SERVER ROOM MYSTERY ! (ep. 4)

Picture by annathenewt

GM
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## Summary

It is now the evening. As the Academy's pegasi bring new students and there are students everywhere, Diane, still wet from her bath, bursts into her room, where Ezra, sitting on her bed, is reading a Witch Sports Illustrated issue about Wizbee Champion 2019 covered in magical hearts. Diane is mad that after her own potion made her drunk, everyone started casting spells on her, which led to their running around the school and Eon covering her in trash ... hence the bath. Ezra conjures a *Comfort Brew* for her in a Jasper Jinx Academy mug — the only kind Diane owns.

Diane won’t touch the sweat, minty beverage that’s supposed to *make her great, make her feel better*, at first. She only goes for it after Ezra notices her faking to take a sip and looks disappointed — at herself.

> *Ezra, This drink is amazing!*
>
>

she says, as her phone pings: #Diane4President is trending on Instagrimoire.

Diane spruces up her great hair and mascara, hugs Ezra and bolts out.

Ezra eventually follows; she's done lusting after pretty pony women for now.

Meanwhile, in the server room, the pentagram Sypher has just drawn in sharpie on the floor slowly disappears in front of her eyes. She can't believe it; she walks back, thinking about disappearing sharpie marks, and runs into Eon. She sees the crumpled up Diane flyer he's carrying and lets him know there are more important things than Diane and trash, namely the weird tears and the missing pentagram that can't easily be explained away because she wrote *BYTE ME* on her arm with the same sharpie and the text is still there.

Eon suggests they try somewhere else — the dumpster, Sypher suggests.

That’s when they see Ezra and Diane, the latter walking with purpose.

Diane is happy, sad — confused. She walks to him, confidently, and thanks him. He, in turn, apologizes to her.

Sypher tries to return to the subject at hand: sharpie ... dumpster ... She asks Diane:

> *Have you ever done graffiti?*
>
>

Diane looks around, grabs the sharpie, and starts walking with a smile.

On the walls she sees her posters as well as Heath's — *For a healthier schoo*l.

Diane keeps her distance while Eon takes off the posters of his nemesis Heath.

Ezra just follows, as her friends are doing things, namely, heading towards a big, green dumpster. There is always fresh trash in it because its content is magically emptied daily.

Sypher directs Diane to *write something on that!* — which would turn them all into criminals.

Diane is hyper aware of people watching her; her spells can make people look away while she's doing her shit. She looks around; *she has a case of the Ezra*: if there is anyone she fails to see them.

There is indeed someone: Professor Del Astra, *investigating a plant child*. Ezra and Eon mistake her for a hummingbird. Meanwhile, Diane, who usually is just the lookout, feels great because of Ezra's tea and sketches a *trash bat* on the dumpster. Then she hands the sharpie back to Ezra.

The graffiti doesn't disappear; Ezra confirms that the sharpie is normal; so are, to her, disappearing things; it happens to her all the time because she doesn't notice things.

Still, Diane is worried about the pen situation. What about the self-emptying dumpster? Eon, who has investigated the matter, is confident only the stuff inside the dumpster disappears and the writing wouldn't. Diane then inquires about the batcuum cleaners. Ezra reckons they are *our friends*. That's why there have been more than usual in their room. Sypher, in contrast, has stopped them from coming to the room she shares with Eon.

It's about the time of day the tray disappears; Eon jumps into it with his tinfoil witch hat on, in the hope he can go with the trash. But, Sypher wonders,

> *What if it's an incinerator?*
>
>

Sypher writes on the dumpster too; she recapitulates the weird stuff they’ve seen: the tears, the disappearing sharpie. Eon, still following his own mind track, adds *Just like where the trash goes!*

Diane watches the conspiracy theory unfolds and finds it *cool, cool*. Sypher disagrees; *Not cool!* *Not cool!* it is for Diane, then.

There is also that hole in the sky they had decided to report but, Ezra explains *We got distracted*. Also,

> *I had a magazine to look at*.
>
>

Diane reckons she should have seen that. She was gone for a mere two hours but, Ezra tells her, she also missed Sypher having a baby.
There is a loud bang from inside the dumpster. Eon screams:

> *The trash is gone!*
>
>

He is definitely freaking out.

Ezra throws the sharpie into the dumpster. *Not the sharpie!*, Diane screams. Sypher has a hard time persuading her it's not about the sharpie. The first tear disappeared from her picture, like the pentagram. Also, the crack in the wall let something seep in before closing back up.

Sypher — who is smart — has a theory that involves dimensions. She explains it using an analogy with oil and a pizza box. To Ezra, it looks like a teacher problem. Speaking of which, Ezra realizes it was her responsibility to tell a teacher, because Sypher doesn't know anybody yet. Another analogy about that first tear: it was like an oil spill in the sky.

Sypher is afraid she unlocked the door with her research. She is not happy that Eon made a tinfoil hat for her:

> *I'm not crazy!*
>
>

Del Astra is the teacher Ezra will approach: she's the one who doesn't go mad at her.

Diane makes it clear she doesn't like snitches; Sypher starts telling what happened to her in her last school, which was haunted. This story involves snitches too. Sypher didn't kill anybody there, but maybe here she will. Sypher then suggests they go to the Head Witch rather than a teacher; Diane agrees. So does Ezra. Diane also suggests Eon shouldn't go with them because people are uncomfortable around him. Sypher counters that she herself makes people uncomfortable, too — but she doesn't smell.

Eon is a bit lost in this conversation; he does understand why he can't go with the group; he'll investigate the server room instead. Diane doubles down: the Head Witch's office is very clean, she'll be so mad if Eon goes collecting anything there.

Ezra offers to go with Eon; Diane suggests they all go to the server room and have a look at the spot where the pentagram was. Ezra is unhappy right now. Sypher chose the server room as her private space.

They all walk toward the server room. The doors auto-magically open.

They hear the bell for dinner time, which is from 6:30 to 7:30.

Eon offers a rotten sandwich. Diane is not interested:

> *I'm allergic to whatever that is, thank you.*
>
>

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the group, the dumpster flickers, is briefly replaced and when it comes back there is no writing on it.

Ezra will get them food, because she's bad at looking for things anyway. Before she runs to the cafeteria, she tells her friends they all seem upset, sad.

The others are about to enter Sypher's quiet place, where only bats go. They pass an old wooden door — Sypher has the key for it —; they go downstairs in the basement. Sypher has a key that makes the door of the server room open magically. Diane is impressed she managed to hack her way in on her first day. Inside the room are six floating monitors; there are no cables but it all works.

Eon stays outside, just looking for trash. There is, however, no trash in the cans a mere twenty-five minutes after the 5:45 magical emptying. Eon has nothing else to do but go pacing.

Diane wonders what all this data means:

> *It's Greek to me!*
>
>

Does she even need to know?

Sypher recounts how the pentagram was where she is now standing; she saw it disappear in front of her eyes aftershocks closed her laptop. She thinks it's related to the dear and things may be going both ways, not just disappearing from here.

Sypher and Diane resume the talk about an alternate version of the school and oily pizza boxes. Diane wonders if they can send a message to the people on the other side. Sypher thinks she should attempt to securely connect to their server.Diane would rather they sent and-mail, that is, avoid opening a connection to Sypher’s laptop. Sypher taps Diane on the shoulder:

> *You’re so close.*
>
>

The floor flickers; the pentagram appears, disappears, as if something were struggling; it's back.

To Sypher, it is another proof the sharpie has nothing to do with the phenomenon, and it is better to avoid opening a connection to her computer.

All the monitors turn off.

Eon notices the flicker from outside the room. He can also see the room going dark.

The room is dark. To Sypher, *it's like a power surge.*

Sypher feels a hand on her shoulder. Diane has nothing to do with it:

> *I'm not touching you.*
>
>

Meanwhile, Heath sees Ezra enter the lunch room. He and Celeste are handing flyers to the other students. Heath tries to convince Ezra to vote for him rather than Diane. Ezra doesn't like being put in a situation to say something mean about him or Diane. Instead, she says she thinks Diane is competent ... and he could do a good job too.

Heath wants to get in touch with Ezra later; in response, she lists a lot of her activities and classes. He is not deterred.

Ezra starts grabbing food to make people happy: it's 90% sugar. She asks a tray if she can borrow it: it floats away; she grabs another tray:

> *I need to borrow you, please.*
>
>

The first tray comes back with a doggy bag. Ezra thanks it and leaves both trays alone. She takes baked goods for Diane; chips and Mountain Dew for Sypher. Then she throws things on the ground: Eon will get a toast with a footprint on it. Before she leaves, Ezra also prepares three *Comfort Brews* for her friends.

As she walks down the now deserted hallway, Heath hails her: he'd like a quick chat and he can help her with the mugs. Ezra knows him; he's athletic, he's not that bad, so she accepts his offer: *Okay!*

They walk together. Heath soon asks her to the Ball.

Ezra replies with a factual statement:

> *We'll both be there.*
>
>

She doesn't realize she has just agreed to go with him.

> *What's your favorite color?*, he asks.
>
>

> *Blue*, *I like blue*, is her answer.
>
>

He likes blue too.
Back in the server room, Sypher still thinks Diane is pranking her:

> *Diane, stop!*
>
>

It can't be Eon, she'd smell him.
Sypher wonders:

> *Did you turn out the light?*
>
>

A voice — not Diane's — answers:

> *It's me!*
>
>

Sypher casts *Power Surge* to bring the lights back on in her favorite room. The pixels on the monitors turn on; the devices look different — old. The server room looks vintage; dust has been collecting over everything and on the floor. Sypher can't see who touched her.

Diane asks if she made the connection. Sypher didn't, she just turned the lights on. Diane is the one who's good at talking.

Diane wonders if there is a ghost in the room. Sypher remembers *it's not exactly like it*.

Diane's plan is to pretend there is nothing wrong. At any rate, the pentagram is not there on the floor.

Looking into the room, Eon sees Diane and Sypher talking. Then he sees Ezra walking with none other than Heath, Diane's competitor for class president, a.k.a. the bully from earlier — in tow. Eon is not happy to see him hanging out with Ezra. Still, despite big bonuses, he fails to make the trash bin smell bad. What's worse, Heath leans over in the trash can, takes a tulip from it, and offers it to Ezra.

Ezra is confused, overwhelmed; she didn't notice Eon casting. She thanks Heath. Eon grabs *his* trash; Ezra lets him have it if it makes him happy.

Ezra thanks Heath again and tells him it's better if he's not around when Diane and Sypher exit.

Heath understands, but he has nothing against Diane. Ezra doesn't understand what he means.

As he explains his views on the election, Ezra gets distracted by her own train of thoughts.

Heath takes his leave. Ezra, forgetting they'll see each other before that, says:

> *I'll see you at the ball!*
>
>

Then she goes to the door of the server room.

Diane, meanwhile, is still convinced the voice she heard is a trick of Sypher's. But, *No!*, Sypher denies it. Ditto for turning the lights off. *It's me!*, says the voice, as the lights flicker.

Ezra opens the door: Sypher and Diane aren't there anymore. To Eon: *I can't see them*. And this is not caused by her obliviousness. She looks around; the room is completely normal for her. Eon is just standing and watching as she calls Sypher and Diane, looks in the drawers and closets, bumps into something.

Diane and Sypher don't see anyone. Diane still thinks Sypher is capable of anything.

Sypher cast a new spell, *Save Point*, to return back in time to the moment before the floor flickered.

Diane keeps talking; she doesn't know what's going on.

Sypher sits down, puts her headphones on, starts clicking fast, inputs a code for a point in time and space. Everything flickers once; Eon and Ezra see her sitting on the floor. She is so close Ezra will keep her if she keeps walking. Diane is at Sypher's left.

The floor tears next to Sypher; what she drew is disappearing. Sypher yells:

> *Get out of the room!*
>
>

On her way out, Diane takes a picture and grabs Ezra, who is the last to react. Ezra drops the food she is holding but holds on to the mugs. Diane holds the door until they're all out, then sees the room flicker as she shuts it. Diane makes a gesture to throw something through the window; the window fogs up and these letters appear: *F U*.
A confused Ezra asks:

> *What happened? Your dinner was in there.*
>
>

Diane describes what happened with the lights and the computers; there were spider webs, magic magic happened; but now they are back and she has photos.
Sypher adds:

> *The voice ... They knew us.*
>
>

Sypher and Diane were just talking, but the connection happened anyway; the voice ripped them from here to there. Sypher cast a spell to return back in time.

They all drink their mugs and feel calmer. They also have to pee; Eon has to do it right now.

Ezra figures out what they should do next: go to the Head Witch. Also, the ball is a dance: *I need a really good score at Magic Disco*.

The weirdly calm Diane saying she is very hungry after relieving herself is what makes Ezra, still standing at the door, snap out of it.

Sypher fears she can be blamed for what's happening and she'll to go home.

Diane puts the magic sharpie in her bra, even though it's gross — only to give it back to Eon because it's oily.

Ezra offers to go tell the Head Witch; Diane can help: *I can lie, I'm a good liar*.

Diane then puts her hands close to the shoulders of Eon, who's still confused about what happened, and starts explaining *there are bad people in dimensions*.

Sypher needs a second to meditate, to just think.

Diane has a hard time assessing whether their weird experience was a palette swap or real change; she wasn't paying that much attention and to her it just looked like everything was older.

Sypher has a hypothesis:

> *Let's say the rip is in time.*
>
>

Diane agrees *that would explain the dust*.
Sypher makes her case: *Everything starts somewhere*, the beige monitors with fuzzy pixels and the beige keyboard they saw are older tech. The spider webs suggest that stuff wasn't used. Moreover, older monitors needed physical cables: the room must have been a storage facility at the time — *for extra shit*. Maybe

> *We could find out what happened.*
>
>

Ezra still prefers telling the Head Witch.
Diane suggests

> *Maybe we can plead the Fifth.*
>
>

Eon has a different idea:

> *Maybe we can blame Heath.*
>
>

Ezra finds his dislike of Heath excessive; he reminds her how

> *He bullied me*.
>
>

Ezra would like to hear more, but Diane cuts their conversation short:

> *We'll talk about that later.*
>
>

Diane is not worried about her campaign right now; she's worried of being kicked out of school. She asks Sypher if

> *Rips happen where you are?*
>
>

They have, indeed, every time after the first time.

Diane therefore urges her not to return to her room, because she is somehow a catalyst; she should rather go to a neutral place, such as an empty classroom, a closet ... or the nurse witch's office.

Ezra remembers Sypher did a typy-typy and spoogled a person.

> *What about the person saw you spoogle them?*
>
>

Ezra wonders, also

> *What would you do if something messed with your plans?*
>
>

Sypher would mess with them. Hence Ezra's suggestion that

> *We should apologize.*
>
>

And if, as Sypher thinks, this is spirits sticking around, that's all the more reason to follow through on Ezra's repeated suggestion that they go to the Head Witch rather than keep talking to them, because Sypher is now threatened.

The conversation goes on while they're heading toward the Head With's office; Ezra suggests Sypher write a letter — Spell Mail didn't exist back when beige monitors were in use — to make a date with the spirit.

Diane questions the wisdom of dating an angry ghost when dating is never easy in the first place — and, by the way, Ezra dating Heath is weird but they'll talk about it later.

Ezra moves the conversation from time rifts to catfishing the spirit Sypher thinks is stuck in time.

They all go together to the Head Witch's office, not just Diane and Sypher as Diane suggests.

It's now 7:30 p.m. They get to the teachers' area, which is close to the door to the basement. At the end of the hallway, they go up in a tower. The reception area has chairs and seats, as well as a hovering, flat desk which is currently unattended. Diane knocks on the door to the Head WItch's office; it makes a booming sound.

The Head Witch is at her desk; her chair floats. The dark purple sky shows through the windows. She wears a beautifully embroidered dress; her hair looks purple-lavender; her young face belies her age, with light lavender sparkling eyes, pointy ears and some pointy teeth. As Diane enters, she asks:

> *What brings you here?*
>
>

Diane, impressed, introduces the group; the Head Witch knows them all already. Diane mentions stranger than usual things they saws and that something might be wrong.

The door shuts.

There are chairs, and a trash can that distracts Eon. The Head Witch, who has been moving — hovering — invites her guests to sit down and sits down herself, asking:

> *So, you saw something?*
>
>

Diane supplements Eon's tentative explanation:

> *We saw three things out of this world.*
>
>

She now feels calmer, slows down, and also feels compelled to tell the three things, namely the rift in the sky, the one on a wall she didn't see and the scary experience in the server room.

The Head Witch thanks Diane and ends the spell on her.

Sypher's phone then floats to the Head Witch. She sees nothing on the picture of the first tear — it's just the sky. The phone floats back. Sypher explains that the server room is her quiet place; she tells about the sharpie and the rift:

> *We went somewhere, not here.*
>
>

The Head Witch points out they have all drunk something, especially the potions they made in Professor Jacobo's Advanced Alchemy class. She also answers Sypher's question about what the server room used to be, thirty years ago:

> *It was a server room.*
>
>

Ezra actually didn't drink any potions; she was having wizbee practice during Professor Jacobo's class.

The Head Witch has her routines; she is not used to getting visits in the evening. Eon still asks about the trash's whereabouts.

The Head Witch appreciates that they came to her and stresses that

> *Everyone is safe here.*
>
>

Diane reckons

> *You're the person we can trust.*
>
>

The Head Witch advises the group to *Be careful what you drink* and will have someone look at these phenomena.

Returning to Eon's question, the Head Witch explains that *We get rid of it*.

Eon fancies himself as an expert:

> *You don't get rid of trash.*
>
>

Still, the Head Witch keeps the school as pristine as possible. Eon chokes, and shoots back:

> *That doesn't explain where the trash goes*.
>
>

Sypher would love to know more about the school's history — she can use the large library; it's always open, except curfew. The school, however, hasn't changed in a long time — at any rate, not in the Head Witch's years here.

The Head Witch wants to talk to Sypher alone. Diane tries to get Sypher out of with a lie: she says she needs her help. It doesn't work, but the Head Witch assures them Sypher isn't in trouble.

Diane will go then: *Ok, bye*.

Ezra stays a little while longer; she casts *You Can Do It!* in an attempt to give Sypher a kind of sport pep talk with a very intense look. She fails, widens her eyes instead, and looks like she's scared for Sypher's life. Sypher, seated in her chair, is even more scared now, while Ezra leaves, confident she was successful.

Eon finds a note in the trash — just for him — and pockets it, despite Diane's advice, which she gives him out of the Head Witch's earshot.

The Head Witch gets up, starts floating: *Your parents donate a lot to this school. I know what happened to you* — at Hekate High —; *maybe we should send you to one of the nurses*.

Sypher is defensive:

> *I had nothing to do with the accident in the last place.*
>
>

They keep talking; there are things Sypher should not bring her in front of her friends, but she needs someone to talk to and her mother is not the right person. Sypher concludes it's been a great first day here; she feels fantastic and will go get some rest. She assures the Head Witch she'll go see that nice nurse if she doesn't feel well. She has her blog, too. With that, she'll leave the Head Witch to her evening.

Before she does leave, the Head Witch summons a book. Inside it, Sypher finds pictures of the old server room, without the webs. She can keep the book ... but she has to hand over the keys to the server room.

The Head Witch will have the Defense Master look into the matter:

> *Maybe our protection spell needs more energy, more power.*
>
>

As she says that, the bubble in which the Head Witch has kept the keys disappears.
Sypher is now excused. The door opens. The Head Witch smiles, showing her pointy teeth, and reiterates that

> *You're free to talk with the nurse if you want.*
>
>

Sypher, taking the book with her, runs to the others.

Diane didn't like the insinuation in the Head Witch's *Have you been drinking?*. She found her mean.

To Ezra it's classic that adults don't believe them and they have to do it by themselves.

Diane concludes the scene and the episode, insisting that

> *I'm respectable!*
>
>

## Notes

1. ↑ Lauren wrote in chat, during the break, that Ezra was looking at the Pegasus Polo 2019 player spreads ... *'Cause she likes the pony gals*.
2. ↑ The spelling was confirmed later.
3. ↑ a.k.a. *batcuum cleaner*.
4. ↑ *NftE*: Nika changed her mind after first saying that Diane had added text: *Trash Power*. @ImpInMyHead also suggested in chat that Diane write: *A vote for Heath is a vote for (picture of a butt).*
5. ↑ This is a reminder by Maggie.
6. ↑ Ezra’s word. Ezra mentioned a pizza box and an oily stain right before Sypher did it.
7. ↑ *NftE*: I think it's bats, at least.
8. ↑ As Lauren said at the end of the episode: She doesn't have *Traylinguistics* yet.
9. ↑ And a discussion ensued about this brew: it isn't a drug; Diane found a downside; it doesn't override a feeling: if something changes your mood, its effect doesn't last.
10. ↑ Lauren decided that base on the Ezra art. It's also one of the colors of the school.
11. ↑ *NftE*: There is a short blank in my notes here.
12. ↑ *NftE*: This reflects the partial successes of Ezra's spells.
13. ↑ *NftE*: several titles were used. I settled on Head Witch after asking Maggie.
14. ↑ *NftE*: My notes actually say *Principal* here.
15. ↑ *NftE*: Here my notes say *Principal Witch*.
16. ↑ *NftE*: my notes are unclear here; I think she's around 300 years old.
17. ↑ Still, people have come to her before.
18. ↑ *NftE*: As Maggie said at the end, the Head Witch knows how students can be, and she also knows *Sypher has been through a lot of shit*.
19. ↑ *NftE*: I'm winging it a little here, my notes are incomplete.
20. ↑ Maggie: *It's a trope*.