RE419S | audio/text sent to everyone but DI481O | Night 23

[aluminumandash]

[ Hours—several—after Q&A with the anonymous callsign's come to an end, Rust breaks his walkie silence for the first time since the storm. He sounds raspy-voiced but keyed up, intent. His drawl's more clipped than usual, but he doesn't rush. ]

Bout a week ago, the man who's been calling himself Officer Ben De Guzman pulled a gun on me, knocked me out when I fought back. He then cuffed me, took my shit, and up till today had me leading him around that fucking cabin to the Northeast. Ah, this included forcing me to help put together a bloody arrow, leave it out for the guy living there like some kind of a fucking love note.

His callsign's DI481O. [ He repeats it for good measure. ] Mid-forties, Mexican, six feet. Muscular build. He's got a mustache, a grey streak in his hair. He dies, he'll come back in jeans, a button-down workshirt, red bandana. He'll have sustained a gunshot wound to his left leg and he'll be limping. His gun'll have four rounds, but I don't think I gotta tell anyone how easy it is to pick up new weaponry around here.

Most of what he said on here was bullshit. As you mighta gathered.

His name's Eduardo Salamanca. He's cartel, top of the fucking food chain. Drug manufacture and distribution, wide-scale killing on his say-so. This is a powerful man used to getting his way. He's also— [ The merest pause, a huff of breath. ] obsessive. Vengeful. Prone to fixate on people he sees as having wronged him or diminished his status. Capable, too. Not a hunter, but he can survive alright on his own.

[ Another, longer pause. When he comes back some of the weariness from the past week bleeds into his voice. ] I'm gonna type all this up for you. Ah, anyone who can write it down, please do. Tell anyone you know who might not be on the walkie.

Um, I took a print of his boot—I'll see if I can't get that out there. Anyone who's talked to him recently, I'd like to hear from you. You think he might come after you, I'd like to hear about that too. I've also got some questions.

Whos hurt/how bad?
Anyone familiar with Salamanca's name?
Anyone turn up something from his world during the storm?


[ OOC: True to his word, Rust will painstakingly type up a text version of this, which will take him a good twenty minutes.

He will ALSO be monitoring Lalo's walkie for a conveniently unspecified period of time, so if you want your char to look shady, now's your chance! Reply here with a message for Lalo and Rust will intercept it. (Or ignore this if your char is too smart for such ploys!) ]

Comments

HO125E | audio

[trialbyliar]

Ehh?? You mean the guy whose callsign spelled "Diablo" was a bad guy? Who could have seen that coming?

[His voice is all exaggerated surprise, almost mockingly so. It's a solid cover for how tense and uneasy the lore drop leaves him. He'd had a feeling "Ben" was shady, but he doesn't like thinking about how long he was stuck with someone like that.]

cs: LO431Y; voice (1/3)

[lonelynotforsaken]

[...]

Wait. Our callsigns spell things? Oh! Oh, yours is horse! And mine...

(2/3)

[lonelynotforsaken]

[... Wait.]

(3/3)

[lonelynotforsaken]

I don't think all of them spell things. That's... weirdly specific, though.

[He's annoyed at this universe now. Thanks.]

private

[aluminumandash]

[ Rust has no fucking idea what the kid's talking about—beyond being familiar with the word—but the fact that he's first to respond hits him harder than any words of reproach. ] Anything you wanna add? I won't tell anybody it came from you.

TO994M; voice; private

[cactusy]

[WELL CRAP]

VL1 and I were working on a plan to get to you. Took us this long to figure out that something might be wrong.

[Sorry, bud. Randvi was far more on the ball than she was on this one.]

private

[aluminumandash]

[ Rust can't pin down the feeling as relief—can't pin down much of anything, aside from the collection of facts he keeps reviewing and reciting to himself. But this does feel like his first real chance has had to talk in a long time. ]

Ah, it's... [ He shakes his head to himself. ] I figured safer to stick with him, you know, keep him away from...people. Ain't nobody else out here, not that I know of.

How'd it go? [ “It” being the storm's aftermath. “It” being getting walloped by a tree. ] How are you?

VL121R | voice | afternoon day 24

[meadqueen]

[Randvi checks her radio just after her conversation with Shaw about the detective’s status so she's hugely relieved. Unfortunately she's also furious that someone she’d let herself be vulnerable to was lying in this specific way so this kind of comes out like she's admonishing him:]

Detective, we’ve been worried. You should bring your information to us in the village. No one can read my writing, but Jet is helping me translate my notes to English.

I've just returned but I believe we have four injured here - three in the storm, one injured by an animal. [Luckily for Senku she doesn't know about his little stunt yet] Some injuries are severe but no longer life-threatening. The group who went to rescue the injured woman you met in the north is projected to reach us tomorrow.

Zam disappeared in the night. During the storm. We still don't know what happened.

We have had reports of many falling objects - how would we tell what was from his world?

boldly assuming Rust hasn't died by then

[aluminumandash]

[ He's had a hell of a night, and even with Salamanca out of the way feels exposed. Like he's on borrowed time. He's not much concerned with tone, is grateful for facts—although all he can really do is clutch at them. ]

If there's something distinctive about his world, he's kept it to himself. I'd say drugs, something might be used to smuggle them. Luxury goods, status symbols. Shit meant to impress or intimidate. They speak Spanish in Mexico, same alphabet as English—you find anything with writing on it, you can check with someone.

[ That out of the way, he takes a moment to refocus. Heading to the airfield—with Salamanca fixated and the thing at the cabin breathing down his neck—seems unbelievably risky, but he does have information more than one person ought to know. ] How're your medics doing? I've got supplies, but it's pretty fucking scattershot. No painkillers, nothing like that.

cs: LO431Y; voice; private

[lonelynotforsaken]

[He's maybe a little surly, what with being gored earlier today, but Martin can recognize that this is important, and he can pull his head out of his ass for a little bit.]

Christ, that-that's a lot, Cohle. I'm so glad you're okay. I told Jet and Randvi about our conversation. We were planning to try to come get you. Are you actually okay? Do you still need us to come get you?

I got injured earlier today, but I'll be fine. Just a limp for a little while. I've never heard of anyone named Salamanca, and I haven't seen any... drugs?

[What would be from this man's cartel world?]

private

[aluminumandash]

I'm not hurt. [ But he sounds preoccupied, talks in an undertone. ] Except my wrist but that, that's nothing. Good on water and food. More people out here, that's the wrong call after the show this fucker put on.

[ He lets out a breath. Fact of the matter is, he knows one wedge of the island very well and the rest not at all. ] Maybe meet someone halfway.

Yeah, drugs or luxury items, you know. Flashy. [ Sorry, Lalo, he doesn't consider you classy. ] Could be Mexican in origin, something on it in Spanish.

PRIVATE | TEXT | CS: MZ114C [cw: references to intimate partner violence, guns]

[somethingintangible]

[ Holy fuck! Holy fucking shitting fuck! What in the actual holy fuck! First that freak in the cabin or whatever, now this weird old guy she'd never paid much attention to on the walkies turns out to be part of a CARTEL?

Maddy isn't a stranger to criminal activity. She's known drug dealers, juvenile delinquents, people in gangs. But someone high up, in actual cartel, feels insane, like something you'd only see on the news or in the movies. Who ELSE is pretending to be someone they're not???

But that's not the only thing that catches her attention. The detective guy... he says the other guy had a gun to his head? And they were boyfriends? Or at least the fake-officer guy wanted to be boyfriends?

Maddy feels sick to her stomach. She was only held at gunpoint by her toxic ex-boyfriend for five minutes and it was one of the most hellish experiences of her LIFE. What would it be like to have been in that situation for five DAYS?

She can't even fucking imagine.

Fingers shaking, just like they were before from AN000N, Maddy bangs out a response to Cohle. ]

I don't know anybody named that. The only thing I found in the storm was this weird book. I don't think it's from his world, but I don't know. I showed it to Senku.

Are you ok?

private

[aluminumandash]

Im alright. Just a few days.

Whats the name of the book?

HE412T | text

[timaeus]

[Dirk comes back twenty minutes later after the text version is added, maybe because he feels a little bad for contributing to the stupidity.]

I've got a notebook and writing implements.
I'm copying it right now.

TEXT

[somethingintangible]

If you want to do English, i can do a Spanish version. If he's in a cartel, the people in his world might speak mostly Spanish.

[aluminumandash]

[ Y'all are getting notebooks???

Anyway, he's pleasantly surprised at the offer—not that he doesn't think Dirk can take notes, there's just no glamor in it. ] Thanks.

Be real careful who you talk to about the pacairs. We dont wanna lead him right to them.

text | KD201D [private]

[obeir]

[ K knew "Ben" couldn't be a real cop; he simply wasn't nearly enough of an asshole (pre-kidnapping, at least). No offense Rust, K's confused by you being a cop, too, like he'd confided to Taissa. ]

Shit. You all right? Do you need help?

DI481O contacted me privately two days ago seeking confirmation on something Squalo and I saw in the jungle. A pair of eyes that reflected the light, watching us. My guess is he was probably gathering intel on that AN000N he's fixated on. But I don't think that's who was watching us. Wasn't near the cabin.

The rest of my conversations with DI481O have all been public. Do you know where he is currently?

My group's still travelling to the airfield, no new injuries to report.
Never heard of an Eduardo Salamanca before.
How will we know if something from his world turned up during the storm? Did he mention something? I could keep an eye out for it.

private

[aluminumandash]

[ There's certainly a roomful of cops back in Louisiana who'd agree with K on that (for wildly different reasons). ]

Hes with me right now. Im ok. [ A record-breaking number of people have asked after his well-being; he's a little taken aback. ]

This creature, what was it watching you do? Where?

He aint mentioned nothing but Im guessing he has a taste for the finer things. Maybe something personalized, a weapon. Could have a tag or label in Spanish.

You think its safe for me to be around other people? Knowing what you do of him, knowing whats out there?

reaction;

[wingbound]

[ Ah, so the asshole cop turns out to be an asshole criminal? ]

[ Shocking, unexpected, ground-breaking. ]

[ Also bold of this guy to expect a list of vulnerable people just handed to him, just because he snitched on somebody else. Who's to say he's not-- "cartel", or whatever? Or, even worse, an actual cop? Judging from the responses he's getting, people seem to trust him, but whether that's a legit assessment or most folks here lack in cautiousness is anybody's guess. So far, Levi's entertaining the latter. ]

[ He takes note of this potentially dangerous person -- he wonders if somebody would make a similar post about him at some point -- but there's no response. ]

audio; SH442K

[sharktrash]

[ Huh. Interesting. Squalo had been suspecting something was off with that guy, but he hadn't quite put head of a cartel on his bingo card. That... explains some things. ]

[ ...and probably also why they sort of got along, Spaghetti incident aside. And here he'd been worried he was warming up to the pigs. ]

[ Still, that's not a guy to be underestimated. ]

[ Or trusted, at least until he knows him better. ]

[ Which... Squalo doubts he'll be very impressed at the moment, considering he'd been incapacitated while lusting over some weird creature in the woods, but anybody can be taken by surprise. He'd know; his job often hinges on it. ]

[ That leaves one dilemma: now what? If they have people determined to play justice here, it may not be beneficial to express any sort of sympathy to the man; at the same time he's quite confident that Senku and K people aren't going to ditch him -- especially after he's proven to be reliable -- just because some wannabe Batman tells them criminals are bad news. ]

[ Oh, screw this. He's gonna give RE419S exactly the respect he deserves (and probably do nothing to alleviate his idiot impression in the process). ]

Oh thank fuck, I was starting to worry he was actually a cop.

[aluminumandash]

Uh huh. [ Pretty much the extent of Rust's thoughts here. ] Don't know what y'all have against cops, you don't have to fucking work with them.

AP251C | private to Lalo

[desperate_times_right]

[Oh this is bad. This is so, so bad for so many potential reasons and there's nothing she can really do about it.

Chloe finally sends the only thing she can think of to check whether or not he's compromised:]

Six rounds, huh?

[Men really do always exaggerate]

audio | TN811N | private

[hyakuoku]

What the fuck.

[ Senku, in the weird majority, has never really disliked Ben. Thought he was weird and maybe a little nuts, but lots of people are weird and a little nuts so whatever, right? And "Ben" was always pretty chill at him, though Senku's not a total idiot; he's aware that people got a weird vibe. But this? ]

I'll write this down, sure. Just in case.

[ He'll write it in two languages, even, though he's not sure how many people besides him and Kokichi read Japanese. Whatever, bases covered. ]

He asked me to teach him to make a telescope two days ago. I'm not threatened by him, but if he's been straight up lying to us this whole time, who the hell knows.

Pretty sure he knows I know how to make explosives. So...do the math, I guess.

[ Senku isn't scared because he's Senku, but again...not a total idiot, here. ]

private

[aluminumandash]

Appreciate it.

He was keeping me around because I can track and hunt. [ Along with other, more personally detestable reasons. ] You might wanna figure out distress signals, lock down your projects. He was in contact with some callsign I've never seen on here—DN999R—bartering with one of the drones. Deal fell through, but that's how he thinks.

If he's in the habit of hunting down useful people and making them do his bidding at gunpoint, well, you're in more danger than anyone.

Voice | un: jk002n

[metalicarus]

[He doesn't exactly have the highest respect for Rust, but Martin had just been talking about his suspicions with all this a couple days ago and he's been worried for them both for different reasons. Plus his own...misgivings about this news. He'd thought 'Ben' eccentric and a liar, but he hadn't gotten cookoo off him either. It didn't matter right now. This is business and a question of safety, his opinion doesn't matter over fact right now. And the fact is he has questions, especially with an injured teenager in his and Randvi's care and plans to set out again with Martin still on the horizon.]

You said if he dies. Where is he now? What direction was he last heading and did he say anything about where? I'm assuming not or sounds like you would have said it.

[aluminumandash]

[ Thanks to Martin, he has some idea why Jet's asking—hell, it's not a bad idea to let everyone know where he is. Rust just has some concerns about who might be listening in, on private channels or otherwise. ] He's with me. Restrained. I don't intend on letting him get far, but he just got done winding up that fucker in the cabin. [ Meaning: neither he nor Salamanca may be long for this highly dangerous patch of jungle. ]

You need something more specific, we might have to figure out another way to talk.