a crystal ball that could show her visions...
Xavier shrugs. "Some stuff I found in books. Fortune telling, ESP, that sorta thing. I made a pencil move a little bit one time. There was a bully at school I tried putting a hex on but I think it just gave him a cold." He pauses. "I don't know if that stuff would still work for me... now."
The spells in the book mainly concern the summoning, binding, and banishment of demons (which appear to be categorically distinct from ghosts). You do, however, recall the entry for Ifrits, which are described as fiery demons associated with the Circle of Chaos. They tend to consort with spirits of the dead, particularly those who have been murdered, often seeking revenge on the spirit's behalf. It's possible you could summon and bind one in an attempt to learn more.
Deirdre: The snowglobe seems like just an ordinary knick-knack, but as you stare into it, you also get the unsettling feeling that it's significant in some way... and, weirdly, that Hayden has some sort of connection to it.
"She collects 'em. Snowglobes, not pirates. I never really-" Cal shifts the bauble from one hand to another, but it slips clumsily out of his grasp and tumbles to the ground, shattering. "Sh*t!" Cal jumps back with a look of dismay at the puddle of water and glass. "Ah, f*ck." A few of the other shoppers turn and look at the scene.
Hayden's lips peeled back from her teeth in something smile-adjacent That was never going to be the nice present he promised anyways.
"Tsk. Hope you had a second idea for a gift. I feel like most snowglobe collectors want globes of things they care about, or at least places they've been. She does still collect them, right? Nothing I hated more growing up than a gift I'd outgrown years ago. How old is... What was her name again?"
"Oh, no!" Deirdre gasps as the snow globe shatters on the ground. She's not sure what connection it has to Hayden, but she looks at her lover and doesn't notice a reaction from her. She frowns and bites her lip, looking sadly at the broken glass.
Gavin tentatively stands up from his throne and levitates a little off of the floor. "Whoa. This is weird." He considers you thoughtfully. "Huh. So. What kind of fun can I have with you in here?"
Xavier seems lost in thought for a moment, then smiles. "Yeah. Yeah, maybe I'll try that." He shifts awkwardly. "Well, maybe I should let you... sleep? I mean, I guess you'll be doing that anyway, but... I don't want to wear out my welcome or anything."
Cal glares at Hayden, annoyed. "Charlotte, and she's 20... and it's none of your f*ckin' business, actually!" Grumbling, Cal storms away towards the exit of the mall, leaving behind the broken snowglobe mess. The onlookers watch him apprehensively as he leaves.
Eva nods. "I understand that demons, ghosts and fairies are not generally considered to be real." she replies, "I do not feel overwhelmed though. I am doing my best to think critically but if you think I am being too open-minded I will endeavour to correct this."
"Ass."
Hayden looked speculatively after Cal as he left. "I bet he'd really hate it if I got Charlotte a gift she really wanted. Especially if he's just giving up and breaking his promise." Just like she hadn't quite smiled at Cal earlier, the light in her eyes wasn't quite playful. "Let's do it.
"Oh? Um, okay," Deirdre says, not quite getting Hayden's joke. She looks back down at the broken snow globe. "Do you think we could try to salvage that? Maybe we could somehow put it back together."
Hayden made a face, "Why would we put it back together? It's a cheapo tacky gift from a store twenty feet away that Char hasn't even been disappointed by yet. I'm sure we could get them to just give us a replacement, but let's get her a gift she'd want."
Deirdre shrugs. If Hayden doesn't seem to think the snow globe was important, perhaps she was mistaken before. "Alright, let's find her something good then!"
"Great. Come over here for a sec." Despite dismissing the snowglobe as unimportant, she picks up a largish piece of its broken glass before leading Deirdre over to a bench.
"Hold this. But careful, it's not as friendly as my knife." Hayden stood behind Deirdre, lightly stroking up her arm. "You sit there and think Char thoughts. Why'd you go to Peru? Beaches? Machu Picchu? The jungle?" It didn't take long to find the public shots on Charlotte's insta and she started slowly going through them with Deirdre's help. "Okay Char, focus on all of them and none of them. Which ones are your favorite? Which ones did you put up just so some cute thing would notice? What would welcome you home like a grown-up and not like some gawky preteen on a class trip?
Tell me about you, Char."
Deirdre closes her eyes and tries to do as Hayden asks.
Browsing Charlotte’s social media, it looks as though she’s actually in Peru doing volunteer work with some sort of church group; you get the impression that she’s generally more straight-laced than her brother (though not necessarily super-religious).
Deirdre: Nothing really speaks to you in the way that Hayden is suggesting. Charlotte seems... normal? You can’t really tell much about her just from these photos.
Hayden: Using the glass shard as a sort of talisman, your fey senses tell you that Charlotte does appear to have some sort of affinity with snowglobes, but the exact context is murky and unclear. You get a flash of images: a playground somewhere with a jungle gym modeled after a ship, someone whispering stories beneath a blanket tent lit by a flashlight, glass shattering angrily against a wall, a middle aged woman sadly packing a suitcase, loneliness, a warm hug, a promise of safety.
Xavier nods and smiles. “Me neither. I hope we can talk like this again soon, Ashton. Good night.”
With that, Xavier and the room fade away into a blank void. You feel like you could wake up if you chose to, or you could simply drift back into a normal non-lucid sleep state.
Beacon nods encouragingly. “Yes, Eva. I think that would be best.” She folds her hands in her lap. “Is there anything else you feel like sharing? Do you have any questions for me?”
Deirdre opens her eyes. "I got nothing. Sorry, hon."
Ashton: JJ is awake when you wake up, flipping through the book and writing things down. You can pretend to be asleep until he goes to sleep himself, and there's a wooded area you can sneak off to without much difficulty.
Ashton: You do so.
Saturday comes and goes. Hayden and Deirdre visit the mall, and JJ presumably spends a good portion of the day collecting the materials he would need for the Ifrit summoning and binding rituals. Otherwise, you spend Saturday doing whatever would be natural for your character to do.
Hayden: If you do a bit more digging on Charlotte's social media, you discover that she's expected to arrive home from Peru on Tuesday of this week. It seems she lives alone in an apartment not far from campus.
Deirdre: Xavier has been a bit more chatty if you take some time to talk to him using the spirit board. He's similarly cagey about his death as he was with Ashton in the dream; he simply says that he fell down the stairs. He does mention that he's learned how to enter people's dreams and talk to them there, and would be interested in trying it with members of the group sometime.
Ashton: While you were roaming through the woods on Friday night, you thought you may have seen a cloaked figure step behind a tree and disappear. Maybe it was just your imagination? Your dreams on Saturday night are perfectly normal.
JJ: There's one recommended material component for the binding ritual that you won't be able to find in any stores: "a tear from a vengeful lover." You might be able to perform the binding ritual just fine without it, but it could be a bit more risky.
Fahed: You've touched base with Gavin and he seems to believe that your shared dream state was just an odd lucid dream of his that an image of you happened to appear in (unless you tell him otherwise). He's expressed an interest in seeing you again sometime.
Eva: Browsing randomly through social media, you happen to come across one of Sam's accounts and discover that he lives in the same dorm as most of you (Fitzhugh Hall), on one of the other floors.
It is now Sunday. Most of you have a Biology quiz coming up on Monday, so it would make sense if you wanted to set up one more study session before then.
Oh, okay. I'll just break into her place to snoop around sometime after our study sesh...
Deirdre chats with Xavier when she can, still interested in trying to help the ghost. On Sunday morning, she texts all the members of the study group, inviting them to gather that afternoon to prepare for the Biology quiz. She also invites Eva and Fahed if they want to hang out, too.