Dispatch

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony, kind of
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Tony's leaving a bunch of physical messages around for some specific people. If you want your character to find them before they do, go for it.
WHEN: Between downpours.
WARNINGS: N/A


Contrast shimmer on a slippery vellum, submerged in the aquarium at the Deep End:

Bet you can't find where I hid the bomb
Tick tock

A half-empty bottle and knife are missing.

Handwritten on a ticket stub at the admittance desk in the hospital:

One night only! Temba's Finest!
The Deep End, Tonight, Sunset
Try to have fun. I'll owe you one.
T

Antibiotics and bandages are missing.

Scrawled on blueprints for a small, flat, pizza-sized oven, left on the diner counter:

You'll need fuel from Cayde, check the still tonight

Jerky and several hard-skinned fruits are missing.

Painted on a white flag fluttering from the zipline between the clock- and watchtowers:

You're right. Let me make it up to you.
Karaoke. Right now.
T

Omega's bag is missing.

Typed and printed (?) neatly on a single sheet, left under a ring on the desk in Jon's office:

My heart,
Do you know many songs there are on the karaoke machine? One of them has to be perfect. Not one about heartbreak and betrayal (although, you should play at least one of those tonight, to show everyone why you are the reigning champ). Something about helping you breathe underwater.
Yours,
T

Comments

[crystalmaster]

Radley has no idea what this is about, but he's thrilled to see the blueprints. He leaves them there, knowing Tommy will be excited too, and decides to check out the still.

"Hello?" he calls as he approaches.

[deal_me_in]

[Fishing for ...fish is actually easier than fishing for notes slipped into your aquarium. True, he could just leave it in there but someone might actually get worried if they saw it. There are some flighty people around here after all.]

I sure hope it isn't a real bomb or- Aha! Gotcha!

[He yanks the line and the vellum out with it, the latter splatting against his face.


Eventually he stops wasting time and heads out to his tower. At least he has a hunch that 'tick tock' wasn't just a nudge to hurry.]

[in_extremis]

[Another note! This one is written on a package, left in plain sight. Nothing else seems to be missing.]

Took you long enough. Of course I wasn't going to leave without giving you a present.
Don't worry, you'll win at karaoke some day.

[Careful getting this one out of the packaging, it's very sticky on one side. It's a flat, black sheet of something malleable. Try sticking it to something! Perfect camouflage, that thing has disappeared! Until you unstick the sheet, of course.]

[deal_me_in]

Hah! Rude.

[Cayde shakes his head fondly, still grinning as he folds up the note and pockets it, going to work on the package.

He squints at the...thing, unsure of what it is. Might have a momentary panic as his hand disappears before he's grinning again as he tugs it off.]

Ooh. Now that is fun. Hmmmm.

[Okay, maybe invisible knives aren't such a great idea. And he's pretty sure Colonel would not be pleased either. Well, he'll find something to use it on.]

[beholding_archivist]

The ring is the first thing Jon notices. He picks up the small object and turns it in his fingers a few times before picking up the note as well, frowning aver so slightly.

It's not unlike Tony to be ominous, at least. Even though some might still claim that is Jon's job. He isn't sure if he should be concerned or if this is merely one of Tony's ways to invite him over to the bar...

He looks at the ring again, then, bringing both the note and the jewelry with him, steps out of his working space. "Tony?" He calls out, but doesn't necessrily expect a response. Tony has been heading out without him quite often in recent times. A detail Jon hasn't been blind to, of course.

Receiving no verbal response, Jon produces his phone and clicks on Tony's name. "Tony? Where are you?"

[in_extremis]

The call came well before Tony had covered as much ground as he had hoped. He should have distracted with more steps, a puzzle to solve, maybe, to buy him until he was out of network range entirely. Instead, he had to carefully file the guilt he had for considering not answering at all as he tried for a very not guilty at all, "Hiiii--" Okay, that wasn't very convincing. "Yeah, hey, great, I'm good, thanks for asking," maybe also didn't help his case and was obviously buying time before he landed on his sounding-offended tactic: "Where am I? Where are you? Listen, we've got to work on your time management, you get too focused and then it's nineteen hours later and you're on the ninth cup of coffee and..." And you've invented a new death machine was perhaps too obvious, and Tony took a sharp breath and cleared his throat, only realizing then that it was maybe, a little bit possible that Jon was not calling about whatever was going on in Tony's head. He finally slowed, flipping over to look behind him for--what, smoke? Some sign of disaster that he had left behind at this distance. Suddenly light, he asked, "Did you get my note?"

[beholding_archivist]

And yet a puzzle only would have prompted Jon to call right away either, but that's beside the point. What's much more pressing is the obvious defensiveness and the attempt to avoid actually answering Jon's question.

Jon takes a deep breath, then asks in a calm, yet very matter-of-factly voice. "You are aware that I can literally opt to See where you are?" A reminder that he would rather have Tony be honest with him. At least the lack of static interference should be telling enough that Jon is not using his powers to track Tony right now. "Tony, where are you headed? Or should that be... What are you running from?" That may be a little direct. "I may be able to choose what I can See, but I can't choose to not feel the fear around me. You have been anxious and I want you to talk to me about it."

A pause.

"And yes. I found the note. And... The ring." He has questions about that as well, but one thing at a time.

[in_extremis]

In Tony's opinion, he was being honest, just not particularly forthcoming, so he thought he was being honest when that defensiveness returned for him to try to jump in, "I'm not running--" As Jon continued, though, he had to reconsider. He was anxious. The library was the last place he wanted to be. That may have contributed a tiny bit to his decision making. Now he really didn't want to talk about it, and hoped Jon's voice in his ear would offer a different distraction to latch onto, but only left him taking a deep breath and muttering without much conviction, "It's okay, if you don't like it, or if it doesn't fit, I've had it for a while, so, things might have changed, I can make another one, or..." It was narrow and low-profile, but inset with a mosaic of green-blue glass from the beach, maybe a little flashier than Jon preferred and that Tony was prone to.

With more confidence, he repeated, "I'm not running," before Jon could infer from that muttering that it was him that Tony might have been running from. "It's just, it was one thing, when I knew they were watching everything we did, and even when it was like they moved us around like dolls, but I--Boss, I lost time, I don't even know where I was, what I was doing. No control. I have to do something."

[beholding_archivist]

"No, it- It's beautiful. You had this for a--?" Jon cuts himself and his musings about the ring off to return to the more pressing issue.

Though he remains silent for a bit. Yes, he remembers Tony's absence. And while Tony lost time, Jon has nearly lost his mind.

"Tony... Please tell me. What is this something?" Jon asks at last, then pauses. "I... I haven't told you, but- When you were gone, I... I tried to find you. To See where you were, but... I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough. I- I wasn't enough." Another pause. "I'm working on it. Just, whatever you do, you better come back. Please come back." Come back so he can yell at you for simply running off.

[in_extremis]

It was a fight that Tony was trying to avoid, expecting a reasonable frustration with Tony's choice to go. Not this guilt. Even then, Jon was supposed to go the the Deep End, where his friends were, people that appreciated and relied on him. However strong he was. "What do you mean, working--Is that what happened to the library...?" Tony blurted, then cut through his own question with a frustrated, sharp breath, the myriad of data on his HUD scattering reflexively as he tried to search for what was actually relevant that he should have been focusing on. "You don't have to, listen, you're extraordinary. Every day since I met you, you've been expanding like an infinite future, better every day, and you don't need to be any stronger because--You can just ask me, you know." Jon had asked, and Tony had been trying very hard not to listen. Loping too slowly behind as ever, he finally answered, "You want to see where I am: it's beautiful here. I can still see the water, and it's still cloudy, not quite raining, it's mist that's rising up between the grass in valleys, and where there is beach it's pale, lilac under the clouds. There's big, open grasslands, or marshes, threaded with estuaries that are like live wires carrying these big herds of animals I've never seen before, all moving in sync like they were programmed, like they're trying to communicate something to whatever is upriver. The tress grow in this perfect parabola, they all reach this incredibly uniform height before they're sloping down again, another valley, another river. The sun is going down. I don't know where I am, but there's something out here, and I'm going to find it."

[butterfly_kiss]

Well well, she wasn't expecting him to come through on this. And of course it's contrived, but she's laughing happily when she finds it. Yes, this was something she'd make sure to do.

Since Tony's the only one that could have arranged this she digs out clothes that he helped her pick out. Some nice shiny silver heels, a dark blue dress over leggings, and her own thick leather coat to keep her dry from any potential rain.

Only then does she start over toward the Deep End. What sort of entertainment could he possibly have in mind?

[text]

[doubled_speed]

[Hey, he recognizes hand writing. Maybe not the drawing, that could have been anyone. But writing? He knows it.]

First pizza is for you. If this works.

[text]

[in_extremis]

And if it doesn't? You better invite me to see the explosion this time.

Re: [text]

[doubled_speed]

Well, provided that Weskhole doesn't show up again, I don't think there will be one.

∞

[in_extremis]

He seems to have something of a reputation with a certain generation.

He blew it up?

[doubled_speed]

I did. He was being a prick.

[in_extremis]

Usually, when someone's getting under my skin, it's their stuff I try to aim the missiles at.

[doubled_speed]

The thing was burning, I needed to deal with it. He was being a fucking massive tool and accusing me of, like, almost burning the city down

[in_extremis]

Sounds like he got what he wanted.

[doubled_speed]

I was already deal with it. Had plenty of sand.

[in_extremis]

So why the escalation?

[doubled_speed]

You'd have understood if you were there. But hey, new oven.

[in_extremis]

I'm trying to get my head around it. He's not very talkative, in my experience.

[doubled_speed]

He's a fucking asshole.

[in_extremis]

Okay, but does it begin and end at asshole, which is manageable, we're all familiar, or should we be prepared for something worse?

We never really agreed on what should happen in another Beck situation. I'd rather avoid one.