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The Consortium
Boss Leader
Boss Leader
"You know how much I enjoy appearing unexpectedly."
The current leader of the Activity Consortium. A magnificent troll, she is a powerful Spectral who hosts the Dream Headquarters used by its agents, in which she presents as a mummy-like shapeshifter. Her goofy demeanor, however, is undercut by a manipulative and dishonest streak, and a suspicious level of secrecy. Several important Spectrals distrust her, most openly Mina Zarei.- Adventures In Coma Land: In chapter 7, Boss Leader explains the imaginary headquarters of the Consortium are actually her dream. It is open 24/7 because, due to being the current medium of the Wight, Sandman, Boss Leader is in a permanent coma. This is merely a cover story Sandman uses.
- Bandaged Face: Not just her head, but all visible skin. Given the nature of her powers, it's dubious if there actually is anything under the bandages- she certainly doesn't have any indents or protrusions that would suggest facial features. There isn't.
- Badass Boast: When Max points out some of her hypocritical application of her rules to herself.Boss Leader: Look, kid, my first name is Boss and my last name is Leader. Rules only apply to me when they're looking for JOBS. 'Cause I MAKE or BREAK the rules. SON.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Played with. For one thing, it's a onesie footie pajama shaped like a suit, rather than an actual suit.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Even the readers aren't immune to her antics. In chapter seven, while the other characters have a short description with their age, Boss Leader's instead tells the reader she won't give them hers.Boss Leader: My age? Ufufu... a girl never tells.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Knowing her, it's another joke on her underlings.Boss Leader: I am Boss Leader, current reigning boss AND leader of the Paranatural Activity Consortium.
- Dream Walker/Dream Weaver: Possessed by a spirit of dreams that allows her to enter peoples' minds and create the Consortium's imaginary headquarters. Well, not quite — she is the spirit of dreams, masquerading as a spectral..
- Establishing Character Moment: She waits to reveal herself during Spender and Walker's meeting and cites both pragmatic and self-amusing reasons for this, establishing herself as a calculating Gadfly. This is reinforced on the next page when Spender and Walker ask her why she pretended to be accepting of the Cousinhood.BL: [to Spender] I wanted to see how you'd react. It was informative.
BL: [to Walker] I wanted to see how you'd react. It was entertaining. - Eyes Do Not Belong There: When we see her face she has an eye in her mouth. See Nightmare Face below for the link.
- The Faceless: BL's face is completely obscured by bandages. Noticeably, her bandaged face is smooth, and lacks any indication of a nose or other features underneath them. There is a reason for this.Boss Leader: I could never quite get the face right...
- Foreshadowing: Her face is covered in bandages at all times, which may just seem like a weird quirk until it's revealed she's not human and can’t replicate faces very well.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: boss leader noticed you
, the alt text notes. - The Gadfly: Likes to mess with her underlings, and just about everyone else. For instance, she makes all of her workers wear tuxedo footsie pajamas, claiming that it's for safety purposes, but it's really just a joke on her part.
- Gut Feeling: Picks up something in Max's dream world that she seems to be VERY alarmed by.Boss Leader: Probably nothing. Logically something. Possibly anything. You never can know with animal instinct.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Boss Leader is not a human, instead being a construct of Sandman masquerading as one. She is greatly frustrated when King Catnine almost instantly deduces what she is because she forgot to replicate the scent.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Boss Leader asks about Max's bat's powers and learns it controls metal like a magnet, much to her confusion as she tries to sort it out before deciding Max is 'thematically incoherent'.
- Leitmotif: The author's comment in for the page she first appears in reads: Boss Leader *guitar riff*
- Legacy Character: There have been at least four Boss Leaders before her, all in formalwear and with bandage-wrapped (or otherwise hidden) faces, and all mediums for the wight Sandman. Chapter 7 shows their silhouettes, but reveals them to be the same entity pulling a looooong masquerade.
- Meaningful Name: Like she tells Max, her name is Boss Leader and she is the incredibly powerful head of a secret society of paranormal investigators.
- Nightmare Face: As it turns out, she can produce facial features, and they aren't pretty.
- Physical God: Though she's restricted to the Activity Consortium headquarters and the dreams of others, her power there is essentially unlimited.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Played With. She is one of many entities with some kind of agenda regarding Mayview, but one of the most sympathetic. She shows genuine concern for Spender and Agent Day both, and extends it to Max over his sudden loss of consciousness during chapter four. What ends up compromising her image is her inability to work on a level playing field: she can only approach others in dreams, where she has absolute control, and Chapter 7 shows her to be willing to delete others' memories to keep her secrets.
- Shapeshifting Trickster: She is capable of changing shape with absolute disregard for the laws of physics, making her hands into scissors and reassembling her face being some examples. She also loves to mess with her underlings, either for entertainment or for more obscure motives.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Her speaking style ranges from formal to very casual.Boss Leader: I can't account for the obstruction of unrelated data by the circuitous teaching style of Richard Darkstorme Spender. I have no idea what his real middle name is so I just made one up.
- Unreliable Expositor: To what extent isn't known, but at least some of the information she's given out has been false.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Despite being overall friendly, well-meaning and willing to compromise, the reveal that Boss Leader is actually Sandman has so far turned every adult who has learned this against her, such that Boss leader reluctantly erases Isaac and King Catnine's memories of this fact, and implicitly has done so before. Boss Leader apparently wants to work alongside humanity and keep people safe, but the fact that their leader is a non-human spirit instantly undermines all trust in her the second this is revealed. Franciso Guerra, having somehow deduced this, is able to steadily build up his dojo's ranks by revealing the Awful Truth to Consortium agents, with Crush implying most of them joined out of disillusionment with the Consortium because of Boss leader 'tricking' them.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Seems to be a result of her dream powers; Boss Leader can transform her body into damn near any form she chooses, and does so fluidly, swiftly, and without being restrained by such petty things as biology or physical laws. As a dream construct created by Sandman for the purposes of pretending to be human, she's presumably able to take any form Sandman wants.
Agent Walker
Texas Walker
"Wussa matter, Ricky-boy? Were you expectin'... a fart joke?"
One of Boss Leader's subordinates. Not the brightest bulb on the tree and constant target of Boss Leader's trolling.- Ambiguously Bi: While unconfirmed, Texas says this in one of the pages:Texas: Wisecracker, huh?? I'll have you know that there door swings both ways!
Spender: ...Should I read into that?
Texas: [chugs dream beer] Yes.- However, he follows this up by explaining that since his room is a manifestation of his subconscious, it's only natural that things should come out as easily as they get in, so it's not clear if he also meant it in a "being bi" way or if he's just oblivious to the innuendo.
- Dumb Muscle: He's not the guy Boss Leader sends when she needs someone to be clever. He's the guy Boss Leader sends when she needs things broken.
- Hypocrite: Goes on a long rant about how much he values truth, including giving away random trivia of himself that Spender didn't ask for, but has made it apparent that he keeps secrets of his own.
- Innocent Innuendo: Texas declares that the door to his mental room swings both ways, then follows up on Spender's question of if he should "read into that" with a Blunt "Yes". He goes on to explain that since his room is a manifestation of his subconscious, it's only natural that things should come out as easily as they get in.
- Large Ham: Chews the scenery during his conversation with Spender and Boss leader.
- Punny Name: And a Shout-Out to a certain other Walker.
- Unusual Eyebrows: They're chevron-shaped and hover above the brim of his hat, somehow.
- Will Not Tell a Lie: Outright states this. It backfires when he actually has to keep something a secret.
Dr. Zarei
Dr. Mina Zarei
"Heh heh... a girl has her ways."
A Consortium scientist who tamed the Ghost Train. Along with Spender, she was once a student of Francisco's dojo.- Affectionate Nickname: Sockpuppy refers to Zarei as "Meeny".
- Always Someone Better: In a conversation with Patchworm, she refers to "her" as someone who could control spirits that didn't match her color. Who this is, remains unknown.
- The Beastmaster: She's capable of commanding spirits that don't match her spectral energy color (a feat several characters note is very difficult to do In-Universe), most notably allowing her to control the Ghost Train. She also created some of them, including Hijack, a possibility most characters don't even seem aware of.
- The Chessmaster: She befriends Isabel because she knows she'll keep an eye on Spender out of concern, and if that doesn't work she'll try and get Isaac who'd spy on him out of spite. Her spirit Patchworm has a better idea: just talk to him.
- Childhood Friends: With Spender, though they've since drifted and haven't kept in touch.
- The Confidant: In the past, at least — she was close enough to Spender that she didn't expect him to hide things from her. When Spender becomes secretive about what happened with the Ghost Train, she tries to be this to Isabel too, but doesn't have much luck.
- Deadpan Snarker: Geez, her sarcasm can be really biting.Zarei: It's a good thing you called me when you did. Had I arrived a moment later it might have left a scab.
- First-Name Basis: Constantly addresses Spender by his first name, Richard.
- Fluffy Tamer: The only person who can control the Ghost Train, which is otherwise wild. It's also shown she can control more than one, with Patchworm as her actual partner.
- Formerly Fat: Mina was rather chubby around the age of 21 as shown in the chapter 7 flashback.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Chapter 8 page 52 reveals that Zarei is dangerously close to this, as a conversation between a younger Hijack and Sockpuppy reveals that one of the reasons that Zarei fears the Fear Witch so much was the latter's ability to control others (with the Witch referred to as a "nasty body-snatcher". The two spirits are too young to grasp the implications that their abilities, along with the creation of their siblings and indeed much of Zarei's research, are her attempt to gain some of that control for herself, possibly to reclaim what may have been lost to the witch.
- Healing Hands: She can use her palm to transfer wounds to other places so she can operate on them remotely. She does this on a bite wound that could have required stitches; the only marks remaining are the parts she didn't touch.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: She attempts to stay stoic and distant, and refers to spirits that she works with as "assets", but she actually cares for them deeply. Patchworm says that she used to be more open about it in the past.
- The Man Behind the Man: Sent Hijack to spy on Spender, though he apparently went a bit rogue.
- Missed Him by That Much: In Chapter 5, she arrives at the middle school mere minutes too late to save Hijack from being killed by Cody.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Rather than tear into Isabel for trying to steal medicine, Zarai instead asks who it was for. She likewise doesn't force Isabel to explain what happened aboard the Ghost Train, respecting the reasons why the wound was kept a secret, although she hopes that Spender is worth the loyalty.
- Ship Tease: With Agent Day.
- Stoic Spectacles: The cast page describes her as "one cool customer". Her response to being pressured to give up the Ghost Train is to return the challenge readily. Said spectacles (black with three dots on the sides) appear to house her spirit Patchworm (black, with three dots on one side).
- Straight Gay: Aside from alt text on one page and Patchworm stating it as a fact she doesn't have any overt signs that she is gay.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Well, orange, but close enough.
- The Medic: Often carries a number of potions for medical calls within Mayview, capable of healing both humans and ghosts. One should be careful when stealing from her, though, given one of them
sublimates flesh, as in turns it into a gas. - Twofer Token Minority: Between the headscarf and the surname "Zarei", it's pretty unambiguous that she's of Middle Eastern extraction, and she's gay.
Agent Day
Agent Valerie Day
"Heyy! Are you okay?"
An agent the Consortium sent to investigate activities in Mayview. Not exactly the most violent woman in the comic.- Armor-Piercing Question: Levels a barrage of questions at Mina, but specifically asks what she's researching if she never shares her results.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Comes off as highly ditzy, fangirling, and a classic Cloud Cuckoo Lander... yet is surprisingly perceptive, barrages Mina with a series of very cutting questions, managed to tame the spirit train (in a sense), and finds Mina's threats adorable.
- Black Bead Eyes: Seemingly because of her blindness, as she's the only character with eyes like these.
- Blind Weaponmaster: Kinda. She mostly got lucky with the blind arrow she shot and is immediately glad that the arrow didn't hit Max and cause him to fall in love with her.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Traveled to Mayview with no belongings other than the clothes on her back and saved up money, and walked all the way from her hotel to lunch with Mina (implied to be across most of the town) in sandals she bought that morning rather than get a taxi.
- Flower Motifs: Roses. Her cane looks like a bouquet of roses (with a bushel of flowers for a handle and one long "thorn" for the pole), and the dream realm her spirit resides in is absolutely crawling in roses and thorns.
- Heart Symbol: They feature throughout her design. Her hair bun and the insides of her ears are shaped like hearts, her tie has hearts on it, and her mouth and tongue sometimes appear heart-shaped.
- It's Personal:
- She grew up in Mayview, and is personally motivated to uncover what's become of her hometown. Boss Leader admits that the mission she sent Day on is probably asking a lot from the latter, but sending other, more objective agents on less dangerous missions to the town in the past never managed to turn up anything.
- She has some connection to Max's mother. She's implied to be the older sister of the twins who Max hung out with in a flashback, and Max casually rattles off a number of facts about her the day after she comes to town despite having had no opportunity to speak to her. In chapter 7, she mentions a promise made to June Puckett.
- Love Potion: Her spirit allows her to shoot Love Arrows that cause this sort of effect. She gets introduced when she shoots one of them in response to Max's screaming and it hits the Ghost Train, causing it to fall for Max.
- Mundane Utility: She can communicate with the spirit bound to her cane to get a quick description of her surroundings, but because it takes a few seconds, she can't use it in an emergency. It also serves as a way to eavesdrop on other Spectrals who try to talk with their spirits within her hearing.
- Rainbow Speak: Sometimes says keywords and phrases in red text. This has been lampshaded by other characters in-comic.
- Ship Tease: With Mina.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Played with. She has a "Cupid's arrow" power and her name is Valerie Day, nicknamed "Val", making her name suggestive of "Valentine's Day". Spender assumes her full first name to be Valentine, only to be proven wrong.
- Super-Cute Superpowers: Her only shown ability so far is one to make characters fall in love. Her spectral color is even pink to boot.
- Twofer Token Minority: Is black, plus-sized, disabled, and isn't straight.
Agent Stix
Agent Stix
An agent with two film reels on her head like Mickey Mouse ears. Her powers seem to be the ability to affect time in a manner similar to manipulating film (e.g., rewind).
- Early-Bird Cameo: She appears in Chapter 4 but goes unnamed until Chapter 7.
- Funetik Aksent: Has a prominent Baxborough accent, so much so it's apparently audible even when she's screaming.Agent Stix: Youz sure getta lotta juicy hweeyermz for a caged boid. Must have yaself a real pritty voice.
Agent Stucks: Juicy what? - Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Averted when she uses her powers on herself, since it rewinds both her actions and her memories of her actions; to her, it never happened. This also means she believes herself either incapable of or unlikely to make mistakes, since she can just undo whatever she did wrong with no recollection of having done anything wrong.
- Time Master: To avoid falling to her death, she rewinds her actions to before she climbed on top of Mayview's barrier. Unfortunately, this also rewound her memory, as she immediately goes to climb the barrier again.
Agent Stucks
Gecko Stucks
A lizardman who can make anything adhesive.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He appears in Chapter 4 but goes unnamed until Chapter 7.
- Meaningful Name: He's a lizardman named Gecko. Also, his powers stick objects together or to himself (i.e., they become stuck).
- They Would Cut You Up: He's afraid of showing himself in public out of fear the government will capture and dissect him.
Agent Popova
Pasha Popova
A Consortium agent that Spender actually seems to like. Her power turns her into a Matryoshka Object that spawns smaller versions of herself.
- Body Horror: Because her own body is a Matryoshka Object, this means she contains smaller versions of herself inside herself and her bodies can be split apart in half the same way you would split apart a Matryoshka doll. Even when her halves are separated, she's still conscious and can move around, and she has a void inside her body when empty of her mini-selves.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She appears in Chapter 4 but goes unnamed until Chapter 7.
- Me's a Crowd: She can essentially make smaller and smaller clones of herself, allowing her to be more easily carried for purposes of, say, reconnaissance.
- Resized Vocals: Each smaller Popova has a higher voice than the last. Her coworkers think this is cute.
- Uncertain Doom: She apparently got knocked out during a fight, which is why Spender runs into her at headquarters in Chapter 4. When she dissipates from the dream, her teammate nervously hopes that she just woke up and wasn't eaten.
Agent Summers
Agent Summers
Spender's former mentor.
- Badass Longcoat: The only image of Summers shows them from behind wearing a long jacket, and Jean fondly remembers them fighting spirits with flames.
- Meaningful Name: Summers not only fits in with her ability to manipulate fire, but also Foreshadows her true identity, June Puckett, IE Max's mom.
- Playing with Fire: They had the ability to manipulate flame, though whether they were a medium or used a tool is unknown.
Partner Spirits
Patchworm
"you are hiding under a table from a blind woman"
A cocoon-like spirit with one eye that peeks through. Bound to Mina Zarei. Speaks in lowercase, rainbow-colored type over black speech bubbles. Her spirit realm is a dark forest.- Dark Is Not Evil: A soft-spoken and kindhearted giant black cocoon, but has one of the closest and warmest relationships with her partner out of all the shown bound spirits.
- Physical Attribute Swap: What Patchworm's ability seems to be. Mina uses it once to replace one of Jean's eyes with part of her hand, with the eye appearing on her palm. She can also use it to heal others' injuries by taking the patch of skin and peeling it off her hands, sending it back afterward.
- Rainbow Speak: All her speech is in multicolored text.
- Shipper on Deck: Is very glad when Mina starts letting her guard down around Day.
Sandman (Spoilers)
- Gentle Giant: Despite its large size Sandman isn't hostile, and the Wight Wail it gave in its introduction is for the people around it to not be scared.
- Intrigued by Humanity: Enough so to pretend to be Boss Leader and create the Activity Consortium as a way to give Spectrals purpose, and Boss Leader explicitly mentions she possesses great envy for humanity at one point.
- No Name Given: Since Wight Wail is a language of pure emotion, it's impossible for Sandman to tell anyone its actual name. The Consortium just calls it 'Sandman' out of convenience. She always preferred Boss Leader, though.
- Unreliable Expositor: Almost everything Boss Leader told us about Wights in general, and especially Sandman in particular, is either called into question or confirmed outright false when it becomes clear that Boss Leader is Sandman.
- Walking Spoiler: For reasons beyond just being a wight...
- Weird Moon: Takes the form of a coal-black crescent moon draped in some sort of patchwork blanket, with a long nose and a beady yellow eye.
Venus Guytrap
"Thou hast thy proof."
Day's spirit, a plant spirit with a Venus flytrap mouth and thorned, flowering vines. Uses statue pieces to emote. His spirit realm is a Greek-styled ruin covered in rosebushes and thorned vines.- Boss Subtitles: Holds up a placard on his introductory page reading: "Man-Eating Spirit Plant - Venus Guytrap"
- Flower Motif: Roses are kinda his thing.
- Man-Eating Plant: A very large carnivorous plant, although we haven't seen him eating anything.
- Mundane Utility: What Day uses him for outside of combat. He acts as her seeing-eye spirit, describing things and reading for her when need be.
- Punny Name: Guytrap... flytrap... yeah.
- Something about a Rose: His domaine has a rose theme, and his vines are covered in them.
- Stealth Pun: He's a plant spirit with a big rose motif who speaks in colorful prose or, in other words, flowery language.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Speaks like this.
The Ghost Train
- Cool Train: A train spirit that can distort things around it.
- Load-Bearing Hero: In a sense. When the train is killed due to a misunderstanding, it leaves everyone trapped inside the town until it regenerates.
- Skull for a Head: Its face/cowcatcher resembles a skull.
- Space Master: It can distort objects to bend them out of its path. It remains one of the only methods of crossing the spectral- and spirit-proof barrier around town.
Zarei's Creations
Hijack
"Y'know, I'm usually pretty good at my job. Sneaking in, sneaking out. Silent infiltration. Turns out I'm in a really bad mood today, though. So today I'm playing the vengeful spirit."
A spirit who is trying to infiltrate the teacher's lounge at Mayview Middle School. Later revealed to be one of Zarei's creations.- 90% of Your Brain: He claims that this is why his hosts are much stronger than they normally are. He's probably wrong, though.Hijack: Well the brain is like a muscle and you only use like ten percent of your brain, but I'm one hundred percent brain, so—
Max: GOD SHUT UP I HATE YOU - Achilles' Heel: As powerful as it is, his ability to possess others' bodies has one specific weakness. He can only possess living bodies, meaning that a vampire like Dave Jones is immune to it.
- Anti-Villain: He wants to be a hero, like how he sees Mina, but has little control over his emotions and ends up doing more harm than good. This is somewhat understandable, considering that he's only three years old.
- Arc Villain: Of chapter 5.
- Artificial Human: Was created by Mina three years ago.
- Artsy Beret: After being bisected, his creative right half wears a beret.
- Berserk Button: Bullying, especially when it's implied he's doing it.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Possessed people gain these, with glowing red pupils.
- Body Horror: When Jeff is possessed by him, veins all over his body bulge from beneath his skin, even on his fingertips.
- Bully Hunter: Is seemingly trying to take revenge on Johnny and his gang for picking on Jeff.
- Demonic Possession: If the above tropes didn't make it clear.
- Didn't See That Coming: He was very confident that he would be able to possess Dave Jones once they made physical contact, only to find out that his possession power doesn't work on undead.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Is shocked when he realizes who the Vice Principal is actually attacking:Hijack: Wait, you mean you don't know I'm— Do you stalk and capture NORMAL students?!
Vice Principal: (flatly) Does it look to you like I haven't done this before - Hates Johnny and his gang for being bullies.Hijack: How do you JUSTIFY leaving a helpless kid on the ground and the verge of tears? Oh, right: by never giving any poor sap you hurt a millisecond thought. You're kind or cruel on instinct, protecting your friends and attacking anybody else. Self-centered, without a scrap of AMBITION. Warriors of whim and base anger. Honestly... what a waste of good violence.
- Is shocked when he realizes who the Vice Principal is actually attacking:
- Half the Man He Used to Be: He meets his end when Cody bifurcates him using Davy's hook-sword. The end of the next chapter though reveals he's still alive, or whatever the equivalent for spirits is. It seems Cody used Exact Words and as ordered cut Hijack in two, separating Left and Right brains with Visual Puns.
- Heel Realization: He comes to realize just how much of a hypocritical jerk he was being while he was possessing Jeff after Max calls him out on it all.
- Hypocrite:
- Despite his ranting over being disgusted at Johnny's violent antics, also claiming he doesn't want to hurt anyone because he's "not evil", he still ends up attacking with way more force than what's necessary during hitball, while also vocally contemplating sadistic options for how he wants to beat Johnny and Max.
- He also criticises Johnny and his friends for never having greater purposes behind their actions, yet his own greater purpose - to gather intel on Spender and Isabel, specifically about the Ghost Train incident - was compromised by his spur of the moment decision to go all-out on revenge.
- Misplaced Retribution: Blamed Spender and the club for their brother's destruction, unaware that it wasn't their fault.
- People Puppets: What his possession of Spender looks like when he's talking to Lucifer.
- Really Was Born Yesterday: Was created by Mina three years ago.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: After being bisected, his logical left half wears glasses.
- Time Dissonance: To him, twenty-six is positively ancient.
- Wrong Context Magic: His possession is different than Medium possession, able to control a person easily and move from one to another easily, the possessed not remembering anything when he does so. The possessed, if a normal human, is also as intangible to spectral energy as they normally are.
Sockpuppy
One of Zarei's creations, made when she was younger. As his name implies, he's a dog-shaped sock puppet. He can control other spirits and is the one controlling the Ghost Train.
- Cute Critters Act Childlike: He was initially created as a simple child's toy and companion before Zarei integrated him into her goals. As such, he retains a childlike personality even when Zarei enters adulthood."Meeny? Is everything hunky-dokey? Wanna sing a happy song?"
- The Nicknamer: Sockpuppy refers to most people by nickname, most of the ones he gives take a part of the person's name and adds a suffix making the "ee" sound, such as Mina as Meeny, Ventrillobite as Trilly. The exception to this among his siblings is Hijack, who he calls jack-jack. They also call Consortium agents "pajama people".
- Uncertain Doom: The bisected halves of Hijack, arguing with each other, reveal that the opinion of Zarei and the rest of her spirits is that Sockpuppy was still within the Ghost train when it was turning into a grudge and was therefore absorbed by the larger spirit when it changed. However, whilst the damage from the train's grudification did vaporise Sockpuppy's corporeal form, a Freeze-Frame Bonus in chapter 4 shows their wisp form just barely managed to leave the train via the smokestack before the head fully transformed. Whether they managed to possess an object or faded afterwards is unknown, although a few days having passed without making contact with Zarei indicates that if they did survive, they're currently incapable of free movement.
- You Are Number 6: Zarei refers to them as "13"/"Thirteen" in front of others, since she's trying to hide her actions and creations from the Consortium. Also, Sockpuppy is a silly name to say in public.
Ventrilobite
Another of Zarei's creations, Ventrilobite appears to have been made from a wind-up teeth toy and other materials. Its ability is Emotion Control.
- Ambiguous Situation: Its ability helps keep the Ghost Train calm should Sockpuppy lose control, as demonstrated in Chapter 7's Flashback Arc. The fact that the Ghost Train went berserk and was mistakenly killed in the present day implies Ventrilobite's absence. Why wasn't it with Zarei? Did something happen to it?
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Sockpuppy refers to it as their younger sister and is annoyed at its antics.Sockpuppy: I miss being an only child.
- Emotion Control: Capable of inducing emotions and suppressing them. When suppressing emotions, it doesn't erase anything, just lessens the severity.
- In-Series Nickname: Sockpuppy calls it "Trilly". Could be an Affectionate Nickname if Sockpuppy wasn't so annoyed with it.
- Mundane Utility: While it seems that Ventrilobite's primary purpose is to help control the Ghost Train, Zarei uses it to keep herself calm during her camping trip with Spender, Garcia, and Isabel.
Other spirits
More of Zarei's artificial creations that have had passing appearances. Among them are Hitbox and Hotwire. Sockpuppy has mentioned a few by nickname, "Smelly" and "Tasty".
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their fights, Hotwire cries over a photo of Hijack when he's gone missing.
- Demonic Possession: All of Zarei's creations shown thus far have powers to control things. Sockpuppy can possess spirits, Hijack can control living beings, Ventrilobite with emotions, Hitbox with items, and judging from his name, Hotwire may likely be capable of possessing vehicles. Curiously, whatever they possess does not gain spectral energy after they are no longer controlled, if they did not already have, such as Jeff.
- Our Homunculi Are Different: Everyone one of them was artificially created by Zarei.
- Meaningful Name: Hitbox allows non-poltergeist spirits to interact with non-haunted tools.
- Sibling Rivalry: Hotwire has one with Hijack, constantly fighting each other.
- Sudden Name Change: Hitbox was renamed in Chapter 8, where in Chapter 5 they were originally named Toolbox.
