Ok So Too Many Suspects

"I hated the guy, I'm glad he's dead if he's dead, I don't trust you sir." This was the eighth person I'd spoken with that day that didn't A. Like Corine at all and B. didn't believe he was actually dead. You would think people would be more afraid of just disclosing this to someone, but apparently the story had gotten out I'd killed him and so I was liked/feared by just about everyone I talked to. I almost wished I had killed the guy if only so I could bask in the adulation for doing the act. But I had not and members of his crew wanted to kill me for something I hadn't actually done.

It probably wasn't doing me any favors to ask questions about his murder around town (I was initially worried about the police, but apparently they were all super corrupt in town which at least explained how the men in suits caught on to me so fast). I should always taper my dumb behaviors, but I always think that like a second before its too late. Like in this case I was just leaving a bakery someone had told me I could find a lead at when I was struck behind the head (why always the head? I swear if I didn't have necromancy I'd be worried about brain damage), the blow was a blinding hot wound that didn't knock me out, but made fighting really hard. So I just submitted. I was looking for more info and figured this was the best way (its a mob battle you have to talk to the mob and you can't just ask where the mob is, well you can but that wouldn't get you the mob, you have to like contact enough people they just show up and grab you, which was totally my plan after they grabbed me...)

Anyway all of this to say I wound up in another basement, handcuffed to another chair, and facing off against more people "Just asking questions" I swear every other gods damned week this is my routine!

That's Pretty Boss

"Can I help you?" The suits looked to be from the same tailor as the dead man which told me they were in the same outfit as the dead man, which probably wasn't a good thing for me. Unless of course they hated the dead man in which case it would have been a good thing for me. They did not in fact hate the man. There were three of them, the lead suit pushed me back into the dirty hole of a room, the other two watched the door.

"Who paid you to kill Corine?" You read that right the man who I found had a girls name, look I'm sorry it is a girls name!

"I didn't?" To say I was confused is an understatement.

"You didn't get paid? You did it for fun?"

"No idiot I didn't kill the man?" This got a punch to the face, but eh worth it. His fist was actually pretty soft for a man as large as he was, which told me he didn't do a lot of beatings himself (he also had well manicured nails something someone in the beating business doesn't).

"Smart mouths get smart hits." That didn't make any sense and the two suits at the doors seemingly perplexed looks said they didn't think it made sense either.

"I didn't kill your boss, but I will kill you if you insist on striking me." I am well past humoring idiots, well not always, but on that day in that crappy hotel room after the cop had already implied I was involved in the killing I was well past humoring him.

"Right a fisherman in a shitty hotel room who looks like he's all of fifteen years old, yeah I'm terrified of you." I forget after necromancy I don't look my age, well I never look my age because my actual age would put me way dead and in the ground, but you know what I mean, I don't look all dignified.

"Sure that's what I am, look I don't know who you guys are, and I already got this shit from the police, but I didn't kill your boss or Corine or whoever you suspect me of killing, I just fished him out of the river, I'm already stuck in your awful town until the police let me go, don't make this worse for me." I figured I stated my case well and that what I said should have resolved everything, the man in the suit did not and so he stuck a gun in my face.

"Don't leave town you piece of shit." And then he left, because its not like I said I was leaving town anyway! And so both cops and crooks didn't want me leaving town and contrary to all sense I didn't actually leave town, in fact because I'm an idiot I decided to try and find out who really did kill the idiot I was accused of killing so that I could leave town without worrying about getting killed, which actually increased my chance of being killed. Make sense? No? Well then read on!

Why Do You Suspect Me?

"So you're a homeless drifter who didn't know the victim and you fish but don't eat the fish and you happened to have fished up this person specifically even though no one else was around at the time, is that right?" The policeman who came to take my statement didn't exactly instill me with confidence in the investigation.

"Well when you put it like that."

"Mr. Lorentino you aren't exactly giving me a lot to go on here, other than you possibly killed this man and are now admitting to it."

"That's patently ridiculous, I mean look at the water damage to him, he's clearly been in the water a long time, and I just walked into this area within the last week. And if I did kill him I can set things on fire I would have just torched the body." Have I ever admitted I have a problem admitting things I shouldn't? Because I totally do.

"Don't leave town Mr. Lorentino." The policeman handed me his card and walked back to where the body was.

"Leave town? I'm not even in town? I don't even know where town is?" He didn't respond to me, and no one offered me a ride back to town, which meant I had to gather up my own things and find where town was (it was about a mile from where I was, but still I thought it was rude they told me not to leave but didn't at least offer to put me up or something?!) I had to check myself into a hotel (I went cheap I didn't exactly a bring a lot of money on my fishing trip).

The hotel was a one story building by the highway, it smelled like stale piss and failure. If there was ever a building that made you feel bad being near it, this was that building. The beds were barely beds. It was funny in a way that with all the modern conveniences this building was worse than several shittier inn's I'd be in hundreds of years prior. It was something I noted about the modern world, things got more complicated, but found all new ways to suck.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when I was sitting around in my crappy hotel room and three men in nice suits came calling. I didn't suspect they were police, I was just shocked that they had found me, and they wanted to talk. Well mostly talk, there was the threatening, but men in suits tend to do that, its part of their suit clad nature.

Fishing Up Trouble

I was alone on the bank, I'd actually been walking the river the past month camping outside society while I fished. It was calming and alarming. Alarming in that no one seemed to care about fishing anymore, or even witnessing the beauty of a river, and calming because I didn't have to deal with stupid dicks. If you've never fished in your life you'd think other fisherman would provide a sense of camaraderie or at the very least conversation. You'd be freaking wrong. Other fisherman are a nightmare, they come in two types, the person who never shuts up, or the person who is stupidly quiet and yells at you when you bother to mention anything. Of course the question you have to ask is "What type of fisherman are you Trezlan?" And I say I break the mold, I make polite conversation but also enjoy moments of quiet reflection... You see I'm unique its everyone else who's an asshole.

Anyway back to my point, I was alone on the bank just throwing my line in to the water (I was lure fishing that being repeated casts with a lure to entice a fish into striking my line) hoping for a bite when I hooked something pretty big. I could tell it was big because it damn near snapped my pole in half when I set the hook (there is a whole explanation of fishing I'm not giving you, you'll just have to deal I guess). I knew right away I probably didn't hook a fish, there wasn't any fight, it was mostly just drag, which usually implies like a log or something. Of course it turned out to be a body. I should have known it would.

From the look of it the guy had a rough check out as it were. He was shot and strangled, clothing was fairly nice what was left of it after the water and the fish had taken their due (seeing the missing flesh I was once again happy I fish for fun and not for eating). I of course was upset, because it meant A. My fishing was done for the day, and B. I had to call the police and get stuck in a conversation I didn't want to have, because that is my life, I went an entire month without police involvement and I catch one dead body and bam right back to it!

I should have known! Next time I'll choose a hobby with less chance of finding dead bodies, like sewing or digging holes. Ok that second one is not a hobby and would most likely find dead bodies better than fishing... MOVING ON!

There Must Be Something To Do

With Val in the hospital, Hanlon being Hanlon, and Xanthi on a hunting trip with some rich people (she didn't invite me at all! I taught her how to speak the language and she doesn't invite me on something she's good at and I'm really not? Rude that's what that is!) I had nothing to do! I didn't even have the hammer of doom that was the observer hanging over me. I mean I had my health, my hip was healed up thanks to necromancy, so I wasn't confined inside anymore, but I was extremely bored! I mean I'm a creature of habit, I bounce between one horrible thing and another, when I'm between calamity I feel weird. Its like when you are fishing and catching a bunch of fish right next to each other and then all of a sudden nothing, just a dead water moment. It comes off as something bad is about to happen (like a storm or some other event) and generally that's exactly what is coming.

But since I was bored as all get out and had no actual thing to do I did something I always wanted to do for a while. I went fishing. Yep I got my fishing gear out of where I'd been hiding it (I've lost all sorts of things over the centuries, but I've kept that fishing gear, it was/is my most important asset) and set out to fish my way into an adventure...

Ok well not really, I also got out some books and some camping equipment and mainly just planned to read, write some, and fish a lot. In fact a lot of my entries from earlier were written while I was on this very trip, there was so little to do I just wrote and wrote, its why I never mentioned what I was doing while I was writing those entries because there wasn't anything to really report for a while. All told I actually got a good solid month of fishing before anything of note actually happened. I know I was completely stunned at the time. Well I think it was more completely drunk and placated at the time, but you know some say one thing, some say the other! Next entry as usual!

Can't Tell If You Are Serious

"So it was me all along I was so relieved." We were at Valrym's bar even though he was not in attendance, Hanlon of course was across from me its not like I could tell my secret to anyone else. Aside from a homeless person because no one believes those poor guys (I swear you lose your house and people think you are some kind of forever broken person I know when I've gotten pretty drunk the looks people give you would just make you feel rotten, anyway getting off target).

"Or that's what it wanted you to think." Hanlon as always really reassuring.

"You know I don't know why I invited you to lunch, you always just say things that make me feel bad, and that's what I like to do to others."

"You realize that makes you sound pretty..."

"I know what I said!" I get frustrated when dealing with Hanlon if that wasn't clear. Like I know he's super powerful and creepy, but he's also incredibly hard to deal with and can get under my skin. Just being in the same room with him makes me feel like I should confess to crimes he has that effect.

"I'm just saying that I'm glad the observer is gone, it might have discovered what I was up to and I can't have that." He got up with that line and left because he's Hanlon and screwing with me is his hobby. I didn't even know if he was telling the truth and it's probably better that way. Mostly, hopefully. Oh gods I hope I don't get drug into his bullshit, lords watch over me. Anyway that was my last issue with the Observer so far, so all is well on the Hanlon isn't going to get me winked out of existence front, so far.

Feeling Used, So Normal

I was wondering how I would call up the observer to tell him of my failure, or at least try and claim it was the stupid kids who somehow were causing all the problems, but since he was waiting for me when I opened the door all those questions were answered. I then tried to come up with a plausible lie, maybe he was easy to deceive? I mean he claimed to be an observer, but he wouldn't be the first person to simply lie about their ability just because they were different from everyone else. And then I remembered he could read my mind and I knew I had just screwed myself.

"Your deception wouldn't have worked anyway just to say." I hate people who are smugly right, especially when they are right.

"Well so you know I failed so I guess I'm to be destroyed." Resignation in the face of defeat my common response.

"Failed? No you didn't fail, you showed me that yes the death magic is just a result of your continued existence and not some overall problem in this particular city, you are no more about to be destroyed than your normal day, which might suggest yes you will be, but not by me." And like that my interaction with him was gone. I was left to just sit there in my office feeling like a fool. He apparently wanted me to walk around the city proving to him that it was just a residue of me and not a greater threat, why he didn't just tell me that? I dunno greater being are just as petty and dickish as the gods I deal with.

On the plus I did get a forgotten volume of my early works removed from the world, so that was good. As a negative I had to get kidnapped and inconvenienced for a bit. So you know over all a normal Trezlan kind of affair.