Halloween I.F. – “Body of Work” – Day 15 (QUESTION, SUMMARY, and BREAK)

Hey all! Bad migraine today, so I’m afraid I’m having a break night! Take the chance to get caught up on all the crazy investigating we’ve had Augustus doing so far, and buckle in for a wild ride on Augustus’s bad decision academic rollercoaster. Please turn in your Day 14 Suggestions by October 16, 4 pm PST. Don’t worry — if I need to go a few days late to get us to a satisfying ending despite having a break here and there, I totally will!

QUESTION TIME
We’re at about the halfway point through the month, and so far Augustus has come across a variety of things: Missing research, certain fellow professors or research assistants acting weird, his demon husband noticing someone calling from the material plane to the unstudied void beyond planar space. A helpful summary of the things you’ve learned so far can be seen below the cut. Totally optionally (i.e., if you’re caught up and feel like it) feel free to discuss in the comments what you think might be going on based on information you have so far–and what you think Augustus might start to suspect because of it. No turn-in deadline on this, it’s just a casual midway point chat if people feel like doing it!

SUMMARY OF INFORMATION LEARNED SO FAR:

• Augustus (he/him) has a period of a few years entirely missing from his memory, set during his undergrad years. Sometime after that, he summoned a demon lord to try to get answers, and ended up falling in love. His demon husband hasn’t yet been able to find it, but is hoping to find people or things from that time to help triangulate, and suspects it relates to something from the area outside planar space.
• His demon husband, Enmity (aka Emmet Darkfire) (he/him) hopes to use Augustus’s studies (ie that ‘this plane’ and ‘the demon realm on the outer planes’ are two parts of one thing, instead of viewing them as opposed states of being) in order to claim territory on this world and then take it over. His priorities are thus to a. have Augustus’s studies come to fruition and b. to fulfill his agreement to Augustus to help reveal his past.
• His research assistant Yujin (they/them), whose personal research field is Conjuration: Ghosts basically, came into Augustus’s office on Restday (ie Sunday) to drop off some research, found a bunch of Augustus’s work missing. Since then, they’ve been acting weird. Augustus found one of his missing research books, the one about ghosts, in Yujin’s study room (along with a lot of snacks.)
• Two other professors, Ivory Fitzfleming (she/her) and Cordero Pérez (he/him), forced their way into Yujin’s study room at some point, and Yujin said one of them might have taken Yujin’s keys without them noticing. 
• Cordero Pérez works in Wards and Protections, who tend to think Conjurations play with fire, but also rely on them to help develop their field. He’s very vain and seemed easily manipulated by Augustus.
• Ivory Fitzfleming works in Structural Spiritualism, viewing Conjurations as kind of historical nonsense. She is normally no-nonsense but according to her research assistant (and as observed by Augustus), she’s been acting weird lately, very emotional. Something is definitely wrong for her and she seems bitter toward Augustus.
• The research assistants also say that professor Olivia Spiders (she/they; Conjurations – Spiritual Contract Law) has been acting weird lately, mostly things like being late to class. Olivia says it’s because the dean won’t stop riding their ass to get more papers published. She also is somewhat familiar with Soren and has offered to introduce them; in addition, Olivia seems to have recently researched ways around anti-theft spells, to help make things more secure for her sister who owns a jewelry shop.
• The Dean, Reginald von Beekeeper (he/him), has in fact been pushing Augustus to publish soon too, as he’s apparently worried about department funding.
• Soren Kincaird (he/him) is a relatively recent hire to the university. He has a photograph on his desk from his undergraduate school days where he was standing next to Augustus, who was leaning on another (unknown) student. Augustus does not remember this period. Augustus feels like he knew Soren but so far hasn’t actually met him. Augustus is currently having Yujin ask Soren’s research assistant, Feather St. Saint, about Soren’s background. (Augustus stole Soren’s mug to hopefully give some of his spit to Enmity but hasn’t ruled out kidnapping him.)
• So far, nobody else has seemed to have anything stolen from them. The librarian, Jacinta Maria Fernandez (she/her), has agreed to let him know if she hears anything.