Something else has come up

[Jack_Fisher]

Hi again. For those who missed my previous "adventure" (the one that left me with scars on my belly) I'm Jack Fisher and I'm part of a group that investigates the paranormal, one with connections to the agency (at least the Prof says we're connected) but we normally don't have much to do with it. I'm pretty sure the Prof files reports, but I basically use this place as a sounding board since most of the others in my area don't come here. Just in case they do, I use my own name and give nicknames everyone else (like I did with the Prof). I'm in my early 20s and while I'm doing okay now High School was hell for me.

Not because I had a learning disability, at least not a normal one. I'm off the top of the IQ test level smart, but I was never able to use that in school. I'd get tested for attitudes in this or that, which was pretty stressful, and when I get really stressed I get visions. Yup, a teenager with uncontrolled Clairvoyance and Precognition, which explains most the visions. I can also read objects, so sometimes I'd get flooded with the impressions of the last kid to take a test at that desk, but mostly it was visions that really, really distracted me. Some of them were of teenage girls changing for gym, which really distracted me since I was a teenage boy who was (and still am) into girls. Since I blew every test they gave me I came close to being labelled on the autism spectrum, but I was too talkative and social for that. Instead I was labelled as having lots of raw intelligence but either no aptitudes or I wouldn't apply myself. That I was untalented, had a problem attitude, or was bone lazy - and from then on the teachers treated me according that label.

I could mostly avoid the visions when I exhausted, so I went heavy into gymnastics. I became pretty good at it, but competitions were stressful, which meant visions, so I was one of the team members (there were a few of us) who were on the team as spares because we choked at competitions. I also got into Art, mostly because it wasn't math or one of the sciences. After working myself to near exhaust at gymnastics I could zone out painting or drawing. The only advanced placement classes I got into were the Art ones. And sometimes I had visions that made it into my art, which made it weird. That got me sent to the guidance counsellor so I went with the "I'm into weird art" vibe. I even started to paint in Black Sabbath and Dio lyrics, just to excuse the general weirdness of the art.

But high school ended, I went to the local college to study Art (technically Fine Arts), and hooked with the Prof. He's the assistant dean of the parapsychology department and he's put together a team to, well you all know what we do. He helped me learn how control and expand my powers. Apparently I'm a "Psychic Sensitive". Other people I've mentioned as being on the team are Flamer, Preppy, and Girl with a Spirit Guide. If you can't figure what two of them do then you're reading the wrong board. Preppy, well he does a few things, but mostly he's a waste of space with too much money that you can't depend on and doesn't even apologise after you almost died in a fight where he was a no show.

So other than the scars I'm basically recovered from my last series of adventures, including financially. For those who don't know, I'm basically a freelance artist. I run a booth at cons, farmer's markets, and any other place that's affordable to sell art. I sell original artwork, prints, do caricatures, and lately I've branched out into graphic novels. Well, just one. I finished it (story and art work) and put it on kickstarter and that's how I'm financially whole again after all those medical bills. Not that I made a lot of cash on that project - if you look at what I had left after printing, shipping, and Kickstarter and PayPal taking their cuts I didn't end up with minimum wage for all those hours I put in on it, but that's the art world for you. Anyway, when times were bad I started drawing porn under another name. Nothing really nasty, much of it to order, and it helped pay the bills. And yeah, jpgs of it spread over the net like any other porn. I'm not proud of that, but a guy's got to eat.

And to finish introducing myself, I'm a part time student at the local campus. Partly to improve my art, partly because it gives me an excuse to hang around the Prof's department, and (now) mostly because of the student health insurance I get through the student union. There was a time I didn't mention that last bit, but that was before I got those scars on my belly and my leg mashed up (it's healed now). I might or might not graduate, mostly because art lovers look for art they like and don't care about degrees, but going there helps keeps my life together.

Anyway, I'm producing art, getting prints printed, working the booths, sometimes paying my Cousin to help out (but I'm not hiring his sister again) and building my resources. As always I earn the most cash on weekends and as always the cases we investigate generally fall outside of normal working hours - when I'm trying to sell my art. Which is why my cousin is getting so much work selling art at my booth (and giving some of it away to cute girls who smile at him). But my online sales are okay and I'm producing a lot of my art during normal working hours... and some fairs are during those hours too - meaning I turn out countless caricatures for people. Drawing until my wrist hurts.

So, the reason I'm using this as a sounding board again is that something's come up that I can't really talk about with my team. At least not yet. It's a weird situation, but I'll try to make a long story short. So this guy who I'll call " Sugar Daddy" (the reason will be clear soon) hired me to paint a tasteful nude. I'm not sure about NSWF policies here, but here's a link to a classical painting that he wanted painted.
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/nud ... ikhov.html
The thing is, well, he wanted two of them done. One where the model was a woman in her mid to late 30s (I'll call her "Wife") and the other of a third year college student who I'll call "Sugar". Sugar is a fun loving girl who can't afford to go to college so Sugar made an arrangement with Sugar Daddy to pay for her rent and meal card, and sometimes little extras, and in exchange, well, you get the idea. No real emotions involved, but good times. She says she doesn't mind, that she likes the guy, and once she gets her degree she might head to Nevada where a certain profession is legal. Just long enough to build up a nest egg then she'll put her degree to use.

Yeah, I can't really pass judgement over her plan. I'm the guy who made pornographic art to pay the bills. And there's a big pay day involved - the guy's paying me descent money here. So I'm working on both paintings, having the models sit on alternating days (Sugar knows about Wife but I doubt Wife knows about Sugar). I'm almost finish both of them, but last night I dreamed a Vision. There was one of the paintings I was working on, covered with blood, while a thing was tearing Sugar Daddy apart. I didn't get a close view of the thing, but I know it wasn't human. Now when I woke up today I knew I should call the Prof first thing, but things aren't that simple.

Here's the problems I have. I've put a lot of time and energy into those paintings and I want to be paid for them. I know one of them gets splattered with blood, but not which one (too much blood - I only knew that it was one of them because it information in my Vision). That means I have to tell the Prof about Wife and Sugar - and I don't think I'll get paid if I pass on that information. Oh, and it gets better. I'm sure that a couple members of the team know Sugar from around campus and when we talk about the word will get around that she has a Sugar Daddy. That's going to upset some members of the team. The thing is that Vision was of the future and I really need to get paid for those paintings. I turned down other paying work to do them and even part time tuition costs $$$$. So I can't talk to the Prof until after I turn over the paintings and then my rep will take a hit as I blab client information.

And yes, I'm feeling guilty over this moral choice I'm making and now I'm using this place as a sounding board again.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So as I'm working out how to handle this, I thought I'd mention what I plan to tell the others about working with nude models - the truth. Yeah, the first time I worked with a nude female model I was reacting to being in the room with a nude girl, but I tried to push that aside to be able to paint. And yes, the stress meant that part of a vision went into the painting. And the second, third, etc times I painted nudes that's more or less what happened, but eventually I learned how to pigeonhole things so I could paint or draw a nude female without acting like a middle school student who's seen his first bra strap. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the female form - because I do - but while I'm painting I can shift my mind so that I'm looking at a nude female rather than a naked one. If that makes sense.

Anyway, Wife was nervous at first. She brought a friend alone. Well, she brought her usual babysitter, paying the teenager as if she was sitting for her kids. The teenager was more nervous than Wife, but keeping the babysitter calm focused Wife's attention on the girl and not the fact that I was painting her nude body. After the first couple of sessions Wife started coming by alone. I wondered why, then she made some off handed commits. About how I hadn't hit on the babysitter (that girl is still in high school and way too young for me) and how I had been a perfect gentleman... Yeah, it sunk in at that point she thought I was gay and I didn't disillusion her. I mean, that would just make her uncomfortable and no one wants that. Besides, she might get offended by how I didn't hit on her and cancel the painting.

Sugar, she was different. She tried to flirt with me, offering to do nasty things as she posed, but I let her know that I was all business. I think the line that shut her down was "He's paying me to paint you, not fuck you, and I need the cash"; mostly because she knew about needing the cash enough to do whatever it took to get it.

Only thing is, I'm sure that some members of the team won't accept this. Especially the ones who know Sugar. They will think that either I put the moves on both women or I wanted to, but I can't do that when I'm doing commissioned art. Now if I was paying the model, well, there are a lot of clichés about artists and their models and most of them have some truth to them. But since I work on and around the campus I follow certain parts of the student handbook like it was a bible. Informed consent isn't just for medical studies anymore. If some model started talking about me sleezing on her during a modelling session it wouldn't matter what the truth was - my name would be mud. I don't know any guys who have been falsely accused of something like that, but I do know a few guys (and a couple girls) who got caught pulling that shit. What happened to them wasn't pretty, even if they did deserve it.

So anyway, I'm working out how to describe having a nude model posing for me works. I know that Preppy will giggle and smirk, but that's him. Okay, Flamer might start asking how he could get nude girls to pose for him, but that's Flamer with his poor social skills being Flamer. I'm pretty sure that the Prof will understand, but beyond that it will be an uphill fight.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So the paintings are both finished. They're drying after the last touch up. Now's the time "have that Vision" about something supernatural ripping Sugar Daddy apart and getting blood on that painting.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So I talked with the Prof and most of the team. Preppy did snigger a lot, and people were shocked that Sugar is getting her rent paid by an older man. Girl with a Spirit Guide was really floored - she knows Sugar and thought that Sugar was just dating an older guy because of daddy issues. The Prof said to keep this to ourselves, but word's going to spread. The only thing slowing it down is the fact that the university is mostly shut down during the summer term. But the Prof kept everyone mostly in line and on topic.

There was an unexpected problem. We have a new recruit for the team, a girl who just graduated high school and is what the Prof calls "a diviner". Yeah, she's 18, bubbly, full of pep, over all a nice addition to the team but I would have preferred someone who can hit hard as opposed to someone who sees signs, portents, and uses a divining rod. She's the youngest team member by at least a year or two and we're all watching out for her. Even Flamer is toning down his off colour jokes around her.

So the new girl (who I'll call Diviner) listens to the story and starts asking questions about Sugar's relationship to Sugar Daddy, which is kind of embarrassing. Then Diviner asks if the university has a matching system to hook girls up with sugar daddies because she might need one to afford classes in the fall. There are some choking noises and people looking away, but the Prof says he'll get to work processing her scholarship forms so that won't be an issue. Sure, she's 18, but when she asked that it was like having your little sister ask if you can buy condoms for her.

Anyway, I've told them all now, and that's a weight off my mind. Flamer did his "look into the fire for omens" thing and proved that it was supernatural, so it's a go. We're waiting for me to hand over the portraits (and get paid for them) before the Prof approaches Sugar Daddy.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So the team did some research, looking for supernatural stuff maybe linked to Sugar Daddy, and we think we know what it is. His great-great-grandfather had the exact same name - but it isn't a straight line of males back to him. A couple of cousins married, or maybe they were second cousins, I didn't memorise the family tree, giving him the same last name as his great-great-grandfather. Great-great ran a boarding school back around the turn of the last century (when it went from 19th to 20th, not when it went from 20th to 21st) and one night there was a fire. All the staff made it out alive. The students? Most of them made it, but some didn't. Even some of the survivors were scarred and or crippled for life. Various people blamed Great-great for not making sure that all the students got out, treating it like a caption going down with his ship if he can't get all the women and children out.

The guy might have lost everything in the resulting scandal if he hadn't died. And there's no mystery behind his dead. He was inspecting the former school, looking for things to salvage, when a wall fell down and injured him. All reports from the time said it was a windy day and that the man was cheap miser for trying to salvage something from the building, but a wall hit him, he got injured, sepsis set in, and he died in hospital a week later. That was a common form of death back then - which is why antibiotics are a great thing.

No, there's no records of hauntings touching on the family, or where the school was, but this feels right. More than that Diviner says she saw an omen that means the school is connected.

So the hand over happens in two days. After that the Prof approaches Sugar Daddy and hopefully can work something out. And I mean that the Prof is doing it, not the Prof and the rest of the team. The Prof thinks everything will go better if it's "Men Talking" without college age kids around - which is okay with me. I don't want to see the look on Sugar Daddy's face when he discovered that I told people about his relationship with Sugar.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So this morning some of us tramped around where the school used to be, with me trying to get a Vision while Diviner is looking for omens. I don't get much, neither does Diviner - but that might only be because the place has been built over. Another part of the team is doing research, aided by Summer Student. Summer Student is just that - a summer student hired by the Prof. Summer Student believes in parapsychology but doesn't know that powers are real. Yeah, we don't want him looking down on himself because he doesn't have powers and there's no way to give him powers and we're also kind of worried he might go public and claim we're psychic. That never goes well - but I don't have to tell you people about it.

Anyway, the other team has more luck. They found more information on that school and some relics from the place. It seems that the place wasn't a nice place to live, but that was common back then. Thinking about it, that entire time period wasn't a good place to live. Seriously, the health care suck, the sanitation situation sucked, and you could legally beat your wife, kids, students, and apprentice. And maybe your servants. It was a bad time to live.

But we scored more information. The big news? The chief female instructor had the same name as Wife's maiden name and the "Games Mistress" (a.k.a. gym teacher) had the exact same name as Sugar. That sent some of the team raiding Ancestry Dot Com, and luckily both women had relatives that were in to tracing family trees. Yupe, you guessed it, both of them are descendants - which is one too many. See if only one of them was a descendant then we'd know who was targeted, but both of them?

So do we have vengeful ghost? A restored love triangle that's mystically haunted? Something weirder? Everyone's saying that they wish they had more time to research, and I do feel a bit guilty about not telling them sooner, but what's done is done. It's not like there are many primary sources we could find. The school's records burnt with the school, the papers didn't cover any scandals or gossip, and everyone who survived the first is long dead. Of course when I said that the Prof smiled and sent Summer Student to check recent deaths. Thinking that maybe Great-Great had an illegitimate baby with one of the two women and maybe that baby just died. It's a long shot but with Summer Student gone we could talk openly about our powers.

Girl with a Spirit Guide did her best at a seance, but we didn't get anyone connected with the case. She says we'll need to get something connected to one of the ghosts and the few relics we found just aren't enough. We need something that someone touched every day, or a diary, or maybe a notebook (if they had notebooks back then). Something that might still have the vibes from its former owner. Again, I'm feeling a bit guilty here because we lost so much time on this job, but money's money.

Anyway, I make a suggestion. If there's anyone connected with our group that would know anything about that period (and maybe where we can find relics or info) it would be Preppy's family. Preppy doesn't like the idea, mostly because he's afraid if his family would freak if they knew about the team. The Prof (as usual) poured oil over troubled waters by telling Preppy that he could pull strings. That he could arrange for this research to be useful for a major essay that Preppy will have to write in the fall. That if Preppy's folks help now he'll have months of head start and access to the team's research, and maybe a bit of help writing that essay. Free help - and the way the Prof said "free help" it sounded as if the Prof knows that Preppy is paying to have other people do his assignments for him.

Now that I think about it, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't know Preppy was buying assignments. I could have done his creative writing bits and earned a bit of extra cash. Anyway, Preppy going to get his family involved in the search for answers.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Today I turned over the art to Sugar Daddy. Good news! He's decided to get them professionally framed. That's going to take three to five business days. No, I didn't have a Vision, but I know the shop he's using. They always take three to five business days.

Which means it didn't really matter that I didn't speak up at once - we have more time now. Oh, and before I turned over the paintings I made sure the rest of the team saw them. A couple were a bit embarrassed to see Sugar's painting, but everyone agreed that they were tastefully done. Anyway, Diviner and Girl with a Spirit Guide (who I'll start calling "Girl" again because that's faster to type) examined the paintings, touched them, listened to them, and everything else they could think of, but nothing came up. Which means the painting happens to be the room when the dying happens, which is good news.

What else? Preppy's family is happy to see him getting a head start on that essay. Seriously, his family is impressed that he's thinking ahead enough to plan this out during the summer instead of waiting until November. They're helping every way they can. Summer Student didn't find any descendants of anyone involved with the school who died recently, so that's out. Spirit Guide came up with a few ideas, but nothing we can work on until we find something with an emotional link to the school or a staff member. Oh, and good news. A local con is cutting my vendor's fee in half if I speak on a panel. I worked on those three graphic novels published by the History Department and self published that last one on Kickstarter - which makes me a "local expert" on self-publishing graphic novels. I'll bring copies of those books to sell and sign, and prints of various panels, which means even more $$$. Which means I've told the Prof that I'm NOT AVAILABLE this Saturday.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

I thought we had good news, but we don't. Summer Student was all excited because he found something and bought it with money from petty cash. A couple of other team members found something and bought those things too. Preppy came in with five, which means he wasn't excited because he knew only one could be real and he had five.

That means we have eight - yes eight! - copies of an unique item. Each one billed as being the one and only one used at the school. Summer Student was crushed, but the Prof didn't make him pay back the money to petty cash, which was nice of him.

What do we have eight copies of? The "one and only discipline instrument" used that school. A collection of paddles and straps, each claiming to the one and only instrument used there. Diviner looked at them and didn't see a pattern. Girl talked with Spirit Guide and they concluded that they were all fake. Well, they were real and most had been used on backsides, but none of them were connected to the school. I Object Read one of them and what I got was it being made to sell on the internet as an "authentic private school used paddle". Then I looked closer at them without using my powers.

I whittle and do leather working, so I could recognise the tool marks. I often have booths at renaissance fairs, talking with people who make things "the Old Way". Because of that I knew I didn't have to Object Read any more of them. None of them were made using traditional methods. All them seemed to be made since 1970, with modern tools. I could get more realistic versions from anyone working a renaissance fair. Hell, I could probably make straps using old techniques that would look more authentic than these machined leather pieces... Which is something to think about the next I'm low on cash. I could make an old looking strap and advertise it as 'Uncertain providence, but rumour has it that this was one of the belts used at X school on their students circa 1930' or something like that. Which wouldn't really be lying, just me not saying that I had made up that rumour and knew it to be false. But that's something for another time.

The worst part is that Girl said that a real one of those would be perfect - but only if it hadn't been used since it was at the school. I suppose beating someone leaves a psychic impression, one that would be over written the next time someone got a beating.

Anyway, Preppy's family also got us more historic records about the school and the people involved, and they're working at getting us full genealogies, and more info. Here's hoping that there's a diary or two out there because the records are dry and boring as hell. No scandals were recorded because back then That Just Wasn't Done. There's not even any reports of teen pregnancy or girls flunking out. Nothing about weird stuff or even normal bad things. Seriously, reading these records you'd think that place was a modern school, except for the mention of maids. Yes, they had servants at that school - which gives more people to try to track down but who documents the lives of maids and other servants? But the Prof is optimistic and that's good enough for me.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Yeah, it's late, but I had a great time at the con. Sales really took off after the panel, maybe because I had a minority view. Some of the people on that panel were all "make sure you raise enough money to pay yourself while you're making your comic" and others were "you should have a chunk of the comic done before heading kickstarter" while I was the only one saying "finish it, then go to kickstarter, and add some slack time to the delivery date". The others talked about how great kickstarter was while I mention that between kickstarter and PayPal you're losing about 9% of the money raised off the top. I talked about shipping fees, how things can delay your project at the printer's, and other cases of shit happening. I pointed out that I had my graphic novel completed and thought it was a simple matter of getting to a printer but this came up and that happened and I was glad I had given myself a few months to get it delivered because that's how long it took. That anyone using Kickstarter should add 20% more time and money to what they think they need because shit happens. That you can always ship early but if you're a day late you'll get plenty of complaints. The others on the panel talked about how understanding their backers were when they were late shipping while I was the only one to meet the shipping deadline - a deadline that we all imposed on ourselves.

Anyway, after I gave practical advice I almost got swarmed on Artist Alley. I sold and sold - signed books and gave advice. This was one of my best days for sales ever - and that's counting when I was doing porn last winter. It would have been better my Cousin made some discounted sales to cute girls doing Cosplay, but I had budgeted on him doing that because, well, he's a teenage boy and they're cute and in costumes that show off a lot of what nature gave them.

And nothing else happened. Seriously, I was waiting for the Prof to call and tell me that the team needed to deal with something, but that call never came.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

The paintings are ready from the framing place so the Prof called up Sugar Daddy and made an appointment to meet. He had records, some photocopied and other on his laptop, to explain what he thought was happening. It took a lot of talking but Sugar Daddy accepted the possibility that Something might be happening.

And I had a dream about something that could go two ways. One way included Diviner hitting on Sugar Daddy, letting him know that her barely legal body was available, if he helped her with college - and the other way was Diviner avoiding Sugar Daddy. So I made sure I mentioned certain things when she could hear. Maybe I exaggerated certain things, but I made sure I let Diviner know that Sugar Daddy got his money worth from Sugar. And I might have invented a couple of very kinky things, saying that I wasn't sure but that Sugar hinted that Sugar Daddy liked doing X, Y, and Z, and that put the fear of Sugar Daddy into Diviner.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

The team finally met Sugar Daddy. I was trying to act all "Wow, the Prof didn't tell me that it was you - so it was my painting that someone saw" but Sugar Daddy wasn't paying attention to me. No, he was focused on Preppy. Preppy, who is the son of people he knows. Preppy, whose family had approached Sugar Daddy for records of the old school. Preppy, who Sugar Daddy thought had outed him as having a college girl on the side and Sugar Daddy let Preppy know that He Was Not Pleased.

Seriously, Sugar Daddy mentioned some of what he knew about Preppy's family, dropping hints of secrets that made being a sugar daddy to a college girl look wholesome by comparison. Well all learnt that Preppy might have a couple of half siblings and some members of his family paid for so many abortions they should have qualified for a group discount - with Preppy's family being very publicly pro-life. Then there were the hints of kinky sex that made Preppy blush. There were even hints that one of Preppy's uncles should be on the sex offender register for the same reasons that Jeffrey Epstein is there. Luckily, Sugar Daddy hinting all at that convinced Diviner that Sugar Daddy wasn't someone she wanted to know better, Yay for the new girl not getting involved with a sugar daddy. Here's hoping that the Prof can get her those scholarships.

It turned out that Sugar Daddy had more documents about the school. He put them together to pass on to Preppy's family, but he handed them over to us. Included with the collection was a very old photo of a paddle, the one they actually used, and it looked nothing like the paddles we had picked up. There was another photo, one of the Games Mistress' strap, which (again!) looked nothing like the straps we had bought. Anyway, we had photos of them, not the actual things, which probably wouldn't help in a seance. More importantly, Sugar Daddy had some "secret notes" which included which girls had been sent home after getting pregnant. There were about 2 to 5 per year, which had me wondering just who was getting to those girls at the boarding school, then I saw the employment records. I knew about the maids, but not about the groundskeeper, stable master, stable boys (some of which were old enough that they should have been called stable hands), handymen, etc. There were maybe a dozen male servants working there at any one time - about half of them would qualify as child labour today. And yes, sometimes one of them had been fired when a girl had been sent home for getting pregnant. Mostly one of the stable boys, but every now or then someone older would be fired on the same day one of the students was sent away for being pregnant.

Which meant that there were entire bloodlines that we hadn't known about, which was depressing, but hopefully that wouldn't matter. I mean, three people with same names as people as ran that school where all those students died? What more did we need? Only what if Great-great knocked up a few of those girls? They'd be loose ends, but here's hoping they won't impact on anything.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Yeah, you'd think with a team of parapsychologists showing up would make a difference, but no. Seriously no. Sugar Daddy put those paintings up. There's one in his house and one in Sugar's apartment. If he hadn't he might have avoided the death scene I Saw - but he doesn't really believe. Not yet. Hopefully not ever - because if he believes it will be in the last few seconds of his life.

Other news: I'm milking the convention fame as much as I dare. I have fanboys, which means I have customers. I'm selling them prints of my regular work and signed copies of prints of the graphic novels I did. Yeah, technically I shouldn't be reprinting anything that the History Department printed, but I still have those drawings and people want to buy them so why not? Yeah, I'm breaking copyright left and centre, but there's money to be made and I need rent money, food money, tuition money, and basically I need money. And it's not like the History Department will ever care.

Anyway, I'm still trying for Visions about the attack on Sugar Daddy. I hope that I can find a way to prevent him being killed and figure out which painting was covered with blood, but noting is coming.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Whoa, something unexpected happened. Diviner started asking me questions about sugar daddies. She's noticed that I'm the only team member who seems concerned about money and wanted to know how I can afford to go to university. So I explained how I make money by doing art and she asked if I was interested in hiring a model and I said no, but I would keep her in mind. Then she offered to pose in her underwear and I told her I had a contact number I called when I wanted nude models and she wanted that number because she wanted to call them about getting work.

So I gave it to her. Most people hiring nude models are every professional about things and it's way better than stripping. I wouldn't have given that contact information to her if she wasn't in need of money... Okay, I would have, since she's only a google search away from finding it anyway, and this way she'll trust me. And maybe I can talk to someone about her getting the better sort of clients. And I won't be booking her to model for me. That would be weird, at least for her. Me, I'm used to working with nudes but I don't see those models socially and I don't think Diviner is used to being seen nude or even in her underwear.

No, I'm not going to tell anyone that I gave her that number, and I'm feeling a little useless here. I'm not good at research and the Visions aren't coming. I'm mediating before bed, making sure I have enough juice to pick up a Vision, but they aren't coming unconsciously either. So I'm just painting, selling art, and feeling like I'm letting the rest of the team down.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So we're so hard up for clues that we broke the law, but only in a small way. You see the burnt down school has been built over and last night we kind of broke into the place that was built over it. We brought all the relics and records that we could find and Girl did another seance. This time we may have gotten a result. There was the ghost of a student who talked about being locked inside her room, or that a door to a wing of the school was locked, it was hard to make out what the ghost was saying. Mostly because it was screaming about being burnt alive. Choking on the smoke, the flames eating at its flesh, and so on. Most ghosts are more concerned with their own issues than in helping us, but that's the way of the world.

Which means we didn't learn much, but Spirit Guide said that the student's ghost was stronger than it should be. That a ghost more than a century old, with nothing really binding it to the world of the living, should be more faded than the student's ghost was. Which could mean something, or maybe it means nothing - we use don't know.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

I had a great time at a con last weekend, selling and making $$$. Luckily nothing came up - at least not until today.

So Sugar Daddy has gone from "indulging those weirdos" to "fucking help me now!" mode. Why? Sugar Daddy and Wife have kids. One of the kids had a nightmare, normally no big thing, but this one... So the kid is dreaming about being in an old school, a boarding school that sounds an awful lot like that school that burnt down, and dreamed about getting paddled. Which would be weird enough on its own, but the kid woke up with paddle marks on the kid's butt. Not from a real paddling but as if a couple of random smacks had really landed. As if most of the paddling never happened but a few smacks were real ones which only made sense if there was Weird Stuff involved.

Now Sugar Daddy might keep a young mistress, but he loves his kids. He could half laugh off the idea that he was in danger but threaten his kids and he'll move heaven and earth to keep his kids safe. Seriously, since it looks as if one of his kids was in danger he made sure we talked with Wife. Wife was so freaked out about what happened that she didn't recognise me - but she did recognise Preppy. We talked with her, tried various powers, and we were left with the impression that if something hurt one of her kids again she would personally blow it away. Seriously, she would kill anyone or anything that threatened her kids. But talk to her about weird stuff and she isn't sure if she believes it.

Of course Sugar Daddy didn't want us to talk about Sugar, but everything else was on the table. Wife reacted in shock to learn that she shared a name with an ancestor who was around a century ago with an ancestor of her husband who shared the same name of her husband, but she was more concerned about the threat to her kids. Seriously, Wife would either take a bullet for her kid or shoot a bullet into someone if that would keep her kids safe. She's barely buying our story and she doesn't know anything mystic. If they didn't have an alarm system and the kid didn't have a mark then she wouldn't believe there was anything weird happening.

After we talked with wife we talked with Sugar. Sugar Daddy made sure that Sugar knew that if she didn't answer all of our questions he would stop paying her rent. She told us everything she knew and was slightly freaked out when we told her that her ancestor had worked for Sugar Daddy's ancestor. She was scared, but she needed Sugar Daddy to pay her rent. And there was the fact that some people knew her. Seriously, she barely noticed me as she tried to explain things to the team members she knew. Yeah, it was embarrassing to be there. And we didn't learn anything from her.

To sum up: Sugar Daddy doesn't know anything, Wife doesn't know anything, and Sugar doesn't know anything.

Later that day we do what we do, looking for things. The Prof hauls his equipment out. We all feel that familiar boost to our powers that we get when we're on the trail of something - but we don't get anything. So the next step: the Prof does what he can to get Sugar Daddy, Sugar, and Wife at the same seance. Yeah, that's going to be fun.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Great news! Not about the case, but about me. I have enough interest in my graphic novel to pay for a second print run. Yay for profits!

So, about the case. It's not going easy. Sugar Daddy is less panicked now and doesn't want Wife and Sugar in the same room. So we have to try for two seances. Tonight we're doing one with Sugar Daddy and Sugar and (depending on what happens) doing another one with Sugar Daddy and Wife. If we get nothing from the second one then we'll try again to get all three of them together.

And now the bad news for me - it has to happen tonight, meaning Cousin will have to run the booth tonight.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Well yesterday was interesting. We did a traditional seance at Sugar's place, with the various things we'd gathered, and tried to find out what was going on. Spirit Guide had to get involved and I thought about trying to Astral Project to personally deal with it, but I didn't have time to mediate. Alas, while some tables got overturned, we learned nothing. At least nothing useful. There was a lot of screaming from the ghost as it screamed in pain while burning alive. It thrashed around, it tossed things, but did it say anything useful? Nope.

Spirit Guide claims to have gotten more info, but says he has process what was said and what was not said. Yeah, Spirit Guide pulls bullshit like that all the time. I never know if he's telling the truth, but that's a spirit guide for you.

The Prof says he got some good readings on his equipment, but we don't know anything more than we did.

And yes, when I checked on my sales I discovered that Cousin gave away more stuff to pretty girls, which I more or less expected. I lose a bit of cash when he's working my booth, but nothing like the amount his sister stole from me. I can accept that he likes impressing girls by giving them free stuff, at least as long it's for minor amounts, but the way his sister steals cash... Nope, not going there. I'm trying to let go of those negative emotions.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Round two of the seance. Wife and Sugar Daddy at their house, with their kids staying the night someplace else. Wife starts the night not really believing, but that changes. Shit happens, things get thrown around, and weirdness. Lot of entertainment value, but no real info.

Okay, maybe a bit of info. "It Comes. The Way Is Open. It Comes." - which is a nice warning but too vague to be useful. We already knew that something was coming. Something supernatural. Something weird enough that our powers get boosted as we look into it. Some wreckage, no knowledge. Oh the Prof got new readings - yay for that - but we aren't making progress on the case.

After we leave, Diviner tells us that she saw something in the wreckage. That the shattered items formed a pattern that told her that the Thing wasn't going to manifest from the spirit world. Diviner, Girl, and Spirit Guide talked it up, debating various things, but that's all. The Prof thinks that if he tells Wife that he's "discovered" another person with the same name from that place through searching student records and that excuse might get Wife and Sugar together in the same room.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Maybe it was something that Diviner said, but I had another Dream. Yeah, a Vision. It was basically the same, but I knew more about the attacker than I had before. I didn't see anything more, but I did See more, if that makes sense. You know how when you're in a dream and you just know something? Well I knew something.

So we meet up and I say I had a dream that the Thing didn't just manifest from the astral plane and Diviner gets a bit pissy. She thinks that everyone is believe me and not her, so I point out that I have different information. She said it wasn't going to manifest from the spirit world but I knew that it didn't JUST manifest from the astral plane. That it might be from the spirit world, but not recently. Diviner still sulks, obviously thinking that we're treating her like a kid and not trusting her skills. The Prof spreads oil on troubled waters.

The Prof is still working on Sugar Daddy, but it might take something happening to one of kids for him to get moving again.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Seance round three happened tonight. Wife, Sugar, and Sugar Daddy all together in one place. Not being blind I can see that Wife knows about Sugar Daddy's relationship with Sugar. Maybe she knew before, maybe she discovered it tonight, but she knows. Only thing is she is not overly upset about it. Maybe she knew that her husband was fooling around? Maybe she's got a bit on the side as well? Who knows? The thing is, I don't think it has anything to do with the case. At least I hope it doesn't.

Diviner was still sulking a bit, and Wife spoke sharply to her at least once. Wife didn't have a lot of patience with people tonight. Of course Diviner didn't like being talked down to - who does?

So weirdness happened again, but this time I was ready. While the rest of the people gathered into the seance I was working on Astral Project. I leave my body as Girl is making contact. Yeah, there is weirdness, much weirdness, and the astral plane is weird and getting weirder. I see spirits that are burning, but more importantly I'm hearing them. Lots of screams about being burnt alive along with "It comes. It is ready. It is formed. It is awaking." - and that has me thinking that Spirit Guide has been holding back on us.

Yes, there's some trashing of the house, but the important thing is both Wife and Sugar get a smack or two. Slapped on their faces, hard enough to leave a handprint but not hard enough to bruise. But while Wife and Sugar get those smacks there's nothing happen to Sugar Daddy. From the astral plane I can see how all the spirits are avoiding him, like they're all afraid of him. That's good to know. I asked Spirit Guide if they were avoiding Sugar Daddy the other times and he says that he didn't notice - which figures. Guide doesn't notice half of what he should.

So things calm down and I return to my body and I think it's over. Wrong. Diviner says something like "why were we bothering with that when I told you it wasn't spirits" and Wife and Sugar both turn on her. Sugar shows that she was a mean Alpha girl in high school as she cuts into Diviner while Wife snaps at her like Diviner was 5 or 8 years younger - treating her like a naughty child. For a moment it looked as if the conflict was going to get physical, either a cat fight with Sugar or Wife giving Diviner a smack. I get up to calm things the fuck down when Flamer lights a candle by looking at it. Wife, Sugar, and Sugar Daddy stare at how Flamer used a supernatural power in front of them.

That chills the mood, but we don't stay long. As we head back to the parapsychology department, I tell Diviner that neither of them were mad at her. That they were panicked and needed to establish that they were in control of their world. That they were building themselves up by tearing her down, and it was nothing personal against her. The others chime in, agreeing, with Preppy saying that Wife has always been a bitch, that most of the women who knew her secretly hated her. That she lectured other people's kids about their behaviour and was rumoured to deliver the occasional swat to drive the lecture home (which I don't believe because Wife has never been arrested). The more he tore that woman down the better Diviner felt.

So during the debrief I explained what I had heard and pointed out that the spirits feared Sugar Daddy. No, we didn't know what to do about this, but it was more data to make theories out of.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Genealogy for the win!

Okay, it's Summer Student's win, but that still counts. He's been researching, researching, and researching. I thought it was busy work to distract him from our powers, but it paid off.

So he found some old documents, including an account from someone who might have been doing what we did back in the day. He recounted that one of the dead girls had an aunt who was "a conjure woman" who might not have been the aunt but might have been the mother. The woman would have had to be about 14 (and unmarried) when the dead student was born and back then that sometimes meant a married older sister "had a baby".

Anyway, making a long story short, Conjure Woman did a great ritual to get justice against the person or persons she blamed for the deaths. Something about binding three ghosts into a physical form, a form that merged them all together into one beast. The rite took a week to cast and then "three turns of the moon" for the thing to grow, but Great-great died between it being conjured and it growing. No, we aren't sure what to call the thing (but I'm calling it Thing in my head) or how to defeat it, but this is a great step forward.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Summer is winding down, so con season (where I sell a lot of my work) is coming to an end, but that matter to anyone else? No, but we're slowing down because the Prof has to work on his lessons plans. Summer Student is getting a bit bummed out because his summer job is ending. I don't know if he'll be with us after his job ends.

Diviner freaked, dancing around like a maniac, after her scholarship finally came in. Seriously, she was so excited that she had an out of bra experience, one boob bouncing right out of her bra. I'm not sure what major she's taking, but she'll be hanging around with the team.

Me, I've got the cash for part time status, but nothing of this has to do with the creature that's going to kill Sugar Daddy (and maybe others). With so much time being lost over lesson plans and such I no longer have any guilt over delaying mentioning my Vision of Sugar Daddy dying.

But while the team is slowing down, not so the auxiliaries. Grad Student and Summer Student have been hard at work, researching stuff, but they haven't found much beyond legends and tales of Conjure Woman being the Real Deal. They aren't sure if she had a deal with a devil or was just a person with psychic talents, but there are accounts of her doing both harm and good. We're trying to find more about her, with Preppy using his contacts, but she wasn't considered an important person back then. That means there aren't many records about her.

Speaking of Preppy, I had a private chat with him. He's not the best student in the world, but he's going to get great grades on his creative writing assignments and I'm getting cash in exchange. No, I don't feel guilty about this. If he wasn't paying me he'd be paying someone else and I can always use the cash.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Breakthrough! Yay us! Summer Student's last find was a diary that discussed Conjure Woman. From what we found there the woman blamed Great-Great and "that foul temptress of a woman who spread her legs for him". It seems that Conjure Woman thought that Great-Great and his lover locked a couple of doors to ensure that none of the students discovered their love nest. When the fire broke out the girls ran to those doors, pounded on them, and then the survivors found other ways out. That if the doors hadn't been locked the students would have all made it out alive.

Beyond that, Conjure Woman disliked a second woman, one whose "unnatural lusts" were directed at the students. That woman would punish the girls and, while claiming to rub the ache out, molest them. Conjure Woman thought that those "unnatural acts" were the reason that "God's Wrath" sent the fire to destroy that place of sin. Based on Conjure Woman's ravings as she lay dying, the first to die would be the Temptress, then Great-Great, and finally Thing would hunt down Molester for what Molester had done to the girls. Three ghosts united in vengeance against the three people blamed for their deaths.

All of this fit the Vision. The painting is coated with blood when Sugar Daddy is attacked.

We know a lot, but we don't know everything. Take the targets. Sugar Daddy is Great-Great but which woman is Temptress and which is Molester? More importantly, what sort of being is coming? The Prof thinks it's a one off, but isn't sure how to fight it.

What's next?

Diviner is looking for Signs, Girl is sending Guide out to ask around the ghost world, Flamer is looking to fires for omens (or maybe just setting fires for fun because he likes setting fires), and I'm opening myself to Visions and Dreams. Both Grad Student and the Prof say they are researching, but they're doing lesson planning and applying for grants. The rest of the team is splitting its time between research and getting ready for the start of the collage year. Except for couple of the team, who are leaving the wonderful world of college for Real Jobs - Real Jobs that will take them to other cites. The Prof hopes to replace them all, but so far he's only found one "special student" in the incoming class (Diviner).

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Diviner claims that she's spotted something in a pattern - or something. I'm not sure how her powers work. Anyway, she says there are two times that the attack can happen. One is the anniversary of the fire and the second is three moons after that - or when Thing was supposed to kill them all. Which makes sense and gives us a bit of time.

Speaking of Diviner, she's trying to get modelling jobs but doesn't have any experience so unless she's willing to take it all off, well even then most artists like a girl who knows how to model even if she is ready to get nude for them. Her scholarship covers a lot, but not everything. So she asked me if I knew how she could earn a bit of cash and I came through.

I'm paying her piecemeal for helping me do fulfilment of my web sales. That basically breaks down to stuffing the right print in the right envelope. I'm still doing the erotic ones myself (when she's not there) but having her stuff envelopes is speeding up my turn around. I'm not paying her much, but it's something and that something is basically all I can afford to pay a non-relative.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

We aren't getting much closer to finding Thing or working out which woman it will try to kill first, but something came up. Diviner was at my place stuffing envelopes and she was moving awkwardly, like she had been on the losing side of a fight. I asked her what happens and she blushed as she stammered out something about walking into a door after falling down some stairs.

Right. Sure. So after she left I called Flamer and told him what I had seen and we agreed that we were going to have a little talk to that "door she walked into" and those "stairs she fell down". Neither of us are great when it comes to pounding something, but we're both better than the average person with our powers to fall back on. Sure, we're side tracking a bit from the investigation, but it's for a good cause.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Flamer and I didn't pound anyone. Not yet. We found out that Diviner has a bad home life, or at least parts of it are bad. I suggested we take what we know to the Prof and Flamer agreed that this idea was better than burning down Diviner's apartment building. The Prof is very protective of his team members.

And the dates are coming closer - so hopefully we'll have a resolution to the supernatural side of things. That and I am looking at earning enough cash to get a nest egg together. Having a nest egg is great when you get hurt by a demon thing.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So the Prof can't get Diviner enough of a scholarship to let her move out, and he doesn't want to make her feel uncomfortable, but we did do a sit down meeting where the Prof went over all the campus services. He said he was doing it because of last year's injury (my scars) and he did tend to focus on the domestic abuse slash counselling serves. He doesn't want to tell her what she should do, but he makes sure that she knows her options.

That said, we are doing more research. Preppy actually found the remains of a badly burnt paddle and he says that this is the real paddle they used back then. Girl thinks she can use it, but should we bother? We're not looking at that aspect anymore, we're looking at Conjure Woman. That's something to think about.

Diviner thinks she might have see a pattern in the paddle, but nothing to do with the coming attack. Unless there's a link to Molester there then I don't know how this would be related to the coming attack.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

I've never seen the need of all the photos and stuff the Prof collects, but this time one of them paid off. Diviner looked at a series of photos from the seances (all of them) and while she didn't notice anything at the time when she saw them all together she spotted a pattern of some type.

The Bad News: The attack can happen at either place, with Thing waiting for Sugar Daddy to visit that location to kill him before tracing down and killing the other woman. That means we'll need to get both women together when we think that it will show up. Which means convincing all three to get together in the same room while we get all the innocents away from the fight.

Weird News: Preppy asked be to use what the Prof calls "Object Read" on the remains of that paddle, mostly to prove that he had finally found the real one. I finally did and while the former owner was a collector the images I saw... Whoa! Seriously whoa! I'm going to get Girl (aka Girl with a Ghost Guide) to do a seance with it.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Most of the team didn't want to waste time doing a seance with the paddle. Not even Girl (who usually loves having a chance to shine). I gave up using words and switched to art to convince them. I made some sketches of what I saw. Images that linked Molester to the paddle (and her face looked like her current namesake - Wife).

Yes, I left that part out. From what I saw, Wife (descendant of chief female instructor) was Molester, making Temptress the Game Mistress ancestor of Sugar by default. Sure, history is repeating itself somewhat, but only with Temptress and Sugar Daddy. Molester was never married and there are no rumours about Wife...

Shit, maybe I spoke too fast. I just remembered that Wife has a reputation for lecturing other peoples' kids and those rumours of her maybe smacking them on their seats. Maybe Wife would be like her ancestor if given half the chance. Thank God we live in more civilised times when you don't have kids at the mercy of caretakers like they were more than a century ago. Or even 50 years ago.

Whatever. I'm assuming that Wife isn't preying on schoolgirls, even if it's only because she doesn't have the opportunity.

Anyway, we're going to set up a seance and see what happens.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Shit that was probably a Bad Idea. The only bright spot is we learned some things, maybe, and confirmed the Visions I got from the remains of the paddle.

I'm not going into details, but ghosts manifested and we all saw things. Molester earned her title. Maybe she had consensual relationships with budding lesbians (and some of what we saw implied she did) but she also did horrible things with that paddle. As in "send her to jail and get her on the registry for life" stuff. Really not good.

Other news: more people than her swung that paddle. They produced less emotional responses, but it seemed as all the staff members could (and did!) swing that paddle. Mostly over the school uniform, but the powerful emotions that clung to that paddle include bare bottom paddling... Including ones where other staff members (including Great-great and Temptress) might have crossed lines, but to be honest we have no way of judging when a line was "maybe crossed". None of us know where the line was when society condoned (and even endorsed) teachers paddling schoolgirls on their bare bottoms. Molester, she clearly did awful things, but who knows if the others broke their society's morals?

After that seance we all felt dirty. The more sensitive of us on the team got the worse of it, but the rest of the team wished they could unwatch what they just saw. Reading about that stuff in an old journal is bad enough, but seeing visions of it? Not Good.

Very Not Good.

Jack