reefnet | RE419S | audio/text sent to everyone but DI481O

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

[ 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!) ]

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[ She's got her own shit to deal with, doesn't need to be twisting it up with some fantasy of what went down between him and Salamanca. Doesn't need to be talking to a man who can cut up another man, turn around and type up a fucking report.

He keeps it short. ] With a knife. [ And leaves it there. Worried, more than anything, that it won't stop her from writing back. ]

Edited 2023-09-28 01:50 (UTC)

[ It takes some time, but Rust's fears are confirmed. Maddy does eventually write back, although it takes a few minutes for him to get a surprisingly short response. ]

How come?

[ Because she has to know. She has to know why. There's no reason that makes it okay, but there are some reasons that make it understandable. Sympathetic, even. And some reasons that are a lot harder to understand, let alone forgive.

She thinks about the way Be... the way that Salamanca guy was talking on the radio. Antagonizing the creepy guy in the cabin. And even before that, the way he cooed about "the detective"...

She probably wouldn't cut up the guy with a knife but she can't, in good conscience, be sure she wouldn't have done something if she were in Cohle's place.

Maddy swallows and waits for a response, not sure what she's expecting. "With a knife" wasn't the answer she expected to get in the first place, and she feels unmistakably out of her depth right now. At the same time, she also feels in it. Like she understands. Like something makes sense.

Because she understands, or imagines she does, what it's like to have something really dark inside you. Something you wish wasn't there. But something you can't get rid of. ]

Edited 2023-09-28 02:16 (UTC)

[ Now why's she come back with that? He remembers—it just fucking happened—her desperate bravado toward the lunatic at the cabin. What makes him different? He spins his wheels over it, thinking about the ex, whether this might be an attempt at understanding him.

There are a lot of reasons, a lot of factors that led to what he did, but nothing that justifies it. And only one why. ] Im violent. I dont mean I can be violent. Im a violent man.

[ Well, for one thing, Rust hasn't threatened to string her personally up by her intestines, at least not yet. From Maddy's perspective, that's a pretty significant difference.

The answer he does give is... unsettling, and not what she expected. A cop, of all the kinds of people, who bluntly admits he's "a violent person" is... she can think of a lot of reasons why that might not be a good thing.

But most truly bad people don't go around announcing that to innocent people who don't already know they're violent, either. At least not in her experience. They act friendly and nice, at least sometimes. Like that Salamanca guy.

It takes some time, once again, for him to get a response, but he does get one. ]

Like in what way? Like when ur mad or for no reason? There's a lot of ways people can be violent. Would u hit ur girlfriend? Or your kids?

[ She doesn't even know if he has kids or not. She's not sure she wants to know the answer to either of those questions. But she also does want to know, at the same time.

Because on some level, she thinks she understands, maybe, what it's like to have something wrong deep inside of you. Something bad. Something dark. ] I saw you tell somebody he was restrained. It's fucked up you cut him when he couldn't get away.

[ She's not angry or even disgusted, but... it is fucked up that he cut somebody up who couldn't get away. ]

But like he kidnapped u. I might cut up my ex too, if I got the chance. Maybe. Not sure if I could get myself do it. I don't know what would bother me more. If I could do it or if I couldn't. I know he wasn't your ex [ Well, now she does, anyway... ] but I mean, I've done things I shouldn't have. It's like there's something in me that wants to fight. I don't like it but I don't know how to get rid of it. Is it like that for you too?

I hope not. [ Is the most honest response he can give to her last question. He doesn't know her. She's young, coming off a relationship with what sounds like an abusive piece of shit—maybe it's fantasy, this part of her that'll hurt him the way he hurt her. Maybe she's just hot-headed. ]

If Im like anyone its him.

Edited (lmao clarifying so it doesn't sound like he might beat his child...) 2023-10-08 01:05 (UTC)

[ Rust is right on both counts. It is a lot of fantasy, and Maddy can be hot-headed.

She doesn't really know how much of what Rust is saying is actually true, and how much is just a traumatized person unloading all of his stress, now that he can. She doesn't really know him well enough to argue about it anyway, but it still feels weird to take somebody's word for something like this when they've just come out of such a traumatic situation. ]

why do you say that? did he tell you that you and him were alike? bc if he did, i wouldnt listen.

He dont know shit about me. [ And if there's anger in the words, defiance—a determination to cordon something of himself off from the man who kept him cuffed, oversaw even his sleep, whose moods Rust had to be more attuned to than the howling storm outside—well, over text there's no telling. ] Hardly knows himself. Im talking about what were capable of, him and me. Why do you keep trying to hand me excuses?

Why do u think? You just got kidnapped. That fucks with ppl's heads. When somebody does something like that to u it makes you think the worst abt urself.

[ Maddy doesn't know a lot compared to some of the people here. She doesn't have the kind of survival skills that a lot of these people seem to. She isn't a cop or a Viking or in a cartel. But one thing she's accustomed to is how people react to this kind of trauma. Being kidnapped and mentally abused for almost a week is the kind of thing that leaves a mark on a person.

Identifying with your captor is one thing that can happen, sometimes. Thinking you're actually the worse person than they are is another. ]

But fine. I believe you. You're a monster and you're like a guy who's in a cartel and I'll stay away from you forever. Happy?

[ She's still not sure if she believes him or not, because again, it's hard to get a read on what kind of a person somebody is when they're fresh out off of this kind of trauma. But it seems important to him that she acts like she believes him, so she does her best. ]

Edited 2023-11-04 18:11 (UTC)

[ Why's he think? Projection. Searching for a scrap of humanity in her shitheel ex, wanting to connect her own violent thoughts to some recognizable emotion of Rust's.

He's been as plain as he can; obviously she's mistaken it for dramatics. He tries one more time: ] I carved another man open. There was no loss of control. Youre right to be scared of me. Think about it, alright? You tell me to stay away and I will.

[ He isn't wrong about any of that. She does want to find some scrap of humanity in Nate, and in Rust by turn. And she does want to believe her own violent thoughts are a product of her circumstances, not a failing of her as a human being.

She hesitates before typing back. He's right. She is scared of him. He's a cop who tortured somebody. How could she not be?

At the same time though, she's not convinced this cartel guy would go around giving people the option to stay away from him. She can't shake the feeling that at least some of what Rust is saying is the result of some form of trauma, at least, a way to process what happened to him without feeling weak.
'
Should she stay away? Maddy is worried about Rust, but it's also becoming apparent she might not be the right person to help him. He's tight with Shaw, right? Maybe she can help.

Maddy re-reads his words. I cut another man open. And she tries to think about what kind of person is capable of doing that. ]

Okay. I believe you. I think you should come to the airfield. We can still keep our distance from each other even if ur here. But you should at least let people look at you. And like idk tbh ur right. I am scared of you. I probably shouldn't be the one helping you. At least not right away. I don't have the best history with cops either so like u come with some bad memories for me u know? But like I'm not going to be your excuse not to come to the airfield either. Randvi could probably kick your ass anyway lol so it's not like you have to worry about hurting ppl here.

Aint about that. Its about yall having someplace that feels safe. [ "Feels." He's a realist. ]

Ill check in with you if Im headed that way.

Edited 2023-11-06 04:07 (UTC)

[ Maddy has half a mind to type, "I feel safe when kidnapping victims aren't wandering around in the jungle alone" but she feels like that would just be like yelling at a wall at this point. And, to be fair, yelling at walls is the kind of thing Maddy is often prone to doing.

But sometimes she can let shit go and this is one of those times. So she just says in response: ]

yea ok just take care of urself

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

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