Jack Sullivan got out of bed, picked out clothes for today, and hopped into the shower to get ready for his work. If this were a pulp novel, which it is not, he’d be called a Shamus, a gumshoe, or I’d make allusions to him being one letter short of a pig. As this is not that, I’ll put it bluntly. Jack is a supernatural private detective, a PI if you will, which is the closest I can get to writing about a cop without feeling sick to my stomach. While PI’s do have their problems in real life, this is fiction, and the narrative conventions of a mystery novel dictate that I make the protagonist some kind of investigator, and the amateur sleuth is so 20th century. He looked in the bathroom mirror and examined himself. He was 33 years old, and a little short for a man at 170cm. His body was thin, though slightly muscular from his job, and other than the start of a moustache, his face was mostly hairless. He did not like shaving his moustache, he felt it made him look like Magnum PI, but nonetheless, every 3-5 days it was shaved. In short he was cute, a little twink-y even. If he wished to pass as a woman, he probably could, though that is not something he would ever personally wish to do . After getting dressed, Jack looked around for his badge and wallet. He felt like he looked everywhere, and all the while a laughing sound from within grew louder and louder. Eventually getting sick of it, he walked over to the mirror and opened his mouth.
“Look, Poppy, if you know where our badge is, just tell me. We need to work to eat, remember?”
“Check in Spider’s stuff. She was having a tea party while playing dress-up last night” The voice that sourced the laughter produced a reply.
“Thanks.” Jack walked over to the living area of his apartment and lifted up a large dog plushie which was sitting on top of the items for which he was searching. There was also a half eaten lemon crisp, and on the table was an empty glass of milk, alongside teacups and a very poor drawing of what looked like either a frog or a tree in oil pastel. He finished off the biscuit and brought the glass over to the sink, though he would have to wash it later. Kids, am I right? Tapping his head, he began talking to himself again.
“Spider, do you remember the rules about playtime?”
“Always pack up after you’re finished.” Replied a small voice from Jack’s mouth, while Jack’s hand’s covered Jack’s face.
“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again, promise.”
“Hey, it’s no biggie. You want ice cream tonight?”
Spider giggled happily and jumped up and down. Being treated well after making a mistake was still new for her. As you have probably surmised by this point, Poppy and Spider are fellow residents of Jack’s body. Jack is, in common parlance, “plural” — a person who shares a consciousness with other entities, although in Jack’s case it’s not due to trauma as you would find with something like DID. Jack works with the occult, and in previous cases he wound up with a few extra souls on board his body. Poppy was the world’s least seductive succubus and has been hanging around Jack for 3 years now. Apparently she has whatever the succubae version of autism is, and as such has absolutely zero game. She’s friendly enough though, and has a great eye for detail, even if being in control of the body or “fronting” is overwhelming for her. While in DID only all or none of a system can experience neurological conditions like autism, the way the magic of the partial possession works makes it so that Poppy’s sensory issues carry over as long as she’s out, and if someone switches in while she’s overwhelmed, they’ll feel it too. All in all, very inconvenient. Spider on the other hand, is a more recent addition. Best described as a forsaken child, Jack found her when he was hired to work out why a 3 bedroom home in Melbourne’s outer suburbs was being haunted. Eventually solving her murder — some parents are just the fucking worst — Spider decided to stick around and brought her alters, Sally, who was host before things got really bad; Bad Sally, a scared and angry little girl; and Teeth, the tooth monster along for the ride. Jack also made an inopportune deal with the fae once, and now he’s also the vessel for Rosedrop, a minor fae magician. All in all there’s 6 of them, and they’re the world’s strangest detective force.
Putting his stuff into his coat, he got ready to go talk to his client, Veronica about something to do with her girlfriend being a ghost - a real ‘Just like Heaven’ (2005) scenario. The weird and occult were his, and, by extension, the others’, line of work. It’s not the best job, but it pays well enough and with niche fields people spread your name based on word of mouth. Besides, in a city as big as Melbourne, there’s always at least something going on. On his way to Veronica’s share-house on the train, he got a message from his girlfriend Luna who put him in contact with this client.
‘So, you wanna get lunch?’
‘I’ll need to know more about the case. If it’s as weird as you say though, how about we make it dinner?’
‘You want me to make sandwiches?’ Luna makes really good egg salad sandwiches.
‘yeag’
Luna works from home most days in some kind of office job, patents or IP or something, and she hooks him up with a decent amount of his trans clients as she’s involved in the local community. Jack charges them less, as for whatever reason there’s always weird things happening to trans people, and he likes to help the community. He figures that since everyone but him that lives in his body is a girl, he’s also kind of trans by proxy anyway. Poppy even goes to a few of the meetups. Jack knew somewhat that this would be an interesting case, all cases were, but until he got there he had no clue just how interesting it would be.
Veronica lived in one of those 3 bedroom 5 housemate kind of deals. Even then it was pretty expensive, but like in Melbourne what else can you really do? Jack was greeted at the door by Veronica who had a look of recognition on her face despite Jack not meeting her before. She was your typical alt trans girl, several piercings, a collar, and poorly applied eyeliner. Clearly she had gotten ready in a hurry for this meeting, it must’ve meant a lot to her.
“Oh, Poppy! You didn’t tell me you boy-moded on the job. Come on in.”
“A lot of clients expect you to look “professional”. You know how it is” proclaimed Jack while they shared a laugh. Jack was working out the best way to tell her that he just shared a body with Poppy, but honestly it was kind of fun to pretend for a minute. Internally he asked Poppy if Veronica knows about the “sharing-a-body situation”
‘I tell everyone! She met Spider one time.’ she replied. While not quite true, she feels no reason to hide it, much unlike Jack’s opinion that it’s something personal and kind of sensitive. Even in a world with fairies, ‘Split’ (2016) and Psycho (1960) are still the most known media depictions of DID, and most people ask rude questions or assume he’s a serial killer or something.
“Hey, you want a cuppa?” Veronica called out, breaking the internal conversation
“Yeah, sure. You have herbal?”
‘OK’ replied Poppy internally. Poppy likes tea as well.
While Veronica was making tea, Jack thought it was best to gather more information about the case.
“So, this is about your girlfriend, right? Could you get her for me? I assume she haunts this place since you called me here.” Unless they have a body to move around in, move on into the afterlife, or get exorcised, ghosts are stuck to the location where they died.
“Yeah um, Morrigan used to haunt the goth club I go to, but now she travels around with me for the most part and crashes here.” It’s not unusual for people who date ghosts to temporarily let their partners possess them to move around to new locations and go out on dates. At least, not more than the act of dating a ghost itself. Some people even masturbate while their partners are possessing them as the sensation carries through to them both.
“But you know all this anyway Poppy, she came to the last meetup with me, she’s trans too, remember”
“Ah, um about that. You know how there’s more than one of us? You met Spider, right? Well, I’m Jack, I kinda run things.”
“Oh! Jack’s real. XD. I thought that was a joke about boymoding.”
“Sorry. Hi. Nice to meet you, Jack Sullivan, PI.” He handed her his card.
“I guess something’s wrong with Morrigan, if she’s not here right now” there was a pause of awkwardness between the two. Something serious was happening
“Yeah, I think it’s best if I show you.”
Veronica guided Jack up to a messy bedroom. The bed was unmade with several plushies all over it. In regards to adult matters, it seems that Veronica forgot to put her vibrator away, and there was a cage for a large dog, or a normal sized human, in the corner. This brought up bad memories for Spider, and it took Rosedrop singing to stop her from taking over and running away right now.
“Huh, this is new.” proclaimed Jack. Floating about 20 cm above the bed was a translucent, very goth girl, wearing as many belts and zippers as a character designed by Tetsuya Nomura. This must be Morrigan.
“Do you know what’s going on? She’s been like this since Wednesday.” Veronica started crying. That was 3 days ago and she’s been worried sick ever since. She also doesn’t know how she’s going to pay for Jack’s services.
“I mean, I can guess. She seems to be in a coma of some kind. Ghosts can’t die, so get that thought out of your head.” Jack scratched his head. “My best guess is that it’s some kind of sleep spell or warding spell. I know a few ghosts, I can ask around a bit if you want? Are any of your housemates witches?” Veronica shook her head. This wasn’t going to be an easy case, and Jack knew he’d be taking a pay-cut for what would be some tricky work. Still though, helping people was what he lived for, money was just how he could afford to do it.
“Please. you gotta help her. I’ll do anything to repay you.”
“I can tell. Look, this case is honestly fascinating, so how about we don’t work out payment until we’re done? I’ll also give you half off my usual rate. If nothing else, if this happens to others I’ll be able to help them easily after this. I have your contact information, so I’ll let you know when I know more.”
With that, Jack left and headed into the city. He had a contact there who might know something, or at least help him get on the right track. Knowing that Jack would be able to handle whatever came his way, the others sank back into the warm haze of unawareness until it was their time to act.
