Cryptid

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

[image description: a 8 page comic starring saiki. he's sitting at a booth, eating coffee jelly.

saiki: this is great. no annoying friends, no annoying family. some silence, and my coffee jelly. something is wrong here. Multiple things, in fact.

saiki: there’s nothing beyond the booth I'm sitting at. It's all blank. the line work could be better. and is the lettering handwritten? Good grief. I do break the fourth wall, but isn't this too much? I'm going to be out of character. And would it kill this artist to use a straight edge? its no problem for me since I’m an esper, but other people could trip on these uneven panels. The coffee jelly's fine, thankfully.

An example is shown of kaidou tripping. Kaidou: woah!

Saiki, not seeing kaidou walking towards him: it’s a good thing the artist is too lazy to draw anyone else. I can handle this, but with other people it could get dangerous.

kaidou, tripping on the panel: hey saiki- woah!

kaidou knocks saikis coffee jelly off the table.

kaidou: sorry saiki!

he sees saikis expression. kaidou, nervous: haha... I'll talk to you later!

kaidou runs off. Saiki thinks: How come I didn't notice Kaidou was right there? I don't have the germanium ring on, so i should've heard- could this artist be so careless that they didn't bother to write his thoughts in?

saiki, holding the coffee jelly in its glass: like i said: dangerous. i just barely caught the coffee jelly with my telekinesis off page.

saiki, looking at how the table looks the same as the start of the comic: but all the other stuff should still be on the floor. how hard can it be to keep props consistent in an eight page comic.

he looks to the side, and sees that theres another coffee jelly on the table, since the table is as it was in the beginning.

saiki, eating the new coffee jelly: good grief. i need to do something before this gets out of hand. seems i should investigate further. End ID]

He didn't do it.

The cops very clearly planted evidence on him because they had to make an arrest because all eyes were on them and whoever actually did the deed was making them look stupid.

Why would the real killer hero have kept the weapon on his person and traveled two states over while carrying it and a manifesto in his bag, conveniently turning the crime into a federal matter? The same guy whose bag they found in a park, filled with monopoly money? Why did the police turn off their bodycams, take Luigi's stuff, drive a block away, turn their bodycams back on, go back into the restaurant, and then arrest him?