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 Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 10:51 am
Something quick and easy... "Scambled eggs?" Maia suggested. Dari was so happy! She'd never seen him so eager to eat. The marshmallow cake idea had been brilliant.
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:18 am
Training always felt like it took forever. Maia did well, though. There were the usual hiccups and blows to ego, but in the end she was approved for apprentice work along with her more advanced training.
"Alright. So you'll be shadowing me, Dari, and mostly Michael," Toby said, "It's not a fae case. It's a complimentary investigation on behalf of the bureau's paranormal team for a private party. Of course they don't know we're the Bureau, but who does? Anyway. We'll be going in for two investigations of 24 hours each while the house it otherwise empty, and Michael will be working as ambassador. Hopefully there'll actually be something there to interact with. These ambassadorial trips don't come along too often, and they want you in before the next trip to Breyer." He gave her a grin. He knew she wanted to see Breyer forest.
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:32 am
Oh...dear. If it'd been earlier in the time she'd been at HQ, Maia would have reacted negatively. Working with Michael meant they'd probably be dealing with ghosts. Instead she simply nodded. "Right." So they were working for humans to get rid of ghosts? Communicate with ghosts? Wasn't that a tv show?
At the mention of Breyer though, she brightened. "Really?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:39 am
Toby smiled. "Don't worry. Things like this tend to just get creepy and peter out, and that's if there actually is something. No inverted crosses, no possessions, none of that Hollywood crap. Or the s**t on TV either." He shook his head at the shameful state of public paranormal opinion. He paused then, a finger up.
"I lied. One possession. But a safe one. More of a... possession-carry."
Dari gave a breathy laugh through his nose and smiled. "Come on. We'd better get Michael before the van gets here."
Toby nodded, then looked around the room. "Ya here, buddy?"
A pause. Nothing.
"Guess not. Let's go check his room." So off they wing to ring the bell that would tell the ghost someone was waiting for him. He had been in the agent orientation, contrary to the belief of some of the humans who couldn't see him. The violently shaking table gave them what-for though.
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:49 am
A possession? Maia was alarmed. Wilful though? That sounded...mostly harmless. She followed Toby to Michael's room. "So it's not the creepy sort?" she asked. She rung the bell. "Michael, are you ready to go?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:02 pm
"That all depends on how much Michael enjoys bugging you. Or me," Toby said. He rang the bell and in moments a mist began to form. It took no shape, but it was massive.
"Hey, Michael. Are you ready to go? The van should be here any moment."
"It's actually here," Dari said, looking up from his cellphone. He was using his projector and paint both today. It made his eyes look more normal under the shadow of a cap but prevented him from glowing.
The mist began to lower and Toby let out all of the breath in his lungs and inhaled deeply. The mist rushed in and in... a pause while Toby exhaled, then a second draught of air. A small amount of mist remained, but it dissipated. Two gasps was usually enough for a full entity.
"Alrighty then," Toby said, sounding for a moment like he was trying to hold in the smoke after a draw from a joint. He exhaled then and no mist escaped. "Ready to go?" Toby lifted a thumbs-up, then looked toward it and laughed. It hadn't been him who did that.
"Alright, let's go." So it was out front, off to the nondescript van in their street clothes.
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:09 pm
It took all of Maia's willpower not to freak out. Okay. A ghost had possessed her boyfriend. Not just any ghost, though, it was Michael. And he wasn't that bad, really. He was nicer than the average ghost, as far as she'd heard.
She did reach for Dari's hand instead of Toby's, though.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:10 am
Toby laughed slightly at the little snub and still led the group down the halls and out to the van parked in the orchard's lot. He hopped into the driver's seat and began working on setting the GPS. Dari slid into one of the back two seats with Maia. behind them was a slew of electronic equipment to be used in the investigation, some of it honest and some of it just meant to generate enough power for Michael to take and remain at least partially or wholly solid throughout. Just in case the family had surveillance already set up themselves, Michael had to pass for another human being.
As the van began rolling out, Toby began giving Maia a briefing on their backstory.
"Alright. So we've been paranormal investigators for nearly a decade. Real legit stuff, no making up evidence for hopefuls. Everyone's got the same names, you're my girlfriend, easy enough. You and Michael are the investigators, Dari is the tech guy, and I'm the obligatory leadership character. This house supposedly has a lot of poltergeist activity and no teenagers to speak of, so we're setting the family up in a hotel for the night, and if we find nothing conclusive we do it again for the following day, alright?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:17 am
So no aliases, that'd make things easier. Pulling off being an investigator though, she'd try her best. Poltergeists weren't particularly friendly ghosts... Weren't they the ones that pranked people?
"Alright," she said.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:06 am
Maia was taking this all very well, Toby thought. She had been terrified of Michael at first meeting just on principle, and now they were going to meet some other strange force. Possibly, anyway. Dari was good at checking beams, tilt, pipes and the like. They wanted to help the family find the truth as much as they wanted information for themselves.
They reached the home quite a while later. It was an older building in a less populated area of a small town. They parked and got out and a distraught-looking 30-something came out to greet them.
"Hi," she said.
Toby gave her a winning smile and offered his hand. "Hi! Are you Deborah?"
"Yes, that's me." Her smile was fleeting.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yeah! Yeah, we just had an incident actually."
"Oh, alright. Would you mind taking us through it? I'm Toby, by the way, and this is Maia and Dari. We have another associate, Michael, who'll be arriving later."
"Sure. Sure, come on it."
The incident would have been easy to fake. A table with 6 old wooden chairs had had the two on opposite sides stacked atop each other, but the chairs at the head of the table remained just where they were.
"Huh," Toby said. "Did you see it happen?"
Deborah shook her head. "We almost never do."
"Almost never?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:18 am
No teenagers, huh? This looked like an easy prank to pull. Maia studied the table and chairs, then looked at Deborah. Was the woman a very good actress? She seemed genuine, maybe it was someone pranking her?
"So you've seen it happen before?" she asked. "Can you give us examples? So we know what to look for."
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:35 am
Deborah went on to explain the sliding glassware, opening cabinets, broken dishes, stacked chairs, swinging doors and noises they had experienced in their time in this house all while giving a but of a tour of events. They had just moved in last year, they said, but activity didn't start until two months ago. The only trouble bit was that they had a baby, and twice they had found him outside his crib on the floor. It was troubling because the child was only three months old and entirely unable to climb out himself. That'd be a hard one to crack. Had they set up cameras? Yes, but they always drained of battery too quickly.
Well then.
"Alright, well. I think that's enough to get started on. Do you need a ride to the hotel?" Toby asked.
"Oh, no. Thank you. My husband's going to drive."
"Alright, perfect." Then Toby went into a simplified schpeal of what they were going to set up and do while the family was gone, and how it could take a few days to get video and audio evidence back to them, or not.
"I sincerely hope it's just some prank," Deborah said, but how could it be? That was why the Bureau had gotten involved.
Within an hour the group was setting up cameras and generators and suiting up with voice recorders and camcorders for the investigation. It was not yet dark, but Toby found hat really didn't matter. Ghosts coming out at night was just an old wives' tale. People were vulnerable and more easily frightened at night and might wave off events during the day. Besides, if they had just had their chairs stacked clearly the spirit had no problem working in the daylight, if there was one.
"Alright, so we don't go in guns blazing," Toby said, "We'll sit around a while, record some thing. I mean, imagine someone bursts into the place you're staying at, immediately asks your favorite position in bed, all of your personal information, and when you last had a bowel movement. You'd be put-off, right? And then they start trying to instigate you into coming out or washing some dishes. If you knew they couldn't see you, you'd probably just sit idly and wait for them to go away."
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:47 am
Maia nodded. Well, she didn't imagine a ghost would be bothered by guns, already being dead--was that insensitive? She'd thought it sounded like a prank, but a three month old baby being involved? She was concerned.
She looked around. "So we wait," she said. "Maybe something will happen."
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:53 am
Toby nodded and plopped down on the couch. In reality they didn't need voice recorders except to back up a claim that Dari had heard something unusual. He waited a while and then went outside, and when he came back there was another man in tow with curly blonde hair and, oddly enough, a t-shirt and jeans. Michael.
"There's something here," he said.
"For sure?"
"For sure."
"Not someone?"
"I don't think so."
That was never good. Michael was a good example of the rare "someone" where he had his own personality and conscious thoughts. "Somethings" tended to have lost their marbles somewhere down the line or didn't seem to be people at all, even if people-shaped. That was the majority of cases.
"Do you want me to do a walk-around?" Michael asked.
Toby nodded. "Go ahead."
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 12:00 pm
Maia had thought once they'd gotten confirmation that there was in fact, something here, the fear that she'd harbored upon meeting Michael would surface. Nope. Instead, she was further concerned for the safety of the family, especially their little one.
She settled onto the couch, watching Michael. Oh, he could blend in. That was clever!
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