Chapter Text
That morning, Lavender awoke like any other day and quickly got ready to begin her work. Unlike other days, she had a feeling that it would be an uneventful and peaceful day. She would quickly and repeatedly be proven wrong in the following hours and that fact would be cemented in the following days.
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"Lavender! Do you know where that specimen from Blackfog wound up? I could've sworn I left it right here," Cantilupe called to Lavender, as the younger woman entered their shared lab. The older woman is at one of the work benches, checking underneath.
"I can't say that I do," she replied, "What type of specimen was it?"
"It was marked by the vendor as a 'fear entity', I was hoping we could've looked at it today." Lavender could hear the contempt in Cantilupe's voice towards the horrifically undescriptive name.
Cantilupe continues, "It was in a black, urn-ish spirit vessel, about yea tall," gesturing with her hands around ten centimeters apart before resuming her search.
Lavender briskly walks across the lab, scanning the bookshelves and other workbenches for an object of that description, when she spots something shiny peeking out from under a bookshelf. The Junior Extremofaunic Zoologist calls to her Senior, "I think I found it!" But, as she leans down and grabs the smooth surface of the container, Cantilupe exclaimed, "Be careful, it's a bit..!"
The object jumps in Lavender's hands and proceeds to fall back to the floor with a loud clatter, sending the cork across the lab.
"...slippery..."
They both watch helplessly as a deep red fog darts out of the bottle and straight out the lab's door.
They glance at each other, both unsure of what to say or how to proceed, but using the great amount of knowledge she has gained in all of her years of studying Extremofaunic Zoology, Cantilupe speaks,
"That's not good."
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Where did they even go from here?
"How much information did that vendor give you anyway? No ordinary spirit can affect a spirit vessel like that, right?"
"Well, many things can be contained in vessels such as that one," Cantilupe gestures to the previously dropped container, "so, eliminating common spirits, the creature we are looking for could range from a particularly strong poltergeist to a lesser demon."
"As for what the vendor told me, the entity was captured north of here in a small town, tormenting the people one by one with awful nightmares at night and horrific visions during the day," she continued, "apparently killing those affected once the creature consumed enough fear."
Lavender grimaced and began writing in a small notepad, listing what they knew so far:
Unidentified Entity
1. Powerful enough to escape common spirit vessels
2. Dark red in color, with wispy appearance - does not appear to have a solid form
3. Causes nightmares and hallucinations in those affected
4. Consumes human fear - possibly feeds on other emotions
5. Kills victim once finished feeding
"We probably could eliminate poltergeists, fairies, and demons, as they don't usually kill humans and feed on emotion, correct?" Lavender asks.
"That you are correct Ms. Lavender... This is a very unusual case and it only seems to be getting further and further from our area of expertise," Cantilupe pauses, seemingly to consider their next course of action. "I suggest that we take this to Dr. Maijabi and see if he's seen anything like it before. Go ahead and grab the vessel, we're going to pay him a visit."
Before Lavender could respond or grab the vessel, Cantilupe was already out the door.
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It searches the halls looking for tormenting souls.
In many rooms, there are souls with previous fears of imprisonment and persecution by crowds with torches and pitchforks, in one a soul recalls a more recent experience with those fearful of the unknown.
Going further it finds a soul tormented with a constant reminder of the death of a loved one. It seems to be accepting this reminder and learning to separate the two.
Upwards it goes, finding two souls, one holding guilt for being the indirect cause of many deaths but having come to terms with it, the other, stranger soul does not hold guilt for being the direct cause of many deaths.
It continues on, these are not what it wants.
It attempts to leave the building it is in, but it cannot, seemingly due to some type of sigil carved into the very foundation of the building.
It continues its search of the building.
It finds a room filled with many other spirits and a soul who appears to notice it. It moves on.
It continues onto another room, finding two souls. One is intriguing, it is wrong.
The first, normal soul seems to fear persecution but in a much different way than the others, seeming for feelings towards the other soul in the room.
The second, odd soul could barely be considered one soul, more like two souls put together or one soul forced apart. It seems aware of its condition and fears the discovery of it, actively scared. It's scared of disappointing the other souls in the building, scared of losing their home, scared of the harm that would come to those other souls. It's scared of what the souls around it would think of its condition.
The smaller part of the soul does not seem to care for these things, but instead the loss of its freedom.
Perfect.
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In Dr. Jekyll's office, there are two men doing paperwork, one being Dr. Jekyll himself, the other being the co-founder of the society, Robert Lanyon. Henry gets a sudden chill and ignores it, but someone does notice.
"Um, Henry? I think something is wrong with your.. dog." Robert is, of course, referring to Zosimos, Henry's Church Grimm, a creature with the notable ability to see spirits and other entities outside of human view.
"Do you see something Zosi?" Henry asks, under the impression that Zosi is just looking at Hyde as he often does, until he looks.
Zosi is growling at him, or at least in his general direction.
"That's odd, he never growls at me."
"Does he have rabies?"
"Robert, Church Grimms can't get rabies."