The Phantom of the Duchess(Obadiah)
Date: 2026-01-16 22:08
(The Phantom of the Duchess(Obadiah):Obadiah)
[Fri Jan 16 2026]
Inside the Grand Theater Entrance Hall/span/span>The theater entrance hall serves as a grand vestibule between the street and
the main lobby, its vaulted ceiling rising two stories overhead with
elaborate plasterwork moldings picked out in gold leaf. Black and white
marble tiles form a geometric pattern across the floor, polished to a high
shine that reflects the light from twin chandeliers hanging from ornate
ceiling medallions. The walls are lined with dark wood paneling up to
shoulder height, above which burgundy silk wallpaper bears a subtle damask
pattern. Brass-framed poster cases flank the entrance doors, displaying
current and upcoming productions behind glass that occasionally fogs with
condensation during colder months. A pair of ticket windows with arched
openings and brass grilles occupy the western wall, their marble counters
worn smooth from countless transactions. Heavy velvet curtains in deep
crimson hang at the entrances to the lobby and auditorium, held back with
thick golden cords during performance hours. The space maintains a perpetual
coolness even in summer, and the air holds traces of floor wax, aged wood,
and something indefinable that speaks of decades of anticipation and
applause./span/span>It is night, about 31F(0C) degrees, and there are a few wispy white clouds in the sky. The mist is heaviest At Mayflower and Lynch/span/span>
There is a new moon.
Jeremiah nods in greeting to Sebastian. “Hello there.”
Sebastian looks around the assembled group, approaching each in turn and extending his hand for a formal handshake and greeting, repeating to Obadiah, Teagan, Esme, and Jeremiah in turn. “Pleasure to meet you, please, call me Sebastian.”
nods to Jeremiah and Esme as they walk in and motions to Sebastian, “He texted me a moment ago and given I have a history with the Fairchilds.” He doesn’t elaborate what that history entailed, “I felt it would be a good idea to invite him along. Plus we should be fairly quick.” He looks around, “Who wants to bring Seb up to speed?”
Jeremiah nominates Teagan with a pointed finger and a grin.
“…And that’s Irzi.” Esme muses as the dragonling, no bigger than a house cat, moves into action.” She retursn the handshake easily enough, like someone who shakes hands all the time. “There’s definitely a ghost.” She nods and also nods in agreement with Jeremiah’s volunteering of Teagan.
Obadiah looks at the dragonling then to Esme and grins with a knowing smirk. “Of course she is.”
As the dragonet tumbles to their feet, Teagan kneels down to reach out to Irzi to help her right herself. “Hmm?” She looks up and realizes she’s been volunteered. There’s a slight snort of amusement. “Uhm. I guess the long and short of it is the theatre is haunted because someone trapped the ghost of a musician here in the hopes of infusing performances with the… pure essence of flav- of emotion.”
Sebastian narrows his intelligent blue eyes at Teagan, analytical, stating, simply. “I see.”
Esme tucks her phone away, “Sounds about right. And we’re going to try and…reverse that, free the ghost? Help it move on. Or banish it if that doesn’t work. I think.”
“We are not going to flavor town,” Obadiah stats flatly before looking back to Sebastian. “That is the long and short of it, to be honest. We have already started having some conversations with the ghosts and other members of the theater staff about the strange haunting events. Basically we need figure out if we want to try and release the spirit, or if we should just banish her.”
Jeremiah nods at Esme and Teagan in agreement. “I’m in favor of releasing her, if at all possible. But we’ll see.”
Sebastian finishes his drink, commenting. “I agree with Mister Deacon.”
“I don’t have any ideas on how to release her,” Teagan tells the gathered group, leaning on her staff. “So unless one of you does, my vote is for banishment.”
Esme reaches up to give Irzi some scritches, “I…really know nothing useful about ghosts. Least of all the differences between releasing and banishing.” She admits.
Sebastian looks around the theatre with open admiration of the architecture, taking in the atmosphere and commenting to no one in particular. “Marvellous…”
“Come along Sebastian,” Obadiah says as he leads the group further into the theater towards the entrance to the tunnels below the theater once they are all together they they head down into the tunnels and back through the winding maze until they are in the former dressing room that had been closed off from the rest of the theater at some time in the recent past. Once they are back in they can see themselves at different stages of their life, things they desire, and the haunting images of the ghosts of those that have died in the theater.
“We should probably do whatever it is we are going to do from here,” Obadiah says as his eyes are caught by a prima donna dancing in one mirror before he shakes his head and focuses back on the rest of the team.
Esme tries (and fails) to avoid looking at the ghostly memories and things she’d rather avoid. “Probably.” She agrees, gaze fixing on the floor. “Releasing the ghost would be like reversing whatever ritual was done right? Which is…probably risky. Banishing it is a more straightforward, different sort of ritual?” She asks, trying to make sure she’s got some kind of understanding.
“We could…” Teagan spent the hike to the old dressing room in silence as she mulled, lingering toward the back of their little ragtag group. “Try to communicate with her. Releasing her may be as simple as resolving some unfinished business. Or finding what she’s attached to and destroying it.” She is absently looking into a mirror, vaguely distracted.
Sebastian is just staring into a mirror while the image of a beautiful young woman sits with a young man who looks just like him. They are at a green and blue pond, which is covered with moss, sitting on the grass, on a sunny day.
Sebastian furrows his brows at something.
“Teagan, do you think you could help finish composing her song? Maybe that would allow her to rest.” Jeremiah says to Teagan. “Just a thought, though. I could be wrong.”
It takes a moment, but Teagan does tear her gaze away from a mirror that shows… not the theatre, but a vast concert hall. She shifts on her back leg and turns toward Jeremiah as he speaks to her. “Possibly,” she says quietly, chewing at her lower lip. She pulls a book out of her bag: a leather-bound tome that just screams ‘grimoire.’ That concept does not change as she flips through it. There’s drawings, things written in multiple hands, even pages inserted, pasted, clipped, pasted in. “That… might resolve it. Banishing her might cause her to fight back. Or we could try striking a deal. Finishing the composition might be the best option. I…”
“I’ve never composed anything before, but I’ll try.”
Sebastian takes a single step back from the mirror, aware enough not to step on the little dragonling, eyes darting. He looks around, rubbing his forearms as his breath wisps in front of his face from the cold. He states in a calm voice, just in the edge of fear. “Excuse me, fellow ghostbusters. I do believe that we are not alone.”
Esme lifts her gaze from the floor toward Sebastian at his words, beckoning Irzi back to her side with a quiet little tut as she does. “Front row seat for the finish composition.” She decides, clearly in agreement that trying to finish the composition is a good first try. “If any of us can do it, it’s you.” She encourages Teagan.
Jeremiah nods in agreement with Esme.
Obadiah is more or less enthralled with whatever he sees in his mirror. He reaches out and touches the glass, with perhaps a tear coming to his eye before he turns back to the group. “Ah, yes. Whatever you need, love. I support you. I am afraid we don’t have a vibrator to use as maracas again.” He glances to Esme, “Or do we?”
Jeremiah snickers at Obadiah.
Esme peeks in her back and laughs, “We do. Obviously it’s more useful as a multitool.” She grins.
“I… need an instrument,” Teagan says as she turns to look at Esme and Obadiah in turn. There’s a brief smirk for him. “Not that kind of instrument, but we’ll keep it in mind just in case. Piano or violin. Those are the two I know how to play. A violin is… going to be easier to get down here, I imagine.” She has returned her grimoire to her bag and taken out a notebook, flipping to find her notes from the last time they were here. Where she’d already written down what they had heard of the original composition.
Esme peeked in her bag, that is. And then scoops Irzi up to hold hee. “There was a piano wasn’t there?…somewhere..” She looks overher shoulder toward the door.
There are probably any instrument the team wants down here. Though if Teagan is looking for a specific quality, she should do an investigate for it
“The piano was in the rehearsal room, as I recall.” Jeremiah says.
Sebastian wraps his arms around himself as he stands in a cold spot, constantly glancing around the room at random objects.
Sebastian turns around suddenly, swatting at the back of his neck with lightning-panicky speed, exclaiming. “What the HELL was that? Did anyone see anything!?”
Esme tries to help Teagan look for a suitable quality instrument, but Sebastian’s exclamation startles her. “See what?” She asks, looking around. “What did you see?”
Teagan and Esme find a violin but it is old, cracked, and out of tune. At least it isn’t a ukulele right?
Sebastian says “The mirrors and… something touched the back of my neck.“
Jeremiah nods at Sebastian, clearly believing him. “You get used to that sort of thing after a while.”
And Teagan is distracted by… the state of the violin they’ve found. The crack isn’t going to do them any favors. She rubs at her forehead as she looks it over. She doesn’t even try to play anything with it: just return it to where it was. “Probably our ghost,” she tells Sebastian. “I’m… going to have to use my phone,” she deems, finding a spot to sit on the floor to start trying to put the music together using one of those phone piano apps.
Esme seems to get sidetracked in her search for which ghost touched Sebastian by watching one of the mirrors. Her lips purse briefly and the tears her gaze away after a longer moment, looking to the others. “Maybe we could try to talk to her while Tea is putting the composition together?” She wonders. “I could…maybe try and channel a bit of Anastasia to help, possibly.”
Jeremiah nods to Esme. “I’m happy to help, if I can.”
Sebastian takes a few deep breaths. A long, slow inhalation through his nose, followed by an exhalation from my mouth, repeating this a few times. He then moves back to the mirror where he seems to see… things. He asks the mirror in a calm, gentle voice. “Will composing your music help you rest in peace?”
The song that Teagan composes is… hauntingly beautiful. It probably could have been, or perhaps still could be, the start of her final composition before she graduates from Windmere university. Despite playing it on a cell phone, it is one of the best things she has ever written. It is so beautiful that Obadiah turns away from what he is looking at in the mirror and watches Teagan work.
For what they are trying to do, as the song plays the room starts to warm and the ghosts in the mirror start to dance in time with it, before filling the room with bright prismatic light.
“I hope that light means yes.” Esme murmurs, not wanting to disrupt the music coming from Teagan’s phone. She tilts her head a bit into her shoulder to shield her eyes from the light, using a hand to try and shield Irzi’s at the same time.
Jeremiah nods, staring at the beautiful light, even as his eyes water from the brightness.
Sebastian backs away from the mirror, shielding his eyes as he looks directly at Teagan with a slightly agape mouth, amazed.
And as is not uncommon with artists: Teagan is wholly unaware. Both of the change in the room as the ghosts begin to react to the music and the reaction of the living to it. She’s gotten into the spirit (badum-tsh) of the thing, pausing every now and again to work through a few bars in her head before jotting them down and continuing along. It does help that modern phones have fairly good speakers: it’d be a good deal worse on something more tinny. But relatively soon, yes, she has the whole piece playing out as if from a piano recording; eyes half-closed as she listens to it on the way through.
After a few more moments the ghost of Eveline Damaris materializes behind Teagan and starts to sing with the song. There are no words, just notes as the soprano starts to sway. In the mirrors the ghosts of performers past are visible to everyone as they start to watch, some start in with the singing and the finished song before there is a great rush of wind, and all the lights go out casting the room into utter darkness and silence.
Jeremiah reaches out to take Esme’s hand in his, finding it even in the darkness.
Sebastian stands in the darkness, unmoving, trying to be as quiet as possible, even slowing his breathing down.
Esme lifts her head some to watch after the initial bright light, listening to the music and watching the performance. As the silence and darkness fall, she gives Jeremiah’s hand a gentle squeeze, flitting her gaze from mirror to mirror as her eyes rapidly adjust to the darker setting, but not daring to break the silence just yet.
Teagan and Esme just see the now empty room, except for them and perfectly normal mirrors
When the song ends and darkness falls over them, Teagan blinks rapidly and lifts a hand to touch a bead in her hair. It glows faintly and one could be forgiven for thinking that it’s one of those glow-in-the-dark pony beads, but it… moves. Or something in it does, at least. There’s some scraping as she gathers herself up — phone, notebook, and all — and gets to her feet slowly. “Did that… do it?” Once her eyes have adjusted, she turns slowly to take in each of the mirrors in turn. Carefully, just in case it’s a ruse by the spirit(s).
Esme nods some to Teagan, shifting her gaze from the mirrors to the woman with a bit of a grin,. “I think it did. Doesn’t feel cold, don’t see anything in the mirrors. And you said you’ve never composed anything before. That was pretty fuckin’ aces.”
Jeremiah nods at Esme. “Seriously, they should give you a music degree just for that.”
Sebastian wipes away something at his eye, nodding to Teagan. “That was unexpected and incredible.”
Obadiah turns back to the mirror he was staring at, almost forlornly, and then nods, “Yes I think that is it.” He looks around then as the lights flicker back on, a single red rose sitting in the center of the room on a music stand. Obadiah looks at the rose and then back to Teagan, “She was pleased it seems. I suppose we should leave and lock up. Unless I am forgetting something?”
(OOC: I’ll give everyone one last pose then will finish the plot. Thanks everyone for coming!)
Jeremiah looks around, then smiles. “We helped her. And we got to see a trippy light show and hear some beautiful music. This has been a really good night.”
Esme nods in agreement with Jeremiah. “We finished the job we set out to do yeah, don’t think we’re forgetting anything.” ((Thanks for running!))
“I’ve… always just been the musician, not the composer,” Teagan stammers, turning nearly as red as her hair. She busies herself with getting everything tucked away in her bag, ducking her head to hide her face from view for a moment. At least long enough to regain some of her composure. She clutches at the strap of her bag, looking up to Obadiah, giving a small shake of her head. “I… can’t think of anything.”
stares back into tha same mirror, brows furrowing, for some time, before finally letting out a long sigh. Straightening his posture, Sebastian turns to the group and say, calmly. “The elusive happy ending. Wonderful.”