Otto and his friends were playing in the yard next to their apartment building when something caught their eye. A large, lavender-colored emergency van with chrysolite strobe lights maneuvered through the gateway and into the yard between the mid-rise buildings. The van's rooftop antenna kit brushed against the tree branches as it parked next to one of the buildings, the springtime sky above out of step with the strangeness afoot; the vehicle belonged to the Geistaktivitätverteidigungsdienst, an emergency service for all things occult, and advertised its allegiance to any passerby. 

The schoolkids ran over to the van after it stopped, with the two beast-folk kids - Otto and Erdene - leading the group. They looked at the workers stepping out of the van, wearing their lavender-colored padded trenchcoats, impact helmets, and carrying gas masks in their side bags. Everyone had a single question on their minds: what did the Geisters need in their yard all of a sudden? Was there a haunting nearby? Otto walked over to one of them - a Geister officer with a short haircut, wearing an officer's cap and a lighter coat - when she stepped down from the passenger seat door as the other personnel started unloading complicated-looking electronic equipment from the back.

"Hey, are you from the Geisters?" Otto asked.

"Yeah, kid. Do you want safety advice or tall tales or anything else?" she responded.

"Naw, but... what's going on? Is there a haunting?" Otto asked the Geister.

"Not a haunting as such." the Geister replied. "But our radars and ectoflux detectors, they've been picking up some unusual energy spikes in the district. We narrowed things down and converged here, on your yard and a couple of others nearby. Actually... have any of you seen anything strange, weird, or eldritch, or occult lately?"

Otto and the other kids started thinking, trying to remember anything. Even with their overactive imaginations, it wasn't easy; their part of the city was placid, quiet, and altogether boring. "Well, uh, we heard a seance has gone weird for Frau Rosenhof recently!" Erdene said. "And we've been hearing strange noises at 7:22 in the evening, like clockwork!" another of their friends piped up.

"Is that everything?" the Geister asked.

"I think it is..." Erdene said, not sure they could remember anything else.

"Good enough for us." the Geister said. "We are, after all, the kind of people to chase myths and legends. Can you go get your parents, and really just everyone? We need to ask around; it's very important."

Some of the other kids ran off to get their parents or relatives, including Erdene, but Otto stayed next to the Geisters - he wouldn't miss a chance to gawk at the detection equipment they were unloading. There were large boxy electronic devices, branch-like antennae, different-colored lights and parabolic microphones, a transparent box of loose crystals attached to mesh-insulated cables, and who knows what else. The Gesiter next to Otto noticed his interest, seeing it as the two almost looked eye-to-eye thanks to Otto's height, and said:

"Hey, if you want to see us in action, stay around after we question all the people about strange goings-on. We're likely going to need to climb some buildings if we want to install all these detection devices."

"Detection?" Otto asked back. He was interested to know - just what was it that the Geisters were looking for?

"We're going to try and find what's causing the activity spikes." the Geister replied as others finished unloading the equipment and began to check it for functionality. "Who knows what we'll find? It might be a spirit trying to breach into the material world, or a ghost attempting to signal to the living. The possibilities are endless! But just between you and me, I don't think this is weird enough that they'll have Gurkenmacher on the case."

Otto nodded. Most people in the country have heard of the sheer extravagance of Lt. Gurkenmacher. "Okay!" he said. He turned around, and saw a bunch of people approach - his own parents, and many others, who were all called over by the kids. Erdene pointed towards the Geisters to their parents, and then walked over, asking: "Otto, did you find out what's going on?"

"It could be anything, it seems!" he responded. "That's what she's saying." he said, nodding to the Geister.

"Yeah, we're going to have to install detectors to narrow it down." the Geister said. "I'm Zofia Aneta Nelissen, from the Eisenheim-Stadt Geister service. Can I have everyone's attention, please?" she said, showing her Geister badge to establish her credentials.

Over half an hour, Zofia has questioned the local people in a fair amount of detail. A couple of new bizarre occurrences have cropped up, and it became clear there was something strange going on in the neighborhood - but it wasn't known what. Otto and Erdene, meanwhile, looked at the other Geisters as they ventured into onto the roof of their apartment building and into the attics of other buildings nearby, setting up their meshed detection network and connecting the devices together. The rustle of recently-sprouted tree leaves in the wind and the birdsong made quite a background for the Geisters' quiet, methodical way of setting up their electronic and occult creations. After everything was clear, Zofia has taken out a poster, unrolled it, and plastered it onto the bulletin board next to the building - the poster displaying the Geisters' official phone number for the city and other useful info in big, legible letters.

"Here. If you see anything untowardly astral or occult, anything at all, don't be afraid to call this number." she said. "We are very interested to know what is going on here; it may be a matter of safety, or perhaps scientific understanding - we're not sure yet."

As Geisters got ready to depart, Zofia nodded to Otto and Erdene, along with the other kids, as she loaded up into the Geister van, with the several others getting in as well.

"Hey kids, keep your eyes open." she said. "We live in a world where the strangest mysteries can lurk behind any fence or shed or tree. Never let boredom dull your senses." She made a military-style two-finger salute with a smile, and got into the van's passenger seat, the vehicle duly trundling out of the inner yard and out towards the street to get on its way back home.