Conversation · Damaged Ledger

You're a swashbuckler with that pen, Harry. And it feels good. Feels like completion.

Things to be done and things already done -- the composition of reality. This is an extremely useful tool for a detective of the Citizens Militia.

"Lieutenant, have you by any chance named our case?"

"No -- actually. Any ideas?"

This would also be a good time to finally name the case -- if only Lieutenant Kitsuragi were here so you could coordinate. No use naming it without him... maybe at a later time you can come back to this?

Like a fan of gills the chequered papers dry in your hand. The handwriting is extremely dense, if mostly illegible.

Sadly, the ledger only comes with an old worn-down led pencil. It's unfitting of this monumental event.

The ledger only comes with an old worn-down led pencil. It will do, barely... but...

"Kim, do you have a pen?"

The lieutenant looks at his blue notebook. Two fat, shiny pens hang from the binder, like large calibre bullets on an ammo belt.

It's downright incriminating. He has little choice but to give you one, although he really does not want to.

He is not really saying anything. Just standing there -- looking at them.

"Fine, I'll just use this crappy pencil..."

Absolutely motionless at first, then animated slowly, imperceptibly even, the lieutenant begins to browse his notes again. Leaving you to the case files.

The threat has passed. He is thankful it has passed, and that he's gotten to keep both pens.

You start scratching the tasks you've completed onto the paper with a brash freehand uncannily similar to the rest of the letters. The wording comes easily, it's almost robotically simple; a language developed for mental rigour and simplicity:

"Can I have one?"

"Know that I give this to you..." He pulls one from the loop. "...with resentment."

With this beauty -- COMMIT TO PAPER.

"You know you have to give one to me, right? That is how human society works, I believe."

Wordless, he pulls one from the loop and hands it to you. The pen is cold, blue, and ready to write.

No matter. I'll just use the pencil...

(Back to the case files.)

"Kim, my cases appear to employ some kind of... naming convention."

"Yes, how very childish of you," he mumbles. "In your -- and my -- defence, almost everyone in the RCM uses the titular system. In addition to the official alphanumeric."

"Why is that?"

"It's a holdover from the early days of the RCM -- right after the Revolution, when the organization had little idea how to do things. It persists in an unofficial capacity. Officers use these titles to refer to their work among themselves."

"I seem to have named a case "THE SQUARE BULLET HOLE MURDERS."

"Again, in your defence, I seem to have named one..." He peeks into his notes. "THE MAN WITH THE HOLE IN HIS HEAD. That was a real person, his death was real. Still I named it that. To amuse myself."

He smiles. "I pray his loved ones never find out."

"What happened to him?"

"Rail spike through the head. He died. It was a work place accident."

Don't mention it.

Your secret is safe with the rotten cabbage of papers in your hand. Writing covers almost all the pages.

"You mean the alphanumeric -- officer, precinct, time of arrival at the scene?"

"That's the one." (Lie.)

"Good. That's a good one..."

He understands you're concealing something, sire.

"...but -- do you also use the titular?"

"No. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Right. Of course." He returns to his notes, leaving you to yours.

"Okay. Yes. It appears I do."

"Well... so do I. In our defence, officer, almost everyone in the RCM does."

"No, I mean a... non-numeric one. With titles."

"Oh, you mean the titular. Yes, well... So do I. In our defence -- almost everyone in the RCM does."

That's it?

The notebook is annual, it says '51 on what remains of its cover -- a molten strap of cardboard. Everything prior to this must have belonged to a previous volume. In short: there was more.

Judging by the creases on your forehead and the lines on your cheeks -- too much more. Going back years, decades even....

I'm done inspecting these. (Close the case files.)

You don't exactly close them, so much as distance yourself from the smelly papers. They're a little further from your nose now.

There was mention of a... naming convention here?

Yes. It appears you employ a... shall we say robust yet literary system. Each investigation has its case number written on the margins. Yet, still more tellingly, most are accompanied by a name.

A title one might say even. One that draws inspiration from snoop fiction and Vespertine cop show staples.

I don't wanna... (Back to the case files.)

Oh my, and they're written in capital letters too...

Yes, all caps. One is called THE NEXT WORLD MURAL, another THE SQUARE BULLET HOLE MURDERS. Another yet: THE UNSOLVABLE CASE.

More?

Others appear more light-hearted: THE GUYS ON A COUCH IN AN UNEXPECTED LOCATION and THE MURDER AT THE HOOKAH PARLOUR, even the rare article-free COLLAPSING TENEMENT. Murder features prominently throughout.

You like this grimy murdering, don't you?

Wish there was one in there about a drug den, you love those. Gets the blood pumping.