conversations.from: system
conversations.value: Once upon a time, Grace Wilde was an actress.  She was beautiful, infamous, *scandalous* and she loved her notoriety.  Then Grace Wilde was found in pieces in the Peavey Canal in Nowhereville, and her roommate, Sophia Allen, is in custody for the killing.  The agents of the Continental Detective Agency have been hired by the first citizens of Charter City to make sure justice is done.  One way or the other.  
  
  Note: This is a collaborative story.  *No one* knows who did it yet, not even the Narrator.  So have no fear in going out on limbs or mixing things up.  You might even corner us into a locked room at some point and decide *for yourself* who the killer was.  Fortunately for this Narrator, there is a hell of a lot going on here besides the murder that launched the mystery (and, as always, I have dozens of valid clues, etc for you).  Hold your breath and dive in.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Detective work is a living, but you *live* to accomplish your dream: perfect an art, perform, write, etc.
  
  (PS, pick a 'dream.')
conversations.prefix: Your Dream:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Who better to solve an 'impossible crime' than someone does the impossible for a living? The Magician Detective is a Stage Magician who uses his skills with illusion to solve crimes.
conversations.prefix: Magician Detective:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You have friends in high places, you know which spoon to start off with, and you can Foxtrot at the Cotillion with the best, which is why your little 'detecting' eccentricity baffles everyone at the club.
conversations.prefix: Gentleman Detective:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You've been at this long enough for the novelty to rub off.  You have underlings, connections, and the respect of the boss, but you're limited by playing by the rules.
conversations.prefix: The Inspector:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Detecting is the family business, it's what you discuss over Thanksgiving dinner.  Your father was a detective of one sort or another, as was your father's father and his father before that.
conversations.prefix: Born Detective:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Hardheaded, some say hard hearted, newspaper stringer.
conversations.prefix: Sophia Allen:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Secretary.
conversations.prefix: Kitty Braun:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The wolf hound of the team, you doggedly pursue your target through thick and thin, frequently ignoring evidence that you should moderate your assumptions.  You always get your man.
conversations.prefix: The Javert:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You beat the pavement and sometimes you beat some crooks to get your answers, but no one's going to catch you making Sherlockian leaps of logic even if you are a little clever.
conversations.prefix: Hardboiled Detective:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: She knows.  You can see it in her eyes.  She has *every* reason to hold it over you.  If she talks, you lose everything you've worked so hard for, you'll wind up straight back...
conversations.prefix: Keep Her Quiet:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: There's a good photo of the victim barely sticking out from behind a picture of her replacement.
conversations.prefix: Headshot:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: A silver flask full of good gin.
conversations.prefix: GDW's Silver Flask:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Millie's card on the front, "I've got to see a man about some health insurance," on the back - quotes included.
conversations.prefix: Business Card:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: She throws you a memo pad covered in arcane scribbles -shorthand- with the story she was going to submit to the wire.  If the warden wasn't just going to confiscate it.
conversations.prefix: Sophia's Story:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Maybe while you're tracing the late, great Grace Wilder's last footsteps, you can get your own feet in front of the footlights.
conversations.prefix: Get A Foot In The Door:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: A collection of Allen's negatives including nudes and semi-nudes of Grace.
conversations.prefix: "Dirty Pictures":
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: The lady's mugshot.
conversations.prefix: Miss Allen's Picture:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Or rather the information contained therein.  It's awfully slim: Grace is reported missing.  Searched for for over a year.  Declared dead.  Found in the canal by her very own roommate 18 months later.
conversations.prefix: The Casefile:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You came, you saw... right or wrong, you can't let her hang.
  
  Be sure when you pick up this card.  You don't have to take it, but if you do you have to play it to the hilt.  And you may lose.
conversations.prefix: Save the Girl:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You have a conflict of interests and probably ought to recuse yourself... but then the story wouldn't be half as interesting, now would it?
conversations.prefix: Entangled:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You sure do know your way around a pistol.  Should I even ask?  Can't say it isn't useful in this line of work, too often it is.
conversations.prefix: Crack Shot:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Were you a stage magician?  Or a pickpocket?  All kinds of people benefit from a knack for legerdemain, the question is whether you use your talents to palm the crook's bullets or the DA's evidence.
conversations.prefix: Sleight of Hand:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You have perfect recall, particularly of things you've seen or read.  As you can imagine, that comes in handy in your line of work.
conversations.prefix: Eidetic Memory:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Are you happy to see me or... no, really, *are* you happy to see me?  No one can tell.  It's like you have to will yourself to emote while the rest of us have to will ourselves not to!
conversations.prefix: Poker Face:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Want tickets to the sold out opera?  How about a bottle of gin that won't blind you?  Everywhere you go, people know you and you know people, and what's more, people *want* to help you.
conversations.prefix: Connected:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You're no good at fancy footworks, you don't know people.  That's never stopped you before.  Nothing has.  You might  take your time, but once you've gotten going, you *will* reach your goal.
conversations.prefix: Unstoppable Force:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: How did it all go so wrong?  And how is it going to get any better from here?  You thought you'd make the world a better place and that would be good enough, but it's still all cold coffee and stale cigarettes.
conversations.prefix: Redemption:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You've rolled up your sleeves and gotten down to work, all you want is your piece of the good life: house of your own, beholden to no man, a better life for your children...
conversations.prefix: The American Dream:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Or rather your desire to keep them together.  It's the 20s, friend, and the cost of living is sky rocketing.  You need your pin money and this is as good a job as any, better than the canning factory, even.
conversations.prefix: Body & Soul:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault.  You know that.  It's *their* fault - the crooks and thieves.  They did you wrong and now you'll straighten them out.
conversations.prefix: Right What Once Went Wrong:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Sure you work, but who lives to work?  You're pining for something else.  Someone else.  May not be love, could be lust.  Maybe you're just intrigued?  You might not know, but you've got to see it through.
conversations.prefix: Star-Crossed:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Your job may put you on the margins, but the margins are where all the off chances strike.  Rightly or wrongly, you want to move up in the world, you want to be someone.  Rightly or wrongly...
conversations.prefix: Ambition:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: It's been four years since the Great War.  On good days, you can forget about it, on bad days you relive it, but you never put it behind you even if society seems like it has.  At least you're still alive.
conversations.prefix: The Veteran:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You were somebody else in some other place before you came to the States.  Now you're here, you still have your old skills, but no one wanted them, so now you detect.  Such is life.
conversations.prefix: Old World Artisan:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You know the streets like the side of your face.  Cause it's met the street a few times in your day.  But those ok, you give back as good as you get, you're tough as nails, you survive, and you know your way around.
conversations.prefix: The Scrapper:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You're hip, you're modern, you've shaken off all those dusty old social habits with the hottest Charleston this side of Mississippi.  Who says you can't be a detective if you wanta?
conversations.prefix: The Flapper:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: They say America hasn't got an aristocracy, but they're probably plebes who wouldn't know better anyway.  You've attended all the best schools, joined the best clubs, own the best yacht, and now... well, now you're slumming it.
conversations.prefix: The Swell:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You didn't bring race into this, *he* did, and you're going to put the smug bastard where he belongs before this is through.
conversations.prefix: Put Whitey In His Place:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: No one should die like that.  You can't save her, but you can bring the world two steps back from the brink and ensure her killer never hurts anyone ever again.
conversations.prefix: Avenge Grace Wilde:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The librarian.
conversations.prefix: Mary Martin:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: A lonely stretch of water connecting Gray Lake and the logging camps at Blustering Pines.  Collects bodies for a hobby.
conversations.prefix: Peavey Canal:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: A misnomer, it's all Episcopalians and Congregationalists here; the ladies who lunch, and the men that rule the county.
conversations.prefix: The Quaker Club:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: It's a prison, not a fort.  Situated on an island in a frequently ice locked Gray Lake.  Used to be a men's prison, now it's coed.  One woman, six hundred men.
conversations.prefix: Fort Holt:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The late, lovely Grace Wilder.
conversations.prefix: Grace Wilder:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Chief of the Charter City branch of the Continental Detective Agency.  A hero of the Great War, albeit unknown outside of Charter's Little Italy.
conversations.prefix: L'Occhio:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Golden boy of the Quaker Club, flying ace of the Great War, polo prodigy, Sophia's fiancé - up until she was arrested for murder, of course.
conversations.prefix: Simon Acton:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Sophia's big German partner in crime, and a somewhat more successful newspaper stringer at that.  He sticks to pictures.
conversations.prefix: Schmidty:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.
conversations.prefix: Question Sophia:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: A famed director of Gothic melodramas and professor emeritus at Smick College in Towns' End.
conversations.prefix: Aldred Wise:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The queen of Charter City's theater district and home of the most celebrated director of the region, not to mention some scandals and a ghostly mascot or two.
conversations.prefix: The Orpheum:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You may be a good guy or you may hate all brands of humanity equally, but you're prejudiced and it blinds you to the real people in front of you.  (A genre appropriate weakness to play, but don't be a dick.)
conversations.prefix: Noble Bigot:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: An alternative to Noble Bigot if you want to play with those themes without losing your soul.  The Jerk Chauvinist believes in his kind of peoples' superiority and blamelessness, despite evidence to the contrary.
conversations.prefix: Jerk Chauvinist:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Be it gin or be it chocolate, you've got *needs* you can't deny for which you'll jeopardize your case when push comes to shove.
conversations.prefix: Addiction:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: It doesn't look too promising, Grace was a mess and this understudy is a neatnik, but then it seems she kept *everything* Grace left behind...
conversations.prefix: Search the Dressing Room:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You are a good person who takes the high road whenever you get the chance, but refusing to hit the ladies or sneak into a suspect's house can put you at a disadvantage.
conversations.prefix: Plays By The Rules:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Screw those bigots and chauvinists - *you* don't belong in lily white America and it chafes.  Maybe *you* handle it with dignity and grace, but dignity and grace won't get you in the front door.
conversations.prefix: The Other:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You've got something to hide and you can get a little... *preoccupied* hiding it.  People who know it have a hold on you.  If it gets out there'll be severe consequences.
conversations.prefix: History:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: She's a fresh faced girl, so she must be a very, *very* good actress.  There's no such thing as a true ingenue.
conversations.prefix: The Understudy:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You're broken.  You have an injury that's as healed up as it's going to get and it limits you.
conversations.prefix: Wounded:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The secretary.
conversations.prefix: Kitty Braun:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Hard-headed, some say hard-hearted, newspaper stringer and apparently unintentional femme fatale.
conversations.prefix: Sophia Allen:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Of the 'Townsend' Harmers, as opposed to the 'Harmersville' Harmers.  They say he'll be senator some day.
conversations.prefix: Judge John Harmer:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Authority is slim in the sticks, and 'Slim' is Marshal James 'Slim' Harmer, 1st cousin to the Hon. Judge Harmer.
conversations.prefix: The Marshal:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You're young, you didn't fight in any wars, but that doesn't mean nothing.  You have a talent and something to prove.
conversations.prefix: The Kid:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: If this isn't self-explanatory, you don't need it.
conversations.prefix: Prove Yourself:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: What, do I have to paint a picture?  You've fallen in love.  Why is that a 'goal,' you ask?  One, you've got no romance in your soul.  Two, 'goal' is just a way to say you've got a motive and some cards to play.
conversations.prefix: Love:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Let's be honest with each other... what's more motivating than hate?  Your hate drives you forward, it changes the game.  [Note: Edit this card to name the object of your hate.]
conversations.prefix: Hate:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: When Grace was reported missing, the fact that her luggage (thought none of her belongings) went missing with her made it seem less suspicious.  She was ultimately found in her own luggage.
conversations.prefix: Luggage:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: The tallest, youngest officer of the ward.  Assigned to Allen because the warden figured she'd be less trouble for the string bean than the average prisoner.
conversations.prefix: Officer Kerry:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Rudolph Blane, staff psychoanalyst at Fort Holt.
conversations.prefix: Doctor Blane:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: A stout, white haired old fellow with big eyebrows and twinkling blue eyes.  Lives in Nowhereville, takes regular trips out to Fort Holt.
conversations.prefix: Dr Drummond:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: A handful of unidentified, powdery white pellets.  They taste bitter if you dare to taste them.
conversations.prefix: The Bitter Pill:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: A leather album brimming with Wilder and Allen's ephemera going back to their schoolgirl days at Vassar.
conversations.prefix: Sophia's Scrapbook:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Tact is for those grace and style. You have either of those. You ask direct questions and get direct answers. 
conversations.prefix: Blunt:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: When the "mute" gets irked, it can be a bit chilling. His eyes are *deep*, and his actions disturbingly *deliberate*.
conversations.prefix: Silent Intimidation:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You like hurting people and it shows. 
conversations.prefix: Bully:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Years on the street have left Flint with an uncanny ability to size up a person at a glance and whether to mark or avoid.
conversations.prefix: Cold Reader: