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.]

1/2 | text | cs: mz114c

[somethingintangible]

Yea. I don't think mine means anything special.

2/2

[somethingintangible]

Yours says lonely though. Do you need to talk?

text

[lonelynotforsaken]

[Absolutely not to a teenage girl he's known for all of two days.]

Ah! You're right.
I'm guessing that came from me arriving here without my boyfriend?

text

[somethingintangible]

Maybe you came without him for a reason? Like, so you can be strong without him on your own.

It's not good to get all of ur worth from ur partner. :( Trust me. I would know.

[lonelynotforsaken]

[He closes his eyes and just breathes for a moment. She's completely ignorant. Maybe that's what makes this so frustrating. She doesn't need to know she's hitting a few different buttons.]

I totally get that!
We're not like that.
But I do miss him.
We'd been separated because of work things for a while, and we'd only just got together.
It'll be okay.
I wonder if we'll ever be able to change our callsigns.

[trialbyliar]

[Kokichi's initial response is a snickering laugh into the walkie. And wow, that "horse" thing starts to make more sense because there's definitely something whinny-esque about it.]

Don't tell me you're just catching on now! Jeez, I didn't think you were that slow!

[somethingintangible]

Why are you being a dick to Martin? He didn't do anything to you.

[trialbyliar]

how do you know he hasn't??
we were travel buddies for a while
maybe he did something unspeakable to me while we were stuck together!!
like shove his gross dirty bare feet in my face or something
lol can you imagine ╮(︶▽︶)╭

[lonelynotforsaken]

Look, leet speak hasn't been a thing since the early 2000s. Sorry I'm not up on my internet ancient history in 2018!

HE412T | text

[timaeus]

[The words "internet ancient history" are practically an incantation to summon Dirk.]

Not to sound like I'm siding with the obvious asshole here, but I picked up on that shit and it's been several centuries plus an apocalypse since the early 2000s for me.

audio | KD201D

[obeir]

[ Oh. He'd thought Martin knew; he's always wondered what "lonely" might mean, and was hoping to ask one of these days. His own call sign is rather on the nose, no mystery there. ]

I've noticed several call signs are weirdly specific considering we're not able to choose them ourselves... Almost as though whatever brought us here knows something about us, maybe.

[ It certainly seemed to know what he is. ]

HE412T | text

[timaeus]

No "maybe" about it.
The fact that it's only some is the bigger clue, in my opinion.
All the non-obvious ones could have some personal meaning the rest of us aren't aware of.

[He remembers this guy saying he's an android, but Dirk's also the kinda person who names his robots shit like "Squarewave", so he's not gonna jump straight to a model number.]

Alternatively, the entity in charge is just occasionally in a goofy mood.
Or there's more than one person responsible for assigning callsigns and at least one of them has a sense of humor.

[obeir]

That's true. Out of curiosity, what's the significance of "heart"? You haven't struck me as someone who's especially romantic or sentimental.

[lonelynotforsaken]

They know something and have... some kind of sense of humor, yeah. But why only some people? Is there more information about a few of us than others?

[obeir]

Could be. I've never made a secret of being an android. And you haven't made a secret of missing your boyfriend. [ His tone becomes a little wry: ] Ours could have been more creative...

"Diablo", though. [ There's a quiet huff of what might be raspy laughter; his voice is hoarse from exhaustion and the electrical storm making him "sick" in a robotic sense. ] That sense of humour theory could be right.

audio | TN811N

[hyakuoku]

You didn't notice?
Mine is ten billion.

[lonelynotforsaken]

I didn’t. [And he seems to be the only one, which is embarrassing. Martin keeps that to himself.]

But that’s weird. It’s all very weird.

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.

[trialbyliar]

Ohh, you mean like sketchy behavior I noticed while I was stuck with him?

[ kokichi please don't make it worse ]

Hmmm...well, there were definitely certain subjects that set him off! But you're the detective and all, so I'm sure you already picked up on that.

[aluminumandash]

I expect he was different with me. [ He says, quiet and careful. ] Not stable, shit no, but...

[ Prone to outbursts of affection as wild, as unpredictable as any flare of temper. ] What was it like with you, when he got set off?

[trialbyliar]

He just got all pleading and desperate, like nooo, don't tell anyone my deepest darkest secrets that were totally obvious already anyway!!! It was pretty pathetic, honestly.

[Kokichi had been very cautious in that encounter, trying to avoid being left totally alone Lalo and make sure they remained within earshot of the others and shit. He's been in a death game before, okay? He knows better than he go off alone with someone who has motivation to kill him (at least, not without a plan). But instead of an attempt on his life, all he got was this grown man begging him to keep his mouth shut.]