ANALYZING… FILE TYPE: Interrogation Log PERIOD: Colony Era SPEAKERS: Phillips, P. [ID: PPHI], UESC Interrogator Teig, M. [MTEI] TOPIC: Authorship of "The Severed Twins" SUMMARY: An interrogation recording of civilian cartographer, Preston Phillips, detained by the UESC under suspicion of sedition and distribution of seditious materials. According to official records, Phillips was released due to "lack of evidence." =================================================================== [MTEI]: Do you know what this is? [PPHI]: Uh, i-it's a book. A real one. They used to make them out of softwood trees. [MTEI]: Softwood? [PPHI]: Pine, fir, spruce… The ones that smelled green. [MTEI]: Colors don't have smell. Do you recognize it? This book? [PPHI]: It's an anthology of children's fairy tales. My nieces love them. [MTEI]: Are you familiar with its contents? [PPHI]: I've read it as a bedtime story more times than I can count. [MTEI]: A bedtime story? [PPHI]: You don't know that the color green has a smell. Sure, I buy that. But don't tell me you don't know what a bedtime story is. [PPHI]: No? Distant castles, daring escapes, gods and monsters… Kids eat that stuff up. You had to have been a kid once, right? [MTEI]: What I'm hearing is that you're sufficiently familiar with the subject matter to have written it yourself. [PPHI]: Is that the accusation? [MTEI]: I didn't get bedtime stories when I was a kid. I got the belt. Silence, if I was lucky. [PPHI]: I'm sorry. [MTEI]: Ah, I had it coming. Used to run wild, imagining the ships in the sky were dragons. I even thought MIDA were heroes, like the ones in your book. [MTEI]: I can't prove authorship, but you weren't subtle. Twins separated by force? Gods fueled by sacrifice? I know sedition when I see it. Consider this a warning. [PPHI]: Against…? [MTEI]: Against being a noble idiot. [PPHI]: Why did you read it yourself? You could've run a literary algorithm. [MTEI]: They miss the little things. [PPHI]: They do, don't they? Gods have flaws, especially when made in our image. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? How many mistakes can a god make before it's no longer divine? [MTEI]: We're done here. [PPHI]: How's your son doing? Still under surveillance for painting a wall? [chair scrapes] [MTEI]: We're. Done. Here. =================================================================== TYPE: TEXT [X]; AUDIO [X]