Pursuit of the Facts

Pursuit of the Facts is a short story published to The Sims 3 Story Exchange on June 11th, 2009 as a promotional for Ciem 2. It is a midquel to Ciem 2 and a sequel to A Witness from Dirbine, taking place relatively during the time frame of Ciem 2 but involving characters never mentioned explicitly in that story.

Plot
Picking up immediately where Witness left off, Pursuit follows the continued exploits of Veronica Stalick and Chuck Corsi. Veronica calls Chuck after they finish their chat room discussion. She has a sudden revelation that the girl in the baseball cap that she saw with Ciem looks very similar to her former hacking tutor: Sniperbadger.

Together, Chuck and Veronica piece together components of their individual knowledge of events surrounding the Mik-Non's attack on Dirbine to deduce why Sniperbadger would be involved. Veronica reveals that she knows intimate details about the history of the Flippo family, and from there deduces the likelihood that Sniperbadger is either Candi or Miriam. The two continue to debate why Candi would help Ciem out with fighting crime.

Based on Veronica's understanding of Candi's personality and the history of her marriage to Denny Levens, the two assume that Miriam is more likely to be the identity of Sniperbadger. They then reach the conclusion that their understanding of events could prove dangerous, and agree to keep their discoveries a secret.

Veronica fears that the Meethlites will execute her if word gets out that she may be able to lead them to Candi. Chuck is more reluctant about the secrecy, as his girlfriend Jessie Mahnz wishes to have some material relevant to the attack on Dirbine that can be printed in the high school newspaper.

Development
Pursuit of the Facts was developed through the exact same process as A Witness from Dirbine. The reason for the two stories being separate was that the writer was abruptly interrupted due to an issue with a dishwasher and some chicken eggs, and was forced to cut ''Witness' short to cater to those problems. Once those issues were resolved, Pursuit was created to finish the unresolved plot issues with Witness.

Music
The soundtrack for the story is the song "Identity Check," made available to Sims Storytellers on the Sims 3 Exchange for accompaniment with stories published to the site.