chapter word count: 519

noir heart: seventy-one

Elsa leans forward a little, tilting her head and slightly narrowing her eyes. "What happened?"

Rapunzel instantly opens her mouth, then visibly checks herself. Her pursed lips quirk sideways as she frowns. It's either bad, Elsa reckons, or her host isn't exactly articulate. "You have to understand what kind of a person he was, first." she declares as the cup is placed on the table. Pressing her palms together, Rapunzel's eyes dance between Elsa's and the lilac cushion a few feet to her left. "Jack was...well he could be like a big kid, sometimes. Real prankster. Never stood still...and the antics he got up to with Hans and Aster? I'm surprised he wasn't fired!"

She giggles lightly, and slides her palms against each other. "I remember one time he put chilli powder in my morning tea, so I switched his gummy bears for sugar-free gummy bears in revenge. He spent hours in the bathroom, but he wasn't angry. He found it hilarious. That's the kind of man Jack was - he was kind, loving, protective, he never brought his work home, and...you know...we argued sometimes, but we always made up later. Always made sure I smiled or laughed at least once a day, and when he looked at me it was like I was a princess."

Fascinating. Elsa shuffles forward slightly. "When did he change?"

Sure, the knowledge of who he used to be is useful as a pseudo-control group, but what she's really interested in is what turned him into who he is now.

Rapunzel sniffs. "Looking back, a year after he passed the detective exam. The first cases he got were things like...you know, stuff you'd find on Law and Order. He and Aster were a great team for those, and they always got the bad guy. Sometimes he'd get a case involving kids and those used to shake him up, but...he'd be okay again after some wine, a cuddle, and an hour or so of Ultimate Spider-Man. The thing is...he had this knack for getting inside the bad guy's heads. Profiling, I think they call it. So the bigwigs started throwing bigger cases at him. Serial killers. Psychopaths. Sadists. Child murderers. All of the horrible, horrible things, the darkest parts of humanity, and those were the cases he kept getting. And because he was so good, he kept closing the cases...and then, he'd get more. And more."

"It must have taken its toll," Elsa slowly nods. "To be constantly exposed to so much depravity."

Rapunzel snorts bitterly. "Put it this way - he who fights monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

Elsa raises her eyebrows. She didn't expect that. "Friedrich Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil."

Rapunzel smiles as she glances over, but it's a grim smile that tells a story. "Honey, that could be the title of his autobiography."

jpbake - you should totally start one. It's weird getting into the format at first, and having to condense things, but when your chapters are shorter, they're easier to work with. I will freely admit to enjoying writing noir heart more than OGaV. Like, snapshots of a chapter rather than an actual chapter. Best part is - if you have a couple of free hours, you can rustle up quite a few as a buffer.

special thanks to: rainbowcolorw0w, doomstone, hornedgoddess, vrupd.1992, edgarallansnow, jpbake, stefalove, oninoko, and noircorda for the reviews!