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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 549233" data-attributes="member: 8530">Promise City, ArizonaChapter 16, “Freedom of the Press?”, April 24th, 1881, 1:30 P.M.The quartet of Arcade, Louie, Morgana and Sam arrive at O’Reilley’s Café looking for Parker Baxter.   The bartender and owner, Walter O’Reilley, tells them that the newspaper editor has not come in yet this day.  The group get directions to the office where the newspaper is published.  They arrive at the office, the only employee being a teenage boy who is carrying a box of type letters.  They enter, the boy looking up and asking “If you people are looking to buy a paper we’re sold out.”   “People call me Arcade,” the man announces, which causes the boy to let out a yelp and drop the box of type onto the floor.   Arcade walks up to the boy and says “I don’t like what I’ve been reading in the paper.”   The boy exclaims “Please don’t kill me, I have a wife and kid to support.”   That comment takes Arcade by surprise, and he asks “Wife and kid?  How old are you boy?”  “Fourteen” the boy answers, adding “We kind of had to get married.”  “OK, listen up kid,” Arcade says. “I won’t kill you provided that you do two things for me.  First, tell me where I can find Parker Baxter.  And second, promise me that you will NEVER AGAIN set the type for any story about me.  I mean it, if I ever see my name in this rag again I’m going to hold you PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE!  It that clear?”  The boy nods, and agrees to both terms.   The group then leave.They arrive at the Baxter house, a large two story brick structure.   The front door is unlocked and slightly ajar, so they enter.  Nobody is on the first floor, and there are dirty dishes from the previous night as well as several empty whiskey bottles.  “Must be upstairs sleeping it off,” Louie concludes.They make their way upstairs, finding Baxter passed out on the bed, wearing a pair of long underwear that he apparently had on the day before.   The pudgy middle-aged man has a day’s growth of beard and smells like he’s been showering in booze.  Morgana tells Louie and Sam to go back downstairs and get some pots and pans from the kitchen.  They soon return, and she instructs them to “Bang those together near his head while Arcade and I thrown open the curtains.”    As they do so Morgana adds to the racket by letting out a high pitched scream. The sudden onslaught of light and noise immediately wake the hung-over newspaper editor, who yells out “WHAT IS HAPPENING!”   Arcade gestures for his companions to stop making noise and says “I have a bone to pick with you?”  “Who are you?” the confused man states.  “ARCADE!” he yells back, “And that rag you print is as yellow and sorry as your liver.”   “What, Huh?” Baxter states.  “I’m sick of the lies you are printing about me!” Arcade answers.Baxter regains some composure, and says “What are you talking about.  Those were direct quotes.”  “I didn’t say any of that!” Arcade replies.  “Sure you did, you told me all that a few days ago at O’Reilley’s”.  “That wasn’t me you drunken louse, you were talking to him” Arcade says, pointing to Sam.   “You want me to print a retraction?” Baxter says.  “No, just leave me out of your paper all together…..or else!” Arcade answers.   “You’re threatening me?” Baxter exclaims.  “Not a threat, a promise,” is Arcade’s answer.  Baxter then gets uppity, stating “How dare you!  You break into my home!  Threaten me!  And have no respect for the freedom of the press!”   “We didn’t break in, the door was open,” Sam states.   Baxter mutters “The young lady must not have locked it on her way out.”   Arcade sarcastically states “Shocking!  Imagine that, a young lady could actually bring herself to leave such a fine specimen of a man as you.”   Louie joins in the fun, stating “What should we do with him?”, and smiles a grin showing off his fangs.   Morgana suggesting tying him to the bedposts so that he can think about what he’s done.  The others go along with the idea, and the man soon has his arms and legs lashed tight.   Baxter protests loudly until he is told “Shut the hollering’ or we’ll gag you too.”   Arcade then instructs him “If I ever see my name in your paper again I’ll be back, is that clear.”  The man nods.   They start to leave, and Baxter says “Are you going to let me go?”   Morgana states “We might let the kid or works for you know to come by later.”  Louie says “Yeah, or we might just set the fire to the first floor.”   They all exit the building, being sure to lock the door behind them.One consistency with the real wild west is that Arcade’s reputation was created by the press rather than actual fact, especially considering that he was the only member of his quartet who didn’t kill anybody during this module. The End (for now).</blockquote>

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