//------------------------------// // Chapter II - This just in // Story: This can't be real! // by Somebodycallmylawyer //------------------------------// Chapter II - This just in ~~Day 1~~ (Originally posted 18th May 2013) When I began to watch the news channel, a report about the incident was underway. "The children's TV producer hasn't been seen in public since Thursday. Her condition is still a mystery. This uncertainty has become a cause for concern for those who work closely with her, as well as her countless fans. I spoke to one of these fans, who told me his response to the reports." The report then showed footage of an interview of one of Lauren Faust's fans. According to the reporter, the fan claimed to be a brony. "As you have heard this report emerging, what has your initial reaction been to it?" "Well, when I first saw the picture," the fan hesitantly replied, "a-and the reports, I didn't believe them, I was skeptical, you know?" "Uh huh." The reporter briefly displayed his mutual agreement with his guest, before swiftly returning to the subject in progress. "So are you still doubtful about this?" "If course I am, I mean, this story has just came in. Not to mention that it is still unconfirmed reports we're talking about." The interviewee wasted no time explaining his ongoing doubt. He rushed through his point, "Maybe the picture was just manipulated, and it was posted at the right time to cause a stir." Leaving with that note, the report shifted away from the vague interview with the fan. "We tried to contact Hasbro to discuss the matter, but they chose not to comment. However, the company has released this statement:" 'We no longer work with Mrs. Faust. Furthermore, she is not involved in any of our corporate affairs and our products. This includes our "My Little Pony" toy line and the accompanying animated television series: "Friendship is Magic". We believe that the creature, allegedly seen in Mrs. Faust's home, is not related to any of our characters in any way, shape, or form. Any resemblances between the hypothetical being, and any of our characters, are purely coincidental. We would like to wish Mrs. Faust the best of luck as she continues on her personal career path.' I paused the TV to re-read the statement. I knew not to accept company statements without questioning them, or without at least approaching them with caution. Companies tended to be deceiving. They chose their wording carefully for a reason. They would do anything to protect their reputation. If that was damaged by the media, their business could easily be affected. Looking at the manifesto, I knew that Hasbro was trying to brush the issue under the carpet. Their description of the creature as 'hypothetical' showed that they didn't want their consumers to think the incident was true. They also tried to avoid media attention by saying that the creature was apparently unrelated to their characters. I smirked after seeing Hasbro's tricks. Thinking about thief typical evasion tactics helped to distract me temporarily. My heart was starting to beat at a more normal pace. When I had calmed down further, I unpaused the program. The report was now reaching it's conclusion. "Despite the countless amount of people who are already denying the authenticity of this photo..." Up until this point, I was absorbing every word in the report, but for a moment, I was unable to absorb more information. A picture of a white creature stole my attention. "...Due to the lack of any professional and reliable analysis of the picture so far, there is no evidence to dispro-" I paused the TV again. I couldn't take my eyes away from the mysterious photo. All I could do was stare at it. In a strange way, it almost seemed like the it stared back at me. When I took a first glance at the picture, I could instantly see how blurry and unfocused it was. The white object that appeared beyond the window, was even more blurry than the rest of the picture. If this was an actual photograph, I could tell that it was probably taken from a distance. Despite the quality of the image, I knew what I was seeing. My focus shifted to the white object in the window. ‘So, this was Celestia, was it?’ I had to assume it was. The object had the appearance of a quadruped. I could tell that the creature's body shape wasn't completely realistic, but it's resemblance to a real horse was eerie. The creature's body was as white as a blank sheet of paper. The longer I looked at it, the more bizarre it seemed. From the top of creature's head, a spectrum of unnatural colours flew in the air. It was as if someone placed a multi-coloured veil over it's head. There was no question. That definitely looked like Celestia. The photo showed a frighteningly realistic photo of a creature that looked identical to the cartoon character. 'Wow. What are the chances?' I jumped to a conclusion for a second. Then I overlooked the image. I had unintentionally raised another question for myself. Despite it’s realism, was the picture simply manipulated? After looking at the photo for another time, I gave up on answering the question. If anyone knew, it would be the media. New developments could have occurred after this report was made. I needed to watch more about the developing news story. Without any prior hesitation, I unpaused the report. "...ve it's authenticity. Even if it is proven to be fake, two questions still stand: what is causing Lauren Faust to keep a low profile? And when will we hear from her again? As America sleeps, the rest of the world is waiting for answers." The reporter completed his report, and live footage was being shown from the studio. "And we can join our correspondent from the US right now." The young anchorwoman introduced the man who created the report. She seemed to read my mind, as she commanded the interview with a demanding question. "Now, you ended your report with a summary of the situation, but has anything changed since you sent it in?" The reporter's forehead reddened. However, he retained his calm tone. "I'm afraid not, Rachael. The report is more than an hour old. We must remember that this is still a breaking story. No new developments have emerged yet. Now this is partly due to the fact that it's very early in the morning over here. Understandably, we have no updates about Lauren's condition nor about the picture posted online." The presenter swiftly moved onto her next question, her face holding her frustration back. "Okay, so if we haven't had any developments concerning the photo, can you give us more details as to why this is?" "Well, this photo is taking a while to be properly analysed. It's taking longer for this to happen because analysts are having a hard time looking for any clues that could disprove it." The reporter presented his answer simply, before continuing, "The few professional photo-analysts who are observing the photo have been baffled by it. They can't immediately find any telltale signs of manipulation. Although this picture has emerged online, we are still in doubt about whether it was manipulated in any clear way." After giving this answer, he signalled for the presenter to stop the video call. "Back to you in the studio, Rachael." "Thank you very much, Jack. We will speak to you later." As the call ended, the presenter moved on to the next headline. However, she was unable to introduce it smoothly. “New uh allegations have … surfaced about sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile...” As the presenter continued and regained her confidence, I wondered what the day’s headlines would consist of. Despite all the Lauren Faust hype, the most important and relevant stories were still being covered. Half of the program consisted of the story about the celebrity. In 10 minutes, the sports headlines would be shown. As the broadcast continued, I remained seated, as I watched the news attentively. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the time the channel was summarising their headlines again, relatively few stories had been covered. After the first story, the other headlines consisted of the unravelling Jimmy Savile scandal, the latest reports of the conflict in Syria, and the highlights from the weekend’s sports results. Any political story that would have been covered, was shelved for the day. It was already 11 AM, which meant that each headline would be repeated in a 30 minute routine. I stared at the screen, waiting for the unicorn report to air again. “Good morning.” The anchorwoman greeted her viewers in a neutral, professional tone, concealing her emotions. “Confusion and fear is spreading on social media sites, as a picture, appearing to show a winged unicorn from a cartoon, has been posted online.” She began to describe the photo, as it filled the screen. “The image allegedly shows a realistic version of the character ‘Princess Celestia’...” The presenter continued to introduce the main headline, relaying the background information to her audience. For a short moment, I looked away. I did not expect any new developments. At this point, I was only watching the news because I wanted to listen to the entire story. I could have missed important details from the start of the report. “...Jack Robertson reports on the initial reactions to the mysterious image.” Once this sentence reached my ears, I quickly looked back towards the TV screen. I watched Jack’s report for the second time. This time, I watched from the very beginning. “Baffling, mysterious, and unexplainable,” He covered my attention. “Soon after this picture surfaced online, questions have surfaced across the blogosphere. Thousands of people are arguing over what it supposedly shows, as well as it’s authenticity. According to some descriptions, a winged unicorn is apparently shown to be in the home of Lauren Faust. The unicorn has been referred to as ‘Princess Celestia’, due to the creature’s appearance. The creature looks identical to a fictional character on a television show that Faust used to work on: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." “The animated children’s show has become notorious for it’s following among male adults, who refer to themselves as ‘bronies’.” My face was dropping, as the report failed to provide me with information that I was not aware of. “Many of these fans have contributed to the spread of the image online.” “Although the picture was unknown just a few hours ago, it has became immensely popular. Currently, Some copies of the image have been viewed 40,000 times. On Twitter, it has been retweeted by 15,000 users. Many mirrors of the image have used on popular social and photography-based websites. The view count on many of these copies have exceeded the four-figure mark in an extremely short space of time.” “As this image has appeared on numerous websites, sceptics have relentlessly attacked it, claiming that it has been manipulated. Despite the scepticism, the image cannot be verified. Others have became concerned over the description and content of the picture, fearing it’s meaning, in the small probability that is proven to be real. Even if the image is proven to be fake, the timing of the image surfacing has lead many to question Lauren’s recent low profile.” “The children's TV producer hasn't been seen in public since Thursday...” I let out a small groan, as the reporter began to repeat himself. It looked like I didn’t miss out on any exciting parts of the news story. Why was I still watching this? I didn’t stay to hear some background information. I was looking for something more relevant to the picture at hand. I was loosing my patience. I was hungry for more. Nothing else mattered. Despite my dissatisfaction, the report continued. I took a deep breath, sighed, and focused on the television once more. The rest of the report remained unchanged from the last time I saw it. Any hope of hearing an important development faded minute by minute. I couldn’t sit through this for much longer. “As America sleeps, the rest of the world is waiting for answers.” The show was streaming from the studio again. I heard Jimmy Savile’s name again. I grabbed my remote and switched the TV off. I did not have a reason to watch the news. At this point, the front of my head felt numb. My eyes were blinking much more frequently than they usually did. My mind was running out of energy. I needed a break. I rose from the comfortable love seat and slowly trudged upstairs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the day was drawing to a close, I was back in front my TV. I had decided to return to the news channel at the end of my session on Reddit. In the afternoon, I retreated to the website. I managed to find hours of entertainment and community posts. It was a place where I could relate to my generation, and forget about my problems. But it seemed that all good things had to end. My browsing adventure came to a standstill. When I viewed the homepage, I encountered an urgent announcement from one of the admins. In a few hours, Lauren Faust would be holding a press conference. The post was simply titled ‘Lauren Faust to hold a press conference at 5:30 PM EST’. The post gave an overview of the outdated reports, which were now several hours old. The bulletin also discussed how Lauren's confrontation would 'silence the rumours abruptly.' There was a mixed reaction to this in the comments. The interpretation of the post contributed to the public's opinions. The majority of commenters were reassured that Faust would triumphantly crush the irrational speculation. Despite this, Reddit always had it's sceptics. I was among them. If the Princess Celestia images were faked, I would have known at this point. I could tell that something was wrong. She didn't need to hold a conference to deny a rumour. I needed to watch that conference. At that moment, it was 9 PM. The news conference wouldn't start for another hour and 30 minutes. In this time, I continued to browse the web. As I did so, I tried to forget about the news. The post took it’s toll on my once peaceful mind. Every now and then, I reminded myself about the conference. My other thoughts were displaced. I couldn’t escape it. Five minutes before the conference, I turned my PC off and rushed down the stairs. I swiftly turned to the news channel. My chest was pounding, the pressure increasing by the moment. The ticking on the clock seemed to become increasingly crisp. My eyes were locked in place, staring at the screen in anticipation. I took a deep breath, and exhaled forcefully. It was now 10:30...