HtH79 - INTERREGNUM "Found You, Papi!"
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Part 2 and conclusion to the Spring Gala performance!
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Madi-san solves a mystery. Feat. Not-So-Useless detective!
"Madi-san, do you realize how insane it is to go looking for your family's work here? There must be thousands of scripts stored here! You don't even know if it even exists!"
"Non non, you don't understand, Aya-chan!" She looks at me with the pitying look reserved for 'someone who doesn't know'. "It's not a matter of 'if' anymore! It exists! That's why we came up here to begin with! The Onx Pixcx... exists!"
I bury my head rubbingly in the wall of playbooks next to me. This is the backstage of The Firmament, Arcadia's oldest and largest theatre hall. We are not here for the plush red seats or the theatre boxes though, we are backstage, searching for Madi-san's elusive 'answer to everything'.
For years now, Madi-san has been trying to figure out the mystery of her family's passing. Between a house burning down, Attack Glowies (of course there would be glowies, how would there not be glowies), and impossible family marriages that could only happen between zombies, Madi-san is convinced that the 'truth' lies somewhere in her (deceased) parents' hometown.
We are here at the backstage of The Firmament, where the old scripts are kept. I have learnt from my time here as a vtuber that performances that reach The Firmament are all mightily impressive indeed. Many an Arcadian vsinger make it their goal to one day book a performing slot at The Firmament!
... not that it matters much to me, of course.
I'm 'The Detective'.
The 'Great-Undersea Detective', to be precise.
A title officially recognized by the current head of GLOYW for solving a cold case involving a vtuber who graduated at the height of her popularity, only to be found... Ow!!!
"What did you do that for?!?!"
This madwoman dropped one of those thick grimoires of a playbook on my head! She did it on purpose, I swear! Look at that smug grin she has, peering over the book with a signature look of superiority!
"Are you gonna help me find it or what?!" She raises a red playbook, in chucking position---
"Alright, alright! Don't toss anymore stones where you are at!"
Absurd request this woman has, to find works made under her family name, 'Delaroux'. Didn't she say that her 'Papi' definitely used a pseudonym during his acting career here? So why are you looking under 'Delaroux'?! The 'D' section here is enormous! Rather than waste my time searching for the 'D', I decide to head off to a smaller section, like the 'S' section.
Thank all the dark undersea gods that the 'S' section is far removed from the madwoman. It is also considerably smaller. The books here are also considerably shinier for some reason.
"How new can you be," I chuckle under my breath to myself.
Unlike Madi-san, I have no wish to rub my hands in dust that has aged for five hundred years!
But I have to pretend to be at work at least, lest the madwoman come after me again.
As I do, my mind starts to wonder about the futility of searching for a person with a pseudonym. Someone like that could have called themselves Anonymous! Or if they were more silly, gave themselves a title like 'Lord Protector'!
As I throw a little shade at our friends from the New Continent, I noted something very odd. The book in my hands bore the initials of its author. Those were same initials were repeated along the entire shelf I ran my fingers across. Not only that...
Almost the entirety of the 'S' section...
... is dominated by a single author.
It has to be, because the initials are all made in the exact same golden threading!
Shxkespexre eat your heart out, whoever this is...
... has been writing for a very, very long time!
What kind of name is that anyway, this sounds more like a title that...
"Whatcha got in your hands, Aya-chan?"
"AHHHHHH!!! Don't suddenly pop up behind me like that!"
The madwoman rounded the corner and bopped me on the back!
In a panic, I tossed the book I was holding up into the air! The pages flutter in the air, and a single leaf lands on the table where the book bounced off!
"You're paying for the damages, Madi-san! I'm not responsible for anything...!"
...
...
For once, the loudmouth is silent.
But not for long!
"Well, well!" Madi-san scratches the top of her Frxnch beret, sheeto-eating grin breaking out across her face. "Sometimes it pays to be always be WRONG like Aya-chan! Ehehehe!"
"W-what do you mean, Madi-san?"
The thing she is looking at isn't a loose page, but a photograph. From the looks of it, it hasn't aged that much, for the print still looks fresh and well-preserved. By my own estimates, it might only have been taken in the past year or so...
The contents of the photo could not have been more ordinary.
Just a young girl with brown hair, clutching the very playbook it was hidden in.
She clutches the book close to her chest, like she had just won a large prize.
This must have been the girl who wrote the playbook.
Beside her, a young boy with white hair, pointing at her in congratulations...
I tilt my head, squinting at the photograph.
These are all people we don't know.
Except...
In the corner of the photograph, there is a familiar artifact.
Or rather— a girl, easily mistaken for a passing phantom…
... is wearing the exact same Frxnch hat Madi-san is wearing...
Before I even get to point a trembling finger—
Out of nowhere, the madwoman's bright red eyes glint, and she helicopter slams a finger right on the photograph...!
"Found you, Papi!!!"
This week, we are trying something different! This is a simul-posting at the same time as the Scribblehub release! Go check out the entire series at this link!
