**Mara:** People really believed this?

She holds up an old advertisement.

A handsome man.

Strong.

Healthy.

Free.

A cigarette between his fingers.

**Chibi:** Apparently.

**Mara:** But we know better now.

**Chibi:** About cigarettes.

Mara looks at him.

**Mara:** About lots of things.

She spreads photographs across the floor.

People once forced to hide now living openly.

Workers with better protection.

Old prejudices becoming unacceptable.

Rules changing.

Rights expanding.

**Mara:** See?

**Chibi:** Better.

Mara waits.

**Mara:** No annoying bit?

**Chibi:** I can add one.

New advertisements.

New arguments.

New fears.

New groups certain that somebody else is the problem.

**Mara:** But those aren’t the same.

**Chibi:** No.

**Mara:** Then why put them together?

Chibi thinks.

**Chibi:** Maybe we’re looking at the wrong thing.

He picks up the cigarette advertisement.

**Chibi:** This isn’t really about cigarettes.

The beauty advertisement.

**Chibi:** This isn’t really about make-up.

A frightened crowd.

**Chibi:** And maybe this isn’t really about whoever they’re frightened of.

Mara begins sorting the pictures differently.

**Mara:** They want people to like them.

**Chibi:** Admire them.

**Mara:** They want to belong.

**Chibi:** Feel safe.

**Mara:** Be right.

**Chibi:** Make things fair.

**Mara:** Believe in something.

**Chibi:** Know they’re one of the good people.

Mara stops.

**Mara:** That one’s dangerous.

**Chibi:** Why?

**Mara:** Because everyone thinks they’re one of the good people.

Caelwyn enters.

**Mara:** Are we better than them?

**Caelwyn:** We’ve become better at many things.

**Mara:** That’s not what I asked.

**Caelwyn:** We know more. We have better medicine. Better protections. We’ve learnt that things our grandparents considered normal could hurt people.

**Mara:** So we’re better.

**Caelwyn:** We should try to be.

A pause.

**Caelwyn:** Just don’t confuse becoming better with becoming incapable of doing harm.

Mara looks again at the old advertisement.

**Mara:** But ours are different.

Nobody laughs.

Chibi picks up the smiling smoker.

**Chibi:** I bet his were different too.

**Mara:** So what’s the monster?

Chibi thinks.

**Chibi:** Maybe it’s what happens to things inside us.

Wanting isn’t bad.

Belonging isn’t bad.

Love isn’t bad.

Faith isn’t bad.

Wanting justice isn’t bad.

Fear isn’t even always bad.

**Mara:** Like fire.

**Chibi:** Fire keeps you warm.

**Mara:** Cooks your food.

**Chibi:** Burns homework.

**Caelwyn:** Chibi.

**Chibi:** Hypothetically.

Mara smiles.

Then becomes serious.

**Mara:** But if you stop watching the fire—

**Caelwyn:** It decides for you what burns.

Hunger.

Fear.

Love.

Desire.

Belonging.

Anger.

Faith.

Certainty.

Hope.

The same fire from which humans build families, communities, art, medicine and justice.

And sometimes monsters.

Different generation.

Different rules.

Different mistakes.

The fire remains.

### CTA

The darkest thing in **Pulp Cthulhu Noir** may not be something waiting beyond the trees.

It may be something human beings have carried with them all along.

Enter a world where defeating the monster begins with discovering what it has been feeding.

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Go deeper into **Inner Fire** and the historical, psychological and narrative research behind Mythveil’s 1950s noir.

https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames

**We can see the darkness our grandparents mistook for normal. What darkness inside ourselves will our grandchildren recognise that we cannot?**