Scops and friends explore a haunted house
[I’m doing ficlet/headcanon prompts to celebrate 500 followers!]
Okay, no the best part of this? is that everyone has a difference stance on haunted houses and the whole prospect of ghosts in the first place.
Scops is from Ath Skel, which has a million and one legends about ghosts. And, like? Scops had been to some of the haunted caves/lakes/glades/valleys. (Okay, been near them, they’re not a complete idiot.)
Regardless.
You do not mess with ghosts. Especially not when there’s a chance they might literally have a symbiotic connection to the rain forest so they can kill you with anything and everything organic.
The Ine’roi also have ghost stories, but they’re more like moral instructions and involve benevolent spirits as often as not. So Remora believes in and respects ghosts, but isn’t especially scared of them.
(She honestly finds Scops’s blinding terror kind of hilarious.)
Tarin has been all over the world, and sure every now and then a Thane will get lost between gates, and some people say they still exist out there, just without a physical body, but they can’t do anything, relax people, what, so something invisible might be watching you right now. So they might whisper in your ear. So there’s a sliiiight chance one of them can harness latent magical energies to fling some things around.
Pfffft.
What’s the big deal, Scops?
Zaria doesn’t believe in ghosts. She’s a full-on debunker. (And I mean, to be fair, there are no fewer than 10 major magic systems in this world, so there are very few things that can’t be faked by the right person or team.)
So Zaria lost quite a bit of respect for Scops when she realized they have such an irrational fear.
(And I always thought you were stupidly brave. Turns out you’re just stupid.)
Also, these four don’t really go anywhere as a team without a goal. Not somewhere like a haunted house, anyway. They all have different tastes in entertainment, so, sure, Scops and Tarin might go ghost hunting because they’re bored, but Remora is too practical for that and Zaria wouldn’t stoop to that level without good reason.
Which means something interesting is happening somewhere that just so happens to be haunted.
Or, even better, they’re planning to fake a haunting in order to scare and/or humiliate a superstitious politician who’s trying to, I don’t know, cover up a murder he had a hand in.
And it makes sense to choose the murder location for their con, since it’s already rumored to be haunted, but they can’t just cross their fingers and hope the ghosts are (1) real and (2) present, and (3) interested in spooking this politician.
Tarin insists the best plan is to contact the ghosts and ask for help.
Zaria will walk out on this job right now if you ask her to join a seance, Tarin, so help her gods...
Remora plans the mission, as usual, and doesn’t incorporate any spirits into the con. In fact, she’s bending all her magic toward actively suppressing any manifestations that might throw them off.
(In retrospect, she might have told Scops and Tarin this, because Tarin spent the whole night riling up the spirits, which scared the shit out of Scops. Zaria couldn’t figure out why he was glued to her side for most of the job.)
And this job went flawlessly for about three-quarters of the evening. The politician got there with his friends and the press, he totally ate up everyone’s cover stories, he bought into the haunting and believed one hundred percent that the nosey reporter he had silenced has it in for him.
Then the real ghosts show up.
Tarin is thrilled for all of five seconds before she realizes that these ghosts are pissed, that they’re pissed at her specifically, and that Remora has a migraine from trying to counteract the paranormal activity and can’t string three words together, let alone perform an exorcism.
Meanwhile Scops is screaming like a little boy. He’s only outmatched by their mark, who is one good cold spot away from heart failure, so I mean. Good job, team. Mission accomplished?
No one’s reckless enough to stick around, not even Scops. Tarin opens a gate and Scops drags Remora through, but Zaria stays behind. (There’s quite a bit of shouting when Tarin comes through without her, but actually Zaria shoved Tarin through so she wouldn’t get hurt.)
To make matters worse, something’s stopping Tarin from opening a new gateway back into the house.
(”The ghosts, Tarin!” Scops wails. “You shouldn’t have screwed with the ghosts!”)
((It’s really Zaria, but she hasn’t told anyone what sort of magic she does, so they don’t realize it.))
Two hours later Tarin finally manages to open a gate and the three of them return to find Zaria enjoying a nice cup of tea in an armchair. Everything else in the house is just
Gone
You’ve got a single doorway, sans wall, an armchair, and a campfire with a tea kettle over it.
Zaria turns toward them, takes a sip, and smiles.
(No one ever gets a straight answer out of her about what happened, but she insists that no ghosts were involved.)
((No one believes her, despite her thoroughly debunking her own haunted house experience.))