You take a moment to let all of this settle--and to give the Brainsate a few more moments to kick in. You refocus your thoughts... and take a deep breath.

"I've been keeping notes," you begin, "both physical and digital--I think we should lean harder into documentation, and I'm going to go back over my old notes to try and figure out what else we might be missing. The house is blocking our perception of the house's layout, and we know at least two people--the witches--have some kind of perception or memory filter going on with their... well, so far it seems like a filter over their whole existence, like they died by retcon or something. ...We need to find ways around that, or we're only ever going to know what someone else wants us to know."

"We could jack some of Tuck's recording equipment," Kate suggests. "He's got like... a professional ghost chasing setup. He might want in on the deets, though."

...Which reminds you:

"Kate--" You turn to her-- "Did you feel anything weird last night? Anything... supernatural, or draining, or--?"

Kate shakes her head. "Nah, not that I noticed. You said you got the fireballs working, right?"

You nod. "Yeah. Like... I actually had the reverse of your problem, I couldn't find a low setting. EVERY use of the power was just... like, explosions, which kicked ass but it ate through my mana too fast."

"Also," Cici adds, "mana."

You and Cici commence attempting to explain how in the name of God mana works, and the yellow ichor, how everything is yellow, the repercussions of consuming yellow and how being able to distribute mana through your various attributes (and how each "class" seems better or worse at boosting different aspects of the body) works

however

it turns out to be very, very hard to explain to someone who's not an avid gamer, anime fan, and/or not presently able to feel or experiment with any of it in real time.

"I'm just gonna have to figure it out when I get there," Kate finally concludes. "'Cuz I am not smelling what you guys are steppin' in. How do big fireball?"

You give a weak shrug. "For everything we did figure out, I... still don't know what's up with fireballs. You're stuck on drizzle and I'm stuck on MAXIMUM and I don't have any idea why, unless it has something to do with our class... tarot... business."

Cici chimes in. "The good news is, you can get more powers! I started out as an egg with arrows and stuff, but then I hatched into a bird that could do all that jazz AND get bigger."

"Like... a lot bigger," you add. "I think if you meet certain conditions you can... sort of evolve your accomplice form? For Cici, she had to be a certain amount of isolated to reach her current form in the dream, but I think there may be alternate ways to hit other forms, maybe with other powers--and I think it might be tied into our psychological states and shit, but I'm still gathering data on how all that works."

"...Jesus," Kate finally replies. "I did miss a lot."

"That's not EVEN the whole thing," states Cici. "We found out there's someone else in the dungeon!"

"...At least two others," you point out. "One of them's leaving god damn grenades around and the other only talks in lies. ...And is some kind of alien, or--"

You glance at Cici, who shrugs and shakes her head. "Yeah I have NO idea. They're... a tradesman."

You don't even know what a tradesman is and you're not entirely convinced the tradesman in question is a tradesman. You begin attempting to process how you're going to explain your theories on stygian circuitry, the striped classroom, and all the other fucking nonsense the tradesman casually dropped on you last night,

but then you remember the thing that happened today that might be more pressing.

"Oh, and uh--" how the hell do you phrase this-- "there's a skeevy guy next door who claims he has photos of the original owner of the house. Like, photos of her dead. ...Photos of her exploded."

Cici and Kate both turn to stare blankly at you.

You continue. "I didn't see the pictures, but that's what he said--no burn marks, just... I don't know. He's a con artist slash internet journalist with an expired Central Intelligence badge."

"What's his name?," Kate asks with a suspicious glare.

. . .

"I... didn't actually get his name. He didn't get mine, either."

"What did he LOOK like?," follows Cici.

"Short? Brown hair?" ... "Bad posture," you add, "suit didn't fit."

Kate and Cici exchange lost expressions. "No idea," says Kate.

"I know the police DO have a federal liaison they keep in touch with," Cici mentions, "but I never met him. Not really my paygrade!"

"Well," you add, "his badge expired like three years ago, so if he's the official federal liaison the cops are dumber than we thought."

"...And he lives next door to you?," Kate asks.

"Yeah." You give a small nod. "Like, right across the street."

. . .

Speaking of conversations you had today

you realize it's almost 7:00 pm.

"...I'm supposed to meet Lagi at the-- uh-- The Shittyplex at 7."

Kate takes her phone out, checking the time. "...Eh, we should be able to swing it. S'not that far from here."

"Yeah, but," you laugh dryly, "I'm broke. I was planning to barter with backyard witch drugs and I never got around to harvesting any."

Kate grimaces at her phone. "...Yeaaah, that might be harder to pull off in time. You and Cici head to the Shittyplex, I'll go grab the level and catch up later."

This time it is you that grimaces. "I was... kinda maybe hoping you'd go with me to meet Lagi? I've never done a drug deal before!"

Kate chuckles, shaking her head. "Okay, okay--Cici, can you run to Plaire's house and grab some of the level growing out back?"

Cici takes her turn grimacing. "I don't mind, but--is a custom rollin' up late to a drug deal really a good look?"

"Touche," says Kate. "Lagi knows me but that might still freak him out, especially with the cops going sting crazy lately. ...Shit."

"Would he even know about all that?," Cici asks.

"Lagi's pretty connected," she replies. "Hell, he might know more about what the cops are doing than WE do. ...Look, if we just mention having level grown by dead people in the Spooky House, it might be enough to get some negotiations going."