bang

alert the masses

Puffy opens a fairly normal-looking door. The doors definitely advertised something drab, like a store room for cleaning supplies, but those doors achieved irl clickbait in the most inefficient way. The room is like a mini museum of leaders and presidents. Three of the dark walls hold paintings framed in gold of some of the land's most famous figures. The final wall hides behind a glass-encased shelf filled with objects of allies and enemies alike, some personal items, and some of political or national significance. It's an incredible collection. Tubbo stares around in awe. "Pretty cool, isn't it?" Puffy chuckles. "This stuff is rarer than what you'll find in the Manburg National Museum. These paintings are the first of their kinds, these items are coated in the fingerprints of legends. It's cool, but it's hella important, so it's all hidden in here."

"I never knew about this place," Tubbo says, turning to face Puffy.

Puffy shrugs. "Not many people do. Nobody really thought to check it out. I stumbled across it by accident and I've never seen anybody else come here."

In the middle of the room is a table and three stools. On each side of the table is a chest coated in dust. Puffy struggles to lift the lid, but when she does, the hinges groan painfully. Tubbo peaks over her shoulder. Books. A lot of them. Old ones, too. All of them are bound with varying shades of dark leather, the spines decoratively gilded in fading gold. Puffy picks out a design and carefully lifts the book onto the table before closing the chest again. She settles on a stool, and Tubbo perches on one next to her. "What's that about?"

"History of Manburg's presidents." Puffy opens the book, scans the contents page, and gently flicks to the third quarter of the semi-thick book. "This has information all about any president from three hundred years ago up until around one hundred years ago."

Tubbo nods, not really sure what to do with the information. "Why did you bring me here?"

Puffy smiles at him. There's a glint of something in her eye; though whether it's mischief or excitement or something else entirely is something Tubbo can't place. "Because there's a president that they don't talk all that much about."

That makes Tubbo's ears prick up slightly. "Oh?"

"He was in office around a hundred and eighty years ago. Most people called him Jay. To outsiders, he was a nice man, but his close colleagues knew better. He was... a dick, to put it lightly." Puffy taps the page.

There's a drawing of a man in a big hat and a suit with a silk scarf. Even just looking at his face made Tubbo want to sit down for a friendly chat with the guy.

Then there's a bunch of writing that Tubbo can't be bothered reading, and another picture of a cluster of broken buildings, a few bodies splayed on the ground, and a massive pile of planks and debris in the centre. There's one final picture, and it's of a gruesomely detailed corpse. What's left of the skin and muscle cling desperately to a skeleton, and there's all sorts of bugs and torn weeds that have made themselves at home in the rib cage. Tubbo's mind is immediately reminded of the life leaving Schlatt's eyes. Is that how his body will look one day? Is that how he's meant to rest in peace? He breathes in, and he breathes out. Don't panic now. Keep a hold of yourself.

"At first they thought the president had just gone missing, but it turns out someone killed him, someone who worked under him. They hid the body under a building, but it was uncovered when an earthquake rocked the area. In the end, the perpetrator was sent to the gallows, but he did get to expose the true nature of the president. Though their opinions were now negative on the man, they still put the body to rest under one of the trees in the forest. It's gone now, though," Puffy continues to explain.

Tubbo blinks. Is it just him, or is the air getting really stuffy? "That's... interesting?"

"Yeah, it is. I mean, the president in the picture holds so much resemblance to Schlatt. Even the described personality is similar. What if this situation is too? What if someone in this building did the deed?"