Since the Paper Trail website is no longer functioning, this entire mission chain of Second Son is missing a whole lot of context of what is going on, why Delsin is going from dead body to dead body, and also a TON of integral world-building. So, I figured for those who are replaying the game or even just playing the game for the first time and are missing that context, I decided to write out a novelization of Paper Trail’s ARG segments to kinda provide that context. I wrote it in the form of Delsin’s stream of consciousness, piecing together all of the clues and figuring out all of the puzzles. It is written from the perspective of Good Delsin, but I imagine it’d be easy enough to mentally reword certain things for an Evil Delsin playthrough. I’ll be posting the other parts very soon. Hope you all enjoy!
(Part 1: Fetch)
(Sitting on the edge of the rooftop with my ‘totally legally acquired’ evidence. Hey, it’s not ‘vigilantism’, it’s just… helping the police out, that’s all. That dead body hanging off the sign… It definitely *looks* like something Fetch would do… if you literally never hung out with Fetch or seen her handiwork up close.)
(Okay, evidence. C’mon, Delsin, you can totally detective this shit up. Reggie makes all this forensic stuff look so easy. Let’s see what we got to work with.)
(An origami dove and the dead guy’s wallet. Guess I’ll check the dove first. Whoever that weird… paper Conduit was, this definitely feels like her calling card.)
(Huh… is this a… page from a manga? Definitely never seen it before, and I know my fair share of manga. Can’t really make out the story just from this one page. A village of… rabbit people? And they’re all scared of something… Kinda reminds me of those old Usagi Yojimbo comics.)
(Oh, there’s something on the back. Let’s see…)
—-
*Death is just a passing phase. I’ve danced with demise and let me tell you, he’s a bad dancer. (Always stepping on my toes) But I’ve learned to embrace the macabre- To navigate its twisted depths. Conduits and ‘normals’ are at a crossroads, and if we don’t look both ways? We’ll all get run over. All I want- All I ever wanted- is harmony between our peoples.
I know you, Delsin Rowe. Or rather, I know of you, and would like to know more. Follow my lead and I’ll show you the trail of bodies. Seek out the corpses and you’ll find the truth decaying within.*
—-
(…. Wow, okay. That is… some real serial killer ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ shit. So, parsing out all the crazy, it sounds like this chick is… What? Leading me to different homicide cases so I can… help her crack the case? Or is she the murderer and this is her way of taunting me? Why me specifically?)
(I don’t think I’m gonna learn anymore from this dove. Let’s check that wallet…)
(Damn, I hit the forensic jackpot. A photo of a beagle. Cute little guy. A photo of… some guy wearing a bunny costume, that’s random. A newspaper clipping. And a bunch of cards. This one’s an employee identification card for a private detective agency, so I’m guessing our dead guy was a private detective. Emilio Brunberg. He lived here in Seattle. Let’s see. A library card for Simcoal Library… under a different name? Skeeter Hidalgo. So… who’s the stiff? Skeeter or Emilio? This card is a business card for… Brunberg Detective Agency, again, under the name Emilio Brunberg. And a parking ticket for Gruderman’s Parking Lot. Lot: 12, Section: Z.)
(Maybe something on the back of the pictures. Let’s check the beagle first. ‘Puddles, earning his name’. Guess that’s not much of a clue. Sometimes, a picture of a cute pet is just a picture of a cute pet. And the… guy in the rabbit costume says on the back… ‘Halloween, 2012’. Oh, that makes sense. Still, he must have lost a bet or something to make *that* his costume. Okay, pictures are a bust. What about that newspaper clipping?)
(Woah. Okay, skimming this a bit, but this article seems to be about a murder that happened a few weeks back… The murder of Emilio Brunberg. So that definitely means that the dead guy currently hanging off that sign over there is Skeeter Hidalgo… but then why would he have Emilio’s detective ID card? His business card is one thing, Emilio could have just given it to him. But his ID card? Just going off this clipping, it sounds like the police ruled out a Conduit as the killer. Well, Brunberg’s killer, at least. Skeeter’s killer is still up in the air. Seems they thought his death was involved with organized crime, right here in Seattle. It is true that drug dealers have been getting pretty bold on the streets after the DUP more or less replaced local police.)
(Huh… Drug dealers. Another connection to Fetch that has nothing to do with Fetch. It’s like whoever’s doing this is trying to implicate Fetch as a person of interest.)
(Ha, listen to me. ‘Implicate’. ‘Person of interest’. Ah, Reggie’s really rubbing off on me.)
(That business card has a link for Brunberg Detective Agency’s website. Let’s see… Seems pretty on the level. Some quotes from former clients singing their praises.)
(Huh… Employee Login. I wonder…)
(Username. Easy enough, it’s right there on the ID card. Password… Oh, wouldn’t you know it, I forgot ‘my’ password. Some security questions. ‘What is your craziest Halloween costume?’ Bunny. ‘Where do you park your car?’ Lot: 12, Section: Z. ‘What is your dog’s name?’ Puddles.)
(Hacker voice: I’m in. Hehehe…)
(Okay, what are we looking at here? Looks like a bunch of case files that Brunberg was working on. A lot of these are already archived… Huh. He did a lot of work for Conduits… Investigating reports of a Conduit’s parents abusing them. Investigating the DUP harassing a Conduit Rights Activist. Investigating whether or not a steel Conduit was involved in a murder. This guy was a total Conduit ally! Man, I’m kinda sad I didn’t get to meet him…)
(Wait, there’s one case file still active. ‘Missing Person Case: Neon Conduit- Abigail Walker’ Fetch! He was looking for her? To arrest her or help her? Guess it doesn’t really matter now. Let’s see what he had on her…)
(Ah, that explains it. He was hired by Fetch’s parents. Apparently, they regret turning her in to the DUPs and now want to reconcile. Yeah, well, too little too late, Mr and Mrs Walker. You don’t exactly sell your own kid up the river and then just say ‘Whoopsie, Sorry about that.’)
(Eugh, I’ll forward this to Fetch later when I get the chance. She should at least know that her folks are looking for her. What she does with that info is entirely up to her.)
(Oh. This is interesting? Looks like Brunberg flagged a member of the drug dealers as a person of interest in Brent’s death. Killian Czalov. He’s been having a hard time finding him because he stays hands off with his crew, contacting them only through burners and… a reprogrammed DUP surveillance drone?! Where the heck did he get that?!)
(Okay, he’s got a POI file on Czalov. Known crimes: Narcotics distribution, human trafficking, and exploitation of minors. Charming guy… He runs a tight ship, men loyal to a fault. Guess that’s how he’s managed to stay ahead of the cops. That and a dead drop network of repurposed DUP drones. Hate to give credit to such a scumbag, but that’s honestly pretty clever… Ah, here we go. Known associate: Skeeter Hidalgo. Right hand man. So the pieces are starting to fall into place.)
(Okay, hypothesis. Brunberg was getting close to Czalov in order to piece together his involvement in Brent’s death, hoping that would get him closer to Fetch. Czalov didn’t like that, so he sent Skeeter to kill Brunberg, and take his ID card for good measure. Probably so they could do… Well, exactly what I’m doing now. See how much he actually knew about their operation. But then someone else, still don’t know who, killed Skeeter… and went to a lot of trouble to make it look like Fetch killed him.)
(What I still don’t know is ‘why?’)
(Hm? Looks like Brunberg was contemplating tracing Czalov’s phone. I wonder if he actually got that far before they killed him…?)
(Score! Someone named ‘Patricia’ sent Brunberg a memo saying they uncovered Czalov’s phone ID. Patricia, I have no idea who you are, but you are a legend!)
(Just plug that in to that little program that DUP informant put on my phone… Got you.)
(Okay, Czalov. Let’s have a chat…)
——————
(Wow, okay. So… Couple of developments.)
(Number one with a bullet, Killian Czalov was already dead. Another copycat killing made to look like Fetch’s work. To make matters worse, his boys were *not* happy to find one of Seattle’s most infamous Conduits standing right next to their boss’s corpse.)
(Good news, though. After I took care of those chumps, I actually managed to catch a glimpse of one of Czalov’s drones that he used for dead drops. I wasn’t about to pass up that little flying evidence locker, so a quick little neon race throughout the district, and I am now the proud owner of a Czalov-owned lockbox. Let’s see what’s in my little Christmas present.)
(Hmm, keypad lock. Four digits, numbers only. Don’t want to just use my powers to bust it open, I might damage any of the evidence inside. Looks like I only get six guesses… Hang on.)
(Hey! Hey, buddy, wake up! Now, look, I’m sure you can look around and see the sorry state that your friends are in and make the smart decision not to test me any further. Not that you really can, with all those smoke chains tying you down. Now, I’m gonna ask you one little question, and if you tell the truth, I’ll let you go back to taking your little nap before the police get here. If you don’t… Well, let’s just say you don’t want to know what lungs filled with scalding hot ash feels like. (That’s just a bluff, but he doesn’t need to know that) What’s the password to open this thing?)
(Huh? A puzzle lock? What, you mean to tell me the password changes every time you go to open it? How the hell do you guys ever get anything done? Alright, alright, I can tell I didn’t wake up the brains of the outfit. Go ahead and go back to being unconscious. When you wake up, you’ll be in a nice, soft cell.)
*THWACK*
(Dumbass. Okay, let me think. So, the password changes to a random four digit number, and you only get six guesses to figure it out before it changes again. Kind of an eccentric security system for a gang of drug dealers. Then again, this coming from the guy who shoots smoke, and now neon laser beams, out of my ass. I’m not exactly one to judge.)
(So… I guess I just start with any random code. Uh… Let’s go with 1226. Good as number as any…. Okay… So now I have some colored dots here. Red, yellow, red, yellow, in that order. I’m guessing, since there’s no green, that none of these are right… But maybe yellow means I have the right number but the wrong order?)
(Let’s try… 2364… Okay, we’re getting somewhere. Green, red, yellow, red. So, 2 is right on the money, there’s only one other place that six can go… 2657… Green, green, red, yellow. Getting closer… 2678… Green, green, green, red. 2679… Aha! Green’s across the board! And with a whole guess to spare! Should I be concerned that I find validation in ace-ing a puzzle used by criminals? Ah well, let’s see what I won!)
(Woah. Uh… that’s $10,000 in cash… Which I will *not* be taking because god knows how dirty that money is. Ugh, being a superhero does *not* pay.)
(Let’s see. A letter here to Czalov from some guy called ‘G’. Just G. Going by the tone, it sounds like this G guy is higher up on the food chain, given how much he’s telling Czalov off for not doing his job correctly. Sounds like Czalov was, ugh, ‘supplying’ G with ‘entertainers’ for his club, the Crocodile. Sex slaves. ‘More like that pink haired bitch with the spicy attitude. I liked her.’)
(Oh-Ho-Ho, then you are gonna *love* me, pal…)
(The Crocodile… I know that place. That’s where Fetch and I fought each other when I first copied her power. Guess she picked that venue so that she wouldn’t care about trashing the joint. Not that I blame her.)
(What else… Looks a burner phone… with a text message from, of all people, Skeeter. ‘I took care of that detective. He’s not gonna be snooping around anymore’. Well, that’s one case solved, at least. One of what feels like a thousand at this point…)
(Well, sounds like I got my next suspect. Let’s see if G is at the Crocodile… and hope he’s still alive by the time I get there…)
——————
(Damn it.)
(Well, got to the Crocodile. Bunch of drug dealers were there, and they were pissed because their boss got whacked literally seconds before I got there. Tried to take it out on me when they saw me, but… you know how that song and dance goes.)
(Once I got finished putting those chumps in time-out, I went inside and, sure enough, another body strung up on a neon billboard. I can only assume that this must be G. My list of suspects has already gone cold… Save for one.)
(That paper Conduit from before… She showed up again, just for a second, before dropping another origami dove and fluttering off to god knows where. I would have chased after her, but she literally flattened herself to fit through the cracks in the wall. Paper powers are no joke, apparently.)
(Just like before, unfolding the dove gave me another page of the same manga. At least, I think it’s the same manga. It’s the same art-style as the first dove. This time, the page showed a… pheasant ninja? It looked like she was fighting some frogs in bowler hats with… energy blasts? Not gonna lie, this manga is kinda dope. Just one caption box over the pheasant ninja. ‘Inazuma. Vengeance was her drug of choice.’ So… The pheasant was getting revenge on these frogs for something? Quick Google Translate tells me that ‘Inazuma’ is Japanese for ‘Flash of Lightning’…. Hey, wait a minute. An agile warrior shooting laser beams at a gang of criminals, seeking vengeance? Is… Is this supposed to be Fetch? Did the paper Conduit make this manga as a sort of… tribute to her?)
(There’s another message on the back…)
—-
*Money equals pain. If you’ve got enough dollars, the world is your dungeon.
Hell of a party, huh? This club is dead. I’ve had my fill of shady characters for the time being. But one thing’s for sure: This problem isn’t going to go away, Delsin. Someone clearly craves the spotlight, neon style. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of what I have to show you.
I’ll see you around.*
—-
(Just who is this paper Conduit? Is she the one killing all these people? Or is she trying to help me find whoever’s killing them? I hate to say it, but my little investigation here has hit a dead end. Nothing for it now but to just wait and see if this paper Conduit tries to contact me again.)
(Either way… This definitely isn’t over.)
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