#I just escaped interview hell so I’m super free and can finish a lot of comms fairly quickly!

[finelinevogue]

I love your “little moments” series… I have a weak spot for dad!Harry💕 and I love the relationship between the family’s members 🤗 and I really hope u will continue to update it! And for this series I would like to request Harry doing the 73 questions interview for Vogue and his kids and wife make an appearance (u can choose if the kids are toddlers or teens) and they even answer some questions OR an Howard Stern interview where Harry is asked about his family,maybe the host makes like not so nice-low key shady comments on his wife and on Harry’s daughter coming out story. Ok I’ m done, so sorry ik it’s so long 😅 it’s just I love your series sooo muchhh 🥰🥰 ok I’m done love u have a good day 😘

i’d love to answer this one!! thank you so much for loving my little series💕this one’s for you and for the other request i got which i’m combing with this: “Harry is doing a interview on facetime when his kid crashes the interview.” so pls enjoy and yeah enjoy;

oli - 6, felix - 4, belle - 1

The day had finally arrived for Harry Styles to complete the 73 Questions with Vogue.

It had come to be the promo for ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ and his schedule was booked with interview after interview after interview, and it wasn’t ideal for this to all be happening months whilst also having to look after three meddling toddlers, one of whom had only recently turned 1 years old.

The house was chaos. Fun, but chaos. And it was also the setting of this interview.

“Alright you lot, this way.” You shoved your children along to your living room, giving Harry the space he needed with Joe Sabia - the interviewer.

“Thank you love, see you later.” He blew a kiss to you and returned his focus to Joe. This interview was the first of many and it was also a major marketing ploy. These types of interviews were so highly recommended for Harry to be involved in and Jeff had thought it was about time for him to do one.

Joe had arrived around 15 minutes ago, just to

run over the script and remind Harry of the pre-determined questions - which reminded him of the answers that you’d run through with him the night before. Now the cameras were set up, the mic people were all at stand-by and Joe was ready it was time to begin. The children had been so fascinated by all these new people, after not seeing anyone for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is why it took a lot of trouble to get them to shuffle away from their beloved dad.

A fake door knock arose.

“Harry Styles hello!”

“Hi!” Harry waved at the camera.

“I’m here to do the Vogue 73 Questions, shall we get to it?”

“Of course! Come in!” Harry welcomed Joe into the house and shut the door behind him, not trusting his little ones to not escape if they were running wild.

“Beautiful house! Is it your only one?”

“No, but it’s my only one in London.” Harry made a point of not exploiting how many houses he did have and where they were. In fact, you still didn’t know about the Island that he was currently investing in just for you. You were a huge conservation activist and so Harry thought you could spend your free time helping the fragile ecosystem on this island.

“Did you design it yourself?”

“Me and my wife built the plans, but we go the experts to finish it all off.”

“What’s your favourite room?”

“Um, probably the living room.”

“Why?”

“So many of my favourite memories have happened in there.”

“Could you give us some?”

Harry could give loads, but they were far too precious for him to just give away. The living room wasn’t even a massive room, it was quite quaint with a couple of sofas, a logwood fire and then rugs and paintings on the walls. It was a home within a home. It was where Felix had taken his first steps. It was where Oli had spoken his first words. It was where Belle had fallen over for the first time and given herself nasty carpet burn. It was where presents were opened at Christmas. It was where you and Harry had made love next to the fire. It was where Felix and Oli had had their first tiny argument. It was where you spent family nights. If your house was a map then that room marked X the spot.

It was treasure. Priceless.

“My favourite would probably be when my wife, Y/N, spilt red wine all over the new white carpet and then proceeded to throw white wine over the stain because she’d read somewhere that it helps to get rid of it.” Harry chuckled at the memory.

“Did it?”

“No, God no. The carpet’s grey now.”

Joe laughed, as did Harry.

“I have to say Harry, you’re looking very fashionable today who are you wearing?”

“Gucci.” He blushed, because he knew that everyone would’e known that without question. He was wearing a lilac silk shirt with his name embroidered on it - but really it was to symbolise your last name not his - with a white wife-beater shirt and white shorts. He looked rich.

“Shouldn’t have asked really? Is your wife as much a Gucci avid fan?”

“She hates anything expensive. I think she still wears the same jeans she was wearing at university!” He knew you’d hit him later for saying that.

“So she’s a hoarder?”

“God yeah. She keeps everything and anything.” Harry laughed in admiration.

“Has she always been?”

“Always. When we went on our first date, her bag was so full that she couldn’t find her purse and she was so embarrassed because she thought I would think she was taking advantage of who I was. Anyways I did end up paying that night, but she had actually, I don’t know how, sent me money for her portion of the bill. From that moment I knew it was going to be her.”

“Do you write songs about her?

“Every day.” He smiled at the thought of the one he’d written just this morning.

“Which one is your favourite about her?”

“I don’t know about favourite, but the one I hold closest to my heart is probably ‘Fine Line’.” Harry stopped there, not wanting to share the intimate details of why and Joe respected that.

“Do your children have a favourite song of yours?”

“They go crazy for Kiwi and Golden. Belle loves Treat People and Oli knows the dance to that one actually.”

“Did you choreograph the dance for TPWK?”

“Partially, but I had help from my friend Paul and Y/N helped too actually.”

Harry and Joe had now made it through the house, weaving in and out of rooms, until they had made it to the Garden. Unfortunately, you’d forgotten to shut the bifold doors to the living room and so as soon as Harry came into focus for your children they immediately ran for him. Oli and Felix could run quite well, but Belle was a lot slower. She was only learning how to walk and so she fell a lot, unless she was being supported by you or Harry. Oli reached his dad first and then Felix, to which Harry knelt down to embrace them in ‘super-dad’ hugs as he liked to call them.

“And who do we have here?” Joe asked.

“Trouble.” Harry replied in jest, but whispered something into his boys ears before backing away.

“Hello i’m Oli.” Oli waved proudly to the camera.

“Hi i’m Fix.” Feliz shied into his dads neck, embarrassed of himself. Harry kissed the back of his head and kept a hold oh him around his back for comfort.

“Fix?” Joe asked at the peculiar name.

“It’s Felix, but he can’t pronounce his own name for some reason so we just call him Fix now. Or Flix. Don’t we buddy?”

“Oh my! I’m so sorry about this!” You ran out in panic, knowing your one job was to keep the kids entertained and away from their dad. At least that was the original plan, but both Harry and Joe like this idea so much more. You were blushing red in embarrassment, picking up a fallen over Belle on your way over to everyone else. “So sorry.”

Belle became restless in your arms, reaching forward for her dad. She whined when she couldn’t quite reach and Harry immediately stood up to take his winging daughter from your arms. As he did, he leant into you and whispered in your ear whilst leaving it a warm kiss behind.

“You’re okay love. Don’t be sorry.”

“Hello Y/N!” Joe spoke.

“Hiya! How are you?”

“I’m great, and you?”

“Peachy.” You laughed, leaning down to collect Felix who was making grabby hands at you. Oli was quite happy standing next to both his parents, one of Harrys hands running through his tiny locks of hair.

“So now we have the family together, how do you feel to all be together?”

You looked to Harry smiled to find him smiling back already at you, knowing you both had a very similar answer. “It feels right. It feels like home.” You answered and Harry nodded in agreement, giving Belle a gentle rock in his arms.

“Are you okay with showing your children’s faces publicly?”

“No we’re not.”

“Looks like we have a hell of a lot of editing to do back at HQ.” Joe laughed, but completely understood the reasoning behind yours two decision. If needed, you could re-film scenes of this interview so that it didn’t include your children. Joe had done his best to keep the camera on you and Harry and luckily the children kept their faces buried in their parents necks anyways. “Is that going to be forever?”

“When they are old enough to decide whether they want to be in the spotlight then we’ll see.” Harry smiled, holding onto Belle tighter because all he wanted to do was keep her protected, and his, forever.

“You two seem like very good parents.” Joe spoke sincerely, and it made you swallow down a sob because it was always really lovely to hear such compliments - knowing you’d struggled with postnatal depression.

“Thank you Joe.” Harry nodded respectfully.

“Okay let’s carry on?”

The interview carried on until Harry had answered so many questions. He redid bits, due the children being too involved and he re-filmed answers to questions he found difficult to answer the first time around. He had such a great experience and was happy with the way that the day turned out.

[natsunoomoi]

Finished Main Story of SVSSS....

So yeah, I did that. I still really liked the story overall. Some parts are a bit problematic in a way, but also in a satisfying way that is complex and I think can refer to some real life relationships and complexities of that because not all relationships fit nicely into the little boxes and labels that we make and that’s my take away from the ending.

-Don’t like the in-story “original author” still, but also don’t dislike him as much as I did when I started the story now that I got more of his perspective. MXTX posted all of this for free not thinking it would go anywhere really, but it’s true that some people do have careers where they make a living off of their webnovels and fans buying chapters, so that pressure is there. I’m sure that because MXTX is also a fan of D. Gray-man, she’s aware of the similar pressures that even mangaka at JUMP face. Like BLEACH basically ended early because it fell out of popularity with the fans just as Airplane mentions happens to some novel works. To be fair, BLEACH also lifted an entire plotline from another popular supernatural manga including carbon copies of the lackeys of the villain for that arc, so some shade was also deserved. Like Yukio is just Amanuma Tsukihito with a PSP instead of an arcade system or Super Famicom. D. Gray-man itself has also been on hiaitus several times due to health concerns and such. Same as Hunter x Hunter and other prolific manga. The pressure is real and some ways the original author is kind of a mood. He’s also still a huge coward and that’s annoying.

-I feel worse for Shen Jiu than when I did when I was just reading his backstory off of the wikis and stuff from just wanting to see Shen Qingqiu’s beautiful face. Like I felt bad before, but after knowing more and witnessing some sentiments that would have been gut punches if Shen Jiu had heard them, I feel so bad for him. I don’t condone what he did, but I also get it and wish I could hug him. Basically about the same level of thought as I put into how much I like Emet-Selch, but I think overall in the end I love Emet-Selch more because the 5.3 patch update for FFXIV broke me. Man, that MSQ. Like I’ve never been opposed to liking villains and always thought some villains were cool. Like my sister worships Sephiroth from FFVII for instance, but like I was never really into Sephiroth’s motivations in that he’s cool, but his identity crisis didn’t quite strike me as like actually 100% believable that torching Nibelheim and trying to rescue Jenova was justified or a natural reaction someone in his position would have. I like him more than Cloud cuz Cloud is a hot fucking mess of a person and he’s overall just cool, but as a villain his motivations didn’t resonate with me.  A lot of people also really liked Kefka because he’s just straight up insane and like chaotic evil, but that kind of evil just isn’t compelling to me. Emet-Selch though straight up broke me and I thought about him for like months after the initial end of Shadowbringers when you do the fight with Hades. His story is ripe with meaning and nuance and the Tales from the Shadows stories adding more nuance and color to his eternal living torture of seeing remnants of people he cared about constantly without a break or a way to really “forget” and heal. That just stuck with me because I’ve lost people in my life too, and I remember what that was like and how hard it was to even live the day after let alone the following few years. I remember it well even today because it fundamentally changed me as a person, but I was able to find some relief and escape from music and entertainment and going out to have new experiences and travel. Emet-Selch could not, so his story really broke me internally. I bring this up just to make a comparison because I love Shen Jiu as well, but for nowhere near as dramatic a reason as I love Emet-Selch.

Spoilers under the cut

Okay, so since I was just talking about Shen Jiu, and maybe it’s partly because I actually find him to be gorgeous as well, but just reading his story did genuinely make me sad. I found his child form to be a little bit jaded already only because he was an older child already by the time he was bought by the Qius. When Yue Qingyuan was parting with him through the door he was being kind of manipulative there for extra sympathy initially, which isn’t really great. How severely the brother beat him though was hard to take. It was so extreme, like wtf? And perhaps the part where Qiu Haitang said that he’d been “freed” and the part where he was engaged seems to be true-ish, but yeah her brother is kind of really fucked up in how he still talks to him even though he is supposed to be his brother-in-law soon? Like what the hell. But like, the summaries of what he did online and even what Haitang had said also made it sound even more cold than it was. Like once he got going yeah, the onslaught was kind of cold. But he still had a moment of shock where like he didn’t really realize what he’d done right away and needed a moment to process. But after that it was like, well, it’s already done and people came to try to help the young master and he had to get out too. So the other people on the way out after that don’t sound nearly as consequential and it was really striking that not only did he not attack Haitang, but he spared all the other women in the house. Like Jesus Christ, were *ALL* the men in the house including the male servants and other slaves they had assholes to him too? Just, wow. But we don’t get a lot into what else happened there, but if the head of the household is bad and hurts him, it’s believable that other people join in just as Ming Fan joined in because Shen Jiu was complicit in allowing Binghe’s suffering. Really key though is the commentary of both the young master and his first evil master about his age. 

That is such a huge chip on his shoulder because everyone keeps bringing it the fuck up. Including Qingge in another memory later on when he’s already Peak Lord. I know they don’t like each other, but that was really mean. I realize Qingge probably doesn’t care and that was the point to throw salt in his wounds because they don’t like each other, but seeing how much it affected him by him breaking his fan with his hands after hearing that. I’ve had people do similar to me where they make an insensitive comment to try to hurt you without understanding the actual circumstances. My sister did that to me once and I reconciled with her for a bit, but decided not to talk to her anymore again because of some other bullshit with her friends being childish. But when she did similar to me, I never really forgave her for it either. My story is not nearly as dramatic, but basically I had quit a job where I was being bullied by coworkers at the start of the recession and I was looking for jobs, but no luck with anything I was qualified for even though I went on a few interviews. There actually weren’t many listings posted around that time, so I would only be able to find a couple to apply to and by the time my sister came home I’d be playing games to pass the time cuz I was bored out of my mind waiting for something to happen. So then we got in an argument for I forget the initial reason anymore, but she brought up how I “wasn’t looking” for a job and just seemed to be “being lazy” and I just got so pissed and yelled at her that she had no fucking idea what I was doing everyday and that I am looking and there isn’t anything fucking there. I also lost it and threw a stool at her. I’m not proud of it, but I totally get the mood of what it feels like for someone to use something that you are struggling with as a negative to throw in your face even though you are trying *SO* hard to do your best. I especially don’t want to hear that from someone who gave up on their desired career that they were actually good at and making a decent living at for money and also can’t tell when their friends are kissing up to them and crossing a line and won’t stand up to them for being shitty people. Teapot meet kettle, and don’t throw stones if you live in a glass fucking house. I don’t like low blows like that. 

My personal family issue aside though, I felt a lot of empathy for Shen Jiu in that moment. Seeing how he interacted with Binghe on their first meeting after that though, like I was sad for Binghe too, but I can also see where his misunderstanding happened on top of his insecurity. I also kind of wonder if Qingge’s comment also kind of encouraged this situation to happen.  I still like Qingge because he makes up for it a lot later, but yeah that was fucked up.

The gut punch later was when Qingyuan was seemingly dying and tried to apologize to Qingqiu, but all the words and the things Shen Jiu needed to hear. His years of misunderstanding and not knowing and being in pain and thinking he was abandoned. That was painful. Shen Jiu is gone. We don’t know where he is. Maybe he’s dead. No idea, but those are things he can never know. It’s already too late, and that’s crushing.

I still just really want to know more about Shen Jiu and I feel really sad that there wasn’t some kind of redemption for him or anything. Even if it’s like Shen Yuan going into the recesses of his own mind and finds Shen Jiu locked in a box somewhere so actually the both of them share the same body and he’s just watching in a tiny TV what Shen Yuan does with his body. He’d be really frustrated and would probably scream at him a lot with his screams completely unheard, but at least he’d get to see people liking him more and would be able to hear the words that Qingyuan spoke. I mentioned in an earlier post that I saw a theory about OG Qingqiu transmigrating into Shen Yuan when Shen Yuan takes over his body, and I think that’s possible because Shang Qinghua says that when he transmigrated he was born there and was since a baby? I was thinking maybe it’d be more like OG dies when OG Binghe kills him and then becomes Shen Yuan, but who knows.

I mean, also I just crave more information about him. He’s so unfortunate, and I like wish more went right for him so that he wouldn’t be so miserable. Like when you see a character where their life is just shit on, you just wish that you could do something to take away their pain.

And with that sentiment, that’s also why I found the ending to be satisfying but probably a little problematic. Like Shen Yuan is just a good guy and he has that same sentiment for Binghe just because he’s a poor kid with a shitty hand in life, but he’s also like really clearly not gay himself and not actually attracted to Binghe in that way. To be clear, the book does seem to discourage this kind of relationship in that it works in the way the narrative unfolded, but it isn’t one that would work in real life really. That’s part of the depth of it though. Like SY emotionally cares for him and he even remarks that he feels kind of more like his Dad, but the physical side of their relationship is more on Binghe’s side than his, and he acquiesces to it because he feels bad for him because this poor child has no one. And yeah, fine this works in an actual book that we’re all reading and this works within the system within the book where the MC is in a book himself with really screwed up logic rules, but I don’t recommend this method of getting with someone you like in real life. It will not end well. If someone you like is not into you, emotionally manipulating them and crying and also stalking them until they give their body to you out of desperation to console you is not the road to happiness. You also won’t have a pressure timer of life on earth ending by combining with actual hell to push them into bed with you. The fact that SY resorts to this in desperation in order to try to help Binghe to get control of the demon sword is admirable in the narrative of the story in that he’s doing it because he cares so much about this person and that’s fine, but it’s a red flag if anyone did this IRL and put their wishes aside to appease someone else. There will be a breakdown in the future as one person puts aside their needs for the other one completely. Partnerships that work are healthy and equal. That’s not what this is. In the story, the two characters have an understanding though that makes it fine, but I have second-hand anxiety for the idea that anyone would try to replicate this. This is not normally healthy.

But at the same time, the fact that the characters have an understanding to that is unique to their personal choice is also realistic in a sense that life is sometimes complicated and a similar situation could come about, but it is the choice of the people involved. With constant communication there’s a slim chance that maybe it could work out, but it’s hard. The main level of complexity I’m thinking of is that there’s different ways to care about other people or rather to just feel about other people. Like you can have like an intellectual attraction to other people in that you just like talking with them and you’re good friends with them because of that. You can be romantically attracted to someone, but also not feel sexual attraction too. Of course you can also feel physical attraction to someone, but not really care at all about them emotionally or even intellectually. SY has emotional feelings for Binghe, but it’s more on the parental side or even just human in not wanting him to suffer. If this were a points meter, his values for his emotions and just caring about him would be at max, while physical attraction and even romantic attraction are basically zero. Like he also just like cares about him in principle? Like as an all seeing reader you look at everything and are just like, wtf with this shit? How can one person suffer so much? As empthy or even sympathy you feel for them so then if the other person is more not asexual or aromantic that can trigger some feelings which is what happened between these two characters. The reason I say it isn’t necessarily bad, but some shakiness on execution too. But like say like an asexual person is romantically attracted to someone who isn’t asexual, but they still want to be with them. Like the non-ace person has some needs sometimes and even if the ace doesn’t feel it, because they care about their partner they acquiesce to their partner’s requests because they just want them to be happy. This kind of very personal choice situation I think is really similar to basically what ends up happening between SY Qingqiu and Binghe where SY isn’t really interested, but at the same time cares about Binghe’s well-being so much that he actually just wants him to be happy and reluctantly is okay with the situation. IRL though Binghe would be REALLY FRUSTRATING to be so unreasonably needy and like narcissistically abusive in wanting him all to himself an isolating him from his friends and being jealous of them. In comparison, Wangji and Wuxian are a great deal more balanced in comparison, but I also really like this book for the original idea and the complexity of SY’s ultimate choice because I feel like it’s also a bit more real that some people do make that kind of choice. It’s not healthy or guaranteed to be a success or happy experience, but it’s in the realm of possibilities for the kinds of personal choices people can make because the other person’s happiness is worth the minor discomfort.

Ah, I just have a lot of thoughts about this. Part of it stems from myself being ace also and what that means for me. But also getting to the end, I think Qingge is a fellow ace and also similar to me, just serious about his job and loyal to his crew.

I’ve read some of the extras obviously, but I haven’t delved that deeply into the extra materials.

Oh also, I laughed so hard when Mobei-jun just tossed Shang Qinghua over like a chicken. It said like a chicken and it was hilarious. XD Like imagining that panicked sound of hucking chickens in Ocarina of Time.

Oh and ho-shit the alt punishment system came up for SY Qingqiu for screwing up his points. Got to live through half the process of becoming a human stick very painfully.

I guess part of me is still kind of just wondering how Binghe grew to be SO needy. It’s to an unnecessary degree, but I guess without any real emotional or social guidance in the Endless Abyss that could happen?

Zhuzhi-Lang though is a really frustratingly annoying character, but I also like him at the same time. I’m confused by him.

The only other thing I’m like confused a bit about is like, so the 4 sects that are depicted with Cang Qiong Mountain being the top one are like the great four sects, but like...where are they? I’m just asking because of the kind of meta general landscape of what cultivation and Taoism is like some of the events that happen I would think actually would call down some interference from actual Heaven. Like in the classic lit, whenever there’s huge disturbances down in the Human World, like the Heavenly Palace and like the Jade Emperor are like, “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?” and go send people. I find it really hard to believe that such a disaster as the combining of two realms would be ignored by the armies of Heaven and like Nezha, Erlang Shen, and other notable actual deities up there would come down and be like, “The fuck you guys doing down here with these shenanigans?” Also, Journey to the West is like one of the most like influential books in the canon of Chinese lit and is regarded as literally one of the Four Great Classics. But none of these fools in these “great four sects” know how to stamp a floor and call up the local deity to tell you what the hell is happening in Jinlan City instead of sending your disciples to die? Sun Wukung did that at like every damn city and then also threatened to beat them if they like weren’t doing their job properly. Those minor deities are on the payroll for Heaven, so like...use them? Like I feel like they would know this too because like the ultimate goal for cultivation is to be able to become an immortal and end up on the payroll? I know Qingqiu is supposedly like mid-level or something, but like I think they should like know-ish where they’re going? Like in the future they would become one of those minor gods making records? Are they like not high enough to even talk to them? Maybe not, but I do think like Nezha, Pagoda Bearer Li, or Erlang Shen would definitely come down and be like, “Hey, what’s going on?”

Also like, Shen Jiu isn’t a great character and how he treats his disciples is bad and what he did was bad. But like, also, what is the standard to judge him really? Like Nezha was a dick when he was a child too. When he was 3 he went to a river and was swimming and liked killed all the fish and then a dragon prince came out and was like, “WTF? Why are all the fish dead?” and then Nezha instead of answering him kills him and guts him and then takes his tendon home to turn into a belt. Then like his Dad gets a complaint from the Dragon King like, “Hey, my son is dead! Your son did it. Hand him over so I can kill him or I destroy your town.” So then Nezha’s Dad goes to talk to him and is like, “What’re you doing?” And then Nezha answers him and tells him exactly what he did like it was no big fucking deal that he killed the local Dragon Prince and made him into a belt. Obviously there’s an argument and like Nezha basically rage quits his life and is like, if you’re so concerned about this bullshit I return this body to you and kills himself to cut off his ties to his parents. He was a rude little shit. Then he went into his Mom’s dream and threatened her until she built him a temple so he could get prayer requests until he could be reborn again. His Dad found out and wrecked the temple, so then he went up to go find his master who had him be reborn using lotus flowers. After that after being reborn, Nezha’s first order of business was to go back to his family and try to kill his own father for fucking up his temple and chased him down EVERYWHERE until other powers in Heaven, decided to send down Nezha’s older brothers with a pagoda to give to their Dad that would trap and burn Nezha everytime he tried to murder him. Is this better or worse than what Shen Jiu did? This is an actual god that people worship. A quite prominent and very famous one. Nezha is also one of my favorite deities and I had a huge crush on the Nataku from Fujisaki Ryu’s Houshin Engi manga who has mostly the same backstory as deity Nezha, and I just loved him in high school. He was a good guy. What are the standards here people? I don’t think anyone in any story in China can really judge someone like Shen Jiu doing an understandable level of murder as a response to trauma and severe abuse when they worship a deity that suffered nothing and tried to commit patricide and had a severe disregard for other life. In the cultivation world, potentially, this could be their future boss. I think arguably, he could be worse than Shen Jiu, but he’s a canonical real deity.

The above tirade for me is like a thing I feel like I would have said if I was in the position to be alive in Jinlan City and wanted to defend Shen Qingqiu cuz WTF.

Further, I’m a huge fan of Jigoku Shoujo and Enma Ai did much the same after her cousin saved her from being sacrificed, the villagers found out, buried her a live, made her cousin help bury her alive, and then she came back as a vengeful spirit and set the whole village on fire and killed everyone except maybe her parents who had their souls as prisoners by Enma himself? Can’t 100% remember. But like, on the scale of characters I like that have done terrible things, Shen Jiu is actually relatively low and under some people that are good guys.

[theraistlinmajere]

THE “”GOTHIC”” REC LIST

Edited for my own use.

LET’S START WITH THE GATEWAY DRUG BOOK

1. Flowers in the Attic (VC Andrews): Published in 1979 and technically considered contemporary Gothic. The style closely resembles a lot of “original” Gothic fiction I’ve read, but the themes, story arc and style are distinctly contemporary and very psychological. Gets a bad rap because it’s over the top insane and averagely written (which most Gothic is, tbh). Flowers is light reading, and I think it’s a good gateway drug into heavier Gothic. Has several sequels but stands alone as well. I wish I could call this Victorian-inspired Gothic but honestly it’s just knockoff Victorian in a contemporary setting. If you don’t enjoy this book, it probably means you don’t like the over the top insanity and average writing. Skip it if you like!

1.5. But if you do like it, I hear My Sweet Audrina is pretty good. All of VC Andrews and her ghostwriters are like a hellhole people sometimes don’t escape tbh it’s a raging aesthetic disaster down there.

Note: I have a strong suspicion that “contemporary” Gothic published between 1965 and 1989 will eventually have its own movement name; you will see a decent amount of it on this list.

THE VICTORIAN GOTHIC PART OF THE LIST Most of these are available for free online due to copyright law being born late or whatever. 2. Carmilla (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu): Considered the first English vampire story (Germans invented the European vampire allegedly), and published in 187…9? 1871? Something like that. A novella. Arguably a same-sex romance (VERY arguably), but can also be read as a close friendship. The writing is good, but not the absolute greatest I’ve ever read. The real strong point here is the imagery and the dawn of the English vampire. Great Halloween read; I read it almost every autumn. 3. “The Trifecta,” according to Gothic fans: Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Shelley), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Swift & Stevenson): First mainstream vampire, original English monster movie fuel, and the dawn of psychological fiction. Shelley’s the best writer out of all of them but she’s a Romantic and I’m sort of biased against Romantics. She’s a precursor to true Victorian Gothic. Dracula is still one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read and it’s the only one in the trifecta I really really love (and finished).

Note: If, by any chance, you find yourself seriously obsessed with vampires at any point in time, please consult me for an extended list of vampire fiction because I have a shit-ton of it in my reading history and left most of it out so vampires wouldn’t clutter this list lmao.

4. Edgar Allan Poe, Completed Works. The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-Tale Heart are all notable. His poetry is lovely–Annabelle Lee and The Raven are most culturally significant. Just solid and wonderful work that I like a lot but haven’t explored in a lot of detail. Will appeal to your interest in darkness imagery.

5. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (Washington Irving): QUINTESSENTIAL HALLOWEEN READING. SPOOPY. WONDERFUL. I truly love this anthology. Will also appeal to your interest in darkness as a concept and a physical thing. 6. Nightmare Abbey (Thomas Love Peacock): an 1818 novel that makes fun of the Victorian Gothic movement. Hilarious, contains all the typical Victorian Gothic tropes and has the added benefit of actually falling into the Victorian Gothic movement ironically. Usually comes packaged with another novel called Crotchet Castle which is similar. 7. If, somehow, you haven’t had it with Victorian Gothic yet (and I got to this point, it happens, Victorian Gothic is a slippery slope)… Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke): A really bizarre story behind how this was published, at least it is to me. Published in 2004, Over 10 years in the making and is written in the Victorian Gothic style but with a quirky and modern twist. The writer takes a page out of contemporary social commentary and includes pages-long footnotes, heads up (they’re funny and entertaining though). HUGE. You could kill a man with this volume. Excellent writing; I’m halfway through. I hear there’s time travel (?) and there are about ten thousand characters. Neil Gaiman is a fan. 8. The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux) is not technically Victorian (Technically Edwardian? Also French; I’m not familiar with French literary eras) but of course it has a huge following. I’ve read a little so far; I like the style and I think it’s culturally significant. You might want to read this because it’s heavily inspired by a French opera house, the Palais Garnier in Paris. Amber tells me she read literature in French to help sharpen her skills in the language; you may consider picking up an un-translated version of this? A BRIEF INTERLUDE FOR MORE CONTEMPORARY 9. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice): One of my favorite books of all time! Possibly the dawn of the romanticized vampire. Falls into that 70s contemporary Gothic bracket and is pretty amazingly written, but markedly more angst-ridden than anything else on the list (save for maybe Flowers). Lots of “what is evil?” and “what does immortality imply?” type speculation. Also gets a bad rap because Anne Rice made it big and haters are rife tbh it’s a very solidly built book in my opinion (BUT SUPER EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES). If you like this, continue with The Vampire Chronicles (The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Prince Lestat, and about 8 others in between that concern minor characters). Lestat is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. 10. Coraline (Neil Gaiman): Quick, cute, I found myself actually afraid for a little while despite the audience being middle grade readers?? I enjoyed it. The only Neil Gaiman on the list because his other work doesn’t impress me very much. 11. The Spiderwick Chronicles (Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi): More middle-grade creepy aesthetic stuff. Cute modern fantasy stories, five volumes. I can read these books at twenty years old and still enjoy them (like Coraline)! The only good thing Holly Black has ever produced, in my opinion, though many people like her and her ~aesthetic.

11.5. Should you find yourself in the mood for more quick middle-grade aesthetic-y stuff, Pure Dead Magic (Debi Gliori) is really an adorable book with two sequels. Victorian Gothic tropes such as the creepy mansion, creatures in the dungeon, family drama, and Weird Newcomers are all present, but it’s set in modern times. One of the main characters is a hacker. Addams family-esque.

THE SURREAL-ISH FICTION PART OF THE LIST

Not true surreal fiction; these are contemporary surreal-inspired works. 12. The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter): An anthology of short stories which retell fairy tales. Falls into the contemporary surrealism movement and is not traditionally considered Gothic, but this is definitely your aesthetic. Very quick read, very vivid imagery, lots of second-wave feminism and some brief eating disorder symbolism. Carter was a phenomenal writer! My favorite story is “The Lady of the House of Love"

12.5 (Just as a reminder since I’ve mentioned these) See also: Nights at the Circus (Carter) and Mechanique: A tale of the Circus Tresaulti (Valentine) for your interest in circus books!

13. The Palace of Curiosities (Rosie Garland), which I also rec’d before. Similar style to Chamber, similar themes. Both beautiful books. 14. Deathless (Catherynne Valente): Oh, Deathless. Technically contemporary lit, but hails to Russian Gothic (one of the earlier Gothic movements which I haven’t read much of). Retelling of about a million Russian folk tales. I could go on about this book for a thousand years. Stylistically similar to The Bloody Chamber as well, but far more poetic. (Very) structurally inferior to every other book on this list, but so heart-wrenchingly romantic you won’t notice or care on the first read. Visually breathtaking, absolutely the closest thing to death and the maiden imagery I’ve found in fiction. I’m fairly confident you’ll appreciate this one! Might as well read it to test my theory!! There’s controversy surrounding the fact that the writer is not Russian–something to be aware of. 15. The Enchanted (Rene Denfeld): TREAD WITH CAUTION. This is contemporary literary fiction (not Gothic) written from the pov of a death row inmate. Nominated for approximately a billion awards in 2014 (and won a few); high caliber of writing. Incredibly visceral, horrific, psychological imagery that was too much for me, though I still liked it. Short but dense–I had to take a two-day break to ward off the anxiety it caused. But you are darker~ than I so you might like it more!

THE SOUTHERN GOTHIC PART OF THE LIST 16. Beloved (Toni Morrison): Contemporary Southern Gothic. Incredibly creepy imagery, explores the connection between women’s issues and racial issues. Uses abortion and slavery as metaphors for each other. Gracefully written, but Southern Gothic (even contemporary) tends to be textually dense so it’s something to really think about as you read. 17. As I Lay Dying (Faulkner): “True” Southern Gothic. DENSE AS HELL but I think Beloved is a good precursor to Faulkner. A lot of almost comedic family drama, similar to Flowers in that sense, but very srs bsns nonetheless.

17.5. Basically all of Faulkner is considered Southern Gothic. He’s the father of Southern Gothic. If you enjoy this, you might also like Absalom! Absalom! and other such works. I loved As I Lay Dying but it’s possibly his easiest read, and while I love a good challenge I haven’t stepped up to this one yet.

Note: I use reading guides for all my classical works and Shakespeare, and I think there are good ones for Faulkner too, so that might be something to look into if you wanna vanish into this hell lol.

AN ADDENDUM: OTHER WRITERS

HP Lovecraft: Father of horror or whatever. Awful writer–anyone will agree. The guy had no command of language, but he’s known for over-the-top horror imagery that people really enjoy. Honestly I hate his writing so I haven’t bothered with much of it.

Oscar Wilde: If, by this point, you still want more Victorian-era writing, Wilde is here for you. Lots of social commentary, wrote basically one piece in the Gothic style (Chapter 16 of The Picture of Dorian Gray, my favorite novel), snarky as hell, incredibly gifted writer.

Neil Gaiman: Modern surreal in my opinion, sometimes called modern Gothic, well-loved and writes creepy things. I think he’s average because I’ve read too much Murakami (who does “modern surreal” way, way better) but many people really love him.

THE BLACKLIST Knockoff Gothic/Gothic themed things to avoid. I apologize if you like any of these okay ._.

The Grisha Trilogy (Leigh Bardugo): Contemporary YA, tries to be Russian Gothic and fails. Stick to Deathless. This book makes a mockery of Russian culture whereas at least Valente exhaustively researched her novel. Also doesn’t do romance very well.

The Night Circus (Morgenstern): What the hell is this book, tbh. 400 pages of obtuse and cliched imagery which you don’t have time for in your life. No plot. Two-dimensional characters, bad writing.

Those Across The River (Christopher Buehlman): Terrible. Just terrible.

[h4rin]

fluffy jungkook w a lil bit of angST SORRY ELLIAN

prompt; been so hYPED for bts lately!!! pls consider: jungkook fooling around and being a playful muscle bunny? but then he accidentally hits his boyfie — not anything too hard, just enough to make his boyfie make a sound of surprise that jungkook mistakes to be one of pain, and he gets super worried and tries to make it better with a warm, apologetic embrace and looots of pecks n kisses? - ellian

word count; 1,369

You were pretty emo. Knowing that you wouldn’t be able to see Jungkook for a month, especially considering how short of a time it’d been since he was last in America, kind of hurt. You knew he couldn’t control his schedule, and you were honestly super proud of him, but you missed him like hell every time he left. So, knowing that he wouldn’t be home for four weeks, he had invited you over to the dorms, after somehow managing to kick the other boys out. You were grinning like mad as you walked over through the biting cold wind, it barely having any effect on you.

“[Y/N]!” Jungkook called as he opened the door, as if letting you know that, yes, you were there. “I’m gonna miss you a lot.” He immediately embraced you, warming up about half of your body.

“Mm,” you mumbled into his chest, “Can I come in?”

“Vampire,” he whispered, almost too quiet for you to hear. Almost.  “Oh shit, you’re cold, aren’t you?” He unwrapped his arms from your torso, opening the door wider. The scent of the dorm filled your lungs, mostly the smell of the boys’ sweat, with a small amount of lavender. You flopped down on a couch in front of a television, Jungkook quickly piling himself on top of you.

“You comfy?” you asked, voice muffled right into his neck. His heartbeat was slowing down ever so slightly, absolute happiness in his eyes as he looked down towards you.

“Mm-hm!” he confirmed. He nuzzled his face into the space between your neck and shoulder, right above your collarbone. You rested your chin atop his head, allowing yourself to sink into the soft material of the sofa. Jungkook sighed. “I’m gonna miss you.”

You were going to miss him too, but you knew that you had to cheer him up. “It’ll only be a month, Kookie. And we’ll have Skype and stuff, right? I’ll be watching every performance, every interview...everything. Don’t worry.”

“Yeah, but I can’t just cuddle Jimin. He’s not as soft as you, and he’s not my boyfriend.”

You frowned. “He can be your teddy bear for the next few weeks.”

He frowned in response, but you could only feel it on your collarbone. “I don’t want him to be my teddy bear, I want my boy.” He sighed again. “This is sad. Let’s do something fun!” He lifted himself off of you, resting on your stretched-out legs. “Don’t get me wrong, I love cuddling you, but I want to remember doing fun stuff before I go.”

You sat up, or at the very least attempted to, mostly just scooting yourself towards Jungkook. His entire body weight was on your legs, and you just flat out weren’t strong enough to get away from him. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, your forehead lying flat on his bicep.

“I don’t want you to go.” The words came out of your mouth before you could stop them. They weren’t exactly a lie, but you knew you were supposed to be comforting him. He was going to do great in America, just like he had before, but you got nervous sometimes. American fans were a lot more...aggressive than Korean fans, and he got scared if he was around too many people most of the time. He was getting more confident, but he still got nervous a bit, and being in a foreign country definitely wouldn’t help. “I mean -”

“I don’t want to go, either,” he replied, not really reacting to your words. “I’m honestly a bit scared.”

“Why?” you asked, attempting to ease the tension that had begun to rest on the two of you.

“My English disappears when they ask me questions. I just…” He trailed off, unaware of how to finish his sentence.

“I know. Namjoon can help though, right?” He nods, sort of sad.

“I want to be able to speak on my own, though. I love Namjoon, and I’m thankful for all of the help he gives me, but I...I want to help myself.”

You nodded in response. “You’re getting so much better, though, like even from the Billboards, you’ve improved.” A grin spread on his face.

“Really?”

“Really.” Jungkook pushed himself off of your legs, freeing himself from your cuddling grasp. You stretched your legs, attempting to get some feeling back into them after the giant bunny that was your boyfriend had decided to sit on them.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” he questioned, already heading towards the always-growing pile of whatever movies the seven boys had. “You haven’t seen Civil War, right?” You nodded as he turned his head back, a cute grin on his face. He knelt down as he put the DVD into the player, sitting back on the heels of his hands to wait for the first set of previews to come up. As soon as they did, he jumped up and flopped onto the couch, barely giving you time to move your legs before they’d be crushed.

As he situated himself on the couch, wiggling into the cushions as he held a pillow to his lap. Not even paying attention to you, you slid onto his lap as he stared at the screen. Your legs went over the arm of the sofa, the television sideways in your view as the Marvel logo flashed across the screen. The first few minutes of the movie were honestly boring, Jungkook rapidly bouncing as it led up to the first part that really excited him.

As Tony Stark appeared on the screen, Jungkook absentmindedly flapped his arm, pure excitement in his eyes as he continued to stare at the television. His hand accidentally smacked your arm, a small smacking sound echoing slightly. A tiny yelp of surprise, barely able to be heard, escaped your lips. His eyes squeezed shut, his entire body immediately freezing up. His breathing seemed to stop, but his heartbeat quickened. You had barely registered the tiny smack, but he was halfway to crying. “Kookie? Are you okay?”

As soon as the words were out of your mouth, he immediately started blabbering, eyes opening wide in concern. “[Y/N], oh my god, I am so, so, so sorry. Are you okay?”

“Jungkook, it’s okay. I’m okay. You barely touched me.” After about ten minutes of calming him down, confirming that no, you didn’t feel anything and you didn’t get hurt, and yes, you swear, he was more or less okay. His grip around you was a little tighter, but at the same time, it was sweeter, almost softer. Every now and then, he’d bend down, slight worry in his eyes as his hair fell onto your nose, making sure that you were okay. When he was able to calm himself again, knowing for sure that you were okay, he would place a soft kiss to the tip of your nose.

“I love you,” he whispered each time, rubbing your cheeks.

“I love you, too, Kookie,” you’d reply, placing your hand on his cheek.

Once the movie was over, you ended up falling asleep on his lap, despite the early hour. It was only about seven in the evening, but the day had been so relaxed, it was practically impossible not to fall asleep. You woke up to a small chorus of laughs, specifically Hoseok, Jimin, and Taehyung’s. You groaned at a bright flash from behind your eyelids, turning your face so that it was hidden in Jungkook’s stomach.

“Look at the cute boyfriends!” Taehyung stage-whispered to Jimin. Jungkook groaned above you, the vibrations echoing from his stomach right into your face.

“Why do you have to do this to us?” he muttered, attempting to bury his face in your neck again.

“We only do it ‘cause we love you!” Hoseok responded, his voice slightly melodic. “You’ll be happy for this when we’re in America, though.”

Jungkook groaned yet again. “Don’t remind me.”

“Shh,” you mumbled to your boyfriend, “we’ll Skype every night. Now go back to sleep.” Jungkook held you just a little bit tighter, relaxing back into the cushions. “Love you,” you muttered.

“Love you more,” he responded, his voice barely above a whisper.

[vgckwb]

Danganronpa: Away Chapter 2: Talk is Cheap, Death is Free (Part 6)

I woke up to the morning announcement. I was sort of used to it at this point. I got my clothes on, as usual. Despite how normal this all seemed, I felt something was different. It felt like we were on the cusp of something great. We were getting information left and right, and today that continues. I felt THIS much closer to leaving this place for good.

I got a knock on the door. I went to open it. “Ah, good sir, you’re awake” said Troy, on the other side.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Well, Jay and I would like to race again, good sir” said Troy. I saw Jay behind him.

“Yeah, We figured we’d try again” said Jay.

“So, what do I have to do with it?” I asked again.

“Well, good sir,” said Troy, “we are planning on going even more all out than before. We don’t want anyone in harm’s way. So, we were wondering if you could move somewhere outside the path of the race.”

“I see” I said. I walked out, and I moved passed the stairs , and inside the girl’s hall. I was surprised to see Annabelle and Tammy there as well. “Huh?”

“I want to see this” said Tammy.

“As do I” said Annabelle.

“How did you even know what was taking place?” I asked.

“I saw them preparing for it” said Annabelle. “They were out in the hall earlier, looking over things. I saw Tammy coming out of her room and I told her what was going on, and she wanted to watch as well.”

“3...2…” said Troy and Jay in unison.

“Well, here we go” I said, preparing to watch.

The two continued “1...GO!” and, assuming they started from the very back, they got to the end of the boy’s hall in less than two seconds. Jay turned to hit the stairs, but Troy was a bit more daring this time as he jumped over the guard rail. I could see Jay’s concern, but that only riled him up more. Jay looked at the stairs, adjusted himself slightly, and sped up.

Meanwhile, Troy was still in the air. He then drew his sword, and then struck it against the wall between the gym and the dining area and started to slide down, making a slightly slower decent. Meanwhile, Jay was at the stairs, and instead of avoiding the railing, he used his tough body to bounce of the rails. He ran into the left side at the top, bumped into the right side at the turn, and then the left near enough to the bottom to take off again without hitting the other railing. He then sped up enough to almost catch up to Troy before he sheathed his sword and hit the ground. Troy then started to run, but it looked like Jay caught up

At the final turn, they looked neck and neck, they went into the dining area. I didn’t hear anything, so I assume Jay didn’t crash this time. “Well, come on, let’s see what happened” I said to Annabelle, and Tammy.

“Right” They said.

We got there, and already Troy and Jay were arguing, while everyone else watched. “I got here first” said Jay.

“No, good sir, I DID!” yelled Troy.

“It was another tie” said Rachel

They looked at her and said “Seriously?!”

“Come on, that can’t be right” said Jay.

“Indeed, good madam,” said Troy. “One of us had to win.”

“Sorry, but that’s what happened” said Rachel.

Both of them were upset. They then saw me and shouted “JUSTIN!”

“You were watching, right?” said Jay. “You must have seen who won.”

“So, who was it good sir?” Troy inquired.

“Well… I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to agree with Rachel” I told them.

“WHAT?!” they both shouted.

“See, my judgment never lies” said Rachel.

“You know, if you want proof, I did record the whole thing” said Annabelle.

“WHAT?!” I said, along with Troy and Jay, turning to meet her.

“I bought a video camera at the store” said Annabelle. “I find it easier for interviews, and I’ve been missing it.”

“Very well then, we shall see who REALLY won” said Jay.

“Truly, good sir, we shall” said Troy.

“Maybe we can all watch” said Tammy. “It was a thrilling race after all.”

“Yeah, maybe we should do that” I said. “We could make an event of it. Like, dinner and a movie. Except, it’s a really short movie.”

“Is there anywhere in this building we could watch this movie?” asked Sophie.

“Of course” said Monokuma appearing.

“GAH!” we screamed. We all stepped back in horror.

I regained my composure and said “I was wondering when you would show up.” Everyone looked at me.

“Well, wonder no more, because now I’m here” said Monokuma.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I’m glad you asked” said Monokuma. “So, you know how I have cameras everywhere to watch you wall?”

“Probably the least creepy thing about you” said Buck.

“HEY!” said Monokuma. “I’m at least a cuddly kind of creepy. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. Well, I saw your secret ‘let’s tell everyone who we have to kill’ meeting yesterday, and I wanted to weigh in.”

“Let me guess, you want us to stop?” I said.

“Well, I made a lot of considerations to any approach I would make” said Monokuma. “In the end, I decided that it doesn’t matter.”

“Huh?” I said.

“Yeah. So, here’s my thinking” said Monokuma. “It doesn’t matter if you know or not. The point is you’re discussing the possibility of following through on killing someone. And that makes me one happy bear!” A sudden chill came over us. “Also, it’s laundry day. And since I haven’t opened up any laundry machines to you, I have to take your laundry sometime today. So, if all of you could be out of your rooms at various points during the day, that would be great.”

“Wait, ‘varying points’?” said Cassy.

“Well yeah” said Monokuma. “I may be super strong, but I can still only do so much laundry at a time. It just makes it easier on me.”

“And what if we don’t want to make it easier on you?” Pierce asked.

“Eh, your loss” said Monokuma. “Dot jpeg.”

“Wha?” said Elliot.

“Oh, nothing” said Monokuma. “Anyway, you COULD obstruct laundry day, but the only thing that will get you is dirty clothes and sheets. I don’t mind if you smell bad either. This is a favor I’m doing for you.”

We all looked reluctantly at Monokuma. Pierce sighed and said “Fine. Whatever.”

“GRRREAT!” said Monokuma.

“Um, no offence” said Andy, “but that’s not a bear thing to say. A tiger says that.”

“Oh. Oh is THAT how it is?” said Monokuma. “In that case, I hope you all die a GRRRIZZLY death! Is that better?”

“Um, in terms of pun, yes, in terms of tone, no” said Andy.

“Well, you can’t get everything you want” said Monokuma. “Oh right, as for where you can watch your race, the auditorium has a screen you can use. You can even eat in there if you want. Just make sure you don’t spill too much. Or do. I can clean it up. Unless you want to show me a little compassion.”

“If you don’t want to clean, fowl villain, then let us go” said Troy.

“Well, I don’t, but not that much” said Monokuma. “So I guess spill to your heart’s content if you want to do something to slightly irritate me. Just remember, your only way out of here is either in a body bag or as a killer. Either way, the results will be sweet as honey for me.”

“Um, that’s not actually much of a bear thing either” said Andy. “See, the reason bears go after bee hives is not because they like honey, which they do, but they prefer the bee larva.”

“WILL YOU SHUT IT?!” said Monokuma. “Ugh. Why can’t he enjoy anything? Oh well.” Monokuma left, dejected, but still right overall.

We all started to eat breakfast. It was quiet until Sophie said “You know, we ARE playing into his hands by discussing who we have and who should kill who.”

Everyone stopped. “I know,” I said, “it’s just, this might be the best opportunity we have to leave for a while.”

“Yeah, but at what cost?” asked Sophie. “Killing someone. Becoming a killer. I don’t think that it would be worth it.”

“Well, there goes my idea” said Andy.

Everyone was confused. “What idea?” asked Pierce.

“Well, I was thinking that Sophie could be the one to escape” said Andy. “She’s the Ultimate Good Luck after all. Maybe her good luck would follow her into finding the Ultimate Killer.”

“Wow, that is a good idea” said May.

“Yeah, well, like  said it’s probably not going to happen now” said Andy. “At least, according to Sophie’s disposition.”

“Well, I’m sure whoever Sophie has wouldn’t mind dying for that cause” said Duke.

“Yeah, well, what if I mind becoming a killer!” Sophie shouted. “Especially for some stupid plan that hinges on me being lucky!’ Sophie was then shocked at how angry she had gotten. She started tearing up. “I’m sorry” she said, saddened.

“Hey, it’s OK” said May. “I get it.”

“Indeed” said Cassy. “It is only natural to feel that way.”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t even be thinking about this, if it wasn’t for that piece of shit bear” said Buck.

“Or, if you will, a literal poo bear” said Andy.

“Wow, THAT’S actually good” said Pierce.

“I HEARD THAT!’ shouted Monokuma over the intercom. “WHY DON’T YOU LAUGH AT MY BEAR PUNS?!”

“Because they’re too panda-ing?” said Elliot.

“Because you’re sense of humor is bear-en?” said Jay.

“Because you suck shit” said Buck.

“THAT’S it” said Pierce.

“GAAAHHHH!” shouted Monokuma on the intercom.

I turned back to Sophie. “The point is, this is hard on everyone. I can see that it’s a lot harder on you though, so you don’t have to do anything. Hell, WE aren’t even making a decision on what we’re going to do today. So just relax. We aren’t going to be killing anyone until we know for absolute certain that we know what we are doing, and you don’t have to be a part of it. Is that OK?”

Sophie looked down, and then looked up and said “OK.”

We finished breakfast and put our dishes away. I saw Tammy starting to leave, but I caught her, saying “Tammy!”

“Huh?” she said.

“We need to talk” I said.

“What about?” she asked.

“Well, first we need to get to Monobird” I said. “He’s important to this as well.”

“OK?” said Tammy.

“Hold it!’ said Cassy. “You didn’t think I wasn’t going to be a part of this as well, did you?”

“No, of course not” I said. We all walked to the gym to see some of our friends doing some activities and a still Monobird. We approached him and I said “Monobird?” Hey Monobird?”

“Do you think he’s not here?” asked Cassy.

“Alright, now that he’s not here to object,” said Tammy, “time to short circuit this bad boy.”

“I’m awake!” said Monbird.

“GAH!” I said.

“Aw man” said Tammy.

“Sorry” said Monobird. “I just spent all night setting up the rescue team.”

“Rescue team?” asked Cassy.

“Yeah” said Monbird. Just in case one of you takes Monokuma up on his deal. Once you get out, a team of police will be there to escort you home.”

All of us were solemn in that moment. Getting to return home. That’s something that we haven’t heard of in a while. “Well, we might be closer to that, but we’re going to need your help.”

”I’m listening” said Monobird.

“Do you remember that list that the Ultimate Killer gave you to exonerate Andy’s suspect?”

“Of course” said Monobird.

“Well, we were wonder if we could use it” said Cassy.

“What for?” asked Monobird.

“This is where you come in, Tammy” I said. “We met yesterday and we thought that maybe there might be a hidden password or program or something that can help unravel the mystery of the Ultimate Killer.”

“I get it” said Tammy. “You want me to see if I can trace anything based on that data.”

“Well, yes” said Cassy. “You and anyone willing to help.”

“I see” said Tammy. “Well, I’d be up for it.”

“As would I” said Monobird. “Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to go about sending the list to you.”

“Why not tell us?” I said. “After all, there’s no point in trying to hide this information from Monokuma because he would know what was on it.”

“Wait, so does that mean that we might not find anything?!” said Tammy.

“Well, that’s possible” said Cassy. “However, I don’t know how likely that would be. After all, the Ultimate Killer would need to hide stuff, and what better way than stuff only he knows about.”

“Besides, if Monokuma is any indication of the Ultimate Killer, we know that he like victory for him over defeat for others” I said.

The three of them stared at me. “Could you, um, explain that better?” Monobird asked.

I sighed. “OK. Basically, the vibe I’m getting from Monokuma is that he would rather give us a chance for victory than no chance at all. He’s given out information that might be detrimental to him eventually, but he would rather win when we had that information than win without us knowing that.”

“I getcha” said Cassy. “He’s obsessed with proving to everyone he’s the best. So he’s more willing to give us information just to prove we still can’t beat him with it. I’m familiar with the type.”

“Exactly” I said.

“Well, with that sorted out, shall we proceed?” asked Monobird.

“Let’s go to the library” said Cassy. “We can write down the information and maybe start working from there.”

“Good idea” said Tammy. We all made our way to the library.

On our way there I decided to ask “Hey Tammy, why didn’t you show up to the secret meeting?”

“Huh? Oh, that” said Tammy. “Truth be told, I just didn’t want to go. I’d rather plan from the shadows.”

“But that’s dangerous” I told her.

“Yeah, and what part of this isn’t?” said Tammy.

“Don’t you think that a secret plan would backfire? Like it did with Roman?” asked Cassy.

“Hey, I’m much better at thinking over complicated problems than Roman was” said Tammy. “Besides, as noble of a goal as a unified front is, when it comes to killing someone, having more people on my side just gives me more pressure. And I’m sure it’s the same with some other people.”

Huh. I didn’t think about it like that.

“Look, I will help you find the Ultimate Killer, but helping you guys figure who to kill for the sake of the rest of us is something I don’t want to take part in” said Tammy.

“Of course” said Cassy.

Well, I doubt that Tammy would tell us who she has at this point. We made our way to the library. We got a notepad and Monobird gave us all the dates. “Alright, I’ll start looking into these” said Tammy.

I was nervous, but I had a request. “Um, could you look into this one first?”

“Sure, but why?” Tammy asked.

Cassy had a sly smile on her face. “Hm. It’s because that was the date of his grandpa’s murder.”

“Ah, I getcha” said Tammy. “Now, could you give me some space to work?”

Monbird inquired “Um, could I actually stay here?” he asked. “It’s just that if something comes up, I can pull up the case file in case you need some specifics.”

“Fine” said Tammy. “But you two can leave.”

Cassy and I left the computer room. “What do we do now?” Cassy asked.

I saw Rachel reading in the library. “I think I just found something. Hey Rachel.” I called out.

Rachel looked up, saw us, closed her book, and then came over to meet us. “What do you want?” she asked.

“Well, I was wondering why you didn’t come to the meeting yesterday?” I asked.

“Sophie wasn’t invited” she said, directly. “Plain and simple.”

“You must really care about her” said Cassy.

“Indeed” said Rachel. “She saved my life, you know.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that before” I said, inquisitively. “But, I don’t think you clarified the circumstances. Would you care to do so?”

Rachel looked sullen. “...Fine. Someone was threatening me with death. Sophie walked into the room and stopped them. Happy?”

I get the feeling prying more would just be trouble. “Yes” I said.

“Sorry about my colleague's prying” said Cassy. “I’m sure it’s hard for you to talk about.”

“It is. Very much so” said Rachel.

“Oh. I, uh-I am sorry as well” I told her. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, you were” said Rachel. “You were just in ‘lawyer mode”.”

“‘Lawyer mode’?” I asked.

“Yes. I compare it to my ‘historian mode’” said Rachel. “Sometimes I get too wrapped up in my work that it can be hard to separate it from reality. Your inherent lawyerness did the same just then. You were trying to seek out information to understand what’s going on, and move forward with a plan.”

“Oh, well, I maybe should focus on turning this ‘lawyer mode’ off then” I said.

“Not necessarily” said Rachel. “It can be a valuable asset at times. Like, remember when Monokuma first came to the school? You were the first to ask for clarification on things pertaining to Monokuma’s game. I believe that was your ‘lawyer mode’. At the time, most of us were mad at you for it, but looking back it was the right thing to do.”

“Oh” I said.

“It’s just figuring out when you should pull it out” said Rachel. “And to be fair, you only just discovered your talent recently. So I shall be a bit more patient with you.”

“Oh. Thank you” I said.

“Anything else?” Rachel asked.

“Well, yes, actually” said Cassy. “What are you reading, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Ah, there’s ‘detective mode’” said Rachel. “Well, I am reading yearbooks.”

“Yearbooks?” I asked.

“Precisely” said Rachel. “Specifically yearbooks from this school.”

“Why?” asked Cassy.

“Based on the conversation Justin, Sophie, Tammy, and Elliot had with Monokuma, the Ultimate Killer attended this school. I was thinking I could look through yearbooks to see if I can find any evidence that could lead us to who this person really is” said Rachel.

“Smart thinking” said Cassy. “Think you can find anything?”

“I wouldn’t call myself a historian if I couldn’t” said Rachel. “Although it might take a bit. This building was used for a while.”

“That’s fair” said Cassy.

“Oh, by the way” I said. “I know you didn’t come, but could you tell us who you have?”

“...Very well” said Rachel. “It’s Duke.”

Well, he’s not going to be happy about that. I filled out my sheet. “Thank you” I told her.

“You’re welcome” said Rachel. “Can I get back to reading now?”

“Of course” I said.

“Thank you” said Rachel. Rachel walked back to her seat and began to read again.

“Do you think she’ll find anything?” asked Cassy.

I looked at Rachel. “I’m sure she will” I told her.

“I hope you’re right” said Cassy. “This whole situation feels like it’s going to burst any minute now.”

I remembered what Pierce said. “You should check on Cassy periodically… She’s been feeling uneasy.”

I decided to put that advice forward. “Um, do you want to talk about something?” I asked.

“No” said Cassy. “I just need to relax right now...alone.” Cassy walked off.

“Oh, uh, sure” I said, not sure if she heard me.

I walked out of the library, only to be approached by Duke. “COME ON MAN!’ he told me. “This is not how you’re supposed to deal with the person you like being upset.”

He must have seen Cassy. “OK, where does everyone get the idea that I like Cassy?” I said.

“So, it’s NOT just with everyone else” said Duke. “Well, whatever, go after her man!”

“Well, no. I think she needs her space” I said. “She even told me she wants to be alone. Besides, she’ll rejoin the group at some point. She’s just trying to figure her way through this.”

“All of that, and you can’t tell you like her” said Duke. “If you somehow die, could I look at your brain?”

I was concerned, but put on a brave face. “Um...sure? Well, provided I have one.”

“Whadoyamean?” asked Duke.

“Well...it’s just...you remember how Roman died. I don’t know how much of a brain he had after that statue fell on him” I told him.

“OH SHIT! I forgot about that” Duke panicked.

“You forgot about Roman?” I asked.

“Well, no… Lord knows that that will be forever etched into my mind” said Duke. “I just kind of forgot that that joke is not appropriate under these circumstances.”

“You were joking?” I said.

Duke looked at me, annoyed. “Give me some credit” he said. “I wouldn’t just start picking apart your brain just based on this. You would need to sign a consent form, it would need to be authorized by your legal guardian, it would need to be OKed by your physician, it would need to go through a ton of board meetings and stuff, it’s just too much of a hassle.”

“But if I did all of that, THEN you would dissect my brain?” I said.

“I mean, yes?” said Duke “Finding bodies to study on is an important facet of science. If you’d be willing to do all of that, anyone would take you.” I was speechless. “Oh. That’s NOT the answer you were looking for” said Duke. “Look, that joke is meant to say that I think you’re interesting, but yeah, this isn’t the best context for it.”

“OK then…” I said.

“Finding bodies to study IS an important facet of science” Duke said, defensively.

“I don’t think you’re wrong” I told him. Duke sighed. “Maybe you're just in ‘Chemist mode.’”

“Right, that thing you, Cassy, and Rachel were talking about” said Duke. “Yeah,  guess I was.”

“Wait, you overheard our conversation?” I asked.

“Oh. RIght, I did” said Duke. “Look, it was on accident. I was walking in to see if I could look up some chemicals, when I saw you guys talking. I would have ignored it, but when a stupid bear takes away your phone with all of your music on it, it gets hard to ignore things. Like the fact that your crush might kill you…”

He did hear that. “Well, I’m sorry” I told him. “But a wise person once told me that not doing anything is, and I quote, ‘not how you’re supposed to deal with the person you like being upset.’”

Duke looked at me. “You think I’m wise?” he said. “Well, joke’s on you. Rachel doesn’t seem upset. Cassy does. Point for me.”

“No, the joke’s on you because I don’t like Cassy the way you like Rachel” I said, definitely.

Duke laughed. “I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you realize you do” he said. “Well, whatever. Time to look for some chemistry books.”

“Wait!” I called out. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, who did you get?”

“Oh, right, the thing” said Duke. “Look, I know you said solo plans are a bad idea, but as a scientist, I think I have a better chance at it, and doing this alone makes me feel better about doing this.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Well,” said Duke, “it makes it easier for people to hate me if I go through with it. I don’t want people feeling sorry for killing someone. If I’m going to do this, I want to feel bad about it. So I don’t want to reveal my plans right away. Especially because I don’t know if I’m going to do it, I’m just thinking at the moment.  But, since you’re cool, I will give you something. My victim is female.”

Well, that was something else. “I get it” I said. “And hey, thanks for thinking I’m cool.”

“Thank you for thinking I’m wise” he said, as he wandered into the library.

“I don’t think he gets it” I said to myself.

I just hung out around the school until it was almost time for the showing of the race footage. I then had an idea. I went to set everything up for that idea.

Everyone gathered in the auditorium again. “You got it?” Pierce shouted up.

“YUP!” shouted Andy, who was working on getting the projection screen down. In order to get it down, someone had to go up to the rafters of the stage to lower it. Andy volunteered since he’s been up there before. It took some doing, but he managed to get the screen down. May and Annabelle were setting up the footage, and eventually got it all ready.

Cassy walked in and asked “Are we ready for this?”

“I said “Almost. Bring it on in boys” Troy and Jay walked in with the thing I had prepared.

“What is this?” Cassy asked.

“Well, Monokuma said that this could be dinner and a show, so I decided t make dinner” I said. “Presenting, tonight’s main dish, Fettuccine Alfredo.”

“WOW” said Tammy looking at the dinner. ”Did you make this all by yourself?”

“Yes I did” I said. “I also prepared a side of breadsticks, corn, and grapes. And to drink, I grabbed some soda. Now, as Monokuma said, we are allowed to spill, and all it costs is making his life miserable. SO, while I don’t encourage spilling usually, it should be fine in this instance.”

“Joke’s on you” said Monokuma from the intercom. “I have state of the art cleaning technology. Make a mess all you want, it will be spotless by the time you wake up in the morning.”

“Well, you heard him” I told them.

Everyone grabbed a plate and sat down. I hit the lights and stayed in my position to eat. We all then watched that morning’s race between Jay and Troy to see if there was a definite victor, or if all assumptions were right, and it was another tie.

We had to watch the clip over and over again, because Troy and Jay got into an argument about it every time. “LOOK! I clearly won” said Jay.

“Rewind the tapes, good madams, because it clearly shows me winning” said Troy.

Everyone was impressed with the race. “Wow, it’s so cool how Troy did that” said Sophie.

“Let’s not forget, Jay’s technique was spectacular as well” said Elliot.

“They’re both obviously cut out to athletes” said Pierce.

“This sure kicks ass” said Buck.

However, everyone was thinking the same thing. “WELL, WHO WON?! Troy and Jay demanded.

“It was a tie” we all responded back.

Troy and Jay’s faces slumped. “It was a good effort, good sir” said Troy, reaching out his hand. “Next time?”

Jay reached back and shook Troy’s hand. “Next time there will be a definitive winner.” Everyone cheered at the prospect of this next time. We decided to stay and finish eating. We talked among ourselves about the race and how cool it was.

After we finished eating, we left our plates on the table Troy and Jay brought the food on. I decided that I will sort that out later. I then had a thought. I called out to all of the people who came to the secret meeting.

“What do you want?” asked May.

“Well, I’ve been thinking and asking people, and I was wondering something” I said to them. “Are you guys OK with killing someone to get out?”

“What brought this on?” asked Annabelle. “You wanted to plan for this.”

“I know” I said. “But after what happened with Sophie this morning, and from what I heard about from others, I don’t know if sacrificing someone is a good idea.”

“I’ll tell you this for free: it isn’t” said Buck. “But it might be the best idea we have at the moment. It’s not a matter of being OK with it.”

“Right” I said. “But some of the people I’ve talked to said that with knowing and putting all of our trust into this idea would be hard, and it would be easier if we don’t know who we are supposed to be killing. It gives us more room to feel bad.”

“Is that what you’re worried about?” asked Jay. “None of us would have come to the meeting if we wanted to be the bad guy.”

“He’s right, good sir” said Troy. “I don’t have that much of an interest in playing the role of a fowl villain. However, I will not hesitate to strike if it is for the good of the people. I like to think of myself as a cannon; powerful, but needs to be aimed by a person.”

“Yeah, if we were comfortable in the role of person who was being hated for this, we wouldn’t put our trust in each other to try and plan this” said Elliot

“...OK” I said. “I just wanted to make sure everything was OK. Or, as OK as it can be. I don’t want to make people more uncomfortable than they already are.”

“Just relax” said Jay. “We’re doing fine.”

“Thank you” I said. “I’m just worried is all.”

“And you have every right to be” said Annabelle. “However, we all came together for a reason. You can’t lose faith in that.”

“...You’re right” I said. “We just need to focus. Once we have a plan, we will set it in motion.”

“That’s the spirit” said Buck.

We broke off the meeting there and started to head out. I spotted Cassy going downstairs and I decided to follow her. Maybe I do have a thing for her. What am I thinking? I’d do this for anyone...right? AGH! This is because of what Pierce told me. I saw her go to the shop and buy something.

“What are you doing?” she asked me, without turning around.

“Oh, well, I just wanted to see if you were OK” I told her.

“I’m fine” she said, turning around, coldly. “What makes you think I couldn’t handle myself.”

“...It was something that Pierce told me” I said.

“Pierce?” she said, surprised.

“Yeah” I said. “I went to ask him about the motive, and we got to talking, and he was doing his thing.”

“You mean reading people like a book, frighteningly accurately?” she asked angrily.

“Yeah, but get this” I said. “He’s now enhanced.”

“How?” she asked.

“Apparently Andy’s been teaching him how to read auras” I told her. “Basically he said that you were fighting every urge to break under the pressure and kill someone.”

“I see...he does it again” said Cassy.

“You mean he’s right?” I asked.

“Well, in a sense” said Cassy. “I really feel like I’m about to break. I can barely keep it together. But at the same time, if I were to act on it, it wouldn’t be to confront anyone. I would just lock myself in my room until it goes away.”

“Well, that isn’t healthy either” I told her.

“I know” she said. “But, like with this motive, it’s merely the best of a bad situation.”

“I see…” I said. “So, what did you get?”

“Huh?” she said, surprised.

“From the store” I elaborated.

“Oh” she sighed. “I just got a can of Diamo’s soup.”

“Wow, that stuff is fancy” I said excitedly. “If you wanted soup, I could have made it with some of the stuff we have here.”

Cassy looked at me and said “I know I don’t look like it, or act like it, but I am rich. I am used to certain amenities that I have missed since being locked up in here. This thing is the closest thing to the soup I usually eat.”

“Why soup though?” I asked.

“It’s my comfort food” she stated. “I like to have some to calm down. Being a detective can get very stressful at times.”

“I get ya” said said.

“...look out…” said a voice in my head.

“Wha?” I said.

“Look outside” the voice continued.

“OK…” I looked outside. I saw the officers Monobird stationed outside.

“What are you doing?” asked Cassy.

“Something told me to look outside” I informed her. “So, I’m doing that.” I then saw someone else. A man, dressed in all black. “Cassy, come look!” I shouted quietly. But when I looked back, the man was gone. “Where’d he go?”

“Who?” asked Cassy.

“The man in black” I said.

“Ugh” said Cassy.

“What?”

“It’s not you” she said. “It’s just...did you echo?”

“Um...no…?”

“I see…well, I should probably just go to sleep them. I feel like I need to rest.”

“Good night then” I told Cassy as she walked off.

I decided to report to Monobird what I saw. He told me the squad would keep a lookout for anyone suspicious. I decide to go to bed soon after. I needed to think clearly if we were going to go through with our plan and eventually  find and catch the Ultimate Killer. I can’t let anything distract me.

I woke up the next morning, as usual. I got up, got dressed, and headed out. However, when I headed out I noticed that all the doors in our hall had notes on them. I turned around to rip the note off of my door. “Salutations, good sirs and madams” it began. “Please meet me in the theater first thing in the morning. There is something which you all need to know. -Sincerely, Troy.”

“What’s this about?” I asked.

“What?” said Jay, emerging from his room.

“The notes Troy left us” I told him.

Jay looked at his and said “Oh no, this is bad. We need to see what Troy’s up to.”

One by one the other guys woke up, and looked at their notes.

“Well, let’s go!” shouted Buck.

We rushed towards the auditorium. However, when we passed by the girl’s hall, they were all huddled. “Good you’re here” said Cassy. “There’s an emergency.”

“We know” I told her.

“Wha-how do you know?” she asked.

“Troy left us these notes” I said.

“What? Let me see” she said, taking the note. “She looked it over and asked “Where’d you get this?”

“It was on my door when I woke up” I answered.

“I didn’t get one” said Cassy. “I don’t think any of is got one.”

“Weird” I said.

“Well, as urgent as it seems, that’s not what I was talking about” she informed us. “Sophie fractured her fist.”

“What, how?!” I asked.

“She was having a nightmare and she punched through the wall between her room and Rachel’s” Elliot told us. “But don’t worry, as soon as Rachel and May get back with some stuff from the nurse’s office, we’ll be good to go.”

Rachel and May came back, along with Monobird. “I heard what happened” Monobird said. “Are you alright?”

“It hurts...” said Sophie.

“It’s OK” said Rachel, comforting Sophie. “We got you a brace, everything is going to be fine.” Rachel applied some bandages and the brace to her wrist. “There you go.

“Right, now that we have that taken care of, let’s head to the auditorium” corralled Cassy.

“What’s this about?” asked May.

“Apparently, Troy has something he needs to share with us” Cassy answered. “Let’s go.” We all made our way to the theater.

When we got there, the screen was down. “Does he have a video for us?” asked Annabelle.

“...We’re all here…” said Jay.

“Let’s just sit down and see what he has for us” said Tammy. We all took our places. I was one of the last to take my seat. We watched the stage with baited breath. Suddenly the lights went out.

“Who turned out the lights?” shouted Cassy.

“Calm down, maybe this is just Troy being dramatic” said Pierce

I felt the person sitting next to me grip my hand tightly. We all then heard a loud thud coming from the stage. Then, a loud tink.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” cried Andy.

Without thinking, I got out of my seat and made my way to the stage as best as I could. I didn’t even notice I was dragging the person holding my hand. I got up there, and then the lights came on, and what I saw shook me to my core.

Troy was face-down but with his head on his side. Blood was pouring out of his head. Troy’s monopad was right next to Troy, covered in blood and some kind of clearish liquid. The screen was on the page Monokuma sent us about who we could kill. Sure enough, it was Sophie. There was some splatter on the projection screen as well. And a few inches away was a metal pipe, coated in blood. Troy was dead.

[asylum-miniatures]

interview tape 33300

1# - Got another pile for you captain 2# - seriously rookie, I haven’t gotten past halve-way of the last pile yet 1# - you did say you wanted all the mad bomber sightings brought straight to you 2# - that was before I found out just how many of them I’d be receiving 1# - well surely more information on him is good news? 2# - it would be if any of this were useful.  Leave the papers on the desk and listen to some of these, they have to be heard to be believed 1# - I thought you were working? 2# - I need a break, and with this sheer number of reports 5 minutes won’t kill me.  Besides, going over this from the start will help me clear my head 1# - very well.  What did you mean that all this information is useless?  There must be something? 2# - True there are bits and pieces.  Locally, the hysteria hasn’t helped.  Everything from murder, petty theft, vandalism and a few cases of adultery are all suddenly being blamed on the mad bomber.   1# - so do we know anything about him. 2# - Well I’ve been able to get a reasonably accurate timeline so far.  His first sighting was when he was caught red-handed at that alleyway.  Probably would have been the end of it if he hadn’t escaped the holding cell.   1# - I thought there were anti-magic fields in effect over the precinct? 2# - In the cells sure, but only the negating manacles are used everywhere else.  My current theory is the lawyer who visited him must have had something to help negate his cuffs so when he left he was free to make his move.  I would have more, but I haven’t been able to find the lawyer since then.  I checked his credentials and found they were very similar to one’s we seen involved in mob cases, so it’s likely our bomber has links to the mob families, if not directly working for one.  A few guard reports suggest he was around the library when it was robbed, but his confession at the warehouse proves that he was the one behind it. 1# - what happened to him after that? 2# - Best I was able to find was that after the warehouse exploded he must have made his way into town the next morning.  There’s a couple of conflicting reports but one about a farmer who found a group in his barn seems noteworthy.  He claims he drove to town with some in the back, but when he got to a check point half of them had disappeared.  The descriptions he and his wife gave match those of the guards at the warehouse, and those of a group fleeing from that direction that ran into the reinforcements from the capital.   1# - they didn’t stop them? 2# - they had no idea who they were at the time, but their reports helped us with getting the profiles down.  Then there was the bank incident, which proves our bomber must be something else.  The bank’s anti-magic fields are even stronger than ours, so the fact he was so easily able to cause those explosions means he’s either got incredible magic power to overcome it, some magic artefact that can enable him to bypass it or he’s got connections good enough to let him have authorised access in said field.  No matter what way you look at it, he’s trouble.  After that, the trail gets messed up by all these reports 1# - you think he’s giving us false leads, covering his tracks 2# - I would if any of them were half way intelligent.  I’ve seen it before, whenever something big like this happens.  Part of it is hysteria, people making connections that don’t exist or getting jumpy and acting panicked.  I have a report here that the third town over saw a figure with a flame in its hand looking sinisterly over the town late at night, so they gathered a mob to capture him.  Too bad it turns out it was the local crazy cat lady who lived near there.  One of her pets was missing so she’d gone out with a lantern in hand to look for it and ended up getting jumped 1# - well that must have been embarrassing when they realised, right? 2# - When did I ever say they realised?  They tied her to a tree, stoned her then brought the body here, hoping to cash in the reward 1# - SWEET IOMEDAE! 2# - yeah, and that’s a legitimate one.  The second town over had a guy claim his shop was burned down by the mad bomber as part of an insurance scam.  Would have worked if he’d worn any kind of disguise when he’d bought all the alchemist fire the shops had the day before. 1# - so I guess there’s lots of people who claim they saw him for different reasons 2# - yeah, and there’s just as many trying to claim they are him 1# - WHAT, there is no way anyone has pretended to be the mad bomber.  Why would someone pretend to be a known criminal? 2# - Why don’t you ask Jake Filbar.  He’s a fresh out of mage collage graduate who got drunk and started going around trying to pick up women claiming he was the super badass criminal everyone was talking about.  Too bad for him the woman he offered to “set off his biggest explosion in her beef portal” happened to be an off-duty officer. 1# - wait, I heard about that from the others, I thought it was messier than that 2# - it was.  Turns out the barkeeper had a moonflower distribution ring going on.  When Jake started resisting arrest, he threw around a bunch of weak fire spells and managed to set fire to a hidden stash worth around 6000GP.  We had to cordon off a whole section of the city to deal with the simultaneous fires and the mass rioting cause by the hallucinogenic smoke spewing out of the place.  At least we busted a drug ring out of all that though. 1# - ok, so drunken idiots might pretend to be him, but no sober and sane person would 2# - Kasandra Millientop did.  Used it to try and apply for a magical university 1# - could you repeat yourself, I seem to have misheard you, I thought you said someone applied to a university as a known mad criminal. 2# - from what I gathered she was trying to get her foot in the door.  A lot of these schools tend to be extremely presides and hard for the common people to access.  She hoped by using the name it would get her noticed long enough to show she had the power and skill needed to enter 1# - how did it turn out? 2# - well the old dean decided to be cruel and give her a chance to fail in front of everyone.  So, he positioned himself and the grading panel behind an anti-magic field of his own casting and told her to give him his best shot after all, and I quote “the mad bombers skills are well known to all here.  A field like this should be no problem for you who use his name”. 1# - permission to speak freely   2# - permission granted 1# - the man sounds like a complete ass 2# - yes, he was.  There were some complications, turns out she had been trying to boost the effect of her magic to replicate the mad bomber by mixing gunpowder and alchemist fire, and her first attempt nearly killed herself 1# - poor girl, I can’t imagine the dean would have let her in after that 2# - yes, the old dean wouldn’t have.  Fortunately for her she did succeed the challenge of hitting him through the barrier. 1# - Really, I assumed the deans magic would have been far more powerful than anything she could have cast 2# - Indeed, that barrier would have blocked even the greatest of magical feats the world has ever known.  Fortunately, the spell was made solely to block magical power, and so failed to simple logic and force 1# - you mean she? 2# - Beaned him with a rock, yes.  Coroner’s report says he was dead before he hit the floor.  For a mage that girl has one hell of an arm 1# - wait, she killed him!  Shouldn’t she have been arrested for that? 2# - no one pressed charges, and the new dean apparently approved of her ingenuity.  They enrolled her in their alchemist course and she became the most popular girl at the school from what I hear 1# - so the new dean approved his predecessor’s murders ingenuity 2# - while he was prising the official hat of leadership off his predecessors freshy caved in skull, yes 1# - so all this paperwork and there are no leads, just random stories? 2# - it’s not that cut and dry.  I’m sure at least one of these reports is the real one, but I’m going to have to go over the crazy ones just to find it.  There not all this bad, like for example I just finished going through.  A bunch of poachers were brought in by some druids.  Although it doesn’t initially look like much, there descriptions of some of the adventurers that took them down sounds a lot like the mad bombers gang.  What’s more apparently their wizard got in a commotion with the adventurers spellcaster and they started bouncing fireballs off each other 1# - I’m no wizard, but I don’t think counter spelling works like that.  Surely there must be more to it than that 2# - your right.  At one point the wizard starts yelling out about what spells their group are casting, causing everyone to start shooting at him.  That sure sounds like our mad bombers MO, getting a lot of attention pulled straight towards him while the rest get on with other things.  A couple of leads like that one and we might just pin enough down to find him, or at least get a scrying spell on him 3# - Well, I’m glad to hear the investigation is going well 1# - sir, you’re not supposed to… 2# - stand down rookie, its fine.  Might I introduce you to the guild-master of the order of the white lotus, the adventuring guild we called in to help us with the investigation. 3# - you know captain, when you said you had some leads to investigate I wasn’t quite expecting this much 2# - well that’s the city guard for you, we don’t do anything in half measures 3# - you know dear, you really don’t look to well, have you gotten any food or rest recently 2# - I had a donut with my extra strong coffee at 3AM if that counts 3# - Well this won’t do.  Tell you what, how about you let me have a go with those leads, it is my guild who is supposed to be tracking him down after all.  Why don’t you take the rookie to the canteen and finish your stories there? 2# - thank you!  But I couldn’t possibly leave all this to you to finish by yourself, it’s far too…. 3# - you don’t get to my position in life without learning a few tricks to deal with paperwork, no go get some rest and unwind, leave finding this bomber to me 1# - thank you sir, that’s very generous 3# - come on rookie, I’ll tell you the one about the bomber and the teacup …… 3# - yes, you don’t get to this position without learning to deal with paperwork [whoosh] 3# - there, all ‘finished’.  It’s my job to ‘track’ you down, and when I do I’m going to wring your neck for all the trouble you’ve caused me.  And to think I left him to keep a track of the others, what was I thinking