The Notebooks

The Mad Ventriloquist hasn't  written a Notebook entry for a while. He hasn't written much of anything for a while, but mostly notebooks. A lot has happened. There have been a lot of things The Mad Ventriloquist has had to think about. Between Nightscream and David, it feels like he's forgotten his original purpose.

He can't let that happen.

The stories need to be told. The notebooks are there for a reason. The Mad Ventriloquist has to tell these stories. Has to tell Minori's.

But he's spent so much time not doing it.

Something about David always makes The Mad Ventriloquist unsure of what's important.

The Mad Ventriloquist remembers when he arrived at Minori's apartment only to hear a gunshot go off. He rushed into the building and found the apartment a total mess. Shelves were knocked over, glass was broken. And Minori was standing over David, a gun pointed directly at him.

"David, what are you doing here?" The Mad Ventriloquist asked.

David was bleeding. Not bad, but it was a bullet wound after all. Minori hadn't been just threatening this time. He coughed. "Came to warn you. She's a cop."

The Mad Ventriloquist felt sort of bad about it. "I know."

"Really?"

The Mad Ventriloquist nodded and David looked up to Minori. "In that case, I apologize." he said. Minori didn't look convinced. There was some other conversation, but The Mad Ventriloquist doesn't really remember it. He introduced David and Minori to each other. David was charming. Minori was angry. She made him leave really quick. David mentioned something about her being around the age Lily would be, but then actually left. Minori didn't talk for a while.

"I don't like him." she said. And Minori and The Mad Ventriloquist had another fight. About David about how The Mad Ventriloquist was just like David. About how Minori didn't think he was, and that respect for him was the only reason David was alive right now. The Mad Ventriloquist couldn't really blame her. She didn't say, but he knew what had caused her to fire her gun that night. He knows David entirely too well.

After that, David tried to learn more about the case. Every person interviewed, he wanted to talk to as well. Every time something was uncovered, he wanted to look at it.

The Mad Ventriloquist should have seen the signs.

If he had, maybe he would have been able to save one of them.

The Mad Ventriloquist Returns

The Mad Ventriloquist is back. Though he's laittle unsure of things.

And pretty drunk.

Despite being kidnapped, it was a pretty nice experinse. Nightscream was nice and got The Mad Ventriloquist beer. They played music together. Nightscream plays the soprano saxophone.

If Nightscream hadn't been trying to break up David and The Mad Ventriloquist, it would have been abit like a vacation. Instead it was kind of like going to a psychologist and eating the mints at thea table and having a nice conversation with the guy and then all of a sudden realizing that the guy is getting into your head and picking apart life stories and memories and stuff.

Although psychologists are usually good guys. And not trying to be nean. Which Nightscream sort of was. Despite being really nice. Nightscream is a really good manipulator. The Mad Ventriloquist knew exactly what Nightscream was doing, but its till workesd. A little bit. Not all the way. But enough to be annoying. Nightscream said enough true things that it's worth thinking about.

So the wedding is postponed for a while. While The Mad Ventriloquist thinks. He is also staying with Ben. Just for a while. He is pretty nice so far. Thought The Mad Ventrloquist has been mostly passed out.

I keep moving

Really, moving is all I can do. Which bugs the hell out of me actually. I'm not used to feeling powerless. But I know when I'm in over my head. So I travel from place to place, leaving markers so that if Ronan ever gets out of this mess he can find me. It means David can find me too, but there's a down side to everything.
I had thought that there might be another attack, now that Ronan is gone. I can hold my own, but without him with me I don't think I'd stand a chance with all these proxies people talk about. But it's been quiet. A little too quiet for me to trust it. Before, there was this nagging feeling that we were being watched. Even when there was no one following us, when there was no sight of danger, there was a feeling of dread that just loomed over everything. That's gone, and for one reason or another that makes me even more wary.

And I don't get why I'm so worried about Ronan. He can take care of himself. And even if he couldn't, perhaps he deserves this fate. He was there through everything David put me through. He saw what he did to me. He heard Lily cry. He was there when David killed her.

But he didn't do anything. Ronan never tried to stop him.

I feel like I'm on the verge of forgiving him of this. Of letting go all the wrongs he ever did to me, and all the countless wrongs he didn't protect me from. Because it is true that he's changed. I've seen it in his eyes. I see it in everything he does.

This just doesn't seem like something I should ever forgive him for.

Nightscream

That's who took him.

So this is a game. I can't say I hate that plan entirely. Anything that knocks David down a few pegs is usually fine with me. But to use someone else as bait? I do not approve of that and I hope that you both take each other down in the most painful way possible.

It's sort of weird. If you had done this a couple months earlier I wouldn't have cared. Only monsters were involved, no harm done. But now, I don't know where Ronan stands. That doubt alone means that he doesn't deserve to be sucked into whatever web you're weaving. I don't know you Nightscream, but I hate you. You think like David.


I used to think Ronan did too.

It's funny how time changes your perspective.

Idiots

I want to make one thing clear. I am not here to talk or be your friend or share experiences about whatever it is that's been following us. I want as little to do with this whole mess as possible. But Ronan's not here right now so I'm the one who has to talk to you guys.

And why is Ronan not here? Because one of you imbeciles kidnapped him.

I have a pretty large bump on my head from it too. Quite a coward you are, attacking me from behind like that. I'd call it a decent strategy if the whole goal wasn't completely idiotic.

What do you hope to achieve from this? I might not get immersed in all this stuff, but Ronan talks. He's got friends on both sides. Numbers are a dangerous thing.

Not to mention you've just kidnapped the second most terrifying man I have ever met. And he's engaged to the first.

And I assure you, David knows.

Hope you don't like your spleen, moron.

We're being followed

Don't overreact yet. It could be nothing.

Minori's Apartment

This isn't actually part of the notebook, but it's important anyway.

It took a while for Minori to heal. So she spent most of her time cooped up in her apartment, researching the man she had seen. She was obsessed with it for a while. Every time The Mad Ventriloquist visited, there was newspaper articles, books on folklore, copies of wood etchings and other various stuff spread around her apartment.

And The Mad Ventriloquist did visit. He still had a job to do, after all. He would finish it. And he was starting to like Minori. Something about her devotion, her need to do things right. Even a bit of her unbending morality was comforting in an odd way.

One day she looked to The Mad Ventriloquist and pulled him to the center of the room. "Let's make a promise." she said, "No secrets here. Here it's completely safe. We can be who we are, instead of who we're supposed to be."

It was a silly thing to say, yet The Mad Ventriloquist took it to heart for some reason. "A police officer didn't kill my brother." he said.

"Who did?" Minori asked?

"An assasin named David Banks."

She raised her eyebrows. "Are you going to tell me the tooth fairy's real now too?" she asked.

The Mad Ventriloquist didn't blame her. David Banks had gotten a reputation in New York. He worked everywhere, but NYC seemed to be his base of operations. Everyone in crime and law enforcement knew his name. Much fewer had seen his face. Most people thought he was a myth.

The Mad Ventriloquist feels like he shouldn't have to mention that he isn't.

"I promise, David's real. Actually he's probably raiding my fridge right now." The Mad Ventriloquist answered. He found out later that this was true. Minori didn't look convinced though.

"So why didn't you kill him?" she asked. That was a very very good question. The Mad Ventriloquist still isn't sure. He had him. He could have. But David started talking and he didn't.

"He's brilliant Minori." He began, "I have never met anyone that smart in my life. And he told me it was just buisness, and really it probably was. I've killed people before on business. I really don't want some asshole with a baseball bat to try and kill me over that. And I don't know. There was something about him. He was like me."

"An arrogant homicidal dickwad?"

The Mad Ventriloquist got sort of upset at that. "A warrior. A survivor. You wouldn't understand."

Minori got upset back at him "Of course I understand. Do you see half Japanese girls running around every day? Let alone in the slums. Every single thing that could happen out there in the streets of New York has happened to me. And I survived. I got through it. Until one day I realized that surviving didn't matter to me as much as how."

The Mad Ventriloquist was silent for a while. "There's no other way."

She shook her head. "There is."

The Mad Ventriloquist left very angry that day.

That day also changed his life.

For once, he allowed himself one question.

Could he be the good guy?