audio | @sdkbmri92kgb

[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

@rlutece

[originallutece]

[Does she swear while she listens to this? Assuredly.]

No. He isn't answering his device, either, and he hasn't attended our usual lessons.

[Bullying sessions. Exploited labor. Whatever.]

When was the last time you saw him?

[darkeyed]

Since when are you two doing lessons?

_{[No, back on track.]}

When the hallucinations were bad. But I-- _[...] I wasn't really paying attention after that. I don't know how long he's been missing messages. I figured he was just doing the same as me and keeping to himself.

_{[But this is getting to be too long for licking wounds.]}

@missprincessmary; voice

[withsadness]

He can't be gone! We have to find him right now! Right now!

[She's like, immediately panicking! Excellent!]

I'm going to tell the forest to bring him back!

[darkeyed]

<sub>[Oh... it's the kid who likes to color. His knowledge of their resident youngster starts and ends with that sentence.

His options seem to be as follows:

A. Say something a kid would find reassuring.
B. Say something a kid would find calming.
C. Say something to stop a kid from doing something reckless.
D. Having no experience dealing with kids younger than himself aside from Eleven, say what he's normally say but... slower, in the hopes the words sink and coax her out of that shrill vocal range unique to upset children.]</sub>

No one said he was gone, I just asked if anyone had seen him.

private|

[pearlstrings]

[Remember that perfect world you were talking about]


Yes. But I believe his tablet is missing.

[darkeyed]

_{[--yes? He scarcely has the attention for privacy settings with the dozen more questions that brings to the forefront.]}

Where? _{[Not in the usual places that M.K.'s seen. And he would know--he's been looking.]} Why isn't he here to say that himself?

@daylit; voice.

[sunborne]

-No.

I thought- [ the litany of excuses refuse to come out of daylight's mouth, stubborn and ashamed for not checking on riku - on his friend - sooner.

so, instead, he goes with something else: ] Where have you looked so far?

[darkeyed]

_{[Better they don't go there. He's still waiting to see an excuse fix a single thing, whether in his own life or anyone else's.]}

Around. _{[Has he gone so far as to pull up mattresses and bang on Hozier's hatch? No. But if it gets to that point, he thinks they'd already be in worst case scenario territory.]} The square and the village aren't that big. Been out to the armory and back, too.

_{[He was hoping Riku was just with his friends and he'd be teased for overreacting later. Another negative answer dulls that hope a bit more.]}

I would've thought he'd show his face for the start of a new month, but I didn't see him then, either.

[primordialerebus]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck do you think he's okay maybe he just got like lost fuck

[darkeyed]

_{[Fortunate there was something of substance after the fifth "fuck" because he was about to close the message. He doesn't have half the time for verbal diarrhea as some seem to have writing it all out word by word, and listening along to the automated text-to-voice intonation isn't nearly as nice as listening to an actual voice.]}

That's what I'm trying to find out.

@darkness

[evulsed]

Oh dear. Are you missing your little friend?

[darkeyed]

It's no wonder the people who made this technology went extinct in my world if this is the best you can do with it.

_{[That was weak, even for you and your history of network slap-fights.]}

@stone, audio

[scarsolderthanyou]

Oh, are we asking about people who are missing on here? Because there's a lovely young lady with tusks and magic who I can't seem to find, either.

But if you have something that belongs to this Riku kid, I might be able to sniff him out. I have a very good sense of smell, I just don't have a scent right now to work off of.

private;

[darkeyed]

They're not the only ones.

_{[Clarke, too, hasn't stopped by the cabin in a while. Unusual, when she hadn't taken any supplies for an extended scouting trip. Unusual but not surprising.]}

People have a way of disappearing here--their lanterns go missing, and so do they from the network. Spirits, probably. Sometimes you find a body, sometimes not. Sorry, I don't know anything about whoever you're looking for.

_{[Only then does he acknowledge why he'd gone out of his way to switch settings when normally he'd have nothing to hide.]}

I'm not convinced him being missing has to do with the spirits, though. How does it work, this sniffing? How fresh of a scent would you need?

Private, audio @ SuprNerd

[moderatelymaladjusted]

I haven't seen him since, uh, since back when things were still pretty weird. It's been more than a week. When did you last see him? Where have you already looked?

[darkeyed]

<sub>[That's a nice way to put it.

Honestly, he thinks Quentin's network meltdown was a lot more accurate and on point. Fuck the Lighthouse Keeper x2. And right at this moment in time? Fuck at least one other entity in this town.]</sub>

Yeah...

_{[A knowing yeah. M.K. hadn't spiralled on the network, but he did his fair share of spiralling all the same. And now Riku's the one paying the price for his lapse.]}

About that-- I have a lead. And we have a problem.

@regina; private, voice

[itselbitch]

Ssso I haven't seen him, but I did find his tablet. I tried locating him, but it doesn't seem like it's something he's very attached to. Not really sure where he could be, but he's probably not dead, at least. Whatever reassurance that brings.

What the hell is up with your username?

[darkeyed]

So that's a no.

_{[He doesn't intend to sound terse, but he's drilling down to the facts: someone's spotted his tablet, but not the owner of the tablet himself. Considering how useful the devices are in certain respects, it doesn't make sense for Riku to just... leave it somewhere. He sighs, a rough sound against the speaker.]}

Never mind that now. How's this locating work?

_{[What Eliot's saying doesn't make much sense to him out of context, but locating is exactly what they could use some of.]}

@jtodd

[mind_blown]

huh.

[darkeyed]

_[...]

Are you trying to write something?

_{[You know what doesn't translate well in text-to-speech? Actual speech noises. Clarification needed.]}

— audio / @parker.

[webshoots]

[ oh boy this sure has turned into a shitshow.

he'll come back to that screencapped conversation, but first— ]

The last time you spoke to him, how was he?

[ because tbh, the last time peter spoke to riku, peter wasn't entirely convinced that riku wasn't about to do something fucking reckless. ]

[darkeyed]

<sub>[This strikes M.K. has a wide-reaching question, beginning to slip outside the bounds of immediate need. How did he seem...?

Well. M.K. would be lying if to say he's overjoyed to think about the last time he saw the other boy in person, less because of Riku's state and more because of his own. Riku isn't the only one who'd been seeing people close to his heart and done something he regretted.]</sub>

Seeing things, like everyone else. Why?

_{[Say what you will about Beacon, it doesn't discriminate in its mind games--everyone gets a turn.]}

@eleven | audio

[savingthrows]

[ She sits in her room, cross legged. Taps the star shaped charm. Takes a deep breath. ]

I can... try. To find him. See him.

private;

[darkeyed]

_{[The soft, young-sounding voice is familiar. It's the girl. The girl with the clipped way of speaking unique to her--to say nothing of those powers of hers. Unique might just be the perfect word for Eleven.]}

You mean go looking for him?

_{[He assumes she's talking about physically going on a search. Another person may have tried to dissuade the youngest among them from getting too involved--but he remembers how he was at Eleven's age and what a waste of time it would be. Like with the ferry, he won't stop her from trying to help if she can.]}

I didn't know you knew him.

_{[Quiet types attract quiet types? Or maybe more like unique types.]}

[lunchbreaks]

I haven't seen him. Are we coordinating a search party?

private;

[darkeyed]

It's looking like that's on purpose.

<sub>[And by the sounds of it, M.K.'s not pleased about it. Far from it.

How can he be? Text on a screen assuring him Riku is still somewhere in Beacon is almost worse than not knowing when it's paired with equivocating and refusal to allow any of Riku's friends to contact him. It's ominous. It's controlling. They have enough people crowning themselves with undeserved authority over others without this added to the mix.

Which begs the question--what's actually happening to Riku? His imagination supplies answers that snowballs his sense of dread.]</sub>

I am. I don't know about you, but I'm not about to take that chance.