replying to @AnomieGamemaster
Good for @realJoshBlay sticking by Katya, it just makes me love him even more. And at this point, honestly, #fuckFedwell.
Kea Niven @realPaperwhite
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
She’s violently racist and ableist. If you’re only getting shocked by her now, I don’t know where the fuck you’ve been.
Robin continued scrolling. Just two days prior to the news that Edie had joined Allan Yeoman’s agency, Anomie had broken further important news.
Anomie
@AnomieGamemaster
I hear Netflix is sniffing around #TheInkBlackHeart.
#GreedieFedwell prepared to close Drek’s Game, sack more original voice artists… 1/2
10.06 pm 6 June 2012
Anomie
@AnomieGamemaster
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
… ditch Blay, etc, to cash in.
Make your feelings known to @EdLedDraws and
@realJoshBlay – what should be non-negotiable? 2/2
10.07 pm 6 June 2012
This, too, Edie had printed out and commented on. The possible deal wasn’t public knowledge and we weren’t supposed to be talking about it. I wasn’t planning on doing any of this rubbish. I didn’t have the power to sack Josh, we were partners.
Robin scrolled through the predictable explosion of fury Anomie’s tweets had unleashed.
MrsHarty @carlywhistler_*
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
noooo this isn’t real is it? how do you know this?
Anomie @AnomieGamemaster
replying to @carlywhistler_*
The Gamemaster knows all
Timothy J Ashcroft @TheWormTurning
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
I don’t think @EdLedDraws intends on doing any of this, seriously
Anomie @AnomieGamemaster
replying to @TheWormTurning
You think wrong. I’m hearing you’re top of the firing list
Robin paused to make a note of the fact that Anomie had claimed to have early notice that Tim Ashcroft was likely to be fired from his role as The Worm, then kept reading.
HartysGirl @hartyalways7
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
If she ditches Josh and closes the Game she’ll lose the whole fandom and she can die in a dumpster fire #IstandwithJosh
DrekBwah @hellandfurie$
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
#stopfeedingFedwell
Lepines Disciple @LepinesD1sciple
replying to @hellandfurie$ @AnomieGamemaster
fkn excellent idea let’s get #stopfeedingFedwell trending
Zozo @inkyheart28
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
she cna ’t close the the game it ’s ours !!!! #notoNetflix
@EdLedDraws plaes listen to your fans !!!!!
Kea Niven @realPaperwhite
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
Wow this is great, all my ideas are going to Netflix to make a ton of money for Edie Ledwell
Loren @lºrygill
replying to @realPaperwhite @AnomieGamemaster
Kea, if you did a crowdfunder loads of us would help you sue her #stopfeedingFedwell #notoNetflix
Robin reread the last two tweets. Intrigued by the suggestion that the person called Kea Niven had grounds to sue Edie Ledwell, she brought up Kea’s Twitter account.
The banner at the top of the page showed a photograph of a double rainbow. Kea’s bio read Spoonie – CFS – POTs – fibromyalgia – she/they. Yes, I was named after a parrot. What of it?
Even allowing for the filters used on the photograph of the account owner, Robin could tell that Kea Niven was a very pretty girl. Her long dark hair tumbled over her shoulders and her enormous brown eyes looked up and sideways at the camera, a slight pout on her scarlet lips.
A tweet from October 2011 was pinned to the top of her Twitter page. It read:
‘Fuck it. This is the truth. Believe me, don’t believe me, I don’t give a shit.’
Robin clicked on the YouTube link beneath these words.
The video began with Kea Niven sitting on a single bed. She was indeed startlingly pretty, with a heart-shaped face, cupid’s bow mouth and wide, liquid-brown eyes, and wore cut-off jeans and a black T-shirt with a yellow, pink and blue design on it, which Robin recognised as a Strokes album cover.
The set-up reminded Robin of the first video Josh and Edie had ever made, in which they too had sat on a single bed facing the camera. The wall behind Kea was covered in sketches, but there didn’t seem to be anyone operating the camera, which was stationary. A masked lovebird was sitting on Kea’s shoulder, its body a dusky blue and its white-rimmed black eyes blinking at the camera.
Kea started to speak with exactly the same kind of sheepish grin and wave with which Josh had opened the video Robin had already watched.
‘So – um – hi! My name’s Kea Niven and I’m a second-year student at St Martin’s. This is my student ID –’
She pulled a card out of the back pocket of her jeans and held it up to the lens.
‘– that’s me, ignore the hair, it was a bad hair day. And behind me is some of my work, just to prove I’m like, whatever, not some rando pretending they can paint.
‘And this is Yoko – aren’t you, eh?’ Kea said in a high-pitched voice to the lovebird on her shoulder. ‘Yeah. We’ve got John and Yoko, this is Yoko.
‘Soooo, why am I making a vlog? Well…’ Kea flapped her hands and gave a breathy little laugh. ‘OK, first I should say that I’m super-nervous about doing this and I’ve gone back and forth wondering whether it’s smart or whatever, but I’m not after money or… This isn’t about money, it’s about fairness and, like, being acknowledged, at least.
‘Soooo… The Ink Black Heart, if you’ve watched it, it was made by my ex-boyfriend Josh Blay and a woman called Edie Ledwell. So, Josh and I were dating at St Martin’s and obviously, when you’re dating, you tell each other – like, all your stories and whatever…
‘Soooo… I told Josh about this thing, about Margaret Read, who was basically accused of witchcraft in, like, 1590 where I grew up, which is King’s Lynn, and when they were burning her at the stake – this bit’s, like, super-gory, so trigger warning or whatever – her heart, like, burst out of her and hit the wall and it’s marked where the heart hit – actually, I’ve got a pic of it on my phone, wait a mo—’
She picked up her mobile and scrolled, looking for the picture. Robin suspected that none of this was as spontaneous as Kea evidently wished it to appear.
‘Yeah, see there?’ said Kea, holding the picture of a heart etched inside a diamond on the brick lintel of a window. ‘That’s where Margaret Read’s heart hit the wall.
‘So, anyway, I told Josh this whole story and I had, like, this thing about the heart bursting out of someone’s chest and whatever. Sooo… yeah, then, like, a year later, I see Edie Ledwell talking about “her” idea for Harty and I’m like, wow, that sounds really, really familiar.