Dear sweet Charlotte, please come back

It’s finished!

I thought this day would both never come and come a lot sooner than just a bit over two years, but I’d like to thank everyone who read, commented, liked, reblogged, and even glanced over these 30 metas. They were long, probably nit-picky at times, and overly focused on little things that made me giggle while writing them, but you guys found something interesting in them, and for that I’m truly grateful.

Before this series, I hadn’t published almost any of my long-form writings in a long while — as in, ff . net before the purge ‘long while’ — and had little-to-no confidence that anyone would be interested in what I had to say, but hearing people’s thoughts and comments and reading everyone’s tags has been incredibly heartening and motivating, and for that I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.

For my final trick before bowing off this stage that I’ve occupied on and off for the last 2 years and change, I’m going to reblog this post with the links/titles of each meta to have an easy point to refer back to (mostly for myself, but I hope you guys might find it useful sometime).

I want to thank the clue crew one more time for listening to my ramblings — even if only briefly — and letting me have a space to talk about a video game series that has defined a large swath of my life and how I look at video/computer game writing in general.

#1 Secrets Can Kill: Secrets and Killing

#2 Stay Tuned for Danger: Staying Tuned for a Soap Opera

#3 Message in a Haunted Mansion: Hauntings, Messages, and the Mansion

#4 Treasure in a Royal Tower: Royals, Towers, and the Treasures They Hide

#5 The Final Scene: Curtain Call

#6 Secret of the Scarlet Hand: The Hand(print) of Fate

#7 Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake: All Dogs Go to Pennsylvania

#8  The Haunted Carousel: A Surprisingly Thoughtful Spin

#9 Danger on Deception Island: Whale Be Clamming for Clues

#10 The Secret of Shadow Ranch: Not Horsin’ Around

#11 The Curse of Blackmoor Manor: A Cursed Half-Game

#12 Secret of the Old Clock: Puttering Around

#13 Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon: All Aboard the Hardy Boys

#14 Danger By Design: Doubly Dubiously Designed

#15 The Creature of Kapu Cave: When the Boys Come Marchin’ Home

#16 The White Wolf of Icicle Creek: Silly Rabbit, Ecological Terrorism is for Kids!

#17 Legend of the Crystal Skull: Death, Philosophy, and the Runs

#18 The Phantom of Venice: The Puzzle is Just the Italian Language

#19 The Haunting of Castle Malloy: Leavin’ on a Jet Pack

#20 Ransom of the Seven Ships: Hunting for Some Buried Story

#21 Warnings at Waverly Academy: Are You Poe-ndering What I’m Poe-ndering?

#22 Trail of the Twister: Avenge My Twistery Depth

#23 Shadow at the Water’s Edge: (Pachin)Koping Mechanisms, KuroSAWa, and Putting The Ring On It

#24 The Captive Curse: No, the Creature’s Name is Fraulein’s Monster

#25 Alibi in Ashes: Adoration to Ashes, Dust to Just

#26 Tomb of the Lost Queen: Dead Weight

#27 The Deadly Device: The Weight of Living

#28 Ghost of Thornton Hall: Two Can Keep a Secret (if the Family Tree is Dead)

#29 The Silent Spy: Ziplines, Blood Ties, and Colonavirus

High school hallway

Library

Walking around in New York

Charlie’s construction work

Walking around the mansion

Snooping through the dining room

Louis reading in the library

Fireplace with howling wind

Blizzard

Snowstorm

Crackling fire

Professor Hotchkiss typing

Examining the library

Movie theater

Simone on the phone

Washington DC metro

The museum, busy

Woods at night

Malone house

Nighttime nature sounds

Walking around the woods during daytime

Carousel organ music

Amusement park sounds

Elliot wood-carving

The Hot Kettle

Boat sounds

Waves and thunder

Lighthouse

The sea caves

Kayaking

Whale sounds

Seagulls at the pier

Old west saloon

Horse stable

Horse walking

Cookout campfire

Walking on trails

The cookout

The alchemy lab

Exploring the path outside Blackmoor

Working in the forge

Walking around inside Blackmoor

Nigel typing in the library

Fishing at a calm lake

Clock ticking

Preparing Mrs. Archer’s dress

Playing with Uri

Train station

Train journey

Train in the rain

Sounds of Paris

Parisian cafe

Waterlogged catacomb tunnels

Wind outside the Moulin

Grinding up herbs for tea

Making tea for Minette

Walking around Paris

Beach

Underwater diving

Jungle

Ocean waves

Malachi Craven’s lab

[gif by @nancy-drew]

Like--we don't see Ace smile a ton. Not never, but it's rarer, especially lately, so it feels significant.

Perhaps Ace's most pervasive issue is his inadequacy complex. He always thinks he's not good enough, that he has to prove himself to be worthy of his friends, of love. He is Acts of Service personified. He needs to be needed.

With that said, he's almost always known he can be someone Nancy needs. It's their earliest dynamic. She needed someone to talk to about tanking her grades and missing out on college. She needed someone to block the road to the morgue. To hack stuff. To call and cause a distraction at the flower stuff. And so on and so on.

When they're "broken up" post cursebreaking attempt, he is still obviously and demonstrably someone she needs--hence Ace's bitter "see you next time you need something" after the teeth shenanigans.

Because while he will still help her--he will always help her, even pre-swap when she's surprised he shows up but he did because she needed help--what Ace actually needs is to be wanted. To be loved.

Cut to this beautiful conversation. Ace says he's a better person with Nancy is in his life. And that's true, and a wonderful sentiment. It's true in reverse as well, and it would have been amazing even to hear Nancy say "ditto."

But that's not what she tells him. She tells him he makes her happy. Not that he's useful. Not that his skills help her. Not that he adds an objective value through his efforts that makes her life function more effectively.

He makes her happy. Just him. Just who he is. And not just that, but she's actively unhappy without him.

Thanks for @upstairs-people-problems for solving it! You are the best, my friend.

"Thanks for sleuthing along, but some of your theories are wrong. There is more to the trivia. If you should ponder all night, do stay awake or you might encounter a fright. Take a page from chores past and mix up more clues. We have a new case and no time to lose!"

I don’t mean that it was another hyper fixation.

I mean that it was my personality during all five of the most formative years of my life.

I mean that it was the sole obsession that formed the way I see the world.

for @oceandrew​ because you said you’d read this if I wrote it and for @pinelesstree because you encourage my weird hyperfixations :)

word count: 2329

Jake walked into his room and threw his backpack at the foot of his bed, muttering a few choice words to himself. More carefully, he set his video camera onto his desk, but then swore again and kicked the one of the legs of his desk. 

That…maybe could have gone better. He wasn’t planning on Mitch pulling out a gun in the middle of discussing arrangements. Maybe that was some lack of foresight on Jake’s part…. Sure, Mitch was just some stupid criminal, too dumb to go to college, so he worked as a custodian at the pharmacy, school, and as maintenance man on top of his drug racket, but he was still a criminal. Duh, some of them carried weapons.

Jake winced. His face still hurt, though.

But Jake was smart. Smarter than Mitch. While he and Mitch were arguing in front of the video lab in the school (they’d met there at six, and plenty of athletes, janitors, and security personnel were still in the premises, so the door was unlocked), Mitch pulled out his gun, pointed it at Jake, and yelled at him to give him his video tapes and video camera. Jake had yelled back at Mitch, hoping to attract somebody to the video lab to scare Mitch off. 

After about a minute, his plan worked, but not before Mitch had hit him with his gun.

Jake winced as he touched the side of his face. That was going to leave a mark. He’d been stunned for a moment, but before Mitch could hit him again, they’d both heard footsteps rapidly approaching the video lab. Once they’d heard the footsteps, Jake ran out the doors of the school, jumped on his bike, and peddled away…though he wasn’t sure where Mitch had gone.

He sat on his bed and cursed to himself again. If that had gone better, then he would have gotten enough money to be out of Paseo del Mar by the end of the week.

If he wanted to get money out of Mitch, he had to do something different. Maybe not meet him in person again, Jake didn’t like getting hit and would rather not repeat such an experience again. Maybe Jake could leave him another note somewhere, or use Daryl or Hector as a deliveryman. Probably Daryl, since he knew Mitch already. Or maybe not, considering who knew what would make Mitch pull out his gun, though Mitch did rely on Daryl for running what was most likely drugs, so Mitch probably wouldn’t attack him. And besides, Daryl wasn’t smart enough to get the best of Mitch. Jake had outsmarted both of them. He could take care of himself. If Jake could organize some sort of dead drop or something, that would be best. Something that wouldn’t require any face-to-face communication with Mitch. Just let him control Mitch from the shadows and then disappear once he got the money he wanted.

He did take comfort in the fact that Mitch hadn’t shot him. Maybe the gun was just for intimidation. Maybe he was all talk and no show. Maybe he wouldn’t really kill anyone. 

Jake would just have to watch his back while at work and school to make sure Mitch didn’t show up and mug him.

Something tapped at his window. 

He ignored it and stood up from his bed. He’d mostly sorted everything in his room into “I want to take this with me” and “I don’t want to take this with me” when he moved out, hopefully next week, if all went according to plan. He’d almost finished writing the letter to his dad explaining why he’d be randomly gone one day. Though it might be a while before his dad noticed. Their paths didn’t cross all that much. This week was an exception, since with their current house guest, Jake’s father wanted to try to eat dinner together to at least keep up appearances; awkwardly try to get to know his ex’s daughter more while she stayed at their house. Jake doubted his dad would organize a massive search party to pick him up, even if he or someone found the video tape saying Jake was going to Dread Isle. His dad was apathetic like that, didn’t really care about Jake. Jake was, too, he didn’t really care about his father. Their relationship was convenient like that. 

The tapping continued.

Maybe he could give Mia some more clues to find his video tapes. Sure, his half-sister would only be here for another few days, but if she really tried, she could probably find all of the clues needed to find the hidden tapes, or at least the one showing where he was heading next week. Especially because some clues were hidden away in the library. She liked reading, so he imagined she’d be especially thrilled to find he’d inserted clues into the library’s catalog. Sure, she didn’t live in Florida, but if she just confidently walked into school or Maxine’s after hours, no one would suspect anything or question her.

More tapping.

And hey, if she–or anyone in the school, though he doubted anyone in the school would find out anything, since everyone at the school were all idiots–found the clues he’d left hinting at his classmates’ misdeeds, good for her/them. If not…well, at least Jake could forget about them when he was on Dread Isle. If Daryl kept up being a drug runner, if Hector continued stealing and using drugs, if Connie kept committing fraud, if Hal kept cheating…karma would catch up to them eventually. They were all obsessed with going to college (waste of time, if you asked Jake, he had showed in the past couple months you didn’t need a college degree to get money), and even if everyone threw away Jake’s messages on the bulletin boards, someone would eventually find out what disgusting hypocrites they were; walking around with their holier-than-thou attitudes while committing crimes of themselves (especially Daryl, Jake genuinely hoped he met the same financial ruin as his father when his perfect, golden boy reputation and appearance crashed and burned eventually, because if there was any justice or karma in the world, that would happen). Maybe it wouldn’t be Jake who ultimately exposed them, but out of sight, out of mind. Thinking about them would ruin his private island/life of solitary luxury, so he’d do his best to avoid letting them ruin his retirement.

The tapping had turned into pounding.

Seriously, what on earth–he thought as he turned around towards his window.

And gasped, jumping backwards, his throat suddenly constricting as his heartbeat shot up.

Mitch was standing there.

How on earth did he–?

He had been tapping on the window with his gun.

Jake pressed himself against his dresser, trying to remain standing, despite his limbs suddenly wanting to give out. Why on earth was Mitch here? This was Jake’s house, he was supposed to have privacy here, how did he follow him here? 

“If anything happens to me…” 

Okay, he hadn’t actually thought that something was going to happen to him when he’d recorded that on his video tape; he was just supposed to take Mitch’s money and have the guy leave him alone.

Mitch was glowering at him as he made a “come here” gesture.

Jake was feeling rather sick but he tried his best to ignore such feelings as he straightened up–he just startled me, that’s it, I’m fine, I have control of the situation–and walked to the window.

“What do you want?” he muttered, opening his window. “Here to pay up?”

“Not at all. We’re going to meet again.”

“I don’t have anything else to say. Give me the money or I’ll turn you into the police and–”

The word died in Jake’s throat as Mitch shoved the gun into Jake’s face.

“I have a few different things to say,” Mitch said quietly as Jake crossed his eyes staring down the barrel of the gun. “Meet me at the school tonight, by the entrance in the back of the school to the boiler room at 11 p.m.”

“Wh-why do you think I’d be stupid enough to meet you then, when the security’s left for the night by then?”

A ghost of a smirk tugged at the corners of Mitch’s mouth. “It is unfortunate for you, isn’t it? Would you like to know what will happen if you don’t?”

“I can guess,” Jake said, forcing himself to look away from the gun and instead at the man holding it. His face must have been ashen, but he tried to wipe his face clean of emotion as he faced Mitch

“I know where you live, Jake,” Mitch said, his voice uncannily quiet, considering he’d been yelling at Jake at the school not one hour ago. “Obviously. If you aren’t by the school by then, I’ll come here and shoot you. And I’ll shoot anyone else who lives here. And don’t think you can run away, either–my, ah, business, as you called it–it has a lot of people involved all around Florida. Within a few days, they’d all know what you look like.”

Jake didn’t say anything, and Mitch continued, “So we’ll discuss arrangements on my terms, this time–at the school at eleven tonight. I’ll see you there.”

And he put his gun away, backing away from the window. A few minutes later, Jake heard a car engine turn on and drive away.

He exhaled and ran his fingers through his hair, slumping against the wall.

He wanted to meet…tonight…at the school. With no one else around. No risk of security or anyone else running into them.

A sudden, horrible thought slammed into him.

You’re not getting out of this alive.

Shut up! 

You’re outclassed.

No, I’m not. I’ve already blackmailed four criminals.

Did any of them come to your house to threaten to murder you?

Shut. UP.

It was almost seven now. He’d have to leave a bit past 10:30 to make it to the school by eleven.

A strangled noise was building up in the back of his throat, and breathing was starting to sound faint, shaky. 

Shut UP. Come on, think. 

Wait, the bulletin boards…

If he went to the school now, he could make it back to school at about 7:30. The security guards, athletes, coaches, janitorial staff, and maybe some theater kids cleaning up after rehearsal would still be there.

If someone asked what he was doing, he could tell them that he forgot to do something, forgot to leave something on the bulletin boards for tomorrow, say he left something in his locker, something. He just needed a printer and some paper. Maybe just even paper and a pen.

Messages, he could leave messages…

Someone knocked on his door, and he jumped.

“Jake?” Mia called.

He cleared his throat and exhaled slowly, calming down. “Yeah?”

His half-sister opened the door and frowned. “You good? What happened to your face?”

Oh that. Again, he unconsciously brushed against his injury. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just, uh, fell off my bike.”

“Uh-huh.  Dinner’s ready.”

“Oh. Right.” He cleared his throat. “Actually, Mia, you and my dad can eat without me. I have to run to the school to do something real quick.”

She frowned and crossed her arms. “You know, you’re weird, Jake. The way you were talking to that kid in the library. You were exchanging papers or something, and that kid really looked unhappy. You told me that you really hate your classmates, and that they hate you…but I guess I underestimated how much. Even walking down the hallway, people were throwing you dirty looks! You don’t seem physically strong enough to shove kids into lockers. And now you show up with the side of your face injured. What are you doing? Why are you exchanging papers with people? Why does everyone hate you? Why do you look like you were punched? And why are you being so mysterious about what you’re doing next week?”

Ooh, she was good. Definitely worthy of being his sister. Jake guessed their mother had been the smart one in her and Jake’s father’s brief relationship, since Jake definitely didn’t get his intelligence and cunning from him.

“I…” He tried to give a confident, nonchalant smirk, but suspected it looked more like a pained grimace. “Um…would you believe me if I told you I have a job, some side-hustles outside of my job at the diner?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You a drug dealer? My friend says that every high school has them. Or do you gamble? That can get you a lot of money if you rig the system. Or do people in a random Florida town have blackmailable secrets?”

You’d be surprised. He shrugged noncommittally, avoiding looking at her. “Something. Uh–I promise I’ll give you more hints and stuff later,” he said, standing up. “I’ll–”

“No, really, are you okay?” 

She had dropped some of the accusation in her tone.

“Uh, what do you mean? Of course I’m fine.” He could feel the situation, their conversation slipping out of control, out of his control. Come on, he had this all planned out for weeks. Mitch wasn’t going to ruin his perfectly-laid plans. He wasn’t scared, he wasn’t scared. “I told you that I just fell off my bike. You don’t need to examine everything, you know–”

 “It’s not just your face. You look kinda sick and pale, and that’s saying something. You’re one of the whitest guys I know.”

“I–I’m fine,” he said. He really wished she would leave. He could tell that his voice was losing its strength, becoming more unsteady. He kept seeing the gun Mitch had pushed in his face twice now. “But I just have to run to the school and do something real quick. I’ll be back in forty-five minutes or an hour. Don’t wait for me. I’ll…I’ll give you some hints about what’s going on later, okay?”

if you got this far, thanks for reading! if this gets ten notes, I might continue it/make a proper, longer story. I do love my villain protagonists.

the fictional character in question:

day 4: a character return complicates things 

[also on ao3]

Ace is washing the latest layer of ghost-related grime from his hands when Nancy barrels through the locker room door, George close behind her. 

Nancy looks alarmed. George less so. 

“Suck it up, buttercup,” she crows. “You’ve managed sea demons, ghosts, and murderers. I think you can handle waiting tables while your high school ex is in the restaurant.” 

Ace whips around and he sees George see him do so. She raises an eyebrow at him but says nothing. Her pointed look says everything and then some, and Ace tries to be nonchalant when he pipes up. “Why’s he in town?” 

“Thanksgiving break,” Nancy grumbles. “I’ve already seen like half my graduating class in the past day and a half, isn’t that enough?” She ends on a whine, looking pitifully at George. 

Howdy team — I’ve never done one before but how about a giveaway?

Kristen and I played this game a while ago and it made for a fun date night. But now that we’ve solved it, I think it’d be fun if someone else had the fun.

Reblog, like, whatever you like. Each reblog/like is an entry. I’ll do a random drawing on august 10 (gives Maddie [me] time to settle in to new apartment)

It just makes me kind of sad. Like we’re such a small fandom, and these niche games, for all the faults that some of them have, have brought all of us together from all different walks of life. Even though Her has stomped on the brakes for game production, we all are still here, loving on all their old games and hoping that we might get another one.

I think it was Penelope Penvellyn who said it best: how I wish I could know you.

I wish I could meet you all in person so we could gush about the games and play them together. Every time I meet someone new, I’m always hoping they’ll be a fellow clue crew member. So far, no luck lol.

Like, as fun as it can be to have the protagonists constantly having to hide and talk around mystical happenings, it's so refreshing and delightful to see Nancy Drew, where at first it's a select few "in the know" and then it's like, okay, well, oops, Carson knows now. And apparently McGinnis has known the whole time. And now Owen's in this. And Ryan. And we told John Sanders point blank but he doesn't believe us and it's not worth pushing it. And Connor is not pleased but he knows who to call to handle freaky stuff. And Tamura really ought to believe at this point but he's not going to. And Park is totally down with it. And so on, etc., whatever happens happens.