video;

[fuckcable]

[Despite being on the turtle for nearly six months, this is Rictor's first video post. He's commented with video and audio, but has largely hidden behind anonymous consoles in cafes. What with Malicant having Network access and not trusting this whole politely-worded mass abduction, it's seemed prudent.

However, this post is going up as an unencrypted video feed, because he wants people to actually trust and use the code that he's come up with to help them, and not disregard it as a potential virus from the enemy.

He's typing at the keyboard as he talks.]

I'm attaching instructions to this, walking you through how to set up your console to ping someone else's mailbox if you haven't used your login to access the network in a set number of days. It feels like there's been an uptick in disappearances lately, and I haven't been the first one to notice.

Do your friends a favor and set this up so they don't have to ask if anyone's seen you and break into your place to see if it's been cleaned out yet. If you don't have any friends, do the rest of us a favor and set it up to somebody's box so we can keep track. Use that radio guy - Kent, or whatever his name is. Shit, use mine for all I care.

This song-and-dance of "I saw the kedan cleaning her place" out is bullshit, and only covers one kind of disappearance.

Comments

video;

[werethatgood]

That's... very kind of you.

[ Sad, but kind. ]

video;

[fuckcable]

[... he wasn't aiming for kind, but he'll take it.]

How's it going, Cassie?

video;

[werethatgood]

[ Yeah, well, it's Cassie. She also brightens a little, because he recognized her. ]

Hi, Mr. Richter!

It's... kind of good, actually, but I'm not exactly the person to ask? I get by, and I've got dad, here. How about you?

video;

[fuckcable]

You're the person I'm asking.

[He doesn't care how life is treating most. She is extenuating circumstances. Despite that, he can't quite contain the eyeroll at Mr. Richter.]

It's Ric. No mister. I'm not that old.

video;

[iwannabeadragon]

Has there been other kind of disappearances before?

video;

[fuckcable]

Not that I know of, but we're relying on cleaned-out apartments to let us know the difference between dead and gone. Anybody can break in and clean out a place, and we've already had a serial killer. You want to wait around for a kidnapper before you start worrying, be my guest.

video;

[iwannabeadragon]

No, I want to know if there's a kidnapper so I can do something, hence the question. Bit uptight aren't you?

Re: video;

[fuckcable]

There's not, as far as I know, but the number of people that we've had individually confirmed as disappearing is significantly less than the number of people who've posted to the Network that haven't said anything in a long time.

Sure, if you swing by their apartments, they're cleaned out, but who knows how long they've been gone? If people don't have friends here, someone could take their sweet time emptying the apartment, and everybody just assumes it was the kedan.

I ain't uptight.

video;

[iguanasolution]

...What other kinds of disappearances is there?

video;

[fuckcable]

... you can't be serious.

[Fuck, he thinks the kid is serious.]

I want to live in your world.

video;

[iguanasolution]

If you mean people dying, they don't just 'disappear'. It's not a mystery to be solved. Hermes sends their souls to the underworld and there they are judged for their life they had. And death is never fair. [Something Death himself told him, after mentioning how he took Frank's mother. In Frank's world Death is kind, maybe, but never fair.]

If you mean something else then yes, I am serious.

video;

[fuckcable]

I don't mean people dying.

And I'm Catholic, so we take a different spin on it. [Not that he's a practicing one, but he really doesn't want to be subjected to Keeliai: The Greco-Roman Interpretation of existence between Life, Dreaming and Death. He's afraid that's where this would head.]

What, nobody ever gets abducted in your world?

video;

[maipokerface]

What, and take the fun out of yelling over these things for people instead of asking others face to face?

video;

[fuckcable]

If you can't find other reasons to yell on the Network, you aren't trying hard enough.

video;

[maipokerface]

I'm pretty sure they're not trying at all.

video;

[fuckcable]

Nobody's forcing you to pay attention to them. What's your point here?

video;

[soulstoker]

That all sounds like a good idea, but... Just what are the other disappearances?

video;

[fuckcable]

[... well she looks about 11, so he's not laying it out for her.]

The kind that I hope don't happen here.

video;

[soulstoker]

[She's fifteen, thank you very much!! And while she appreciates what she can tell is sparing her the truth, she kind of wishes he'd just say whatever it is. Ignorance isn't gonna help much when they're all stuck in this place together.]

I guess I'll just have to take your word for it. [a small sigh] But, the other kind of disappearances though. Is there any sort of pattern for when they happen, or why?

[Video]

[deusrexmachina]

So disappearances have been a problem before, but it's just recently that there have been a lot... Any idea why?

[And why hasn't someone set up a system like this before? Not that Rex is going to yell at this guy over that. At least he's doing something about it, even though it's too late for those who are already gone, including Doctor Holiday.]

[Video]

[fuckcable]

Your guess is as good as mine, kid. I don't think anybody knows how they're controlling the arrivals and departures. Or if.

[People have used similar codes in the past, but it's never been shared over the Network how to do so that Ric could find. It's not something that most people think about, and it was only after finding a very old post of Tony Stark's that it even occurred to Julio that it was possible.]

[Video]

[deusrexmachina]

Great. Well, even though I just got here, guess I'd better find a couple of people to be mailbox ping buddies with or whatever you wanna call it. Definitely better than nothing.

Thanks.

[oneofthegoodguys]

Mike Weston.

This is a great idea and an impressive resource. It looks like the code is fairly simple, all things considered, but I doubt most people would have thought of this.

Are you willing to tell me what you mean about kedan cleaning out places? I get that people are appearing and disappearing from this place, but I don't know how the system works or what signs to look out for.

[fuckcable]

I can't take credit for the idea. I've seen things like it get used before.

No problem. I thought it was common knowledge. If you disappear or "get sent back home", whatever you want to call it, the kedan come and strip your place of personal effects and clean it up for whatever poor sap is getting shoved in there next. I don't know if anyone's witnessed a disappearance. Most of them are confirmed on the Network with a statement about their apartment being empty.

[oneofthegoodguys]

I just got here and am trying to catch up on everything everyone knows. It seems like a lot there's a lot of 'common knowledge' that other people miss. I hope it doesn't bother you that I ask questions.

Do you have any approximation at all for how many people are coming and going on any regular basis?