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[darkeyed]

_{[It's rare to see the owner of this un opt for the network over saying whatever he needs to say in person, but in this particular case, he can't go around asking everyone...]}

Has anyone seen Riku? Guy with silver hair. You can't miss him.

Let me know, thanks.

_{[Quick and to the point. But then in a perfect world this would be a quick and to the point mystery solved.]}


EDIT:


_{(OOC: After this thread, M.K. has taken pictures of Bruce's texts and posted them below his original message. Oho, you thought he hadn't learned his lesson about making copies of important documents, but he did.)}

Someone here has an idea of where he is and is hellbent on hiding it from the rest of us. If you have a way to track someone down, use it.

Comments

[darkeyed]

_{[He can see what you're doing, Vanitas, and you know what, he's too old for this at the tender age of someone not old enough to drink in all parts of the multiverse.]}

I'm done with these games.

Tell me or I'm hanging up.

[evulsed]

It broke. So how are you even going to find him now?

Have fun playing detective.

[darkeyed]

<sub>[It's an incredibly boring story, beginning with M.K. not understanding what the symbols on his tablet's keys meant, and ending with him further not understanding that by touching them in random sequence the first time he used his device he was inputting something permanent. Really, Eliot, you'd be lulled into sleep.

It doesn't bother M.K. overly much; gibberish letters aren't far removed from the gibberish all letters are, and apparently he's far from the only who'd input something other than his name.]</sub>

This is the first I'm hearing about magic being so messed up.

_{[But he has heard of magic so that part hardly fazes him. He makes a vaguely frustrated sound.]}

I don't have anything like that. But where'd you find the tablet? Don't tell me. The spirits?

[darkeyed]

_{[Leave it to an angel to have the more optimistic take.]}

If he was lost, he's been found now. The question is why no one knows where.

[darkeyed]

_{[He has some experience with people bending powerful forces to their will that he only understands a small fraction of--like Cressida with her magic, and Pilgrim and the Master with their gifts. She's no different. If he thinks of it like that, he doesn't have to understand how it works to benefit from the results.]}

Okay. _{[A soft, steadying inhale.]} Do it.

_{[Now would be the time to ask if there are risks involved... but if there are risks to her, she's old enough to gauge them against the risks of doing nothing, he thinks.]}

What do you need to make it happen?

[darkeyed]

No idea but I plan on asking when I find them. I have hunch if we find one, we'll probably find the other.

_{[Thank you for thinking this is as shady as he does.]}

We don't have this kind of tech where I'm from--not sure if there's a way to tell where those network messages came from.

[darkeyed]

<sub>[People keep talking about the tablets like they're the only fathomable means to prove someone's existence, like if they're not white-knuckle gripping a hunk of metal and plastic every hour of every day they might as well have turned invisible or fallen off the edge of the planet. It's an infuriating red herring he'd been sick of the moment it'd been thrown out as an excuse for Riku's absence.

If he hears one more stupid fucking thing about this woebegone broken tablet...]</sub>

That depends if you're ever going to use all that hot air to get to a point. If you know something about where Riku is, talk.

_{[There is one good thing about tablet technology and it's that he can detach from a waste of his time with the click of a button. Vanitas' call.]}

[darkeyed]

_{[He appreciates the willingness to get down to brass tacks. The sooner, the better. He responds in kind, providing the sort of generic rendezvous point that won't draw many conclusions one way or another if any... less than savory types should prove able to read this. They can start from there.]}

Meet me in the square. I'll be easy to find.

_{[And so he is. Stone won't find many young men waiting at attention holding a lit torch--none, actually, who look nearly so tense with suppressed agitation. He's never been good at standing still, even when his impatience wasn't on behalf of someone else.]}

[lunchbreaks]

If no one knows where, how can he be found?

=> action!

[scarsolderthanyou]

[And the man who comes wandering up matches the voice: old. He's very tall, kind of spindly, and completely colorless but for bright blue eyes.

He holds up a hand to wave a little at him.]

I'm Stone. Are you that jumble of letters I couldn't read?

[evulsed]

But this is so much more fun.

[ did he just giggle? he might have just giggled. ]

I like watching you struggle.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

But that's the problem. We need to find them first. I know a tracking spell? But it only works like half the time, but-uh, it also. I'd have to have something of his? And I really don't.

I'm used to tablets and phones where I'm from, but honestly, I just barely used them? And I have no idea how to track any of these. Peter has trackers? But-- but for them to work, Riku would have had to have had one on him when he went missing. And I don't think he did?

[primordialerebus]

[ Coraline's simply used to this method of communication, having grown up with it and honestly, having been molded by it. So she isn't thinking that others may be having a harder time getting used to it. ]

... Wait what? Has someone been messaging you about this?> Wtf?????

[ Seriously what the fuck is wrong with people. ]

Maybe... they just like don't want to be found literally at all? And don't feel the need to prove shit???

What the fuck.

[ She replies, not realizing it's rhetorical. ]

[savingthrows]

Not much. Quiet. Static sound. Blindfold.

[ Eleven looks up at the ceiling, blinks against the sting of wetness in her eyes.

For a friend. For Riku.

She can be brave. ]

I will tell you, if I can... see.

[sunborne]

[ ooc; roger!! o7 ]

[ daylight makes a worried sound in response, his worries and anxieties rocketing now. but he tries to temper himself, knowing he can't fall back on just emotions in times like these. not when a friend of his is in danger...! ]

Okay. [ he takes a deep breath, trying to find a way to word his worried, worried thoughts. ] Since you mentioned that... Do you think we can track him down with that? His lantern, I mean.

That's pretty unique. [ it's literally a part of them, after all. ] There's got to be a way for us to track that down if something like this happens.

[darkeyed]

_{[Finding someone by their lantern... That thought hadn't crossed his mind, used as he is to more conventional means of tracking someone by the signs of their passage, or by their energy. But the flames in the lanterns are energy, of a kind.]}

If that were possible... then maybe Rastus would know.

_{[Rastus tends the fire, and the lantern flames seem similar, if not identical.]}

[darkeyed]

You want to take that chance, in a place like this?

_{[He doesn't.]}

[darkeyed]

What's wrong with you?

_{[An echo of a past sentiment now given voice. He did indeed giggle and it's not what he's come to associate with Vanitas.]}

[darkeyed]

I'm not trying to pose a riddle.

_{[He'll take a moment to direct Aziraphale to the messages he's received and publicly posted in defiance of the suspiciously anonymous manner in which they'd been left.]}

Let me put it another way: no one willing to say knows where.

[darkeyed]

<sub>[Stone. Like the name on the network replies. Normally, M.K. isn't above judging a book by its cover--or at least thoroughly assessing it. Life expectancy is not high in the Badlands; between the lawlessness for communities outside the barons' protection and the back-breaking labor under the barons' protection, few cogs or clippers would live to see a man like Stone's age, unless allowed to retire comfortably like Waldo.

And he is--old. And thin. Not the build of a warrior, not by a long shot. But this is not about sizing up a potential opponent and passing judgement.

If this old man really does have skills that can help, then by all means.]</sub>

M.K.

_{[Another set of jumbled letters, just... in a shorter sequence. He stops the pacing he's been doing in place, nodding in acknowledgement.]}

I didn't want to give away too much over the network. It's not safe to talk on there.

_{[And doubly so now, with a correspondent having popped up on his post that had fired up all his worst suspicions.]}

[darkeyed]

_{[In other words, this person's drawing a blank, too. His sigh carries an audible whiff of frustration.]}

I don't have anything that will help you.

_{[And the trackers he's thinking of won't do anyone any good when he doesn't think there are any here, even if they worked on Riku's darkness the same as a dark one.]}

Keep your eyes peeled, anyway. It's hard to say how long he's been missing already.

[darkeyed]

<sub>[That's a strange and puzzling list, but he doesn't waste either of their time by making her try and explain it to him. Not when it's abundantly clear he only understands the barest fraction of her power.

He changes the nature of his question instead.]</sub>

How can I help?

_{[He'll facilitate... whatever this is, if he can.]}

[scarsolderthanyou]

[This is about finding your friend, M.K., don't judge the alien before you've seen what he can do. He shrugs at the warning about the network. Not that he's got anything he considers secret enough to really worry about. He doesn't know that any of this even really counts.]

All right. So where are we going for me to get a scent?

[evulsed]

[ He snickers again. ]

Don't pretend like you're actually interested when we both know what you really want.

[lunchbreaks]

My sympathies, dear. I don't trust those other messages either - it seems anyone trying to "help" around here only tries to do so in the most deliberately obfuscating of ways. Doesn't exactly foster confidence, if you ask me.