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Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.17 - Legwork And Calls

Loren has never been to Yurilao. To be fair, he’d never been to much of the other parts of Selurong. When he’d been younger, he’d been too busy going back and forth between home and school, and keeping Harmony out of trouble. They’d gone to some places, but that had been with their families as part of a thing, and they hadn’t exactly stayed around to explore the surrounding area. In college, he’d simply seen no need to, and then Harmony had left school to join the military, and th...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.16 - Free To Good Homes

Loren hadn’t actually had a plan for what to do after all the plamo figures started raising their hands. He also severely underestimated how creepy it would be to see so many seemingly-inanimate dolls simply start moving. All over the shelf, model figures start raising their arms. Some of their movements were stiff and jerking, but others moved with surprising smoothness. Turning, he saw figures on the other shelves moving as well, including the foot-tall pair on either side o...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.15 - Just Ask

“Loren, Harmony, Malory, can I talk to you three for a second? Just a quick word, don’t worry,” Steve said as Loren was packing his lunch containers into his backpack and was about to go buy some softdrinks. As the one who didn’t mind walking out into the hot sun, it had worked out that he would go off to buy everyone some cold drinks, which he didn’t mind as long as he was already getting something for himself. Harmony got a cold water, because she was getting her sugar intake cut ...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.14 - A Slice Of Life

The next morning, Loren woke up to the sound of the alarm on his phone ringing from under this pillow. He groaned, keeping his eyes closed as he groped for the treacherous slab of electronics. Fumbling as his phone continued to play the theme of an anime he’d liked five years ago, he finally—

He felt something on his mattress move, and then something bounced on the bed and filled his still drowsy mind with dread.

“Time to get up!”

“No…!” he managed to moan as h...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.13 - Not A Visitor

Nancy Bayan was someone Loren had only heard off from hearsay, mostly from Harmony being fangirlish and slightly stalkery. A Symbol of Honor—as they were called these days, since ‘Righteousness’ was pretty long and not as well regarded anymore—she was the leader of Faling Sky, both of whom Harmony was a big fan.

Unfortunately for Harmony she didn’t get to meet the woman. Immediately after ascertaining there were no more keres in the vicinity or hiding on the roofs—Loren saw ...

3/11/24 Update

So, just some announcements. We're coming to the end of the year, and just like everyone else, IRL gets pretty busy for me. So unfortunately, I have to announce some weeks where I won't be posting anything because Christmas and Christmas prep. To that end, I won't be posting on Christmas week and the week before Christmas. That's from the 16th to the 27th. I should be able to update on New Year's week, though.

However, I also will be taking a break on the 2nd week of January 2025, from...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.12 - Plague

In his 22 years of life, Loren had been in his share of fights. Most had taken place before he’d turned twelve, back in grade school when the consequences for them weren’t, in hindsight, very dire. Parental disapproval, revoked privileges, getting teased about losing to a girl, pain… all minor things, when he looked back on them. He’d had a temper then—or had simply been an little shit—and had something of an impulse control problem.

He’d gotten better, or so he’d liked ...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.11 - Keres

The cars on the road were already at a dead stop when Loren stepped out his building and into the cool, predawn gloom. The sky was already turning blue from the sun just over the horizon, and he could feel the sun’s energy just over the horizon as some of it began to fill the sky. He sighed as he stared at the utterly stalled vehicles. Already, the sidewalks were being filled by walking people, and the air by Thaumaturgists held aloft by glowing platforms of veneplate or venefluid or, more ...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun and Profit! S.01 - The Symbol Of Despair

Set a week after the first chapter

It was a perfectly normal day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Harmony Riana Adlawan—Hari to her best friend, because once upon a time both of her names had been too long for the child he’d been to pronounce properly—walked with a spring in her step as she headed towards her meetup. Any urges to self-medicate was because of her sweet-tooth, which she womanfully resisted for the m...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.10 - Emergency Day Off

The next morning, Loren was in the middle of packing his lunch—he was at the worksite today—when his phone started blaring its emergency alert tone. Sighing, he picked it up, even though the alerts almost never applied to him. Still, if a keres had managed to manifest and was being fought by the vigilants, he needed to know where so he knew how much traffic to expect. Hopefully it just meant he had to skip his bath and get going now.

The toy pinball machine was clicking away on the ...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.09 - Dolls And Spirits

Loren had thought that finding corroborating evidence for the idea of figurines becoming tsukumogami outside of Amatsushima wuld be difficult. After all, if it was a thing that happened, surely he’d have heard of it as being common before now, right?

At first, his searches when the got back to Happy Homes—after being told sternly that the work computers were for work, and Harmony pointedly reminding him that Diwata was watching—hadn’t been all that product. Searching for tsukumo...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.08 - Preliminary Assessment Meeting

“Well, we know we’re dealing with a real haunting,” Malory said as she daintily used a knife to cut her muffin into neat little pieces. “I didn’t see anyone hiding, although there are a lot of those toys under the chairs that they must have missed. Unless either of them was a mage of some sort?”

Steve shook his head. “Neither of them was using Spiritualism, and if they were using Flame, they’re very subtle.”

The older man glanced at Loren, shook his head. “No, ...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.07 - Mrs. Halili’s Story

“It took us a while to notice it happening, because at first we thought it was just someone locking the screen door. Normally we leave it open so people could get out fast, but that month, whenever I tried to go outside to tend to the garden or go to the store, I’d find the screen door latched shut. It wasn’t really a hindrance, since it was easy to open, but it was annoying.

“I thought it was Danny doing it, Danny thought I was doing it, and we both though the other was just be...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.06 - The Bright Little House

“Hey, you okay, Lor?” Harmony asked as they sat in Steve’s car.

Loren clutched at his backpack, reminding himself he had two bottles of oil in there. Also his lunch and a change of clothes, but he wasn’t going to use those for fuel unless he was really desperate. “I’m fine.”

“You sure? We might be a facing another ghost, and they might not be as nice and reasonable as Sara. It’s all right to be a little nervous. You’ve only got two weeks of self-defense courses...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.05 - A Job To Keep

It turned out that Sara was quite willing to take a little time from her morning to press the button on the rice cooker, provided he’d loaded it with rice and water the night before. She was also quite happy to taste even simple corned beef if the way the apartment’s temperature slowly cooled as she did the ghostly equivalent of running around like a happy little kid was any indication.

At least she wasn’t making weird moans. That would have been awkward.

Despite his relucta...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.04 - The Construction Worker Diet

It had been some time since Loren had needed to explain what his magic was like. Fortunately, Sam listened more attentively than his little cousins, and didn’t interrupt him ask is he could shoot lasers from his hands (yes, but he didn’t know how, but lasers weren’t as good as plasma), fly (again yes, but it was a whole thing because how to do it was restricted to keep kids from trying it by jumping off their roofs), or have super strength (no, but he could fake it for short bursts, lon...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.03 - Cement Mixer

Not everything worked so smoothly as that. For example, it took Loren a while to realize that he’d need a lot of cooking oil for this little bit of alchemy, and the bottles he’d brought with him wouldn’t be enough. He had less than a liter of the stuff, since one of the two bottles he had in his backpack was only two-thirds full, not nearly enough for the amount of cement Rick said they would be making. Such bulk measurements weren’t something he’d learned in his college classes exc...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.02 - First Day At Work

Loren woke up to the sound of phone ringing from under this pillow. He groaned, keeping his eyes closed as he groped for the treacherous piece of electronics. He fumbled as his phone continued to play the theme of an anime he’d liked seven years ago, until he final found the little aluminum tablet. Fingers flailed, trying to get it to stop as he tried to get lucky—

Wait… that wasn’t his alarm song.

With a groan, Loren opened his eyes—ugh—and actually flipped up his pil...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 1.01 - Useful Skills

Loren woke up to the sound of his alarm on his phone ringing from under this pillow. He groaned, keeping his eyes closed as he groped for the treacherous piece of electronics. He fumbled as his phone continued to play the theme of an anime he’d liked five years ago, until he final found the little aluminum tablet. Fingers flailed, trying to get it to stop as he tried to get lucky—

The alarm stopped and he let out a sigh of relief as he turned over again, pulling his thin sheet of a ...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.9 - Now We Get To The Central Premise

“Thank you for your help,” Loren said as he shook hands with Steve and then Malory, pocketing the receipt he’d just been given.

“Glad to see a happy client,” Steve said with a smile as they stood next to the car that had brought them here. “I have some literature I can recommend to you back at the office. With a little work, you should be able to imbue Flame into some things to provide sensory stimulation for Sara. With aromatic oils and some cooking vene, you should be able...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.8 - Bargaining with Spirits

“I’m sorry for bringing it up,” Steve said, sounding like a kindly grandfather—well, uncle—when the ghost finally looked up. “But there’s something we need to talk to you about.” There was a thump as he set down the one chair Loren had brought to the apartment. It was a plastic monobloc, since he hadn’t been expecting visitors so soon, and it had been cheap… Steve gestured towards it.  “Would you like to sit down?” There was a glow around the chair now, more spiri...

Demesne Snippets 12: Fatherly Thoughts

Lying in bed next to his wife and children, Orris started feeling for the water bowl out of a lifetime of habit before he recalled where he was and he didn’t need to wash the colors from his eyes before he opened them. He still gently patted at his eyes before he opened them. The ceiling far above him came into view, made of solid beams and planks instead of bowed branches and wooden scraps he’d managed to begged from his betters.

His body no longer plagued by an itching he’d long...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.7 - Necromancy for Non-Necromancers

Maybe he should have paid more attention to Harmony’s flowchart.

Loren watch as Steve carefully used the key to unlock Apartment 409. He and Harmony stayed well away from the door lest the ghost react. The spiritualist cautiously opened the door, looking inside. Next to him, Malory moved the ghost candle to let its flame shine into the apartment, the unnaturally white flame burning steadily as Loren kept it alight with this own. Did they see the ghost?

Actually, could&n...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.6 - Preparations

The next morning, Loren once more found himself in Happy Homes. It wasn’t as unreasonably early as last time since he wasn’t commuting with Harmony so she could show him how to get there, so he wasn’t feeling half-asleep, so he was able to use his Flame to give him a burst of energy to at least reasonably fake being a morning person.

For a moment, he stood outside of the business’s front doors, contemplating the choice before him one last time. On the one hand, if Harmony’s in...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.5 - Deductions

After the first guy—who’d never given his name and kept his answers brief and concise—they’d moved on to room 408, whose residents had been a young oni couple. The two had been far more vocal and friendly than the other guy, introducing themselves as Shawn and Mary. It turned out that they’d been the ones who’d reported Dalisay’s death.

“We’re used to her banging on the walls in the middle of the night when we get a little loud,” Shawn said, the blue-skinned oni wear...

Demesne Snippets 11: Stone Setting

Trees sometimes had uses. Maybe.

“Is this what you need?” Shana said, holding out a broken branch. It was slim, the bark still soft and the wood inside wet and pale. The stump was a brush-like mess, as the little girl—who also happened a Dungeon Binder, like something out of a story—had needed to pull and wrench at the young branch… because she wasn’t allowed sharp objects.

Taeclas tried not to think about why. “Yes, thank you!” she said cheerfully. S...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.4 - Starting The Investigation Procedural Sequence

With the arrangements made and most of the work officially foisted off on Harmony, Loren had to deal with the rest of the consequences of technically being homeless again. He finally went back home—it was the middle of the day, so his parents were at work and his sister was in school, but their housekeeper let him in—and from there sent his parents a message that due to things he wasn’t told about his apartment, he couldn’t stay there for a bit, but he was already dealing with it, so ...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.3 - The Consequences Of Isolation

“…and then Harmony suggested I speak to you,” Loren finished. “She said you could help me find a way to use the apartment by… well, finding a way to live with the ghost.”

Steve nodded, taking a sip of his coffee. “I see.” He sighed. “I’ll be honest with you, Loren—can I call you Loren?—our company doesn’t really do this sort of thing. Trying to pacify haunted houses people are living in, I mean. Has Harmony explained what we do?”

“She described you as...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.2 - Welcome To Happy Homes

Fortunately, Auntie Ganda and her husband Mang Tetsu were cool with him staying over another night. It wasn’t the first time they’d had Loren overnight, though the last time he’d stayed here had been when he and Harmony were eighteen and they’d stayed over because it had been easier to commute to a college entrance exam. Before that, he and Harmony would sometimes stay for a couple of days to a week in the summer, mostly so their parents wouldn’t enroll them in summer sports program...

Flipping Haunted Houses For Fun And Profit! 0.1 - The Lease Didn't Mention This…

In the middle of his first night sleeping in his new apartment, Loren Abo woke up from troubled dreams to find himself shivering violently from the cold. He gasped, arms flailing as he instinctively tried to swim out of whatever cold water he was submerged in before realizing he could breathe. Blinking, Loren hastily tried to sit up, but it felt like there was a weight on his chest pushing him down.

Even as he wondered what was going on, his soul responded to the cold he was now aware o...