reefnet | MORNING 23 | TEXT

[ Give him targets?? Wait, is he going to read what she wrote and then go after Dirk? Maddy's blood runs cold. It was a thought that hadn't occurred to her, that he or she or whoever this "person" (?? they don't sound like a person) is would do that. The truth is that Maddy is terrified of the entity at the cabin, or would be if it were closer to her. Far away at the airfield, this hadn't felt truly "real" to her at first, but this comment makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge as the threat becomes, suddenly, real.

This guy she's talking to... he's a cop. A cop that Maddy doesn't really know. At least the cop, like the cabin, is far enough away that this time she can't be physically cuffed to a table and have her clothes literally cut off so that somebody can collect evidence she doesn't want them to.

But he seems like he's trying to help (again, ??). Maddy's fingers start to become damp with sweat. She's suddenly nervous as she pounds away the letters slowly, one finger at a time. Despite the decreased speed, her punctuation and spelling immediately becomes much better as she tries to make her texting more accessible to an old person, especially a detective. She's not really sure how to address him - "detective" is what his boyfriend calls him so that seems weird, but she doesn't really feel comfortable calling him anything else either, so she just settles on "sir": ]

Hello sir, Please accept my sincere apology. I was promise I not trying to give him any ideas.

[ If it were a less serious topic, she might counter with, "How do you know it's a 'he?'" but this isn't really the time for that kind of thing right now.

A combination of self-absorption and genuine worry for Dirk's safety makes her add: ]

You don't think he's going to go after anybody because of what I said, do you?

Edited (missing words) 2023-09-09 13:44 (UTC)

I know you werent. But the best thing you can do is let him alone. Decent odds he can read this. Notice his callsign aint on the list? How it looks like maybe he picked it himself?

He can read this? Like a hacker???

[ Wait. No.

If Maddy's read on this cop guy is correct, he probably doesn't know what "hacking" is. Or if he does know, he probably doesn't really understand it.

Not that Maddy truly understands it either, but she's at least familiar with the concept. ]

Edited 2023-09-11 22:51 (UTC)

[ If whoever this is can read their private communications, Maddy has a new cavalcade of worries. She thinks immediately about Levi, who doesn't want anyone to know his callsign or associate it with his name... if private communications aren't safe, then... ]

Listen, if he can see this then that's really really really bad. I feel like you don't have social media or like computers so I'll try to explain. I'm not good at explaining this kind of stuff though. Sorry. Basically he doesn't need to get to where people are to get them. He can dox them. That means he could expose private things people say here. He might collect stuff about people too, like if they don't want info to be shared but they say it privately. And like if he found stuff that let's him read this VS if he just knows how. That like could mean different stuff.

[ Poisoned as she is by the age of cell phones and social media, the comment about her being far away hadn't registered as anything more than a standard Internet insult. The gravity of the statement's implications beyond her.

Now though, her heart is pounding. Terrified. ]

Edited 2023-09-11 23:17 (UTC)

Anyway I apologize again. I am not trying to be rude. Please accept my condolences. I know you are a detective and you don't need me to tell you things. I'm just not any good at explaining some stuff respectfully.

[ Fuck but she sounds young.

Some of this lines up with what Shaw's said, about him being online. The personal goads—threatening to put Martin in a cage after Martin'd confided about feeling trapped.

Some of it, though, just sounds like unchecked paranoia. Maybe she's got secrets, personal shit hanging over her head. Maybe that's her worst case scenario: public ridicule. For now it doesn't matter, as long as it'll get her to take this seriously. ]

We dont know for sure what hes capable of. Safest thing to do is treat everything you say on here like someones reading over your shoulder. Hell we dont even know where the walkies come from.

Edited 2023-09-12 19:32 (UTC)

[ Ridicule is the furthest thing from her mind right now. If Maddy thought ridicule was the worst thing this person was capable of, she'd have no problem personally inviting him over to the airfield to throw down once she's not injured anymore. ]

People will say their location in private when they might not say it in public. He could save up lists of locations...friends...enemies... That's why it's bad. There's a lot you can do with it. Or if someone has a lot of enemies, he could say "go here and kill them". Especially if they're hurt or something. It's like, I don't know how to explain but it's a big problem. Will you be safe?

Edited 2023-09-12 21:06 (UTC)

Know how cops use codes on the radio? Thats why. You got someone here you trust and can talk to face to face, work out a code between the two of you. Simple stuff. Where youre at. If youre in danger.

[ There's a slight pause before he tackles her question, but he really doesn't have time to ruminate on what shade of white to make the lie. ] Ill be fine. Im not that interesting.

Okay but that ONLY helps me. What about everybody else?

[ Something else occurs to her, too. She's not sure if she should say it or not. If this guy really can read this, she doesn't want to give him any ideas. Then again, if he's really this bad of a person and really this smart... then there's a pretty good chance that's what she's thinking, this guy has probably already thought of it, and saying nothing might not help. ]

Besides, what if he notices that certain people contact each other a lot? Won't that do something?

[ She does consider what Rust is saying, though. A code might not be a bad idea. She'll have to talk to Levi.

To what he says next, Maddy responds: ]

I didn't ask if you were interesting, dumbass. I asked if you would be safe.

[ She slips, in her stress, her worry for some random stranger she's never met but who is insistently taunting a potentially scary and unhinged psychopath, offering to "make it personal". It's an urge Maddy understands, or thinks she is. To not back down from a fight, to hold your ground, it's second nature to her.

But this...guy? Person?...is so far beyond anything or anyone she's ever had to conceptualize. ]

Edited 2023-09-16 00:35 (UTC)

[ He's running low on time and has a lot less patience when they're discussing his safety rather than hers. The replies are terse. ] you being alive helps everyone. not entertaining.

[ I don't think that's up to you, Maddy almost types. She doesn't have Rust's head for strategy, not yet anyway, and is too scared to be thinking about all the things he can't say.

But she also can't say anything, mostly because she can't do anything. She types only: ]

kk. keep it that way ig.

[ Her stomach hurts. ]

MORNING 23 | TEXT | FROM: DI481O

also private and also stressed! (cw: mentions of use of police force on civilians)

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