Lotte sat at her typewriter in her dorm room, late at night, where she thought about possible articles for an upcoming issue. She didn't care if people saw it as a rag, at least she had readership.

Every now and then, she'd come across a scoop with great potential.

Her mind wandered to the most recent one.


For a while, Lotte pursued the mystery of the ghost wandering around campus. Rumor had it that the hooded figure was a girl with silver hair and red eyes. She started with reports from other students of ghost sightings. Then she wrote about her night-time expeditions across campus to track the ghost.

One night she decided to give the old campus building a visit. A short walk to one end of the campus brought her to a structure shaped like a small castle, surrounded by a moat. She crossed the bridge and went inside.

The thick, cold stone walls within the old campus gave off an eerie vibe. The interior was dimly lit, with most of the doors shut. The ones that weren't had the lights out, except for one. She peered into that room and saw a barren place. A tray full of medical supplies, used, bloody bandages strewn across the floor, a barely made bed, and a table with a half-full glass of water. She snapped some pictures and left the room.

Lotte backtracked down the hallway, where she went into another room with the door left open, and turned on the lights to reveal a laboratory. In the center was an operating table, with various unknown devices and bloodstained cloth. She noticed the blood stains on the cloth appeared to have been more recent than the ones she saw on the bandages in the previous room, based on the color. The center of the laboratory alone probably told a story more than the average person wanted to know, but currently the story was in the dark. Off to the side was a cabinet full of medical supplies and a desk. On the desk were medical reports and examinations. Some were loose, while others were contained within files. As Lotte looked through the papers, she came across her own records, those of her classmates, and Juliana's. She wondered what they were doing here.

There were so many questions. Where did the hooded figure play into all of it? Who exactly was Clementia, beyond her official position as the campus clinician? What were up with the medical records? What exactly was going on within these walls?

This definitely required more than a single visit. Lotte snapped some more pictures, put the papers back where they were, turned off the lights, and left the room.

What started as a quest to find the hooded figure brought out mysteries with implications greater than what was on the surface. She needed to tread carefully, work out what to publish, and what to withhold.

Lotte realized it was getting late, so she slipped out of the old campus building. She could do more thinking once she got back to her dorm room. Problem was, as she crossed the bridge, she ran into a woman wearing a labcoat, out for a smoke.

"Nice night out, isn't it?" Clementia said.

"Sure is, dude!" Lotte said.

"Quite the stubborn reporter, I see." Clementia took a whiff. "Lotte, let's cut to the chase. I heard about your attempts to track down a so-called ghost. I also take it that you just got done snooping inside the old campus. There are a lot of things you don't know, and things you probably shouldn't know."

"I was only curious, dude."

"Hand over your camera. I'll return it tomorrow, once I go over your film. Put a stop to your ghost story and anything related to the old campus. Focus on other things, if you know what's good for you. That is all I will say."

Clementia turned around and left.

"Bummer, dude," Lotte said. She slouched back to her dorm room.

At her desk, she took down copious notes of what she saw and observed.

Did anyone else know about this?

Maybe Avan. He knew his way around campus and got along with a lot of people.

Lotte also didn't want to find out about Clementia's words of warning.

She stashed the notes away somewhere safe. It was too fascinating a story to let go. Maybe when the time was right. The truth was out there.


Lotte brought herself back to the present.

What else could she write about?

She leaned back onto her chair.

There was Juliana. With such a public personality, she had plenty to write about.

Then there was Zeri, her fellow classmate, who was already winning the admiration of others. He had this special aura about him.

Then a light bulb went off.

She noticed how close Zeri and Juliana were with each other. Not so much as friends, but as rivals. Two larger than life personalities, who came from opposing backgrounds. While Juliana was the most popular student at the school, Zeri was on his way to rival her in popularity.

Lotte thought big. Her readers wanted to know more about them. She could help with Zeri's popularity even further.

She wanted to follow Zeri and Juliana around as much as possible. Any rumors and gossip were fair game. She wanted to play up their rivalry.

Get some good photos to push more copies.

Forget about her previous scoop, this was where the money was.

The hustle was real, and she was all here for it.

Lotte got to work right away on her typewriter.


Another day in the classroom, where the students chatted before classes begun.

Lotte was glad to have people to talk to, like Coleen and Noel.

"So, want me to tell you the bad news first?" Lotte asked, as she fidgeted with her fingers.

Noel wanted to know. "Sure, go ahead, get it off your shoulders!"

"You know that scoop about the ghost wandering around campus? The scoop got killed, dude." Lotte looked bummed out.

Coleen knew exactly who she was talking about. "Oh, you mean the girl with silver hair and red eyes?"

Lotte appeared shocked. "Dude, how did you know?"

"I heard all about it from Avan, how he uncovered her identity the one night. Oh it was quite the story he told. Then he told me about how he, Zeri and Cosette encountered her on campus the other day. Speaking of the other two, Cosette was more than happy to describe the girl, but Zeri fumbled with his words. I always take him as the type to be awkward around kids. You know, it's amusing to see him like this, with how serious he tries to be about things." Coleen was a chatterbox for a reason.

"Be around him long enough and you will find out that he in fact does have a sense of humor. It's really dry though." Noel spoke from experience.

"Now I want to hear it." Coleen was curious.

"Me too, dude!" Lotte paused for a moment. "So you mean more people already knew about the girl?"

"Yeah," Noel said.

"Bummer, dude, my scoop really was dead on arrival. I thought I had something good going on. Wish I knew. Then that means…" Lotte said.

"…she was the Valkyria girl we saw back in Arlem." Noel finished the sentence.

"About that," Lotte recalled, "I ran into her mother figure the other night."

"The grim labcoat wearing woman," Coleen said.

"You should've seen her, dude" Lotte put on a blank face, pretended to smoke a cigarette, then spoke in a monotone voice. "Lotte, your camera, give it to me. Don't print a word about it, forget what you saw in the old building, because you saw nothing. Yes, I always look like this, why do you ask?"

Both Noel and Coleen laughed.

"It's spot on, I have to say," Noel remarked.

"Yeah! Now you gotta tell us the good news!" Coleen said.

"Right!" Lotte lit up. "I'm going to cover Zeri and Juliana for my paper. There's so much I can do with it, my dudes! Did you see how they went back and forth with each other the other day? There's got to be a lot more to them than we know, things we don't know about. I need the gossip! This will push copies of my paper, dude!"

"I'd gladly read it," Coleen said, "and I know a lot of other people who want to! I can contribute to your paper and provide you all the gossip. You got your person."

"And I'll see what I can do!" Noel said. "I've known both of them for a long time! Juliana can be rather unapproachable, but I can see what I can get from her! Zeri too! I'm sure he wouldn't mind talking about himself, if you ask me. Lotte, this is your big break!"

"You know it, dude!" Lotte said. "Today, it starts! Once we're done with class, I'm heading off to the press room to get those copies printed. The Lotte Insider is going big time!"