> Examine Layla.
This was LAYLA PRISMRIVER, the youngest of COUNT VON PRISMRIVER'S four daughters. The Count was a connoisseur of classical music; he owned a business importing and selling high-quality instruments. He wasn't able to play them himself, but since he always had such a large stock of instruments onhand, he decided to have his daughters learn to play.
You're not clear on the whole story, but the gist of it is that Layla's father happened to acquire something you refer to as THE SPOOKY THING. THE SPOOKY THING killed Layla's parents, drove her family to ruin, and gave Layla her powers. You don't know what THE SPOOKY thing was, where it came from, or where it went. That's just what happened and that's probably all you'll ever know. In the aftermath, Layla's older sisters escaped to the far corners of the earth, while Layla stayed behind to live in the mansion alone.
Thanks to THE SPOOKY THING, Layla had what was arguably the STRONGEST ABILITY EVER; the ABILITY TO CREATE PHANTOMS. Since you can make pretty much anything out of phantoms, she could create, well, pretty much anything, not limited to sentient beings such as yourself. She never used it for much more than her own whimsy, though. Besides creating you and your sisters for companionship, she loved to conjure colorful, childish landscapes to play in, like an enchanted kitchen, a royal ballroom, or even a huge aquarium filled with friendly dolphins and tropical fish. (Unfortunately, most of it went to hell once she was gone.)
Layla ended up moving the mansion to Gensokyo, somehow - YUKARI YAKUMO had something to do with that - and the lot of you had a pretty easy life living among all the other spooks and weirdos.
Eventually, Layla got sick, and wouldn't see a doctor for whatever reason, so she died. Before she passed, she asked you to leave her body where you found it, as she intended to seek out her flesh and blood sisters as a ghost to tie up loose ends, and then return to her body, after which she'd be laid to rest, or turn undead, or something like that (she'd decide later). However, none of you saw her ghost when she died, so you're not sure whether she's actually still out there or not. Regardless, that happened long enough ago that her body has now been reduced to this stately skeleton. You haven't bothered moving it, both to respect Layla's wishes, and also because digging a grave is a pain in the ass. Honestly, it's fine where it is.
This room fills you with a sense of melancholy. You didn't really care about Layla that much, but because she made you that way, that must mean she thought the human Lyrica didn't care about her that much either, which is pretty sad, you guess.
> Examine book.
This is a photo album. It contains a LONG STORY. You briefly lament that my production budget cannot currently accommodate any LONG STORIES.
Feel free to put on an emotional version of Phantom Ensemble [
like this ] and imagine one for yourself.
> Examine cello.
This is Layla's Cello. It's a pretty nice cello, probably. You don't know, that's more of Lunasa's area.
Layla didn't have a particular specialty, she just played a little of everything, so this is just one of several instruments she owned. A legend among the roadies is that if you gather all eight of them together, something magical will happen. That sounds like bullshit to you since you're pretty sure she had more than eight instruments, but that also sounds like the kind of game Layla would like to play, so who knows. Still, having the roadies digging through the house for treasure wouldn't be good, so you took Layla's Flute and told the roadies they couldn't challenge you for it until they beat your EIGHT BOSS MASTERS. That's been enough of a wall to keep them disinterested.
That was a bit of a tangent. In any case, Layla's real specialty was her SINGING. (She wasn't incredible at that either, but it was better than her playing.)
> Make sure the flowers are fresh.
These are
SPOOKY GHOST PHONY PHANTOM FLOWERS. They never wilt. Seems none of the phantoms in the vicinity of her remains have turned spooky, which is another reason to not disturb them.
If you're curious about that pad of paper, Layla used it to write down song lyrics. You've looked through it before; the lyrics are generally so nonsensical that you aren't sure if they're meant to be part of the same song or just individual lines as seeds for whole songs. They're full of bizarre metaphors, mostly about hope and love and all the other touchy-feely things Layla liked.
> Get a box.
You quickly locate a small incense box you remember seeing earlier. You're pretty sure nothing bad will happen to it if you take it out of the room; what's the worst that a SPOOKY GHOST BOX could do?
...On second thought, you decide it would be best to make sure the box gets put back at least once a month. Anyway, you take it for now, putting your SPOOKY GHOST KEYS inside, hoping that the SHADOW CAT, as well as any other fingerless incorporeal interlopers, will be unable to work the latch.
SUDDENLY, you are surprised as Lunasa has snuck up behind you like a damn ninja. She does that on purpose.
> Examine Lunasa.
This is your sister, LUNASA PRISMRIVER, THE POLTERGEIST VIOLINIST. Most of the stuff I said in your own intro can be repeated here.
The human Lunasa was the oldest sister. How much she had in common with this one is a mystery, but your Lunasa is characterized by her humorless demeanor and general pessimism. One might be tempted to think of her as being just moody and pretentious, but that would be a mistake, because in truth she has a force of personality that can be pretty unpredictable. She works obsessively at whatever she's interested in. Challenging her is generally a bad idea.
She asks you what you're doing in here. You inform her of the SHADOW CAT fiasco, and Lunasa agrees that acquiring a box for her own set of keys is a good idea. You help her look for one, and she settles on a PHONY PHANTOM MUSIC BOX after you talk her into it, despite her feeling uncomfortable taking things of actual value from Layla's room. It's still in the mansion, so whatever, you argue.
Lunasa says she's making chowder and fresh bread for lunch, so come down in about fifteen minutes if you want some. (You probably do.)
What will you do in the meantime? You could hassle Merlin or hang out with the roadies, for instance.
> _
