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08:32, ToSoftware HQ, Megalopolis "Infinito." Enrique Cabrera shook his head and sucked down the last bit of his cup of coffee. Today... well, yesterday-blended-into-today, had gone from bland and mildly aggravating to downright terrible. Second shift on the new apartments downtown, normally a crappy night doing interior work now that the the facade was up on the building, had turned godawful when his body abruptly decided that carrying spot lamps up the stairs was the perfect time to develop sudden onset narcolepsy. The next thing he knew, he was somewhere else, staring down some crazy mist monster with a bunch of people who's faces he didn't recognize. It was kind of laughable at first, like a scene out of a horror film. The thing even had a PPL so large that quantifying it was impossible for him. Then it screamed. Being an empath was tough, even at the best of times. But the sudden rush of fear, emanating from everyone and everything, hitting him all at once? He was surprised it hadn't killed him. Or maybe it had, since he was conscious again, and at the bottom of the stairs. Understandably, his super had sent him home after that. Can't have a worker sleepwalking on a job site, after all. But that also meant no pay until he could get cleared to work again. No money, no rent. Fantastico. This exorcist gig was supposed to pay for a new guitar (and maybe a prerelease copy of BlackSpirits, if he could swing it), but now it had to keep him afloat. It was too late to sleep, so he'd had a cup of coffee and played some games at home for awhile, then left, got himself another and some breakfast, and made his way over to ToSoft with three hours and change to spare. He was the first one there, as far as he could tell, so he went and got himself a newspaper and sat down near the door. It provided him a good vantage point to people watch as other ESPers filtered in. He got a feel for each of their PPLs and their surface emotions as they walked past him. " Cien y diez... muy inquisitiva. Cien y setenta. Una Duendecilla. Not a good time. Dos cientos y cincuenta- ansiosa... did it just get colder in here? Whew! Tres cientos y cuarenta. Estas abburida... Eres guapa tambien." He paused a moment, the next one interrupting his inner monologue. " Mil cuatrocientos. Puta madre why are the rest of us even here... wait is that a monkey?!" And so it went until he'd taken what stock he could of his erstwhile coworkers. By the time the suit showed up, it was around noon. "Th-thank you, everyone, for coming! We here at ToSoft care utmost about our employees, so when we discovered the presence of something… paranormal on our campus, we did our best to find any and everyone capable of handling it! Thank you for answering our open ad." Well, at least there was cannon fodder here with them. Enrique had also brought his knife. I believe that the… the ghost is that of a former employee. While developing a game for us, he had created a 'boss monster' that the game balancing team deemed too difficult for our target market. Despite pressure from superiors, he refused to lower the difficulty in any way. Said it would ruin his work of art. He refused to listen… we had to let him go! Everyone at a business like this has to be a team player, surely you all understand! Needless to say, he was angry, and… he crashed his car in a road-rage incident shortly after leaving the premises…" The suit was inching closer and closer to the exit, clearly having no interest in remaining in the building longer than was absolutely required. "Cabron. Too scared to help solve a problem he caused." "Now the boss monster is here! It's been spotted on the top floor, and strange things have been occurring throughout the whole building in this last week! You need to help us, we haven't been getting anything done!" Before anyone else could, the big man with the 1400 PPL chimed in. Enrique folded up his newspaper and stood up, formally joining the crowd now that there wasn't anything to gain from being incognito. "Alright. After a quick look around the room, I was able to see that my PPL was about four times that of anyone else here. I'm gonna be leading this if none of you mind." "PPL..? What are you talking about, mister…" "Don't worry about it. The people who can actually do something with that information know what I am talking about. As for you, I recommend leaving before you see something that renders you mentally disabled for the rest of your life, or worse." Well, at least big man knew what it was they were getting into. As for the rest of you that are real espers, you can call me Aki. Any questions? "Yeah, I've got one. Were you raised by aliens or something to get a PPL that high?" And the rest didn't. Muy Bien. "Sorry to break it to you, but some people are simply more special than others." "I-I knew that! I just--but--for it to get that high... fine! I'll go look for the ghost." The girl in the rain gear started to go on ahead. "If anyone wants to tag along, be my guest. If I find it, I'll... hmm... just watch through the windows, you'll know when I find it. And then I'll lead it up to the roof." Enrique shook his head, then went off after her. He knew better. Besides, the Q&A was likely to be boring, and big man could probably handle getting the rest of the clueless ones up to speed. "Oiy, Chica!" He called out as he caught up to her. "This ain't no scavenger hunt. Even weak spooks can be dangerous if they catch you off guard- I almost got done in by the ghost of some old lady's parakeet once. Might be a better play if you stick around with all of us and listen to what Senior 1400 has to say, eh?" He was tired and aggravated, and she could probably tell that from his tone of voice, but he did his best to try and be nice about it. He put his hand on her shoulder as he continued, ignoring the image of what he assumed was her front door that flashed before his eyes for a second. "Besides, this is your first time ghost hunting, right?"