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[redhairring]

[ The video clicks on to Freddie, frowning at the camera, still dressed for winter, black beanie hat perched on her head. Frown on her face, she gives the camera a small nod, trying not to show just how freaked out she is.

Because spoilers: Freddie's pretty freaked out. ]

I've just got two questions. [ for now, at least. ] One, what's this nonsense about super powers? And two... [ now her expression changes to something that's purely 'I can't believe this shit.' ] who knows anything about dogs?

Comments

[glassinine]

[Well, that was...

...not what he expected.

He takes a moment to wrap his head around that.]

On what evidence was he institutionalized?

WELP

[infomodder]

Planted evidence. I've already been told I was released.

[Which means yes, yes, he did know where he was going when he got here.]

You should be careful around Ms. Lounds here. She's very dangerous to anyone involved in law enforcement. Makes a habit of helping them lose their jobs by lying to their face.

HEY, SHE'S KEPT THE WORST STILL A SECRET (for now)

[redhairring]

I'd hardly call once or twice a "habit."

[ No. It's a habit. ]

GOTTA STAKE HIS CLAIM FURTHER

[infomodder]

You are talking to the not really cool dude who knows your hair color, eye color, date of birth, place of birth, blood type, and everything else on your file. [He would say "and your height and weight last physical check-in, is the weight still the same?" but you know. No.] Pretty sure I'm a good bet for "what Freddie Lounds makes a habit of" when I've got all that information on paper in a manilla folder I've always hoped I could ignore.

[redhairring]

You're good journalism, Will. I can't help that. [ Also, you're a dangerous possible psycho-killer and the citizens of Baltimore (and now Heropa) needed to know that. ]

[infomodder]

[he is going to bust her goddamn lip open again at this rate






j/k]

You could always start by doing some respectable journalism as opposed to rummaging through rot and decay like a vulture late to the scene desperate for a scrap of fat the lion before it somehow missed.

[He's saying something about himself there as much as he is about her. He knows.]

You're already talking to Ace about dogs. He's probably your best bet with Dog Fancy considering he knows them way better than even I do.

[Possibly because Ace is a talking dog.]

[redhairring]

[ respectable journalism, that's cute. It's also not going to happen, as shown by Freddie's little smirk. ]

As much as I appreciate my new position at Dog Fancy, I don't plan on staying that long. I'm sure that Heropa can provide plenty of fodder for the new and improved Tattlecrime.

[infomodder]

[No one is fooled!]

You ever thought about putting it in print? Like on actual paper? Could probably do that now.

[There is an end goal to this question. He is not just curious.

He's fishing.]

[redhairring]

Too much time and too much effort. It's a digital age, after all.

[ Besides, Freddie doesn't know a damn thing about printmaking. ]

[infomodder]

I'd pinned it more as the age of the hover car and the jukebox.

It's a shame. I actually have a few regulars who like tabloids. Buy them near my shop. Something about not needing to buy toilet paper when you had that sort of thing for much cheaper.

[tattlecrime is an asswipe, he's being nice]

[redhairring]

Somehow, I doubt the people who visit a bait shop are my target readers anyway.

[infomodder]

It's not just a bait shop. It's Will Graham's bait shop. I might have a very different clientele.

Or you might have no idea who goes into a bait shop in the first place.

[redhairring]

[ spoilers: she has no idea who goes into a bait shop in the first place. ]

Different clientele or not, I'm not visiting to find out.

:')

[glassinine]

The source of your dislike for the press, I suppose?

[infomodder]

You got it in one go. Source is right here, that would be Freddie Lounds.

[glassinine]

How did you gain all that information on her?

[infomodder]

Miss Lounds here runs a site called Tattlecrime where she publishes articles related to murder and murderers. You know how some tabloids stalk celebrities and take pictures of them trying to hide the faces of their children, roots through their garbage, both invasive and obsessive? She does that with the gruesome. Those sorts of journalists, if we're being nice, lay in wait outside celebrity haunts or climb trees to get good pictures. Freddie Lounds does something similar with crime scenes. If she can get into one before we can arrive, she'll do it.

She caught me at a crime scene, got information she shouldn't have, and published an article about it. Mostly about me being insane. Or maybe there was more, I was a little busy trying to find a victim before they were turned into a human garden and never went back to check. Since then, she's followed us around like a bloodhound herself.

She has been useful in some ways. Sort of. You have to give her something she wants.

She's interfered with matters she never should have and the Bureau's used her before. We have her on file. I had access to those files. I have a great memory. They're not with me, but I don't need them.

[glassinine]

Speaking to her in that way makes you look suspicious, you know, Mr. Graham.

[infomodder]

I've been institutionalized for the murder of four girls and what strikes you as suspicious is my reminder that I know exactly who she is and what she's about?

Really?

[glassinine]

I mean listing everything you know about her to her. That seems like a gross invasion of privacy, and comes across as quite threatening besides. Unless it was your intention to threaten her?

[infomodder]

[MILES]

She's stalked me and others at I know obsessively in order to invade our privacy. In my case, to report untruths and even say them right in front of my face knowing I really can do nothing about it. Now she's dropped a few facts that I have enjoyed keeping to myself. That's gross. Telling her I know the very basics of her life is nothing in comparison to what she's done in the past and will probably continue to do. She hasn't the first clue about dogs.

If I'd listed all those little facts for public consumption, you could call it gross. I'd insult you and say it was a reminder, not a threat, but it's both.

[glassinine]

Mr. Graham, I understand that the stories she's written about you have been unfortunate; most likely they have been unfair, and very likely journalistically irresponsible. But it is not appropriate to threaten her. Doing so makes you look a villain; indeed, it makes you one.

If you disapprove of her methods, do not sink to them.

[infomodder]

[omfg]

A villain! Look a villain, become a villain. Black and white, there is no middle ground. Darkness and light, they never collide. There are no other colors. Nothing else. Box 1 and Box 2.

But that is an utterly unsustainable way of thinking. What if everyone were willing to simply place people as either villain or hero and never once look for another label? Why, then real villains would be quite glad, I should think - real villains, and no one else. So busy chasing those pesky minor villains who are rude, who loiter, who litter, who stick bubblegum under desks. Far too busy to come after the big fish. Such an easy, glad time those villains would have.

[If his good lawyer buddy here reads that last paragraph and thinks "Good Lord that sounds word-for-word like something I said once" then he's not wrong. Will just manipulated a bit, and he did it on purpose.]

[glassinine]

[Edgeworth reads that, and clenches his jaw. His next words, typed with impatience and indeed a touch of anger, are more brusque, without some of his previous measured, philosophical loftiness.]

Do you dislike her methods? Then don't be a hypocrite. That is all I am trying to say, Mr. Graham.

[redhairring]

Journalistically irresponsible? I resent that remark, you know.