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[Transcript]

        “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” Davy boomed, seizing a microphone and strutting to the front of the stage. “LESS GENTLE MEN, TOO! GREMLINS AND GRIFTERS AND GHOULS! GATHERED FIENDS, GATHERED FRIENDS!”

        A sea of skulls and sallow undead faces stretched out before him, chittering and whispering excitedly.

        “At LONG LAST, your FAITH and FINANCIAL SUPPORT, all the HARD WORK that you HIRED, is REWARDED! Tonight, we put Mayview, our humble home at the heart of ANYWHERE and NOWHERE, on the MAP... under a DIFFERENT NAME!”

        Davy waved his hook like a conductor’s baton at the height of its orchestra’s fervor. Eerie spotlights bloomed across the ballroom like portals to fiendish dimensions, great cones of red and violet coalescing on the stage, on its scale model town, its founders, on a banner overhead...

        “I GIVE YOU... DAYVIEW!!”

        Cameras flashed to life in the rafters of the stage, and the projectors that had cast Kinect Sports onto the walls of the ballroom lit up with sparkling glamour shots of Dayview’s ersatz islands. Whoops and cheers and shrieks burst from the crowd.

        “...That’s right, you gluttons. Drink it in,” Davy muttered, too quiet for the roaring horde to hear. He flashed a winning smile, raising the microphone back to his mouth. “Through FOUL RITUAL, combining GREAT MAGICKS DIVINE AND PROFANE,” thundered Davy, gesturing at Razor Rex and Fauxbia, “I deliver unto you a TAX HAVEN RESORT TOWN where the NIGHTLIFE LASTS FOREVER!”

        “IT’S IRONIC,” Razor Rex whispered to Cody at the volume of a shout. “THE NAME. SINCE IT’S NEVER DAY IN DAYVIEW. WE’LL SUCKER TONS OF TOURISTS IN, JUST LIKE THE VIKINGS DID WITH GREENLAND.”

        “...Leave it to my dad to look to the Dark Ages for his innovative future’s bright ideas,” Cody shot back, leering at his father.

        “WOW, THE DARK AGES. THAT SOUNDS SICK. LET’S CALL IT THAT AGAIN.”

        Cody wasn’t listening. He had no doubt his dad had only chosen “Dayview” because it sounded like his name. Branding was half the battle, in a world where cash was king, and the war had just begun. His power grab wouldn’t end tonight—before long, he’d sink his teeth into all three islands, if he really could create them. The Davy Jones that Cody knew would never deign to share his throne. He was making a sucker of everybody, even Razor Rex, even the Witch... and for what?

        Davy was halfway through his pitch of his macabre kingdom’s many heinous perks. Swimming pools of blood, he’d promised. Castles on the hill for his most loyal nosferatus. Black picket fence Americana in the Witch’s suburban spiderweb. A forbidden island lair for Razor Rex’s faithful cultists (“Why lose that GUILTY PLEASURE feeling just because you’ll be the DOMINANT RELIGION?”). Cody felt sick to his stomach, and not just because he’d had to dodge his math teacher’s bra after she’d thrown it at her goddess in a fit of zealous passion.

        “PROPERTY VALUES, TRIPLED OVERNIGHT!” Davy triumphantly pronounced. “My fellow LANDLORDS—all the hassle of EVICTION? GONE, once your TENANT THRALLS are all compelled to vacate the premises the moment you RESCIND THEIR INVITATIONS!”

        Cody grit his fangs. That’s why his father had been buying up remote homes on the circumference of both hills: they’d all be priceless waterfront property soon, if his vision for Mayview was realized. Davy was planning to bend the town’s reality to his will... for a vapid real estate scheme.

        “And the town will only EXPAND from there, once it’s... right where we want it.” Davy smirked. “Who knows? Perhaps our ETERNAL LIFESTYLE will infect the WHOLE WORLD one day! Or rather—ho ho!—one fine dark and stormy night!” A far-off look found Davy’s eyes. “You’ll live to see it, thanks to me. Black clouds from one horizon to the next. Nothing to fear, to lose, to hide—just PEACE and POWER... underneath a moonless sky.”

        Cody started. He looked up, wide-eyed, from the floor. His father was staring straight back at him. Cody’s heart raced, though it was too far from his chest for him to feel it. What was his dad saying? What was he promising? A moonless sky? Did he know Cody had discovered what had happened to his mom? Had he—had he allowed him to? Was his dad making a world... where they could safely, finally, be reunited as a family...?

        Cody’s resolve, once forged in steel, began to falter. His hopes and doubts soared hand in hand beyond his reach, his strict control. Was that what it would take? A world of monsters? There had to be a better way. Wasn’t there a better way? Which ambition was the front? Which was his father’s true desire? Cody’s thoughts swam in familiar circles. Why couldn’t he just hate his dad? Why couldn’t it just be that simple?

        Amidst the teeming celebrants below, a cheerless Paige stared at the stage with folded arms.

        “...So this is our happily ever after,” she muttered darkly.

        Gage jumped; he thought he’d sidled up without her noticing, thought he’d still had some few moments to consider what to say, but Paige had turned to him after she spoke.